BooksChatter: ☀ The Last of the Firedrakes: The Avalonia Chronicles [1]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for The Last of the Firedrakes, a Young Adult Fantasy by Farah Oomerbhoy (15 August 2015, Wise Ink Creative Publishing, 416 pages).

This is the first book in The Avalonia Chronicles series. Silver award winner in IBPA's Benjamin Franklin Awards 2016, Finalist in the 2015 USA Best Book Awards, Winner in Wattpad's 2015 Watty Awards.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first four chapters with Amazon Look Inside. The Last of the Firedrakes is on sale for ONLY .99!!!

Author Farah Oomerbhoy will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀).

Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

16-year-old Aurora Darlington is an orphan. Mistreated by her adopted family and bullied at school, she dreams of running away and being free. But when she is kidnapped and dragged through a portal into a magical world, suddenly her old life doesn't seem so bad.

Avalonia is a dangerous land ruled by powerful mages and a cruel, selfish queen who will do anything to control all seven kingdoms--including killing anyone who stands in her way. Thrust headlong into this new, magical world, Aurora's arrival sets plans in motion that threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

With the help of a young fae, a magical pegasus, and a handsome mage, Aurora journeys across Avalonia to learn the truth about her past and unleash the power within herself. Kingdoms collide as a complicated web of political intrigue and ancient magic lead Aurora to unravel a shocking secret that will change her life forever.

Teaser: Excerpt

1

Chance

“Get up!” said a familiar but thoroughly irritating voice. “Get up, you freak, and stop that awful shrieking.”
      I sat up in my bed, sweat pouring from me, my heart beating so fast it was as though I had just run a race. I knew it was only a dream, but it always felt so real, as if I had really lived through it.
      I turned my head to see my angry cousin Cornelia glaring straight at me. Her perfect blonde hair was neatly brushed and pulled back with a silver headband. She was already dressed for school, with her uniform and coat on.
      “It’s eight o’clock, Aurora,” Cornelia said. “Get up. We are so late. I don’t want to get into trouble because of you again. We already missed the bus; Ms. Holden is going to have a fit. And, for God’s sake, stop this screaming thing that you do every night. I just can’t bear it anymore.” She huffed and preened at herself in the mirror.
      “Maybe you need to see a shrink,” she added as an afterthought, glancing at me and turning back to her perfect reflection.
      “Okay, okay, I’m up. Give me five,” I muttered as I rolled out of bed and jumped in the shower. Maybe I did need a shrink. I couldn’t control the nightmares, and I had no idea why I kept having the same dream over and over again.
      It all started a few months ago, on the night of my sixteenth birthday. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see my mother running down a dark corridor, carrying me in her arms. I could actually feel the heat of the flames that licked at her heels as a woman she called Morgana came rushing towards us with a gleaming dagger raised to strike. But I never knew what happened next; it always ended the same way, with a flash of light and me screaming.
      I could never remember anything about my birth parents. But now this dream had started—and I couldn’t understand how I knew that the blonde-haired lady in my dream was my real mother. I was adopted when I was barely two years old and was fortunate that the clothes I was wearing had my name embroidered on them when my adoptive parents found me; otherwise, I wouldn’t even know what it really was.
      The warm shower shook off my fears, and I struggled to get dressed as fast as I could.
      Cornelia was pacing up and down the small room as I quickly pulled on my ill-fitting uniform, which consisted of a white shirt tucked into a pleated green skirt, under a moss green blazer. I wore my scruffy black shoes and gathered my books and papers from my bedside where I had left them last night. I hadn’t finished my homework, and my side of the room was an absolute mess.
      “Come on,” Cornelia said impatiently. “Mummy sent me back up to get you.”
      “Where’s the rest of my homework?” I asked, frantically looking around for the lost sheets of paper.
      Cornelia shrugged. “The piles of crumpled sheets lying on your desk?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
      I glared at her and nodded slowly.
      “I threw them out with the trash last night after you went to sleep.Mummy said to clean the room, so I did,” she said, grinning slyly.
      “But those were my notes,” I ground out through clenched teeth, trying very hard to keep my anger in check.
      “Well, you shouldn’t leave them lying all over the place if they are so important,” Cornelia said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand.
      “They were not lying around. They were on my desk,” I said, raising my voice.
      I was so angry, but there was nothing I could do. I had long since discovered that arguing with Cornelia never got me anywhere. She always wanted to have the last word and would go to any lengths to make sure that she got the better of me.
      Sighing, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to make up some plausible story about my lost homework. My history teacher was not going to be pleased.
      I looked in the mirror. There was no point in bothering with my unruly black hair, which had now grown so long it was touching my waist. Just tying it in a rough ponytail would have to suffice.
      “Mummy’s going to drive us to school,” Cornelia said as we rushed downstairs. “You know how she hates to be kept waiting.”
      Aunt Arianna was standing in the kitchen, drumming her false fingernails on the counter, looking extremely irritated. Her dark, wispy hair was pulled back in an elegant bun, and her sharp, beady eyes glared daggers at me when I walked in.
      I was in a bad mood myself, so I just gave her a sulky nod.
      “Can’t you ever be on time, Aurora?” said Aunt Arianna scathingly. “For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my husband agreed to take you in. If it were up to me, I would have sent you back to the gutter you came from.”
      Cornelia just smiled and nodded her head, agreeing with everything her mother said.
      I flinched at her harsh words but chose to ignore them. It was too early in the morning for another fight. I knew my aunt hated me and didn’t want me around. I had tried being nice and helpful, and I cleaned my room and helped with the chores, but she was still mean to me whenever she got a chance. After a while I had given up trying.
      So I kept my mouth shut and got into the backseat of Aunt Arianna’s battered blue Volvo. My aunt handed me a piece of toast before she started the car.
      “Don’t want you fainting in school because you had no time to eat breakfast,” said Arianna Darlington, shooting me a withering glare.
      “Thank you,” I said, taking it. I was surprised that she had even bothered.
      “Don’t thank me,” said my aunt, meaning every word. “I didn’t do it for you, I just don’t want to be called into school to pick you up later today. I have a very busy day ahead, and I don’t have any time for your silly fainting spells.”
      She started the car, as unruly tears welled in my eyes. I brushed them away quickly.
      It had been two years since my adoptive parents died in a horrific car crash, and I had been staying with my father’s brother, his wife, and his daughter at their London home ever since. I guess I was lucky that they agreed to be my guardians; I don’t think they really had to, since I was not actually family, just adopted. But anything was better than being put in the foster system.
      I couldn’t wait to turn eighteen; only then would I be free of the tyranny of my Aunt Arianna and Cornelia, both of whom were also probably counting the days until I left their house. It was not for another one and a half years, and it seemed like a lifetime.

The Last of the Firedrakes
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About the Author

Farah Oomerbhoy is a young adult writer with a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Mumbai.

Farah loves the fantastical and magical and often dreams of living in Narnia, Neverland, or the Enchanted Forest.

Her debut novel, The Last of the Firedrakes, Book 1 of The Avalonia Chronicles started on Wattpad where it received a Watty Award in 2015 and over 1.5 million reads. Since publication, The Last of the Firedrakes has gone on to win a silver medal in IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin Awards, become a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards and become an international bestseller.

Farah lives with her family in Mumbai, India where she can be found checking for magical portals in every closet.

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