My Last Tempest Rising ARC

Okay, everyone, I'm super-excited about this weekend's giveaway.  I have one ARC for Tempest Rising, my May mermaid YA (wow, say that 10 times fast) and am thrilled to be giving a copy of it away this weekend.  I've been pretty stingy with them, so this is your last opportunity to see Tempest before it hits the shelves ;)

Here's the blurb:

Tempest Maguire wants nothing more than to surf the killer waves near her California home; continue her steady relationship with her boyfriend, Mark; and take care of her brothers and surfer dad. But Tempest is half mermaid, and as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she will have to decide whether to remain on land or give herself to the ocean like her mother. The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kai, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well. And when Tempest does finally give in to the water's temptation and enters a fantastical underwater world, she finds that a larger destiny awaits her—and that the entire ocean's future hangs in the balance.

And here's a quick excerpt:

“Are you ready?”


The words hung in the air between us—trapped—and it was like he could see inside of me. Like he knew so much more than I did about … everything.


“Ummm—“ Did I mention that I’m not the most articulate person at the best of times and under pressure, my words dry up as completely as the desert during a sandstorm?


“Of course she’s ready.” Mark wrapped an arm around my shoulder, bringing me against his body, and for one irrational second I felt like a bone being pulled in different directions by two slavering, growling dogs. Except both of these guys still had smiles on their faces. “Right, Tempest?”


“Yeah, of course.” I gave him the answer he wanted, but it was just another discernible lie. I wasn’t ready to go into the ocean again, not with Kona watching every move I made. But Mark couldn’t see inside my head and as he pulled me towards the water, pain ricocheted down my arms.


Again, I wondered at the differing sensations. Pain from Mark, the guy I was pretty sure I loved and who I felt secure around. Pleasure from Kona, the guy I didn’t know how to respond to and who I certainly didn’t trust.


Mark propelled me down the beach, until the surf danced around my ankles and licked at me like a hundred tongues of fire. Something was coming, it seemed to tell me as it burned where it normally soothed. Something big, and I couldn’t hide from it anymore.


As if I ever had been able to.


We started paddling out, and within seconds Mark was ahead of me, his whipcord lean body stretched out over his board like an offering to the surf gods. Normally I would be right there with him, pushing into the water-- desperate for the next big wave—but instead I hung back, hesitant to push off with Kona so close.


I expected Kona to take off with Mark, but he stayed beside me, content to move with the ebb and flow of the waves instead of cutting his own way through them.


“What are you doing?” I hissed, when I was sure Mark was out of earshot.


“What do you mean?” He paddled closer until his board was nearly touching mine. It was a deliberate attempt at crowding and one I would normally have called anyone on, but today—with him—I let it go. I had more important things to worry about.


“Come on. You didn’t just show up at this beach accidentally. You came for a reason.”


“And what reason would that be, sweet Tempest?” He lifted one eyebrow in a way I found ridiculously hot.


“That’s what I’m asking you!”


“That doesn’t seem right.” An unexpected swell came up, had both of us clutching our boards to keep from grubbing. “If you’re going to assign dark intentions to me, I think you should be brave enough to admit to them.”


“Can’t you just once answer a question without dodging around it eighteen different ways?”


“Where’s the fun in that?”


“See what I mean?” I glanced away from him, watched as the wave began to set up. Panic, cold and clammy, raced down my spine as images of tumbling beneath the water bombarded me from all sides. “You never just tell the truth.”


He studied me and for once there was no humor in his expression. “That’s an interesting complaing coming from you, Tempest. Besides, the truth is a nebulous thing. If you get too much too quickly, it feels like the top of your head is blowing off.”


“It feels like that already.” I braced myself, prepared to push up.


“It’s only going to get worse.” He flexed his biceps and I realized that his tattoos looked like they were glowing, just as they had the first time I met him.


The observation had my stomach cramping up. “What does that mean?”


“What do you want it to mean?”


“You’re doing it again.”


“Doing what?


“Talking in circles.”


His smile was wicked hot when he answered, his eyes pure silver, sexy and bottomless. “You want direct?” At my nod, he continued. “You’d better pay attention or it’ll be my turn to fish you out from the deep.”


“What—“


But he was already up, and I scrambled to follow suit before I got rolled. As the wave crested, I managed to stay on my board—barely—but it wasn’t my most successful ride, by any means. I was too busy watching Kona ride the wave like he was born to do it.


Who was he, I wondered for at least the millionth time.


Friend or foe?


Mermaid or human … or something else entirely?


And perhaps most importantly, what did he want from me?

So, to be entered to win Tempest, tell me the name of one book you've read recently that you really, really liked.  I just read a YA called The Sky is Everywhere and it was absolutely brilliant.