Teaser Tuesday – 27th September, 2016

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat.
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!

This is my choice of the day:
Aveline – Book 1 of the Lost Vegas novella series by Lizzie Ford
74% Arthur finished checking the gelding’s girth and turned to face his unhappy friend. “If I do not return by dawn, you know what you are to do.”
“Return to the city and your sister.”
“Good.”
“But I will search for you first.”

BLURB: In post-apocalyptic America, five hundred years in the future, famine, war, and chaos have created a hell on earth. Outside the isolated city of Lost Vegas, violent skirmishes among the Native Americans – who have retaken their ancestral homes – claim lives by day, while ancient predators awakened during the Age of Darkness hunt humans by night. Inside the city, criminals, the impoverished, and the deformed are burned at the stake weekly.

Among those ruthless enough to survive is seventeen-year-old Aveline, a street rat skilled in fighting whose father runs the criminal underworld. On the night of her father’s unexpected death, a stranger offers to pay off her father’s debts, if she agrees to become the guardian of Tiana Hanover, the daughter of the most powerful man in Lost Vegas. Caught between her father’s debtors and his enemies, Aveline reluctantly accepts.

Ignore the very wafty cover – this novella is far more gritty and adventurous than it suggests. Aveline is gutsy, sharp and streetwise, whereas Tiana hasn’t so much as set foot in a Lost Vegas street. So far, I’m thoroughly enjoying the story and hope it will resolve satisfactorily at the end, which seems to be coming up far too fast.