Wild Open Faces
Author: Jennifer G. Edelson
Release Date: December 17, 2020
Publisher : Bad Apple Books
Language: : English
Paperback : 351 pages
ISBN-10 : 1733514015
ISBN-13 : 978-1733514019
Description:
After falling for Ezra and discovering a gateway to the Otherworld, it’s a truism Ruby knows to take to heart. But La Luna finally feels like home, and with graduation just weeks away and a cushy internship on a nearby archeological dig in her pocket, it’s easy to downplay the strange new events taking place in the Glorieta Pass. Even when Angel’s deadbeat father reappears after twenty years, stirring up questions about Angel, the ruin, and Ruby’s mother.
Uncertainty is bad enough, but when Ruby starts having inexplicable visions, and the archeological dig unearths mysterious artifacts connected to both a fabled Aztec city and the Pecos Pueblo, Ruby faces more than an uncertain future — she’s forced to accept the role of True of Heart. Will Ezra and her friends stand by her as she confronts the Otherworld? Love is enigmatic, especially in the heart of New Mexico, but the Otherworld may be the biggest mystery of them all.
“What could be a corny premise turns into an exhilarating, fun ride in Edelson’s adept hands. Her characters are smartly drawn, and readers will easily identify with Ruby, a strong yet insecure young artist on the verge of adulthood, who is still recovering from her tragic past... Fans of Twilight and modern fairy tales will fall in love with Ruby and root for her eventual romance.” —Blue Ink Review (Starred Review)
“Between Wild and Ruin is a stunning story of legends, romance, and destiny with themes of starting over, small towns, beauty, and community...Edelson perfectly breathes new life in mythology by honoring the oral tradition of a small community and the ruins that bring to life Ruby's destiny.” —Manhattan Book Review
“Highly recommended to mature teens through new adult and adult audiences, this is a story that lingers in the mind long after its final revelation.” —Midwest Book Review
“A great addition to young adult urban fantasy.” —Seattle Book Review
“Descriptions of the New Mexico landscape are rich and atmospheric, arousing the senses with references to the scent of smoke and juniper, the predatory roar of mountain lions, and the brilliant dazzle of stars in the desert sky...The writing conveys a sense of timelessness, making it easy to believe Ruby’s sense that the land is spirit-haunted and that Leo, the handsome young man she encounters near the ruins, is somehow connected to it all.” —Clarion Forward
“An intriguing historical tale and an over-the-top love-quadrangle romance.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The paranormal aspects of the tale are credible and richly steeped in traditional lore, and the plot is finely crafted...Between Wild and Ruin is most highly recommended.” —Reader’s Favorite (5-Star Review)
CROUCHED OVER A TEST PIT the diameter of my fist, I wield my trowel as though it were a piece of fragile glass, carefully digging around the artifacts embedded in the hard ground to loosen the dirt around them. As sunlight bakes my bare shoulders, I hold my breath, leaning in when I spot the effigy. Its surface looks intact, like some sort of animal, but more importantly, it’s surrounded by small bones.
“Lee!” I stand up and wave him over, pointing excitedly to my find.
Lee ambles toward me, flowing over the earth. He moves like a streamer caught in a light gust, his pendant bouncing against his chest as he advances. When he sees what I’m pointing at, he crouches down, leaning forward on his haunches. He grabs a soft-bristled toothbrush, swiping the outline of what looks like a cat, delicately removing a thin layer of dirt. “It looks like a nagual,” he sighs appreciatively. Lee carefully digs the nagual out, holding up the golf ball-sized figurine for me to examine. “Quite a find.”
“Is it bronze?” One thing I do know is that bronze isn’t a material endemic to the archeology of the southwest.
“I believe it is.”
Lee places the heavy figurine in my palm. As I turn it sideways, two tiny rubies flash up at me, offsetting its deep-set eyes. “I think it’s a cat.” Though dirty, the rubies are still a brilliant blood-red, bumping off glints of light that linger in my vision. “Maybe a jaguar.”
“Yes,” he breathes out. “And I don’t think it’s Puebloan.” Still crouching, he looks up at me. “See here,” he uses the end of the toothbrush to point at the small bones still embedded in the dirt, encircled by a ring of wilted clover, “this one looks like a parrot mandible.”
Lee moves the toothbrush between avian bones, flexing his forearm beneath his rolled-up shirtsleeve so that his snake tattoo appears to coil over his skin. Mesmerized by the sight, I barely notice the heavy nagual burning my palm until my head starts to spin. The sun flares, and all the birds in the Pass screech in unison, and I’m like gauze caught up in the gust that abruptly blows over the site. “The bones...were...were they an offering?” I stutter, throwing my hand out for balance.
“Yes. Likely part of a ritual.”
Lee stands up and wraps both of his hands around my palm, encasing it and the nagual completely. “Do you feel it? The power?”
The nagual floats between us as a wild gust whips my hair around my face, blinding me. The space between his palm and mine is a black hole. It pulls everything in the universe toward me, crushing matter into a mass of unrecognizable atoms that take root down my arms, molecularly joining me to Lee, and the hard-packed earth, and the scrubby sage and lavender dotting the hillside.
I watch Lee’s mouth move, too removed from myself to understand what he’s saying. My body is an empty vessel, a skin suit, like my soul ditched me to sneak off to the fabled city of Azcale untethered. Like I’m stuck inside a void, looking out at the Pass from a dimension the nagual carved out between our still-adjoined hands. Woozy, I have the vaguest sense of Lee catching me as I fall, wrapping me up in his arms before I hit the ground.
Copyright © 2021 by Jennifer G. Edelson
Twitter: @JGEauthor
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