Release date: July 7th 2014
"In the armory, things can be convincing and impossible.
Just like Elias."
Seventeen-year-old Marcella Jackoby’s bleak reality is altered
when she encounters the apparition of a grieving bride wandering the deadly
thirteen curves outside of Pennywright. Intent on capturing Marcella, the bride
seeks to populate a mythical castle disguised as an abandoned armory, where
young guests tirelessly battle an alliance of recluses in order to live with
the promise of eternal youth and love.
Unaware of Elias Hawk’s efforts to safeguard her from untimely
death, and in spite of the fact that he and the kids residing at the armory are
not what they appear to be, Marcella falls for this enigmatic young man. As she
uncovers Elias’s century-old secret, Marcella’s home life crumbles and an
encounter with a roughneck adversary threatens her budding relationship and the
existence of the armory’s residents, unintentionally leading Marcella to ignite
war between the worlds, endangering the couple’s future in a shocking twist of
fate.
Excerpt
A tall boy breezes
in. A set of louvered doors flaps back and forth like angry butterfly wings.
“We’re not looking
to expand,” he addresses the dinner party in a curt tone, wielding a knife and
a loaf of steaming bread. The plates and cutlery on the table jump when he
drops the bread and then slices it with precision. Nobody acknowledges the
knife lifting dramatically in the air. Only Marcella holds her breath.
The hairs on her
neck straighten as if she’s been zapped by an electric current. The air has
transformed around her. An unsettling energy passes through her and
collectively awakens every nerve, muscle and cell in her body. Who’s this boy no one else notices?
“Aren’t you
hungry?” Nissa turns to Marcella and gives her a labored expression. She taps
Marcella’s plate with her glass of milk.
Marcella finds it
strange that these kids aren’t devouring hamburgers or pizza or soda. She
whispers, “No. I think I’m going to be sick.”
The tall boy with
the knife is now walking around the table in slow motion, his hands behind his
back, a plaid shirt tied around his waist. His brows are furrowed, and Marcella
is aware that he’s subtly checking her out.
The skin behind her
ears prickles. She’s reluctant to move at all. The boy makes her uneasy. The
force strengthens as he closes the space between them.
“Ignore him,”
Vernie says and bumps Marcella’s shoulder. “That high horse does this every
time we eat. Have a bite. Then he’ll go away.”
Marcella notices
the boy scrutinizing the dishes on the table. Her nerves ratchet. If someone
could read her thoughts, they’d laugh. She can’t help feeling the boy is
irritated with her. Like his comment was intended for her.
Still, she’s not
sure she wants him to go away so soon.
When he gets to the
side of the table where Vernie, Marcella and Nissa are sitting, he stops at
Vernie’s back where her chestnut-colored braid is twisted into a fancy bun.
Marcella glances at
the floor and sees his slippers. She gulps as the realization hits her.
“Be nice,” Vernie
hisses at the boy. She gasps when he slaps his knife down on the table in front
of her full plate.
“I’ll clue you in.
That’s Mammoth Red Rock cabbage with Gala apple slices. Snapped the neck right
off that turkey myself. Dig in already,” he says with a hint of brag and a hint
of irritation that she hasn’t eaten much because her tongue has been running.
The boy’s voice is deep, yet youthful.
Marcella blushes
when he speaks. The blood filling her cheeks is painful. Her stomach is so
mixed up she can’t eat to save her own life. With hopes he won’t address her
empty plate, the damage she caused in his room, she tries to appear invisible.
But she can never be invisible. She’s more obvious surrounded by her peers than
the sun shining in a cloudless sky.
The boy continues
on his loop around the feast. He’s not
the older man Marcella took him for. He’s Elias Hawk—a boy who’s merely the
ripe old age of nineteen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeanne Arnold is an author of young adult romance. At a young
age she found her creative outlet in art, and for years her fictional
characters came to life in drawings and paintings, until they demanded a voice.
Now they grace the pages of her stories. Jeanne shares her time with her
fictional teenage counterparts and her human family in Central New York.
STUBBORN is available in ebook, print and audiobook at all major online
retailers. Look for THE HAUNT OF THIRTEEN CURVES in July 2014 and JUST AS
STUBBORN, the second installment in the STUBBORN series, in January 2015.
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