Friday, September 16, 2016

Book Spotlight: The Songbird Thief

Today on YAtopia, I'm featuring The Songbird Thief by Skye Allen, a brand new YA fantasy novel now available from Harmony Ink Press.



Where’s the harm in a little petty theft now and then? Fifteen-year- old Lee is about to

find out. Lee has a gift—the ability to use her songs to enchant prospective victims,

making them easy to rob—but it isn’t without a price. The source of this mysterious

ability is revealed when Lee comes to San Francisco, fleeing her stepfather’s abuse: she

is half fey. That’s a problem for Lee’s friend and secret crush, Sonja, since Sonja thinks

entanglements with the fey only lead to trouble. As her adventure takes her deeper into

the Faerie Realm, Lee discovers her power has the potential for more than fun and

profit. Some would use it for evil, and only Lee can decide if there’s good to be found in

her songs.




Excerpt:

I know Sonja will be late even before the tired woman behind the counter yells my

name to give me the message. My name is an all-access pass— Lee—but she still

manages to make it into two syllables. I jolt out of my exhausted trance when I

finally realize I’m the Lee she’s yelling for. I’m pretty sure I’m the last girl in

California not to have a cell phone. It’s after one o’clock in the morning. I’m at the

24-Hour Chinese Food and Donuts on Harrison Avenue and Second Street. Transient

central for San Francisco. I probably look like a homeless person, but I’m technically

only between addresses for a few hours. I kick my duffel farther under the table and

make my way up to the counter, watching my bag the whole time, and wait for the

inevitable announcement—“Your friend is on her way.”

I sit back down and hug my wilted cup of coffee to my face. The strength of it

surprises me, dark and oily. A man in a tight green dress flashes an incomplete set of

teeth at me from the counter and holds up his own cup. He looks harmless, but he

could get chatty. Social rejects get chatty late at night. Sure enough, he starts up in a

groggy voice, “You sure are tall, honey. What are you, six feet?”

He’s off by two inches, but I don’t want to talk about my height. I touch my index

finger to the rim of my cup and draw a line across the yellow Formica in front of me.

It works better with actual spit, but I just got off a Greyhound bus. I don’t want to

lick my fingers.

“Are you part black or Indian? I don’t mean anything by that. I’ve dated many

gorgeous brown men. And with that cute short haircut, you could just about pass for

one of them.” My new white friend chuckles.

I don’t know the answer to his question. I stare at the line I drew and wait for it to

work. I don’t have a lot of magic, and whatever I do have is most likely evil, if I can

believe Da. I discovered the spit trick by accident, and it doesn’t work for much, just

redirects people’s attention when I don’t want it. That and the music thing. Maybe

one or two other minor skills. That’s all I have.

I don’t know what else I’d have in the way of magic if it weren’t for Da. His house, his

rules. He’s my stepfather, or he would be if he’d married my mother. We have no

legal or blood relationship, not that it matters. I know kids whose real dads beat

them up. Being related doesn’t do them any good.

But I’m still going to look for my real father. That’s why I’m here.

***

Skye Allen is the author of a young adult LGBTQ+ urban fantasy novel, Pretty Peg.

Her short fiction has appeared in Toasted Cheese Literary Journal and Of Dragons and Magic and her poetry in Insomnia and Sinister Wisdom. She is also a musician and occasionally performs around the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her wife, their cat and a flock of chickens. The Songbird Thief is her second novel.

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