Title: A
COLD LEGACY
Author:
Megan Shepherd
Pub. Date:
January 27, 2015
Publisher:
Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins
Pages: 400
After
killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with
Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote
estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the
mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the
basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s
secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be
present within the manor’s own walls.
Then Juliet
uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific
experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where
the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and
promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark
footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.
With
inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the
Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we
love—even our own humanity.
A COLD LEGACY excerpt
p.21-24
Montgomery
stopped the horses outside a tavern. He came to the carriage door, opening it
just a crack to keep the rain from drenching us. “I’m going to ask directions.
We can’t be far now.”
We watched
him saunter over the muddy street as though he didn’t even feel the bite of
freezing rain. A face appeared in the tavern window. The door opened and he
spoke to a woman in a wool dress for a few moments, then stomped back through
the mud. “This village is called Quick,” he told us. “The manor’s only five
miles from here.”
“Did you
hear that?” Lucy murmured to Edward, still stroking his hair. “We’re almost
there. Just hold on. Everything will be all right once we arrive.”
Montgomery’s
eyes shifted to me. Neither of us wanted to remind Lucy that the prospect of
Edward’s fever breaking—and the Beast’s reappearance—was almost more
frightening than the fever itself. Delirious, he was less of a threat.
“Let’s go
then,” I whispered to Montgomery. “And quickly.”
He closed
the door and in another moment we were moving again, passing through the rest
of Quick. Then all too soon the village was nothing but fading lights. The
storm grew and the road became rougher, and all the while Edward’s eyes rolled
back and forth beneath shuttered lids.
Thunder
struck close by, and Lucy shrieked. Montgomery whipped the horses harder,
pulling us along the uneven road impossibly fast, trying to outrun the storm. I
twisted in the seat to look out the back window at the pelting rain. A stone
fence ran alongside us.
“We must be
getting close,” I said.
“Not soon
enough,” Lucy breathed. “We’re going to crash if he keeps driving like this!”
The road
widened, straightening, letting us travel even faster. Lightning struck close
by, blinding me. The horses bolted. Lucy screamed and covered her eyes, but I
couldn’t tear mine away. The lightning had struck an enormous oak tree, twisted
from centuries of wind. The oak took flame, blazing despite the rain. A smoking
gash ran down the trunk—the lightning’s death mark. I watched until the rain
put out most of the flames, but it still smoldered, billowing hot ash into the
night.
The horses
pawed the earth, and I grabbed the window to steady myself. At this wild speed,
just hitting a single rock at the wrong angle would send the carriage
shattering to the ground. It was madness to go so fast. Couldn’t Montgomery
calm the horses?
Just when I
feared the carriage would careen out of control, it stopped short, throwing me
against the opposite wall. I tangled in Lucy’s limbs as the chains around
Edward’s body clinked. Balthazar grunted, jerking awake at last. We scrambled
in the bottom of the carriage until the door flew open.
Montgomery
stood in the pelting rain. I feared he’d say we’d broken another strut or the
horses had gone lame or we’d have to spend the night in the harsh storm.
But then I
saw the lights behind him, and the night took shape into a turreted stone manor
with bright lamps blazing and gargoyles on the roof vomiting rain into a stone
courtyard.
Montgomery’s
eyes met mine beneath the low brim of his hat.
“We’ve
arrived,” he said.
About Megan:
Hello!
I’ve been many things, like a
professional exchange student, park ranger in Montana, and LOST enthusiast, but
what I am now is a writer.
I think it’s
fair to say I was born into it. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina,
raised behind the counter of my parents’ independent bookstore, Highland Books in
Brevard. Ah, so many free books. But I never thought being a writer could be a
real career. After college I thought I’d end up as a foreign service officer
somewhere dashing and exotic, like Canada. I studied French, Spanish, German,
and Russian and still speak a few of those. Then I joined the Peace Corps and
spent two years in Senegal, where I learned a few more languages I’ll never
speak again and lived in a mud hut with no electricity or running water. You
can probably imagine how that experience went, but if you’re curious, here are the dirty
details.
It wasn't
until a chance aquaintance read something I wrote and said, "have you ever
considered being a writer?" that something clicked and I realized it was
possible. My husband encouraged me, and I quickly fell head-over-heels in love
with writing and children's literature in particular. I started out writing
articles, which have appeared in Faces, Appleseeds, and Calliope magazines, and
stories for younger children. I soon realized I wasn’t sweet enough to write fiction
for that age and found myself writing young adult literature instead, which
doesn’t require nearly as many tender moments and includes a lot more cursing.
When I'm not
writing, I can usually be found horseback riding, day dreaming at coffee shops,
or hiking in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. I love to hear
from readers, so please drop me a line!
Author Photo
by Kristi Hedberg Photography
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