Thursday 28 February 2013

Cover Reveal: Finding Valor





Author Bio:
Charlotte Abel

Charlotte Abel was born and raised in Oklahoma where she met her soulmate, Pete. She chased him to Boulder, Colorado and finally convinced him they were meant to be together forever. They've raised three kids, two ferrets, three dogs and countless hamsters -- and are still happily married. 
She's in love with "real" life and paranormal romance. When she's not reading or writing, Charlotte enjoys hiking, bicycling and primitive archery (although she's never shot at anything other than a target!) 

The final book of The Channie Series, "Finding Valor," will be available in Spring of 2013.

Look for "River's Remorse," the second book of "The Sanctuary Series" in late 2013.



Cover Reveal:
Finding Valor

Expected Publication: Spring 2013
Synopsis: Channie has been kidnapped by her momma and Josh's memory was wiped clean. In this final book of the series, their journey doesn’t get any easier. They must rely on all they’ve learned and all they’ve overcome just to survive. But as the mage war escalates, the choices become harder. It’s not just their lives and love on the line. The power hungry leader of the Veyjivik clan will do anything, including murder, to accomplish her goal of world domination. Josh must leave behind the boy he was and embrace his heritage to become the man he was meant to be, or all will be lost. 

Other books in this series:
Enchantment and Taken.
Enchantment (Channie, #1)Taken (Channie, #2)


Download Kindle Bestsellers Enchantment and Taken by Charlotte Abel at Amazon
Get the new release, River's Recruit
Look for "River's Remorse," the second book of "The Sanctuary Series" in late 2013.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (38)


Unwind (Unwind, #1)After Nia read Unwind by Neal Shusterman I knew I had to get my hands on it, yet here it still lives on my wishlist.
GRConnor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.



Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Monday 25 February 2013

Cover Reveal: Imaginable


Author Bio:
J Meyers

j. meyers grew up in Vermont, spent three years in Germany when she was a kid, and now lives in Central New York. When she's not reading or writing, she's chasing after her four kids, exploring the outdoors with her family, baking sweet treats, and forgetting to make dinner. Intangible is her first novel.



Cover Reveal:
Imaginable
Expected Publication: mid-April 2013
Synopsis: Twins Sera and Luke Raine’s unusual abilities are growing. Sera is healing vampires now, making them human again. And, at times, Luke can actually change the future he Sees. 
But Sera’s healing has dangerous consequences, and though Luke is altering the outcome of more visions, he can’t control them yet.
 Now Sera is in danger as the dark creatures of the Realm seek to use her. As Luke struggles to master his gift in order to save his sister, he discovers even more about his powers. 
And what he learns just may put him in greater danger than Sera has ever been.

Other books in this series:
Intuition, Indomitable and Intangible.

Intuition (Intangible, #0.5)Indomitable (Intangible, #0.75)Intangible (Intangible, #1)
Get on the Mailing List!
You know, the wonderful people on J. Meyers’ New Release Mailing List are the first to find out when a new book comes out. If you’d like to join them, sign up here. She won’t ever share your address, and will only email you when a book has been released or is newly available.

Yet again another beautiful cover, hopefully I can get my hands on this to sit on my shelf next to Intangible at some point. Shhh, what book buying ban?

Sunday 24 February 2013

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (43)


Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Bagged:
Dahlia and Fallen Tears by Christina Channelle
Received both of this for part of a book tour later next month.
Dahlia (Blood Crave, #1)Fallen Tears: A Blood Crave Novella (Blood Crave, #1.5)


This week on Northern Plunder:
Cover Reveal: Fairyvision
Reviews: The Grimm Diaries Prequels 1 - 3
Wishlist Wednesday

I've been very inactive this week as I had two of my University interviews, I'm not sure how they went but I have a conditional place at one and still waiting to here from the other, its also why this post is going up so late because I just didn't feel like doing anything. Hope everyone else has had a good week, I'll catch up with blog hopping sometime during the week. 

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (37)


Still MissingStill Missing by Chevy Stevens is a mystery and thriller and I'm definitely in need of something outside of my usual picks.
GROn the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor. Still Missing is that rare debut find--a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted debut novel.



Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Reviews: The Grimm Diaries Prequels #1 - #3


Snow White Blood Red (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #1)Ashes to Ashes and Cinder to Cinder  (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #2)Beauty Never Dies (The Grimm Diaries Prequels, #3)
The Grimm Diaries Prequels by Cameron Jace
Published: 2012 - 2013
Publisher: Cameron Jace
At this current moment in time 10 of The Grimm Diaries Prequels have been published, the last four do not yet have covers so I will hold off posting reviews until they do because it does help make the post a lot prettier and I'll be posting them three at time as they are only short stories so I can't imagine that I'm going to have a lot to type up.
I can not promise that these reviews will be spoiler free, especially as they're short stories!

Page Count: 25
Read Date: January 25th 2013
Synopsis: I have always wondered why you never asked about my name. Was I so superficial to you? So stereotypical and mundane? Why did you treat me as if I were just the monster of the week? You know what I think? You never had the time to really hate me. You wanted to hate me, long before you even met me. You wanted to scrape my existence and avenge your childhood princess by laying all blame on me. What if they didn’t call me the Evil Queen, what if I told you the real story from my point of view instead of hers, would you ever think of me as an angel? Could I ever make you care? I know that deep inside of you, you adore me,but you’re just scared, afraid to admit how much you love the Snow White Queen.
Review: The Amazon Kindle Lending Library is possibly one of the greatest things invented, though I'm still getting used to finding my way around it but The Grimm Diaries Prequels showed up on my recommended list and after reading the synopsis on Goodreads I decided to give them a go and I'm glad I did. Snow White Blood Red is from the point of view of Snow White's Mother, most commonly known as The Evil Queen - you know the lady with the poisonous apples and she tells us the story of Snow White growing up and how it came to be that she is wanted dead. I adored how the author spun this tale because Snow White isn't the Princess we're used too, no this one likes to bite cute boys and has a rather evil streak because she's a vampire and well as you know vampires are something I adore and whilst you might think this is odd it fits in really well and it's clearly well thought out.
5 / 5 stars

Page Count: 28
Read Date: January 25th 2013
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Alice Grimm lives a dangerously enchanted life. Other than being distracted by a Dreamhunter called Loki Blackstar who has a heart of gold but acts like a jerk, she has a job to do. Being a descendant of the Brothers Grimm, she is one of few in the world who can locate the fairy tale characters and remind them of who they are. This time, Alice flies to Venice where an 800 hundred year old witch's skeleton surrounded with seventeen glass slippers was found by archeologists in the city that invented the art of glassblowing. When Alice and Loki follow the lead, they find one of the fairy tale characters she had been searching for. It's a famous girl character that you know by name, but never really knew what actually happened to her.
Review: This short story has a slightly different feel too it as its from the view of a Dreamhunter, her job is to enter the dreams of the fairy tale characters to help guide them on the right track, this particular one is Cinderella's mother and Alice helps guide her to safety after a fire breaks out in Venice. Its cleverly thought of and theres a lot of facts and historical events in this one to illustrate exactly why Cinderella is called that and how she came to be. I think what I enjoyed most about this one is how we're made aware of a lot of important facts about her Mother and her magic but we're not actually introduced to Cinderella herself so it'll be interesting to either run into her in later prequels or the main book. I wonder if she's a witch and whether she's as dark as Snow White?
4 / 5 stars

Beauty Never Dies
Page Count: 63
Read Date: January 25th 2013
Synopsis: Peter Pan has a plan. Since it's been hundred years since his friends were all cursed by the Brothers Grimm, he is about to wake up Sleeping Beauty, his eternal lover. Oops, you didn't know that. Blame it on the Grimms.  But in the middle of the ceremony, he is visited by the Evil Queen who manipulates him into helping her with information about Snow White. This or she will expose him as he has been secretly kidnapping kids to help him rebuild Neverland in the Dreamworld. After the deal is made, Peter continues with the ceremony, bringing Sleeping Beauty back into life. What Sleeping Beauty is capable of and who she really is are like nothing ever written in the books.
Review: I think this is possibly my favourite of the lot as we get to see a different side to Peter Pan, this story follows him on his quest to help the one he loves - Sleeping Beauty - awaken again. This story is probably also the funniest of the lot as we get to meet Dracula too who isn't exactly the fearing Vampire we all know and love. We also meet The Evil Queen yet again and she helps to bring another mystery to the table - who are the chosen seven and what does she need them for and what could they mean for the future of their world - as she tries to get help from Peter about who they could be.
5 / 5 stars

Monday 18 February 2013

Cover Reveal: Fairyvision

Author Bio:
J.L. Bryan

J. L. Bryan is the author of the Paranormals series (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, Alexander Death, and Jenny Plague-Bringer) and the Songs of Magic series (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, Fairystruck, Fairyland, and the new book, Fairyvision). Fairy Metal Thunder is free on Kindle, Nook, Apple,Smashwords, Sony, and Kobo. Jenny Pox is also free on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, and Kobo. He’s on Twitter and Facebook, and has a website and blog and all that.

Cover Reveal:
Fairyvision
Cover by PhatPuppy Art

Expected Publication: February 2013
Synopsis: Jason, Erin, and the other Zebras go on a world tour with their enchanted instruments, only to encounter the mysterious supernatural Folk of India and the Far East. While they tangle with their record company, Erin tries to avoid dealing with the secrets she's learned about herself.In Faerie, Aoide the Lutist and her troupe finally return home from their long adventure. They're struggling to get new gigs, but Aoide senses opportunity in the form of special new magic mirrors that can broadcast concerts, plays, and other entertainment all over Faerie...

Other books in this series:

Sunday 17 February 2013

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (42)


Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Bagged:
Fairy Metal Thunder by J. L. Bryan
Amazon freebie, I'm getting better at not picking up books. Honestly.
Fairy Metal Thunder (Songs of Magic, #1)


This week on Northern Plunder:
Review: Lost at Sea
Wishlist Wednesday

Review: The Last Witch

Friday 15 February 2013

Review: The Last Witch


The Last Witch (Incenaga, #1)The Last Witch by Debbie Dee
Published: September 12th 2012
Publisher: Dolce Books
Page Count: 248
Synopsis: For generations the Incenaga Witches have been forced to use their power to fulfill the wishes of others until they are drained of their magic and left to die. Desperate to protect his infant daughter - the last surviving witch - Emmeline's father escapes with her to the forests where he vows to keep her hidden from the world and from the truth.
Sixteen years later, Emmeline is discovered and finds herself in the grip of a traitor who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means abusing her power until she dies. She is taken to a distant country and told she must marry the Crown Prince or her own country will be overtaken, its people slaughtered. But what sort of prince would marry a witch? And why would she be the difference between war and peace? As she fights to regain her freedom, she is faced with a choice between a prince who offers a lifetime of security and a common gamekeeper who has no idea of her power, but offers his heart. But who do you trust when your power can be used against you?

Review: 
3 / 5 stars
I was lucky enough to see a post on Facebook about this being on the Amazon Kindle Lending Library and the day I saw it was the last day it was available too. I'm really happy I did because I had yet to decide what to borrow.

I wanted to love this book from page one, it had a great concept behind it and as Emmeline didn't know about her heritage or powers we found out about them along with her, whilst it was frustrating that everyone wanted to keep her in the dark - quite literally too as her power comes from fire - it was fine to deal with because of how the story developed. My actual issue was that for me the rest of the story was a little too predictable for my likings, it wasn't one hundred percent oh yes this is definitely going to happen for most of the story but it was still pretty obvious. I wouldn't let that put you off picking up the book though because this is something I deal with for most books and movies, I just have a natural talent for taking guessing with what's about to happen and more often than not, it does. I really need to stop doing that and to suspend my thoughts whilst trying to enjoy myself but that is easier said than done too - the only thing that I felt was very obvious was the Gamekeeper and his background, to me it was just too impossible that there wasn't more to him.

So I've pointed out why I didn't rate this book higher than three stars considering I really liked Emmeline's character development and I want to point out what else I liked too because it was a great read, just my brain lacks the ability to shut off. I believe one of my favourite things about this book is that we get to see how Emmeline's powers can be controlled by others, we get to see her at her weakest as well as her strongest, how she has no choice but to do others willings at times but also how she has to depend on another to control her if only for a brief moment to make guarantee their safety. Basically, I like how just because she's the main character with all this power behind her doesn't mean she always has to be strong and kicking butt. Also I think its set the scene well for the second book which I think will be a lot better and I'm looking forward to be able to read it.


GR
Amazon: UK | US
Debbie Dee: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (36)

Skylark (Skylark, #1)Skylark by Meagan Spooner was shown to me by someone else, and I'm a sucker for Dystopia's lately.
GRSixteen-year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky. Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped. Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret—but can she stay alive long enough to find them?

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Monday 11 February 2013

Review: Lost at Sea

Lost at Sea
Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley
First Published: December 22nd 2003
Publisher: Oni Press
Page Count: 160
Synopsis: Raleigh doesn't have a soul. A cat stole it - or at least that's what she tells people - or at least that's what she would tell people if she told people anything. But that would mean talking to people, and the mere thought of social interaction is terrifying. How did such a shy teenage girl end up in a car with three of her hooligan classmates on a cross-country road trip? Being forced to interact with kids her own age is a new and alarming proposition for Raleigh, but maybe it's just what she needs - or maybe it can help her find what she needs - or maybe it can help her to realize that what she needs has been with her all along.





Review:
5 / 5 stars
I picked this up during a read-a-thon because I hadn't quite hit my goal for book count and I knew a short read would help out with that, not to mention it had been sat on my to read shelf for far too long. I honestly didn't know what to expect from it because I hadn't read the synopsis and bought it on a whim for my boyfriend after he enjoyed the Scott Pilgrim series by the same author. So here I was delving into Bryan Lee O'Malley's writing for the first time and it was an amazing moment.
Obviously not knowing what this book was about, it was a bit of shock finding out the main character believes she has no soul because a cat stole it or because her mum made a deal with the devil who placed it in a cat, and she also doesn't exactly tell the story from point A to point B, its more like point M to point C to point H to point A. That makes it sound confusing. Its not. Its very well told and put together and I just want to gush at how much I loved it.
I think for me, what I liked the most is that I connected with Raleigh a fair amount, okay so I'm pretty sure my soul is still in tact but ending up on a road trip by complete accident and the way she 
perceives herself is how I do the majority of the days. I guess a lot of teenagers do though. I guess the majority of teenagers feel Lost at Sea at some point, and I think that's what I loved about this book, it really did connect with me. All in all its a beautiful short read and worth picking up!


GR

Amazon: UK | US
Bryan Lee O'Malley: Website | Twitter | GR |  Facebook

Sunday 10 February 2013

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (41)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged is a weekly event hosted by Talk Supe where you can share the books you have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews and on going events. 

Bought:
Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and Pride and Predjudice and Zombes: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith
HMV has a massive clearance sales on so I got all these for £12.50 so so that's acceptable right?
Fight ClubNorwegian WoodAmerican PsychoPride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Bagged:
Breath of Air by Katie Jennings and Don't Fear the Reaper by Michelle Muto
Freebies, one from Amazon and the other from the Author for the book tour.Breath of Air (Dryad Quartet #1)Don't Fear the Reaper (Netherworld, #1)


This week on Northern Plunder:
Don't Fear the Reaper Book Tour
Wishlist Wednesday

Cover Reveal: The Only Exception

As promised I've cut back on my blogging whilst I get my portfolio together and prepare for interviews. Hope you've all been having a good time, and I'll get back into blogging and blogging hopping more efficiently by mid-March hopefully.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Cover Reveal: The Only Exception


Author Bio:

Magan Vernon




Magan Vernon is a Young Adult and New Adult writer who lives with her family in the insurance capital of the world. She is in a very serious, fake relationship with Adam Lambert and constantly asks her husband to wear guyliner. He still refuses. She also believes her husband is secretly an alien, disguised as a southern gentleman.


The Only Exception
Goodreads

Expected Publication Date: 9th April 2013

Synopsis: Fiercely liberal Monica Remy prefers to blend in. Despite her tattoos, piercings, and outspoken personality, she transferred to Central to escape—before she finds out that her next door neighbor is the uber conservative governor's son, Trey Chapman.
No matter how hard she tries to avoid Trey, he still finds a way to get under her skin. Monica can’t stand his crisp white shirts or his staunch views on women. But she can’t help counting every freckle on his face and wondering what it would feel like to have him stop talking politics and kiss her.
A class debate project forces the unlikely pair to work together, and the political lines are blurred in late-night make out sessions. But despite their fiery chemistry, Trey’s politics threatens to smother their relationship for good.
Due to sexual content and heavy subject matter, this book is recommended for ages 16+

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Wishlist Wednesday (35)


SlideSlide by Jill Hathaway just sounds like something I have to read as soon as possible.
GRVee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth--her sister's friend Sophie didn't kill herself. She was murdered. Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn't actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else's mind and experiences the world through that person's eyes. She's slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed "friend" when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie's slashed body. Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can't bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting distant lately, especially now that she's been spending more time with Zane. Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.


Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Pen to Paper where we can share books that are on our wishlist.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Don't Fear the Reaper Tour


Don't Fear the Reaper by Michelle Muto

Don't Fear the Reaper (Netherworld, #1)Published: September 23rd 2011
Publisher: Dreamscapes, Ink
Series: Netherworld #1
Page Count: 251
Synopsis: Grief-stricken by the murder of her twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her ticket to eternal peace and a chance to reunite with her sister. When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected. Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister’s murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine who she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity.


Author Bio:Michelle Mutto
Michelle Muto lives in northeast Georgia with her husband and two dogs. She loves changes of season, dogs, and all things geeky. Currently, she’s hard at work on her next book.



Teaser:
Chapter 9:
My mouth went dry. I was dead. Completely, irreversibly dead. If I needed a shot of reality, this was it.
Daniel glanced at me, the concern and softness seemed to have returned. Through some scrap of coherency, I nodded. Yes, I wanted to see it.
Tim pulled the drawer open, “The medical examiner will be here shortly. There’s an autopsy scheduled—drawer six, not you. Anyway, you’ve only got about five minutes, Keely.”
Daniel turned to me. “You okay with this?”
“I need to see,” I said, staring at the form draped under the sheet.
Daniel rested a hand on my arm. “You sure? You don’t look so well.”
I forced a smile. “I don’t look so well because I’m dead.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have come here.”
“I need to see, Daniel. I’m good. Really.” And I did need to see.
“Five minutes,” Tim reminded me. “Place the sheet over the body and slide the door shut when you’re done. We can’t have anyone walking in and finding the drawers open and you won’t be able to close them once the medical examiner arrives.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sure. No problem.”
“Liar,” Daniel said. “You’re gonna make one hell of a demon, Sunshine.”
He and Tim walked through the doors, leaving me alone.
I walked toward drawer number nine, listening to the rapid breathing echoing in my ears, feeling the cold draft from the cooler raise the flesh on my skin. It felt like a horror movie. In the surrounding quiet, I heard my heartbeat spiking in my chest and my runaway imagination heard another, louder heartbeat from under the sheet. My hand extended in front of me and I watched as it pulled back the sheet.
This was where a horror flick derailed from real life. If this were some B movie, I’d scream as the body lying on the cold slab of drawer number nine opened its eyes. It wouldn’t be me, of course. It’d be the tortured and rotting body of my sister, the ligature marks around her neck caked with blood. The corpse would raise a broken, sheared finger at me, accusingly. It would tell me that I should have been with her, should have saved her.
But it was me.
Just me.

Despite the cold temperature of the morgue refrigerator, I could detect a slight, rank undercurrent of odor.
I stared at my body. I’d come all this way, run off from Banning to find my sister. But, now, as I stood alone in this chilly room, I had a chance to explain to my decaying corpse why I’d taken my life. How that’d help, I didn’t know. Maybe it was like some sort of obligation, some sort of letting go. Maybe that’s why everyone else had gathered outside. This wasn’t making peace with death, I wouldn’t go that far. But it felt close. Resignation?
I brushed a hand across the arm of my corpse. It was smooth and cold, the skin still pliable to my touch. I wanted to apologize for never having graduated high school, gone to college or gotten a real job—all the things Jordan and I had talked about. I wanted to say I was sorry that I’d never move to another city, get an apartment. The list appeared endless. I was sorry that I would never get married, get a house, a dog, have kids.
Grow old.
Instead, I’d grown cold. One of my eyes was open—just a slit. The once mossy iris had turned a fetid, milky green.
Me. Not me.
I withdrew my hand. I didn’t need to catch my reflection in the surrounding stainless steel drawers to know the body inside drawer number nine wasn’t me. Not anymore. I was only seeing the waxy remains of what used to be me. The cadaver shared the same dark brown hair, the same angled face, same high cheekbones. But I had nothing else in common with the stiffened corpse lying before me. Lividity had settled in, speckling the skin near my back. Had my sister visited her own body, sitting and taking stock of her former life? Of what should have been? Had it been easier for her to just come see my corpse?
I wondered if Jordan was glad to be free of her body after what her murderer had done to her. She’d been here, too—in one of these compartments. Drawer number nine? Eight? Wherever Jordan was at this moment, she wasn’t here.
The only thing here now was death and decay. The past.
I placed the sheet over the corpse’s face, slid the drawer back into the cooler, and
closed drawer number nine with a solitary click.