AWAKENING & Giveaway! Guest Post with Natalie King

I recently read and loved Awakening by Natalie King
(you can find my review HERE)
and it is with great pleasure that I welcome her to My Book Chatter today!!

Thanks so much to Book Chatter Cath for having me here today! I’m absolutely thrilled to celebrate the release of my first young adult novel. AWAKENING is an ‘ooky-spooky’ story set on the edges of Lake Tekapo deep in the heart of the South Island of New Zealand.

I’ve always been drawn to this particular lake. It is large, deep and very cold. The water is the most eerie milky blue colour unlike anything you’ve seen and though there’s a rational scientific explanation for that colour, it’s always teased my imagination, sparking so many of those fun ‘what if’ questions…

To be honest, much of the New Zealand landscape does that to me -- especially parts of the South Island (yes, I’m a South Island stalwart, here we call it the ‘mainland’). From the sci-fi appeal of the Moeraki Boulders, to the blinking beauty of gloworms in the deep caves, the downright crazy formation of the pancake rocks and the stormy power of the blowholes and the wonderful green wilds of the West Coast and of course, the majestic Southern Alps… yeah, there’s a reason Peter Jackson likes to film his movies here - it’s inspirational :)

I was living in a town not far from Lake Tekapo when I got the idea for AWAKENING. I love it when you get an idea and it takes hold of you and just won’t let go. That’s what happened when Zelie and Tamas came knocking in my head. They wouldn’t go away and they wouldn’t be quiet! I had to write their story down because every time I closed my eyes, they were there. I took several drives to Tekapo to take in the scenery - to go up to Mt John and feel the wind and see the view over the lakes. The first draft was written in a mad frenzy over a summer…

But now, the book has made it to the shelves and it’s so wonderful to see it there. If you get the chance, I do hope you enjoy reading about Tamas and Zelie and the magic around the lake.

Here’s the blurb to explain a little further…

The cold spread like anaesthetic in her veins.

Fear resurged, driving deeper into every cell.

‘Why would my looking in a mirror help you see me?’

‘Because I see through your eyes.’

When Zelie Taylor pulls a lost necklace out of the icy waters of the lake, she has no idea what the consequences will be.

At first the pendant is just freezing cold – unnaturally so – but then she hears a voice inside her head and Zelie thinks she must be going mad. She’s not. Seventeen-year-old Tamas’ soul has been trapped in the silver necklace since 1918. His body is nearby, sleeping, and Zelie must help him awaken.

At first Zelie would like nothing better than for Tamas’ moody, enigmatic presence to be out of her life, but after a while she isn’t so sure. And what is waiting for Tamas when he does emerge? It seems that the sinister force that trapped him all those years ago has returned and is growing more powerful.

A hundred-year-old mystery steeped in dark magic will make Zelie question everything she thought she knew.

photo indicative of prize only

To be in to win a signed copy of AWAKENING, and one of the pretty pendants to match (as pictured!), just comment and let me know which place within New Zealand you think is the most magical!?

(Overseas entrants don’t fret - just Google images of ‘beautiful New Zealand’ and choose from there!).

With very best wishes,

Natalie

Natalie King has always had imaginary friends in her head. This proved a distraction during school and beyond, and she ultimately abandoned her various jobs as researcher, mystery shopper and recruitment specialist because she was forever imagining herself elsewhere.

Fortunately she now locks herself in her little garden shed to spend her days scribbling the stories those imaginary characters entice her with.

Natalie also writes contemporary romance under another name. In this genre she’s had more than twenty-five novels published, been translated into more than twenty languages, and sold over two million books.

A USA TODAY bestseller, she’s also been a Romantic Times Award nominee and a finalist for the R*BY (Romantic Book of the Year). She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Follow the links for more information.

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