Saturday, February 25, 2017

**Giveaway** The Piper’s Price by Audrey Greathouse (The Neverland Wars #2)


Published by: Clean Reads Publishing
Publication date: February 21st 2017
Genres: Fairy Tales, Retelling, Young Adult

Synopsis:
Peter is plotting his retaliation against the latest bombing. Neverland needs an army, and Peter Pan is certain children will join him once they know what is at stake. The lost boys and girls are planning an invasion in suburbia to recruit, but in order to deliver their message, they will need the help of an old and dangerous associate—the infamous Pied Piper.
Hunting him down will require a spy in in the real world, and Gwen soon finds herself in charge of locating the Piper and cutting an uncertain deal with him. She isn’t sure if Peter trusts her that much, or if he’s just trying to keep her away from him in Neverland. Are they friends, or just allies? But Peter might not even matter now that she’s nearly home and meeting with Jay again.
The Piper isn’t the only one hiding from the adults’ war on magic though, and when Gwen goes back to reality, she’ll have to confront one of Peter’s oldest friends… and one of his earliest enemies.


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AUTHOR BIO:
Audrey Greathouse is a lost child in a perpetual and footloose quest for her own post-adolescent Neverland. Originally from Seattle, she earned her English B.A. from Southern New Hampshire University's online program while backpacking around the west coast and pretending to be a student at Stanford. A pianist, circus artist, fire-eater, street mime, swing dancer, and novelist, Audrey wears many hats wherever she is. She has grand hopes for the future which include publishing more books and owning a crockpot. You can find her at audreygreathouse.com

Author links: 
 
PLAY LIST
THE PIPER'S PRICE
Complete Playlist:

1. Impossible Girl #1
The Impossible Girl

She's the first one of her kind, and the last one in her line.
She's a creature so rare, you can't be sure she's really there.

Sometimes I like to remember that Gwen really is in a unique position, and look at her from the admiring eyes of everyone else around her. She might not admit it, but this is her song.

2. Start With Goodbye, Stop With Hello
Eliza Rickman

We'll start with goodbye, stop with hello
Never a hand hardly to hold...

Even though this is a more of a love song, it reminds me of Gwen and Peter because of how full of paradox and confliction all Peter's relationships are. It seems pertinent when he sends Gwen away from Neverland in the start of the book.

3. Businessmen
Snowapple

Thousands of them businessmen crumbling, crawling up the stairs
Two thousand of them sleepy eyes fighting against time...

This song (and its music video especially) captures a little bit of the anonymous antagonistic force that Gwen starts to hunt down and put faces and names too in this installment of the story.

4. Seven Years
Lukas Graham

It was a big, big world but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker...

This song seemed to be all over the radio while I was drafting The Piper's Price, and I think it captures Gwen's fear of how fast growing up can happen.

5. Circles
Machineheart

If I get tired and say that I wanna change my mind
Pull me in a circle, so I can change it one more time...

If this doesn't sum up Gwen's decision making process, I don't know what does. She pulls 180 degree turns in her head so often, she always seems to circle back 360 degrees by the end of her fretting. She's very consistent for someone so conflicted.


6. I'm in Love Again
Maria Mena

Oh I'm in love again, again,
And you may call me tomorrow my friend, yes,
You may kiss me again and again...I'll hold on tight

There's nothing better than realizing you're in love and getting a second chance at things with a good friend. I can only imagine how this song loops in Gwen's head every time she sneaks out to meet up with Jay.

7. Phoenix
The Jane Austen Argument

Oh, what have I become? And where is my mother?
Oh, bring me my sticks and spices, that I may build this birthing pyre...

It wouldn't be a complete playlist without a melancholy song about questioning who you are and wondering if it wouldn't be such a bad idea to start this whole “life” thing all over again.

8. The Pied Piper
Del Shannon

This was on a “Hits of 1960s” CD my Dad had, and I loved it for inexplicable reasons as a child. I like to imagine this peppy love song is playing as Piper walks into the bar, and its upbeat tempo curdles his already dismal mood.

9. I Walked Alone
Rachel Rose Mitchell

If one's as good as their word,
There's nothing good in you
And there's nothing I can do.

When Gwen makes a shady deal with the Piper and gets burned, you have to wonder whom she's more frustrated with: the mysterious man who tricked her, or the cocksure boy who sent her on the mission in the first place?

10. Come Little Children
From Hocus Pocus

Come Little Children, I'll Take Thee Away,
Into a Land of Enchantment...


Nothing says “kidnapping children with song” like this classic, originally sung by Sarah Jessica Parker for Disney's Halloween-y “Hocus Pocus” movie. I ended up going in a very different direction with Piper's song, but this was often playing in the background while I wrote.
 
 Excerpt:
“What happens if they figure it out and come to question me?”
            Peter scoffed. “You won’t tell them.”
            “What if they threaten to arrest me? They could put me away forever until I told them what they needed to know, and nobody here would stop them.”
            Peter broke free of her hold with ease; she wasn’t actually trying to restrain him. “Preposterous,” he declared. “If they did that, you would sit, stone-faced and silent in your cell until they all died.”
            “What if they beat me?”
            “You’d take the blows as though you were made of rock, and you would not speak.” Peter seemed to disregard the question.
            “What if they tortured me and stuck blades under my nails?” she demanded.
            “Then you would not even scream, but stay silent as a stone!” Peter insisted, hopping up onto a wooden kitchen chair at her dining table, looking down at the woman.
            “What if they bring knives and cut off my fingers, one at a time, until I told them how to find you?”
            Peter yelled right back, “Then you would steal their knives and scalp them all like the redskin princess you are!”
            Her anger slunk off her face and out of her shoulders. She shook her head, frowning as a sad laugh escaped her. She clung to her sweater, blinking back tears, until, at last, she flung her arms around Peter. Still on the chair, he had to bend down to return the embrace.
            “Oh, Peter,” she muttered, unaware of the tears slipping off her smiling face. “Oh, Peter.”
 
 

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