Book Spotlight - First Frost by Liz DeJesus

Author Liz DeJesus has stopped by today with a teaser from her book First Frost.

At four o’clock in the afternoon, they closed the doors of the museum, a couple of hours earlier than usual. Thankfully no one complained. Bianca locked the doors, counted the money in the cash register, and locked it in the safe underneath Rose’s desk. Unfortunately, she hadn’t found anything in her mother’s office or in any other room in the museum, at least nothing that seemed like an obvious place to hide a really old spell book.

“Done?” Ming asked as soon as Bianca stepped out of Rose’s office.

“Almost. I have to set the alarm before we leave here tonight,” Bianca said.

“Okay. I’ll try to remind you,” Ming promised.

Bianca went to the utility closet and grabbed two flashlights. She handed one to Ming and lead the way up to the attic. She thought about the last time she was in that room. Rose and Bianca had explored one of the trunks and had found a treasure trove. She could only hope that she would find what she was desperately searching for.

“So what does this book look like? Any idea?” Ming asked.

“I have no idea what it looks like.” Bianca took a deep breath and added sarcastically, “This should be fun.”

“Well…I’m sure it’s not going to say Evil Queen’s Spell Book on the cover of it. Right?”

“Right.”

Bianca wondered why no one recognized that Queen Mirabel was evil sooner. How it was that she could hide her true nature for so many years. Most of the time people can sense when there’s something wrong with a person. Yet…Queen Mirabel was able to hide her intentions very well. The only one who saw right through the charade was Snow White.

Maybe that’s why she hated Snow White so much. Maybe it had nothing to do with Mirabel’s jealousy of her beauty and everything to do with the fact that Snow White saw right through her.

“Right!” Bianca shouted.

“What?” Ming asked with a frown.

“It’s not going to some big creepy book. She was a queen. She needed to hide what she really was from her husband, the king, and everyone else. It has to be in a book that looks harmless and possibly even…boring.”

“Boring, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Ye Olde Knitting Book?” Ming joked.

Bianca giggled. “Probably something along those lines.”

“Ye Olde Cooking Book?” Ming suggested.

“Ye Olde Cleaning Book.”

They made more jokes that involved “Ye Olde” as they looked in the boxes in the attic.

© Liz DeJesus 2012

Official blurb:

            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.

About the author:

           

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 31st 2011) and First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012). Liz is currently working on a romance novel and the sequel to First Frost.

 Author's Links:

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