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Friday, January 17, 2014

Blog Tour- LANDRY PARK Excerpt and a Giveaway!


I am so excited to have Bethany Hagen here today to share an excerpt from David Dana's POV! I freaking loved Landry Park! I know it's early into 2014 but I can definitely say this will make my top 10 of 2014 list! Make sure to enter the giveaway below for a copy of the book!

Haven't heard of LANDRY PARK? Check it out!

Landry Park
Bethany Hagen
Hardcover: 384 Pages
Publisher: Dial (Penguin)
ISBN: 978-0803739482

In a fragmented future United States ruled by the lavish gentry, seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry dreams of going to the university. Unfortunately, gentry decorum and her domineering father won't allow that. Madeline must marry, like a good Landry woman, and run the family estate. But her world is turned upside down when she discovers the devastating consequences her lifestyle is having on those less fortunate. As Madeline begins to question everything she has ever learned, she finds herself increasingly drawn to handsome, beguiling David Dana. Soon, rumors of war and rebellion start to spread, and Madeline finds herself and David at the center of it all. Ultimately, she must make a choice between duty - her family and the estate she loves dearly - and desire.

Now on to the excerpt

From Bethany- When I'm working on a project, I tend to crawl into a mental cave that's filled with music and movies and books and research, and then live in that cave until my clothes are all ragged and I can't remember what the sun feels like.  (This is only partly metaphorical.)  And in my mental cave are scenes and ideas and conceptualizations of other characters, because I try to be conscious at all times that each character has their own journey, their own arc.  Each character considers himself or herself to be the hero of their own story.  And no one more so than David Dana, the son of a decorated naval commander and new arrival to Kansas City.  David has a secret, one he can't share with anybody, and it weighs on him constantly.  But Madeline Landry is the first person he meets that he feels might understand.  This scene is a scene of their very first meeting at Wilder House, the location of a gentry girl's debut and also of a mysterious attack on a gentry girl named Cara Westoff.  It's this attack that sets off the action of the novel.

The plane from Atlanta was predictably delayed.  An ice storm over the Midwest, they said.  When he disembarked from the plane and climbed gratefully into the sleek black car that waited for him, David had half a mind to go straight to the penthouse his mother had rented and skip the debut he'd been solicitously invited to.  But after a crisp glass of gin, he decided to go.  He always liked a good party, especially one with lots of girls and dancing.  It didn't matter that he didn't know anybody yet; he found that more often than not mysterious, well-dressed men never lacked for dance partners.

The house was smaller than he expected, and no footman or butler welcomed him at the door...doubtless all the servants were busy with the crowded bustle of the debut.  He could hear the laughter and clinking glasses and lilting violins all the way from the front steps, which was probably a testament to how small the house was, not the number of guests.  God, this place is provincial, he thought, pausing to light a cigarette before he went inside.  Why his mother wanted to move back here was beyond him, especially when all their memories of Father were back in Georgia.  He'd been dead only a few months and already Mother seemed to have completely forgotten him.

A scowling grief accompanied thoughts of his father's death, a mixture of pain and confusion and anger.  His father had always been distant and reserved, his brief demonstrations of affection laced with a sense of duty, as if each pat on the head or each shake of the hand before dinner satisfied some internal quota he had created for himself.  But despite the distance, his father had been a fixed point in the constellation of David's life, and without him there, unmoving and unwavering, David felt daily life almost impossible to navigate.  As if the things he did in the shadows would now pull him under, and David Dana, handsome son of the gentry, would cease to exist, and he'd become someone else entirely.  The thought terrified him.  Being subsumed by anything--love, work, war, a cause--it was the deepest fear he had.  Maybe that's why he clung so tenaciously to this life of parties and booze and flirting.  It was an elaborate life raft.

His thoughts were interrupted by soft and hurried footsteps.  He looked up to see an unfamiliar girl, a year or two younger than him, rushing into the foyer.  Her silk and lace gown swished and rustled as she moved, and red hair--red as blood--spilled out from a braided crown around her head, framing her face rather attractively.  She was pretty, although thin and pale in a way that suggested unhealth, like there was a blood-spattered handkerchief tucked away in her dress somewhere.  He watched her ascend the staircase, admiring the elegant lines of her waist as she walked, when she stopped.  He heard it too--cars.  Constables.  

Something had happened.

The constables climbed out of their cars, talking in their clipped, prejudiced tones.  Their automatic suspicion of the Rootless was not what surprised him--it was the way the girl turned, listened, her face pulling tight with doubt--that made him wonder.  He'd meant to let her pass by, to remain unnoticed by this new city for a while longer, but now he was intrigued.  Choosing his words carefully--he was very used to doing this, to playing the part he'd created for himself all those years ago--he said:

"Normally these debuts are terribly boring, so I make a point of arriving late, but I guess this time I missed all the excitement." 






Thanks Bethany! Love David :D



About Bethany:

Librarian by day, Bethany Hagen is the author of the forthcoming LANDRY PARK, set to be released from Dial February 4th, 2014. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and two children.




Giveaway Details:

The giveaway is for one finished copy, bookmarks, & stickers. US ONLY.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Here’s the Tour Schedule!

Monday, January 13, 2014- Hazel @ Stay Bookish- Review
Tuesday, January 14, 2014- Inky @ Bookhaven Extraordinaire- Review
Wednesday, January 15, 2014- Stacee @ Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview
Friday, January 17, 2014- Jaime @ Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
Monday, January 20, 2014- Johanna @ Challenging Reads- Review
Tuesday, January 21, 2014- Liza @ Reading with ABC- Guest Post
Wednesday, January 22, 2014- Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf- Interview
Thursday, January 23, 2014- Giselle @ Book Nerd Canada- Review
Friday, January 24, 2014- Scott @ Scott Reads It!- Guest Post
Monday, January 27, 2014- Fahima @ I Read, Ergo I Write- Interview
Tuesday, January 28, 2014- Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!- Review
Wednesday, January 29, 2014- Emily @ Book Jems- Guest Post
Thursday, January 30, 2014- Taherah @ Books As You Know It- Interview
Friday, January 31, 2014- Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat- Review

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