🌟BOOK BLITZ:🌟 Wonderland Academy: Book One by Melanie Karsak {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Wonderland Academy: Book One by Melanie Karsak

Release Date: August 27th 2019 by Clockpunk Press

Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Retelling, Young Adult

Welcome to Wonderland Academy. Don't lose your head.

Getting into Wonderland Academy is easy, if you meet the admission criteria.

You must be a little mad.
You must follow the white rabbit.
You must find the key to enter Wonderland.

If you can nail all three, you're in. The only exception? Wonderland Academy never accepts students named Alice. By order of the Queen of Hearts, any Alice found sneaking into Wonderland will be behead.

Which begs a question. Why in the hell am I here?

My name may be Alice, but Wonderland Academy is everything my real life isn't. My boyfriend recently died. I just did a stint in a psych ward on suicide watch. And everyone thinks I'm "crazy" because I see people who aren't there. Ridiculous, right? That's why I'm willing to risk my neck to be here as "Lacey" Crane.

But who wouldn't want to learn how to ride a jabberwocky, train with a vorpal sword, cast spells using a teacup, or shapeshift into a fairy? As long as no one figures out my real name, I should be fine.

The only problem? Aiden, the Queen of Hearts son, is quickly becoming my best friend. And then there's Corbin. Despite the fact my heart is still broken, every time I see him something inside me flutters to life. How I'm going to pass my classes, and protect my secret like my life depends on it is beyond me. But I better find a way. Because in Wonderland, no Alice is safe.

* * *

Wonderland Academy re-imagines the fantastical world of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland for a fresh, new adventure. Combining whimsy,magic, and a splash of steampunk, New York Times best-selling author Melanie Karsak invites you into this beautifully re-envisioned fairy tale adventure. 

Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon AU

{EXCERPT}

As I looked around my room, memories flooded my mind. Today was not a good day to think about it. Today was a day to pretend the world didn’t exist. Not finding my copy of A Discovery of Witches, I grabbed my tattered but much-loved copy of Outlander. Getting lost in Scotland for a while sounded like a good idea.

I headed back downstairs to the kitchen.

“Lacey?” Nan called me.

“I’m coming, Nan.”

“Better hurry up. You’re getting late.”

I grabbed a soda from the fridge and prepared a glass of ice. I really needed a coffee, but I’d come back. Nan was probably thirsty. I headed back to Nan’s room.

“Here you go,” I told her, setting the cup on the TV table. I popped the tab and poured her drink. “So, did John get a dollar?”

“No. Thirty lousy cents. Your ticket,” Nan said, tapping the envelope for Wonderland Academy.

I shook my head. “Okay, Nan.”

Nan frowned at me. “Open it.”

“Sure. In a minute. I forgot my book in the kitchen. I was going to put on a pot of coff—”

“No. You’re getting late. And grab that,” she told me, pointing to a suitcase sitting beside the loveseat.

I sighed. God knows what she had packed up now. Once, we’d found her with a bag full of her old, formal gowns. “What’s in it?”

“Take it.”

“You packed a suitcase? Nan—”

“Pick it up, Lacey,” she said sternly, her voice tempered with annoyance.

I turned and grabbed the suitcase then set it at my feet.

“Now open this,” she said, handing the envelope to me for Wonderland Academy.

Swallowing my annoyance—Nan didn’t know I’d been in the hospital and was really in no state to be bossed around—I took the envelope from her. I jabbed my finger inside and opened the letter.

Light blasted from the envelope. On the other side of the house, the old grandfather clock, which hadn’t worked for years, started bonging. The sound was so loud, I winced. The walls around me began to bend strangely, the shapes on the TV and the furniture warping. The laughter coming from the television sounded weird and dark, the laughing voices stretching out long. My head was spinning, and there was a strange, sweet smell in the air. It smelled like…orange marmalade. Christ, was I having a stroke? My stomach turned. I felt like I was going to throw up.

I looked down to steady myself. When I did, I spotted a large black dot spreading across the floorboards underneath my feet.

The clock bonged.

My ears started ringing.

“What the hell?” I whispered.

I looked at Nan, who was grinning wildly at me.

She waved. “Don’t tell them your name. And don’t lose your head.”

And then the spot on the floor opened and sucked me down.

I tumbled into the darkness.

AUTHOR BIO:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melanie Karsak is the author of The Airship Racing Chronicles, The Harvesting Series, The Celtic Blood Series, Steampunk Red Riding Hood, and Steampunk Fairy Tales. The author currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Southern New Hampshire University.

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✯BOOK BLITZ:✯ Curiouser and Curiouser by Melanie Karsak {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Curiouser and Curiouser by Melanie Karsak

Release Date: July 17th 2017

Series: Steampunk Fairy Tales

Pages: 230

Genres: Adult, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Retelling, Steampunk

To save the Hatter, Alice must work with the one man she despises so much that she might still love him. 

Alice thought she’d turned over a new leaf. No more working for Jabberwocky. No more making deals with the ruthless Queen of Hearts. No more hanging around The Mushroom with tinkers, tarts, scoundrels, and thieves in London's criminal underbelly. But she’d been bonkers to dream. 

Hatter’s reckless behavior leads Alice back to the one person she never wanted to see again, Caterpillar. Pulled into Caterpillar's mad schemes, Alice must steal a very big diamond from a very royal lady. The heist is no problem for this Bandersnatch. But protecting her heart from the man she once loved? Impossible. 

Sometimes love is mad. 

See how NY Times bestselling author Melanie Karsak reimagines Lewis Carroll's classic fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland, with a steampunk twist! Join us at The Mushroom in gaslamp Victorian London.

Purchase: Amazon

{EXCERPT}

I heard feet rushing quickly down the cobblestone toward us. The sound of it set my nerves on edge, and my old instincts kicked in. The runner didn’t slow as the footsteps approached. I moved to grab the knife hidden out of sight under my apron, but my hands were all tied up with Lord Dodgson. If I let go, he would fall.

“Watch yourself, boy. What? Hey,” the footman called.

A boy with a mop of striking white hair, wearing an expensive but oversized waistcoat, slipped between us and was gone again in a flash.

“My pocket watch! My grandfather’s pocket watch,” Lord Dodgson cried, clutching his vest where he always kept his pocket watch. “Stop that boy. He stole my pocket watch. Alice!”

I glanced up the street to see the boy dangle the pocket watch teasingly before us.

“Rabbit,” I hissed.

“Your Grace…I need to—”

“Go, Alice. Go.”

The footman held tightly onto Lord Dodgson so I could let go. I turned and faced the boy. Rabbit, the little albino street rat, was grinning at me. Sneaky little pickpocket. What was he doing in my part of town? He’d grabbed the watch so deftly. Not bad. Some people said he was almost as good as I used to be.

Almost.

AUTHOR BIO:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melanie Karsak is the author of The Airship Racing Chronicles, The Harvesting Series, The Burnt Earth Series, The Celtic Blood Series and Steampunk Fairy Tales. A steampunk connoisseur, zombie whisperer, and heir to the iron throne, the author currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Eastern Florida State College.

Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, Newsletter

{GIVEAWAY!}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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✯BOOK BLITZ:✯ Beauty and Beastly by Melanie Karsak {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Beauty and Beastly by Melanie Karsak

Release Date: December 6th 2017

Series: Steampunk Fairy Tales

Pages: 162

Genres: Adult, Fairy Tales, Steampunk

In this tale as old as time, Isabella Hawking must tinker a solution to a heartbreaking mystery.

When Isabelle and her papa set out from London on a sea voyage, Isabelle was thrilled. Visiting foreign courts, learning from master tinkers, and studying new ways to manipulate mechanicals sounded like a dream. But an unexpected gale turns the waters violent, and the ship is lost. Isabelle survives the tempest only to be shipwrecked on a seemingly-deserted island. Dotted with standing stones, faerie mounds, and a crumbling castle, the haunting place hints of a magical past. Isabelle may be an unwitting guest, but her arrival at the forgotten citadel heralds a new beginning for the beastly residents inside.

Beauty and Beastly is a retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale set in 1814 Regency England.

Purchase: Amazon

{EXCERPT}

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

The sky overhead darkened, and in the distance, I heard the rumble of thunder.

Oh no. No, no, no. 

I looked up at the sky. My head swam.

I needed to find shelter.

I turned to go back to the path, but when I did so, I didn’t see the path, nor the ring of mushrooms, nor anything else vaguely familiar.

Once more, the sky rumbled.

I felt the first of the raindrops on my head, but luckily, the thick leaves overhead sheltered me somewhat. As the storm rolled in, the forest grew dark.

I cast a glance around.

It didn’t matter which direction I went. Eventually I would find the shore once more.

Turning to head out, however, I spotted a bluish colored light in the distance. A house? A fire? A lantern? A…something.

“Hello?”

No reply.

Turning, I followed the bluish glow. I headed deeper into the forest, chasing after the light, but soon found its source. It was a mushroom. The glowing mushroom had been sitting on a rise. It had played a trick on my mind. Then I spotted another glowing fungus, then another, and another, all of which held an incandescent blue light. They grew in a straight line. Without a better recourse, and feeling half suspicious of the supernatural, I followed the glow of the blue mushrooms as the rain pattered overhead, the sky rumbling. I followed the blue lights deep into the ancient woods, aware that I was passing other sacred rings. I walked past a mound of earth, a barrow, the final resting place of some ancient person—and some said a passageway to the Otherworld—as I hurried deeper into the woods. Surely I would find the shoreline soon.

Lightning cracked overhead.

Then, on the horizon, I saw golden light. A fire? I squinted my eyes, trying to make out the shape through the trees, but my head ached miserably. Leaning heavily against my staff, I moved toward the golden colored light.

The forest thinned. The glowing mushrooms led me onward toward the glow of the yellow light in the distance. Praying to find someone—anyone—I followed along, well aware that my quick exertion had my stomach rolling. Black spots wriggled before my eyes. The line of mushrooms ended. To my shock, I’d blundered to the center of the island and found myself standing outside the gates of a castle.

I gazed up at the enormous structure. It towered over me, a black silhouette on the horizon. Light glowed through one of the windows in the upper floors. It was raining in earnest now. Not waiting a moment longer, I pushed the gate. It swung open with a creak.

It was pouring.

I leaned my walking staff against a metal bench in the perfectly manicured garden, then grabbing my skirts, I ran for the castle door. As I rushed, lightning flashed. It created an odd illusion on the bushes and flowers around me. For a moment, they all seemed to glimmer like metal under the bright light.

My temples pounded. My stomach rolled. I raced through the heavy rain to the castle door.

Hoping whoever was at home would forgive me for letting myself in, I pushed open the castle door and crept inside.

The place was eerily silent.

“Hello?” I called. “Is anyone here?”

Breathing deeply and quickly, I realized the moment I stopped that I was not well.

I cast a glance toward a roaring fireplace nearby. A chair was seated before the hearth, a glass of something dark sitting beside the seat. I heard a strange clicking sound.

“Hello?” I called again, but this time, my head began to spin. I put my hands on my hips, trying to catch my breath. I closed my eyes. Everything was twirling.

Footsteps approached.

“I-I’m sorry I let myself in but…” I began then opened my eyes.

Standing before me was a massive automaton, its silver eyes staring coldly at me.

A nauseous feeling swept over me, and my head swam. Black spots danced before my eyes.

“Pardon me. I think I’m about to—”

Faint.

But the word was lost.

And so was I.

AUTHOR BIO:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melanie Karsak is the author of The Airship Racing Chronicles, The Harvesting Series, The Burnt Earth Series, The Celtic Blood Series and Steampunk Fairy Tales. A steampunk connoisseur, zombie whisperer, and heir to the iron throne, the author currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Eastern Florida State College.

Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

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