I am stoked to be hosting a stop on the
blog tour for LIFESTYLES OF GODS & MONSTERS by Emily Roberson! I have an excerpt to share
with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below!
About the Book:
Author: Emily Roberson
Pub.
Date: October 22, 2019
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 352
Sixteen-year-old Ariadne’s
whole life is curated and shared with the world. Her royal family’s
entertainment empire is beloved by the tabloids, all over social media, and the
hottest thing on television. The biggest moneymaker? The Labyrinth Contest, a
TV extravaganza in which Ariadne leads fourteen teens into a maze to kill a
monster. To win means endless glory; to lose means death. In ten seasons, no
one has ever won.
When the gorgeous,
mysterious Theseus arrives at the competition and asks Ariadne to help him to
victory, she doesn’t expect to fall for him. He might be acting interested in
her just to boost ratings. Their chemistry is undeniable, though, and she can
help him survive. If he wins, the contest would end for good. But if she helps
him, she doesn’t just endanger her family’s empire―the monster would have to die. And
for Ariadne, his life might be the only one worth saving.
Ariadne’s every move is
watched by the public and predestined by the gods, so how can she find a way to
forge her own destiny and save the people she loves?
Excerpt:
FROM
CHAPTER 1
You will have seen
them, I suppose. The grainy pictures, taken with a long telephoto lens. It has
been fourteen years, but they still shock.
She has a face
that everyone knows. Beautiful. Determinedly blond. Curated. The tabloid
writers say, “Never a hair out of place.”
In the series of
paparazzi shots, she strides across the pasture. No Photoshop. No airbrush. No
filters. It is a long walk, and the photographers got her from every angle. As
always, she is trim, tanned, and toned (another favorite tabloid description).
If her sheet of golden hair and blue eyes are familiar, her expression is not.
Usually her face in pictures is cool and composed. Icy. In these, she is
ravenous.
She never could
hide how she felt about that bull.
That face alone
would have been enough to sell all the magazines in a newsstand. Enough to
crash any server. Even without the wooden cow. But there is a wooden cow. A
cowhide- covered box with legs and a head.
When the white
bull walked out of the sea a few months earlier, people called it a gift from
the gods. They said it was a sure sign that Daddy was a good king of Crete;
that he still had the favor of the gods, even after my older brother’s murder.
Our tragedy. That Daddy had been right to go to war with Athens. They called it
beautiful. For myself, I don’t see what’s beautiful about a bull, white or
brown. They look like livestock to me. Not my type.
It was beautiful
to my mother.
There are lots of
theories about my mother and the bull— some people say
Daddy should have sacrificed it instead of keeping it. Daddy thinks that’s ridiculous. The gods would not have handed him such a valuable thing
only to ask him to kill it. Other people say it was because my mother was too
proud and the gods wanted to take her down a notch. However, she’s still proud,
even after her abasement.
I think it’s
because the gods are jerks.
About Emily:
EMILY ROBERSON is the author of LIFESTYLES OF GODS & MONSTERS
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 2019). She is also the author of LIFE,
MOTHERHOOD AND THE PURSUIT OF THE PERFECT HANDBAG, a novel for adults. She has
always loved books, food, travel and fashion, and attempts to cram all those
things into her books.
Emily has been a bookseller in Little Rock, a newspaper reporter in
Vicksburg, a marketing manager in Boston, and a writer in Chapel Hill and
Dallas. She graduated from Brown University and has a master’s degree in
English from the University of Texas at Austin. She now lives in Little Rock,
Arkansas with her husband, three sons and no pets.
Image by: Laura Kellerman photography
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive finished copies
of LIFESTYLES OF GODS & MONSTERS, US only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
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10/21/2019
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Excerpt
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10/21/2019
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Spotlight
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10/22/2019
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Excerpt
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10/22/2019
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Review
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10/23/2019
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Interview
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10/23/2019
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Review
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10/24/2019
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Review
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10/24/2019
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Review
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10/25/2019
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Review
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10/25/2019
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Excerpt
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Week Two:
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10/28/2019
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Review
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10/28/2019
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Review
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10/29/2019
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Review
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10/29/2019
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Review
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10/30/2019
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Review
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10/30/2019
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Review
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10/31/2019
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Review
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10/31/2019
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Review
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11/1/2019
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Review
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11/1/2019
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Review
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Ah, if only some of our reality stars would have to face the minotaur! Sounds like a good story!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I came across this post - so excited for this!
ReplyDelete