BOOK BLITZ [Excerpt] Shadow in the Sea by Sheila A. Nielson

Shadow in the Sea 

by Sheila A. Nielson 
Publication date: July 15th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

When sixteen-year-old Sadelyn Hanson washes up on the shores of Windwaithe Island, her beauty and the strange marks on her wrist make superstitious locals suspect she is a mermaid. Feigning amnesia, Sade hides a far worse secret: she was sailing to her own murder trial when she was thrown overboard by the real killer, the cunning and cruel Captain Westwood.
Sade’s quiet effort to rebuild her life on the island is threatened when she meets an actual young merman. Unable to speak his language, Sade still longs for the warm companionship he offers, despite the locals’ dire legends about merfolk and their dark magic. But her confused feelings for the impossible boy become the least of her problems when Captain Westwood’s ship docks at Windwaithe. With nowhere to escape, Sade must trust in the one person who doesn’t fear the merfolk. A woman who had dealings with them herself—years ago.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | eBOOK MALL

I forced myself to lift my head and look around. The Bonny Mary was adrift, the towline having fallen into the water when I dropped it. I was now a full twenty yards from shore and drifting farther every second.

“No, no, no, no!” the horrified words were wrung from me as I looked madly about for the oars. I caught sight of them bobbing on the waves far ahead of the boat. I looked helplessly about me. Only the sound of the ocean filled my ears. How was I supposed to get back to shore? The ocean pulled at the Bonny Mary as if she were a piece of driftwood.

Clawing at the water like a panicked dog, I vainly tried to propel the boat towards shore with my bare hands. It was useless.

“Help! Someone help me!” I shouted at the deserted beach.

The whole boat jerked suddenly beneath me. I was thrown forward and clutched at the gunwale for balance. The boat stopped drifting. I could see the water rushing beneath its bow as if it moved against the tide under its own power. Like a needle of a compass, the boat’s nose turned slowly in a circle until she once again faced the Rumbles in the same direction we just came from.

“What in heaven’s name…” I said under my breath.

Out of the water just in front of the bow of the Bonny Mary emerged the top of someone’s head. My mouth gaping, I stared into a pair of dark eyes, fringed by a full head of wet, corn silk colored hair. It was a boy—at least I thought it was. His nose and mouth were still hidden beneath the shimmering surface of the sea. He blinked. I caught my breath. Something wasn’t right. His slightly slanted eyes, his pointed ears, they did not look quite—human.

The boy’s head and shoulders rose from the sea, in one smooth movement. I gasped aloud as I finally got a good look at him. He was without a doubt the most incredibly handsome creature I had ever laid eyes upon.

The apparition looked like he was almost a man, eighteen or nineteen perhaps, with skin the color of fine porcelain and fair hair that shone with the same warm luster as cream colored pearls.

Though they were dripping wet, I could see his clothes were made of the finest material. A long sleeved, loose fitting white shirt clung wetly against his powerful arms. Over the shirt he wore a vest of the strangest cloth. In some lights it looked gold, in others a shimmering green like the scales of a fish.

“Who are you?” I whispered in awe.

As if in answer, the young man lifted his hand from the water. Wound tight around his wrist was the lead line of the Bonny Mary. He pulled back on it. The muscles along his arms flexed and grew taut as the boat surged back toward shore. I clutched at the gunwale, bracing myself against the sudden movement.

He’d come to save me.

The young man heaved himself backward against the towline. A large, supremely golden fish tail broke the surface of the water for a moment, stroking powerfully against the force of the

tide. It took me all of five heartbeats to realize it belonged to my strange aquatic rescuer.

James had been right about the existence of mermaids after all.

AUTHOR BIO:

Sheila never did figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She graduated from college with a BFA in illustration, has worked as a children's librarian for over eighteen years, and would eventually like to be a full-time author. Why pick one career when you can have many? Sheila lives with her two pets, a goffin cockatoo and a tiny toy poodle. She was born and raised in California but has come to also love her adopted home in Utah where she currently resides.

Author links:

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS