Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
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My Tease for this week is from
Night Carnival
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
My Tease is from 63% in the eBook.
They couldn’t touch or hurt me; they couldn’t hurt anyone anymore, trapped and helpless as they were in their purgatory life. But they were with me always.
My Review
Ever since I watched the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes I’ve been drawn to stories that use the carnival as their location.
What’s scarier than the barker’s hollering and badgering you to try their games, enter their tents. And the clowns with their white face paint and yellow teeth. I’ve never liked clowns.
Now imagine a night carnival run by supernatural beings, vampires and shifters. They’d give you quite a show and some visitors would never go home again.
After losing first her husband and then her mother all in one month, Angela is now facing the rest of her life alone. Sitting in her mothers empty house, she hears the sound of calliope music. The music of a carnival. But it’s the wrong time of year for one. It speaks to something deep inside her, drawing her out into the chilly night, through the woods, to a small carnival that shouldn’t be there.
Dominic, a vampire and owner of the carnival, calls to Angela. He’s been waiting a long time and it’s time for her to really start living. His call brings her to the carnival and the wonders of his life.
This is a very short story but also very fulfilling. The author did an excellent job of making me familiar with the characters quickly. The choice of the night carnival was great too. What an ingenious way for the supernatural beings to blend in. People expect the strange there. And the atmosphere is creepy and intense.
An enchanting yet macabre tale of soul mates and happy “forever” after.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
Walking among the eerie assortment of skill-game booths and tattered tents she’s strangely drawn in by the eerie calliope music and the mesmerizing inhabitants of a carnival the likes she’s never seen before. The carousel is alive with demonic steeds flashing their hooves and neighing silently to the moon. There are wraith like luminescent creatures lurking in the shadows along the midway and the Ferris wheel, aglow with thousands of twinkling lights, moves without human hands to control it. The strange animals, lions, tigers and elephants, in the main ring have no human trainers, are much larger than they should be, and seem to float. Then there are the sad-faced clowns who manipulate the crowds with only their glittering eyes and thoughts. They and the other carnies are vampires. One–ancient and powerful, their leader Dominic–has been waiting for her for a long time…to make her his forever. He offers her what she’s never had before. Love. A place to call home. But is she willing to give up her humanity for this creature of the night? Is she willing to join her life to his and live among the vampires, shape shifters and ghosts of the traveling carnival for eternity? Could she be happy as one of them? Is she willing to die for him? (The short story Night Carnival was a *Finalist* in the 2011 Just One Bite Anthology Contest at All Romance eBooks.)
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I’ve read several of Kathryn’s books and she is a prolific writer. My goal is to eventaully read all of her stories. You’ll be seeing her books on my blog a lot this month as I have more of them to share with you and a special event coming up this Friday. There will be giveaways and reviews. Be sure to stop back by.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-three years ago now, and have had twenty-one (nine romantic horror, two horror novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance, two thrillers, and three murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press; and I’ve self-published my last six novels with Amazon Kindle Direct and my dinosaur novels and Spookie Town Mysteries are my best-sellers.
I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-six years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha and Cleo and live cat Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.
2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my horror novel The Last Vampire–Revised Author’s Edition ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for her thriller novel Dinosaur Lake.
*Click here to check out Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s.
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire,
Witches, The Nameless One short story, The Calling, All Things Slip Away, Egyptian Heart,
Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, Before the End: A Time of Demons, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories Collection, Scraps of Paper, Dinosaur Lake, Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising and the just released Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation.
Kathryn’s Links
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith/579206748758534
http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/889499.Kathryn_Meyer_Griffith
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!
How about you? Got a tease? Tell me!
Sounds like a good scary read!
More eerie than scary:)
Sounds great to me. I can hardly wait to read it. Kathryn is an awesome writer and I love her work!
sherry @ fundinmental My TT
I hear ya! Ready for Friday?!!
I’m always fascinated by carnivals too. I had a neighbor once who worked in one for several years – she wasn’t telling any tales though, lol.
My TT this week: The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France at http://wp.me/pZnGI-j6
Must not have worked at this carnival! LOL
Oh, I really dislike clowns. They creep me out but your review and teaser are brilliant. Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂
http://welcome-to-zeds-thoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/teaser-tuesday-10th-feb-2015.html
Aren’t they just too creepy. I can’t imagine how any kid liked them?
I don’t think this one is for me, but I hope you enjoy it!
I really enjoyed it. A short, macabre romance. LOL
That looks interesting! Here’s my TT: https://darcysbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesday-feb-10/
Interesting indeed:)
Carnivals scare me!
Thanks for coming by mine today from Follow the Leader
They do now! When I was young they scared me but fascinated me. Now, I think I’ll take a pass on them. Seen too many movies and read too many books. LOL
This I need to read. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
I know you’d enjoy this one!
This does sound very interesting and I do like the teaser very much! Thanks for visiting my TT https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesday-february-10/
Kathryn wowed me like she usually does!
Very ominous!
Yeah, it gets a bit creepy but not gory:)
Ooh, sounds really creepy. Probably a bit too creepy for me! Great TT choice, though.
I’d say it’s eerie more than scary:)
This sounds like my kind of story. Will have to check it out. Here is mine
http://totallyaddictedtoreading.blogspot.com/2015/02/teaser-tuesday-3.html
I hope you do. Kathryn is an excellent writer and I’ve read many of her books. This is the first short story I’ve read of hers.
This one sounds really good.
I sure enjoyed it!
Sounds awesome! I’ll have to check this book out! Here’s my Teaser Tuesday:
http://rabbitearsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/teaser-tuesday-1-old-school-classic.html
This book sounds interesting..Added it to my TBR..Thanks for sharing Laura 🙂
LOved your blog and have followed you via Bloglovin
-Nikita @Njkinny’s World of Books & Stuff
I hope you read it. It’s a great introduction to Kathryn’s writing. Thanks so much for following. I’ll follow you back!
That cover is scary! Sounds like the type of book that would keep me up all night :p
I don’t think it would scare you so much as make you wonder. It’s kind of surreal.
Really good creepy tease. I’ve read her before, she’s good.
Here’s mine:
http://awrenfro.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesday-the-shining-by-stephen-king-part-2/
I’ve got a great one coming up on Friday for her second Dinosaur Lake book. Me and Sherry are tag teaming it!
Great one from The Shining. I never get tired of that book. I enjoyed the movies but the book is so much better.
Oooh, this sounds like a really fun read. I also hate clowns, there’s just something so creepy about them! But setting a supernatural read on a carnival site is genius! Might have to check this one out after your positive review 🙂 Thanks for dropping by yesterday 🙂 I hope you have a great week!
Juli @ Universe in Words
There’s some fascinating stuff going on at the carnival. I’d love for her to write a longer book about. Maybe about the owner of the carnival before this story or what comes after this!
Love the way it sounds. The setting really sounds like it sets the tone. My WoW
It sets the tone and then Kathryn does a great job of taking it to the eerie and macabre.
Oohh, creepy teaser – I love it! Thanks for stopping by my blog! Cheers!
Always happy when I get that reaction! LOL
Goodness,t he carnival atmosphere sounds delicious in this! Thanks for sharing and for commenting on mine: http://editingeverything.com/bookish-thoughts-2/something-more-than-night-by-ian-tregillis-teaser-tuesday/#comment-4020
It is eerie and compelling!
This sounds really spooky. How was it?
It was eerie and atmospheric more than scary. I really liked it.