YA Scavenger Hunt TEAM PINK: Dorothy Dreyer hosting Gillian Bronte Adams

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for until April 3rd!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are nine contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the PINK TEAM--but there is also a red team, an orange team, a gold team, a green team, a teal team, a blue team, a purple team, and a silver team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've hidden my favorite number (highlighted in pink). Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the pink team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!).

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, April 3rd, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

I'm thrilled to be hosting the lovely Gillian Bronte Adams

Gillian Bronte Adams is a sword-wielding, horse-riding, coffee-loving speculative fiction author from the great state of Texas. A love of epic stories and a desire to present truth in a new way drew her to the realm of fantasy. During the day, she manages the equestrian program at a youth camp. But at night, she kicks off her boots and spurs, pulls out her trusty laptop, and transforms into a novelist, during which, it is rumored, she mixes 9 different flavored creamers into her coffee.

You can find out more about Gillian on her website.

ABOUT THE BOOK

SONGKEEPER

War ravages Leira and the Song has fallen silent

Freed from the hold of a slave ship, Birdie, the young Songkeeper, and Ky, a street-wise thief, emerge to a world at war. Hordes of dark soldiers march across Leira, shadowed by whispers of plague and massacres, prompting Ky to return to his besieged home city in hopes of leading his fellow runners to safety.

Desperate to end the fighting, Birdie embarks on a dangerous mission into the heart of the Takhran’s fortress. Legend speaks of a mythical spring buried within and the Songkeeper who will one day unleash it to achieve victory. Everyone believes Birdie is the one, but the elusive nature of the Song and rumors of other gifted individuals lead her to doubt her role. Unleashing the spring could defeat the Takhran once and for all, but can she truly be the Songkeeper when the Song no longer answers her call?

Book Two in the Songkeeper Chronicles

Add to Goodreads | Buy the Book

And now for the top-secret Bonus Material!

Here’s a sneak peek at the first chapter of Songkeeper. It is the second book in a series, so if you haven’t read the first book, Orphan’s Song, there are a few spoilers ahead. Nothing too earth shattering though. Read on and whet your appetite for Songkeeper’s release on April 15th!

Silence rested on her shoulders like a crushing weight. The thumping of her heart magnified tenfold as Birdie strained her ears for the familiar melody—a cluster of notes that brought warmth and comfort to the soul, piercing despair with a glimmer of hope. Instead, she heard only the groaning timbers, crashing waves, and creaking blocks of the Langorian ship. Within the hold, chains rattled and muffled coughs echoed from the bulkheads, the sounds of the sick and dying.

Yet the Song remained silent.

A hand grazed her arm, and she started back.

“It’s all right,” Ky grunted. “It’s just me.”

She peered in the direction of his voice, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to see his face through the gloom. A hacking cough came from somewhere to her right, punctuated by wheezing that sounded more like groaning. In the weeks since their capture, it had become a familiar sound.

The herald of death.

Somewhere in the hold, a captive was dying. Alone, ignored, abandoned—even by his fellow prisoners. Though their hands were free, chains bound their ankles to the deck, restricting movement to a few feet in either direction, and anything above a whisper drew the wrath of their captors. No one would dare lift a voice in comfort or to call for aid.

She had witnessed it many times, felt it moving in herself, that hopelessness that deadens compassion. They were all made selfish in their fear. Weeks spent shackled in the hold with countless other poor souls, and she didn’t even know who they were. Would they all die so in the weeks to come, forgotten?

Another strangled cough. Then silence.

Horrible, dead silence

Her hands shook. She clutched them to her damp forehead and huddled with her elbows tucked into her body, but she couldn’t stop them from shaking. Not even when the hatch flew open a few minutes later, releasing blinding light into the hold, and two pirates stumped down the ladder carrying buckets of stale water and hard bread. Her hands trembled as she choked down food, and as the pirates dragged the dead slave up the ladder and the hatch thudded shut behind them, plunging the hold back into night.

Outside, a loud splash, then something thumped against the side of the ship.

“Ky …” She broke off with the name scarce spoken.

Even a whisper seemed disrespectful in this floating tomb.

“Yeah?”

The words sounded in her head, but somehow she couldn’t muster the courage to get them past her tongue. How could she tell Ky she was sorry he had been dragged into her mess, that he should never have tried to help her, that she knew it was her fault he was a prisoner?

Chains clinked to her right, and his voice spoke beside her ear. “What is it?”

The rehearsed speech failed her, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind—anything to distract from the terrible silence. “Do you ever think . . . What would you be doing right now if you were back in the Underground?”

“Probably running for my life.” He snorted. An attempt at a laugh, but a pitiful one. “I tend to do that a lot.” His chains clinked, indicating a shift of positions. “I just wish I could know they were all safe. Meli, Paddy, Aliyah, even Cade.”

Or Amos.

Birdie couldn’t bring herself to say his name out loud, but the thought of the gruff peddler brought a tear to her eyes. For all she knew, Amos McElhenny was dead, lying cold and forsaken on the beach where she had left him when the pirates dragged her away. She shoved her trembling hands into her lap and clenched them beneath her knees.

She might not be able to will her hands to stop shaking, but she could force them. This at least was something she could control.

Across the hold, a child gasped for breath.

The five broken notes of the child’s melody filled Birdie’s head. Weak as a candle quivering before a gust of wind. The sound tore Birdie to the heart.

“Why don’t they help us?” Ky muttered. “It doesn’t make a lick of sense. You’d think they’d give us a little light, air, fresh water, if only to keep us alive until they can sell us, instead of leaving us here to rot! Dead slaves aren’t worth anything. Why do they let us die?”

Wow, intense, right? Gillian is also currently running a giveaway on Goodreads for this book! Click here to enter.

Did you find my secret number above? Great! Be sure to add up all the numbers from the pink team to find the secret code for your chance to win the grand prize!

But that's not all! Before you move on, here's a quick chance to win a $15 Amazon gift certificate. That's right, more prizes! Fill out the rafflecopter for your chance to win. (The gift certificate is for Amazon.com and can not be substituted with another gift certificate.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Ready for the next clue on the hunt? Then click on over to author Christopher Mannino's page! Good luck!