Book Spotlight: NEVERLAND by Anna Katmore plus Excerpt

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NEVERLAND ;)
 Book Excerpt

I try to rush past him and get off the ship, but Hook captures me easily with one arm around my waist and pulls me back. I fall against his rock-hard chest, away from the gangplank that two of his men pull in.

“Put her out, Smee!” he shouts over my head to another young man dressed completely in black, who appears on the sterncastle. His ginger hair looks shaggy and he wears a red bandana around his neck. First, I think Hook is talking about me and wonder what he means. But moments later the pirate on the bridge yells orders to draw anchor and hoist sails. The ship starts to glide away from the shore.

I’m trapped on the Jolly Roger.
“Let go, you freaking bastard!” Thrashing about, I scream like a snake has wound around my waist instead of his arm. On second thought, Hook is just as bad as a snake.
His mocking laughter rumbles in my ear. “There, there. Who taught you such nasty words, little Miss London?”
My elbow connects with his diaphragm and smacks the damn grin right off his face. I’m free and stumble away. With one hand pressed to his chest, Hook bends forward and pushes out a cough. He clearly underestimated me. This is my only chance, but we’re already too far out, and several members of his smudgy crew are blocking my sight to the shore, backing him up. There’s no time to think. Frantically, I spin around, dash across the ship and climb onto the railing. Gathering all the power I have inside me, I leap out and plummet fifteen feet into the waves.
The cold water takes me under in a wild spin, determined to smash me against the belly of the ship. Seconds pass, I battle to gain back control of my limbs and orientation. With lungs compressed to the size of tennis balls, I push up from the watery depths and finally break through the surface, sputtering water from mouth and nose, and suck in a lifesaving breath.
“Look what we’ve got down there, Cap’n!” I hear Smee’s faint laughter from deck and turn to find most of the men standing behind the railing, gaping down at me with dirty grins. “A mermaid.”
The crowd parts and Hook steps through. Slowly, he braces his hands on the railing, leans forward and arches his brow. “Was that really necessary?”
Yeah, it would all be so easy for him if I just played the nice captive. But I don’t think so. To get back on land, I have to swim around the ship, so I start paddling and struggle through the water with arms weak from hunger.
“What now? Are you trying to swim away? Back to London?”
I don’t answer Hook’s amused shout but swim faster. The tied sleeves around my waist loosen and my sweatshirt slips away. Hastily I reach underwater to grab it, but I can’t get a hold. If the situation wasn’t so dire, the fact the sea swallowed my Pirates of the Caribbean hoodie would have made me laugh. I swim on.
“Come on, Angel. You’ll never make it. If we don’t catch you, the sharks will.”
Refusing to let his taunting words put me in a panic, I grit my teeth and ignore him.
“Aaaaangeeeel…!” He keeps pace with me, walking slowly along the railing and has fun at it, too. He sounds like he’s talking to an infant when he tells me, “We’re seventeen men and a ship against you. Why can’t you just be nice and surrender? Be my guest!”
Guest, hah! He must be bonkers. But he soon seems to reach the limits of his patience and growls, “Smee! Fish her out!”
No matter how fast I pedal, I can’t escape the fishing net that’s being cast over me then. As they pull the strings of the net together, I’m tossed about and they haul me back on board like the catch of the day. My struggling is in vain. I land like a flopping catfish on deck.
Two men with their shoulder-length hair tied in a braid grab me by my arms and yank me to my feet. “What we do with her, Cap’n?” the one to my left asks Hook. He wears an earring the size of a bracelet and both his forearms display mermaid tattoos. With his wrinkled skin and the gray streaks in his black hair, he looks to be the oldest man on board, though I doubt he’s older than his early forties. He smells like rotten fish.
“Tie her to the mast, Fin.” Hook’s order is cold, emotionless. Arms folded over his chest, he waits until I stand pressed with my back against the tallest mast on the ship, my arms yanked to the back of the pole and tied with a rough rope chafing my skin. All the time, we never break eye contact. When the pirate called Fin is done and my hands are secured, Hook waves him away.
A cold aura surrounds the captain when he moves his hands down to his belt and slowly walks over to me. The letter J is engraved in the silver buckle. Only on a second look do I realize it’s not a letter but a hook. And suddenly I wonder why he still has both his hands. The Lost Boys said he had a hook on his right arm. Apparently, he doesn’t.
“Why are you holding me prisoner on your ship?” I snap when he’s only a couple of steps away.
“Because you’re of great value. And because you have something that belongs to me.”
“Yeah? And what would that be?”
The captain takes another step forward, closing the distance between us until we share the same breath. “My heart,” he says in a strangely soft way and caresses my cheek with his fingertips.
What the heck— Too baffled, I don’t get out a single word.
His eyes stay warm when his mouth twitches into a greedy grin. He lowers his hands to my hips then strokes them gently down to my thighs. “Ah, here it is.” His grin grows wider and this time his eyes match it with a dark glint. Violating my intimate zone without warning, he shoves his hand into the right pocket of my wet jeans. I gasp. But he withdraws it a moment later—and with it, the ruby from Peter Pan.
“Give that back!” I strain to get my wrists freed. “It was a gift! You goddamn thief!”
Hook tilts the gemstone in the sun, studying it with a frown that he directs at me next, and drawls, “ How…little Angel…can I be the thief when you carry something that’s rightfully mine?”
I hesitate with my answer and lower the level of my voice. “I didn’t steal it. Peter gave it to me.”
“Yes. Peter Pan,” he says through gritted teeth. “The one damn bug that has been annoying me for decades.”
Did he say decades? Oh my God, how long has Peter really been a teenager? And the entire island never aged a day? But then I realize I’m in deeper trouble than just stuck in a timeless area. I’m stuck on a ship that’s run by a ruthless captain and his ugly-as-hell pirates. I need a plan.
“Fine. You have back what you wanted. Now take off these ropes and let me go.”
A spine-chilling chuckle sounds from his throat. “Oh, Angel, Angel. You really don’t understand, do you? This little ruby is only a pebble of my original treasure. Heaps and heaps of gold, silver and diamonds.” He holds the gem between two fingers in front of my eyes, tilting his head, and studies me closely. Then he straightens and quickly wraps his fist around the stone. He tucks it into his pocket. His voice loses all warmth. “But I’m sure you already know this. You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
Not daring to even blink, I shake my head.
“Where. Is. My treasure, Angel?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shout, just short of a new panic. Peter Pan trusted me when he showed me the cave. I can’t betray him. Not even after he abandoned me last night. “Peter gave this to me yesterday. We sat on a hill, watched the freaking rainbow volcano, and he pulled the ruby from his shirt pocket. There sure weren’t heaps and heaps of gold hidden in there!”
He frowns, as if deliberating whether I was actually telling the truth. Spewing out a curse, he finally leaves me alone and walks to Smee who, until now, watched us silently from the railing. “What do you think, Jack? Is she lying?” Hook asks him in a lowered voice.
“I don’t know.” Smee casts a brief glance my way and scratches his left brow that’s parted by an old, whitening scar. I can’t stop wondering how many battles he’s already fought in the body of a twenty-year-old over the years. “A reckless jump off a ship?” he continues. “She seems like a tough one. Mighty fine blow she aimed at you before. I wouldn’t put it past her to lie to save the brats.”
“What do you suggest? Torture?”
I suck in a sharp breath at the thought of being hurt by these men, but both ignore me. Jack Smee raises an eyebrow at his captain. “She’s a kid, that one.”
Grimacing, Hook rubs his lower chest. “According to the blow that so obviously impressed you, she’s not.”
“Still. She’s a girl.”
His lips pursed, Hook gives me a thoughtful look. “She’s of no use to us, if she doesn’t reveal where the treasure is.” With resoluteness in his move, he turns back to Smee. “May as well let her walk the plank.”
“What?” We’ve sailed away from the island at a good speed for the past half hour. There’s nothing but water around us. “I don’t even know where the island is! You can’t expect me to swim back to the shore!”
Hook closes his eyes for a second longer and the corner of his mouth twitches up in a peculiar way. “Oh, I don’t.” He draws nearer, the heels of his boots clacking eerily on the wooden deck. “We let you get off here and the sharks will do the rest.”
Over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of multiple dark triangular fins cutting through the water. They hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. We must be out really far. I start to tremble. Is this the right time to tell him I do know where Pan’s treasure is? Peter would hate me, and I mean really hate me, not just be miffed because I’m not aiming to stay in Neverland. And once I tell Hook, what guarantee is there he doesn’t push me off the plank anyway? Once he has the treasure, I’m definitely of no use to him.
Crap, what am I supposed to do?
Jack Smee loosens the rope around my wrists and pushes me a few steps away from the mast, then he ties my hands in the small of my back once more. As he leads me through the two rows of men, the crew cheers in anticipation of me being a shark meal.
Three men set up a board on the railing that leads out into the sea. Smee pulls me to a stop right in front of it and turns me to face Hook who’s standing with his hands clasped at his back and flashes a delighted grin.
“Any last words?” he asks me.
“Go to hell, you freaking…filthy…godforsaken…”
With a single step, he closes the distance between us. Our noses almost touch as he dips his head and brushes a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Darling, the word you’re looking for is pirate.”



ABOUT THE BOOK:

Why is there a boy who doesn’t want to grow up? 
How can an apple start the sweetest romance in fairytale history? 

And what does a ruthless pirate have to do with it all?

Although Angelina McFarland loves reading fairy tales, she never dreamed of falling right into one herself. But that’s exactly what happens when she slips on her balcony and a flying Peter Pan catches her mid-fall.
Ending up in Neverland where no one seems to age and laws of nature are out of control, Angel has no idea how to get home. Worse, the ruthless Captain Hook captures her and keeps her trapped on his ship, the Jolly Roger, where she gets caught between the lines of a timeless battle. But the more time Angel spends with the captain, the more she sees beneath his ruthless façade.
As Angel desperately tries to find a way to return to her real life, she discovers a train ticket to London in her pocket. It won’t be any help in getting off the island, but as her memory fades away the longer she stays, this is all she has left to remind her of her former life and why she can’t give up trying.
Or is staying in Neverland forever the better choice after all?

Intrigued? ;-) 


You can find out more about author Anna Katmore at her blog: http://www.annakatmore.com
Follow her on Twitter: @AnnaKatmore
Or say hi on her Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/authorannakatmore

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