BLOG TOUR ~ Excerpts & Review ~ First Frost/Glass Frost by Liz DeJesus

First Frost
by Liz DeJesus
Genre: YA Fantasy

Book Description:

Fairytales aren’t real…yeah…that’s exactly what Bianca thought. She was wrong. For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.” Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…  Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist. She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

 First Frost

“Do you know the story of Snow White?” Rose asked. Bianca arched her eyebrow and nodded. That was the big question? Of course she knew the story. What person in the world didn’t? Someone had to live under a rock in order to not know about the most famous brunette in the world. “It’s true. It’s all true,” Rose said. Bianca frowned, unable to process the words her mother had just spoken. Rose had mentioned something along those lines to her before, but she’d thought she meant that it was based on a true story. That perhaps there had been a grain of truth to the story of Snow White. That there may have been a queen somewhere that had been jealous of her stepdaughter and banished her, making the story so scandalous at the time that it took on a life of its own, thus ending up a fairy tale. But never in a million years would she have believed that Snow White was an actual true story, along with magic, poisoned apples, dwarves, and the handsome prince who broke the spell with true love’s kiss. “Come on, Mom. Really?” Bianca waited for her mother to smirk like she normally did when she was ready to burst into a fit of giggles, but Rose’s face remained stoic. “A lot of these stories are actually true. Not so much with the Hans Christian Andersen stories. He made a lot of them up…thankfully. But most of the fairy tales in the Grimm books have spells woven into the stories. For example, ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all’ is only half a spell. The Brothers Grimm left the other half out because they didn’t want other people using the spell on the queen’s mirror. At the time they published their book, the mirror was still missing along with other items from their now famous fairy tales. That would just cause too much trouble. People don’t really want to hear the truth about certain things. Look at what happened to the queen.” “Oh, my God. Are you serious?” “I am very serious. This isn’t a joke. Magic is real. The stories are very real,” Rose said. “But why print these stories at all? Why not just keep it all a secret?” “Because it forced a lot of the witches to go into hiding, especially the evil ones. They were out of control. Children went missing almost every day, and beautiful young girls were locked away for fear that witches would become mad with jealousy and try to kill them. People lived in constant fear. The Brothers Grimm helped put a stop to it.” “Witches? Like the one that just attacked us?” Rose nodded. “When did she get here?” “Ten-ish. I was ready to make my cup of tea and wait for you to come home.” Bianca smiled. That was what she had expected to see when she came home that evening. She thought about what her life would become now that she knew this huge family secret. “Mom?” “Yeah?” “We’re witches? For real?” “Yep,” Rose replied. “Does that mean I have magical powers too? Like you?” “I’m sure you have some natural abilities, maybe even some things that only you are capable of doing,” Rose replied. “Your grandmother, Alice, was good with offensive spells and potions. My talents lie with healing spells and some offensive spells, for obvious reasons. I’m no good at potions, which makes sense because I’m not a very good cook.” Bianca opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She felt like a fish out of water. What am I good at? What sort of magic would be her forte? Would she be good at potions like her grandmother? Or would she be a healer like her mother? Or perhaps she would have a completely different talent? The possibilities seemed endless. Then another fear crept up. What if she wasn’t any good at magic? What would happen to her then? On the kitchen table was a deck of tarot cards. The box was missing some of the flaps and the corners were worn. This was the deck her mother had used since she was thirteen years old. Bianca reached for the cards and pulled them out of the box. She tried to keep her mind clear as she shuffled them. She pulled a card from the middle of the deck. Bianca held her breath as she turned the card over. The Tower. The illustration was that of a tower being struck by lightning and several people falling to the ground. The illustrator had drawn people covering their eyes as they fell head first toward the rocky ground. The Tower represented chaos, sudden change, revelation, disruption, hard times, and realizing the truth. Nothing good will come of this, Bianca thought grimly as she looked into her mother’s emerald eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Rose took a deep breath and replied, “Selfish. I was being selfish. I wanted to keep you innocent for as long as possible. I should’ve started training you the moment you turned twelve. Also…I didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes my mother made. I wanted to be the exact opposite of the woman my mother had been. I mean, sure she was an excellent witch and had defeated many evil witches…but it was almost as though she didn’t know how to take that armor off around me.” Bianca was a little relieved that her mother hadn’t broken this bit of news to her on her birthday. She wasn’t sure she would have wanted to hear she was a witch right after blowing the candles on her chocolate birthday cake. “So…what happens now?” “We get some rest. We have an early day tomorrow.” Bianca’s heart skipped a beat. She would have to learn how to defend herself with magic. She couldn’t imagine being able to go to sleep. “Okay,” Bianca said, nodding reluctantly in agreement. “Good night.” “Yeah…night,” Bianca muttered. After Bianca turned off the lights in her bedroom, she lay in her bed, and thought about everything that happened that night. Eventually sleep found her, but that night she had dreams of rotting apples, pale hands reaching out to her in the darkness, and sharp white teeth.   © Liz DeJesus 2012

Glass Frost (Frost Series #2)
by Liz DeJesus
Genre: YA Fantasy

Book Description:

When joined together, Cinderella's slippers grant the wearer her heart's desire. But whose wish will be granted?When Cinderella’s glass slipper is stolen, Queen Felicia sends her faithful steward Terrance to the real world to retrieve his love and witch-in-training, Bianca Frost. The power of the glass slipper in the wrong hands could ruin peace in Everafter. Bianca must gather every bit of magic she has learned in the past few weeks to find the slipper and protect her new love. Together, Bianca, Ming, Prince Ferdinand, and Terrance venture deep into the heart of Everafter to seek clues as to who has stolen the slipper and why. Along the way, they uncover what happened to the Seven Dwarves after Snow White married the prince, but also learn the awful risk of tampering with black magic and the high price that must be paid for magical aid, even when used for good. Bianca and Terrance’s relationship is put to the test. Through the pain of suffering and loss, Bianca must determine if following her gallant boyfriend into his faraway world is in fact her heart's desire. Glass Frost is the second book in the Frost Series.

Glass Frost 

Bianca turned around, ready to leave the Fairy Realm, defeated and with no answers when something hit her. What if Fanny could understand her questions regardless of what the queen thought? What was the harm in asking? Bianca shrugged and turned back toward Fanny. Terrance put a hand on her shoulder and tried to stop her. His eyes widened, with a look he asked her what she was doing. She patted his hand and walked away, convinced that what she was about to do was right. “What does she think she’s doing?” Titania asked. Bianca hesitated for a moment, worried about what the queen would do to her. But Titania remained still, almost as if she was as curious as everyone else to see how Fanny would react to Bianca. Fanny danced around Bianca as though she were invisible. She just twirled and giggled as though someone had told a funny joke. Why won’t she see me? Am I invisible to her? “Hello,” Bianca cried. She touched Fanny on the elbow, hoping deep inside to make a connection. A flash of light blinded her momentarily, and she felt an electric current race through her body. The power from that knocked Bianca on the floor on her rear end. Fanny miraculously stopped. She remained silent at first. Then she turned her dark brown eyes at Bianca. They held so much sorrow and pain. “Fanny, can you hear me?” Bianca asked. “Yes,” she replied. Her eyes widened in surprise, as though she was amazed that she was still able to use her voice. Fanny then gagged. She got on all fours and heaved until a single white rose passed through her lips. The flower was covered with bile and saliva as it fell heavily on the ground. Bianca sat beside Fanny, her hand hovering over her shoulder precariously. She was scared of what else would happen should she touch Fanny once more. “I’m so sorry. I forgot that it would cause you pain to speak.” Fanny looked into Bianca’s eyes. She shrugged and gave Bianca a sad smile. “My name is Bianca. Those are my friends over there, Ming, Terrance, and Prince Ferdinand. We’re all here because we need your help.” © Liz DeJesus 2013

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 2011) First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012) and Glass Frost (Musa Publishing, July 2013).
She is also a member of The Written Remains Writers Guild http://www.writtenremains.org/.
Liz is currently working on a new novel. Find out more about the author at her website www.lizdejesus.com

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of First Frost

I love fairy tales. And these days there seems to be more and more books, television shows, and movies that are being made using fairy tales as the premise.  Liz Dejesus did not disappoint in this modern fairy tale about a teenage girl, a magic book, and her determination to find her mom and put some normalcy back into her life. I liked the fresh take on the fairy tale genre, setting it in a modern-day museum, and I LOVED the museum's artifacts, all the iconic pieces from different fairy tales.

If you've ever wondered what the "real" story is behind the fairy tales, this book is for you. Liz weaves fairy tale history into this modern day adventure. Bianca sets out on a quest with her best friend Ming to save Bianca's mother Rose. Along the way, she meets a prince and his friend who helps her and who also becomes the love interest in the story. The story has plenty of action as the group must figure out how to get to Rose and get rid of the the evil witch.

Liz sprinkles the entire novel with believable and lovable characters. Like all fairy tales the good-guys are good and the bad-guys are really bad. Bianca cares about family, friendship, and doing the right thing. Bianca is a strong and likable heroine. Ferdinand is brave, gallant, and a bit stuck on himself, like all princes. And, then there's the swoon worthy, Terrance. (We have to have our hottie!) ;) 

The story moves quickly. There's always something going on, and Liz keeps the reader engaged. I most definitely enjoyed this book and would recommend this to teens and adults alike. It was a fast, entertaining read and I plan to read the rest of the series just to see how Terrance and Bianca end up. The setting has all the beauty and magic of a fairy tale.