Teaser Tuesday: Blood Brothers and Carniepunk

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm reading a couple of books this week, so I decided to give my teasers a theme: faithful canine companions. Both Blood Brothers and "The Demon Barker of Wheat Street" (in the Carniepunk anthology) feature memorable dogs - Lump and Oberon respectively :)

Teaser:
"Is your dog in a coma?" Quinn asked when the dog didn't move a muscle.
"No. Lump leads an active and demanding internal life that requires long periods of rest."
*Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts, page 44


Book Description:

Every seven years, there comes a week in July when the locals do unspeakable things--and then don't seem to remember them. The collective madness has mad itself know beyond the town borders and has given Hawkins Hollow the reputation of a village possessed. This modern-day legend draws reporter and author Quinn Black to Hawkins Hollow with the hope of making the eerie happening the subject of her new book. It is only February, but Caleb Hawkins, descendent of the town founders, has already seen and felt the stirrings of evil. Though he can never forget the beginning of the terror in the woods twenty-one years ago, the signs have never been this strong before. Cal will need the help of his best friends, Fox and Gage, but surprisingly he must rely on Quinn as well. She, too, can see the evil that the locals cannot, somehow connecting her to the town--and to Cal. As winter turns to spring, Cal and Quinn will shed their inhibitions, surrendering to a growing desire. The will form the cornerstone of a group of men and women bound by fate, passion, and the fight against what is to come from out of the darkness...

Teaser:
< Set me loose on a colony of prairie dogs, Atticus. I'll show them what a real dog is,> he told me. < Or point me at some antelope. Can we go after antelope?>
Sure, buddy, I replied through our mental link. But that's going to be quite a run. Hard to sneak up on anything in flat land like this.
< You can hum the theme from Chariots of Fire once we hit full stride. It will make the antelope run in slow motion like the movie and then it will be easy.>
I'm not sure it works like that.
*"The Demon Barker of Wheat Street" by Kevin Hearne


Book Description:

The traveling carnival is a leftover of a bygone era, a curiosity lurking on the outskirts of town. It is a place of contradictions—the bright lights mask the peeling paint; a carnie in greasy overalls slinks away from the direction of the Barker’s seductive call. It is a place of illusion—is that woman’s beard real? How can she live locked in that watery box?

And while many are tricked by sleight of hand, there are hints of something truly magical going on. One must remain alert and learn quickly the unwritten rules of this dark show. To beat the carnival, one had better have either a whole lot of luck or a whole lot of guns—or maybe some magic of one’s own.

Featuring stories grotesque and comical, outrageous and action-packed, Carniepunk is the first anthology to channel the energy and attitude of urban fantasy into the bizarre world of creaking machinery, twisted myths, and vivid new magic.