Cover Reveal + Excerpt ~ BROKEN by A.E. Rought

Today I am super-duper, uber excited to take part in the cover reveal for my Oasis sister's debut YA novel, BROKEN.  A.E. Rought has written what I'm sure will be an amazing story and now it has an amazing cover.  You ready for this?

     Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

     A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
     When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

     And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Excerpt ~  Okay, so there are 11 of us participating in the cover reveal and posting the entire first chapter of Broken.  But to read it all, you have to visit all of our blogs.  I'm the second stop.  To read the first part of Chapter 1, head over to Trinity's blog.  Then come back here.

Echoes of us fill our seats now, Daniel’s long legs whole, not broken, and stretched across the polished stone. One of his long hands holds the pint, the other hand curls over my shoulder. My profile is clear, aimed at him, beaming love brighter than the moonlight. Curls muss his nearly black hair and cast his face into shadow. A chill October breeze stirs the trees. Branches clack above my head, brittle as old bones. Goosebumps coat my skin, my pulse jumps. When Daniel’s echo turns to me, his face is broken and bleeding, red shiny trails streaming from the crack in his skull, coursing into his hazel eyes.

My breath escapes in a rush. The same loss tears through me. And here I am again, living the hurt over and over, like constantly ripping off a Band-aid to feel the sting. 

Hurting is better than forgetting.

         Daniel wouldn’t want me living in this limbo. He would’ve screwed up his face into a comical mask long ago and shooed me away from here. I’m so weak without him. I struggle to keep my chin up,  and lose the sudden battle with my tears.

To continue reading, head to Katy's blog.

Don't forget, the novel releases January 2013.  Be sure to add it to your TBR list on Goodreads!