Book Blurb:
Japan, 2011
Taiyo is a normal
high-school girl living with her Grandmother in Sendai. She goes to school,
partakes in club activities and hangs out with her two best friends, twin
brothers Ryuu and Kairi. However, her perfect world is shattered when she
begins dating Kairi but quickly discovers she's already in love with Ryuu.
A tangled web of lies
surrounds the pair, but everything is suddenly knocked into perspective
on March 11thwhen they are caught up in a natural disaster that devastates
the country and robs thousands of their homes, their possessions and their
lives…
Author Bio:
M L Sparrow is currently
the author of four full length novels, a novella and a slew of short stories
published in various anthologies. She will write pretty much anything that pops
into her head, no matter the genre, and enjoys keeping her readers guessing as
to what she will write next, though you can pretty much guarantee that there
will be some degree of romance!
As well as writing, she
enjoys travelling and has been to some amazing countries, where she never fails
to gather inspiration and has an endless supply of ideas for future novels…
To find out more check
out her website – http://mlsparrow.wix.com/mlsparrow - or
stalk her on Facebook @MLSPARROWAUTHOR
Excerpt:
Everything was perfect until
the ground began to shake. There was no warning. The warning system on their
mobiles didn’t begin to sound until after it had begun.
“Jishin!” people shouted above the low,
grumbling roar beneath them. Earthquake.
A red car skidded
into a blue one at the top of the road, both of them trembling and bouncing.
Dropping her
school bag, she grabbed Ryuu’s hand and tried not to fall. He dropped into a
crouch to keep his balance, taking her down with him. She kept thinking it
would be over in a minute, but it never seemed to end. Someone screamed and
across the street a man lost his footing and fell to his knees. A crack
appeared in the pavement, inching towards them. They scrambled away and her
heart jumped in her chest as the road split open.
Roof tiles
rained down, shattering on the ground and another crack appeared, this time in
the wall of a small shop. Dust and plaster billowed from the crack and the wall
began to buckle.
Taiyo didn’t
know how long it lasted, it must have been minutes at least, but it finally
subsided to a shivering tremble before petering off all together. Everyone
looked around, holding perfectly still, afraid to move.
“That was a big
one,” a lady near them, clutching a little boy, said fearfully, glancing in the
direction of the sea, “should we move to higher ground?” Around the coast there
was always the risk of a tsunami after an earthquake and they’d learnt about
their country’s devastating history with the huge waves in school.
“It’s all right,
the seawalls will protect us,” someone else answered.
Taiyo glanced at
Ryuu nervously. In turn, he looked around at the locals, many of whom were
gathering in little clusters.
Anxiously she
bit her lip, her stomach twisting itself into knots; something didn’t feel
right. Like all Japanese people, she was used to earthquakes, however, she
couldn’t remember ever experiencing one quite like that.
Several people
rushed into houses and reappeared with bags, chivvying along children or their
elderly parents, before getting into their cars and driving away, but the
majority of people remained.
A few houses and
shops had crumbled, but looking around no one that she could see appeared to be
seriously hurt. One man had been hit by a falling roof tile and was bleeding
from a gash to his forehead. Sitting on the pavement, he was being attended to
by neighbours.
It looked like
the worst was over, but then someone shouted and they all turned to look out
over the grey-blue sea. At first Taiyo didn’t know what she was seeing, but
then the breath caught in her lungs.
The alarms began
to blare.
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Title: Sojourn - The Wildlands (Rayn Mirago #1)