Marked By Books: Ruby's Fire Blog Tour: Excerpts & Giveaway

I love this book! I know that I'm not set to review it for the tour, but I've been reading it anyway (I guess I'm just an overachiever), and it is so good! The dynamics of this sun-baked, futuristic Earth are so interesting, especially with all of the individual cultures that you see in different parts of the world. So many are completely polar opposites, and yet, with the way Catherine Stines describes them, I can completely believe how they coexist in the same world.

Ruby's Fire by Catherine Stine

If everything about you changes, what remains?

Seventeen year-old Ruby, long-pledged to the much older Stiles from the Fireseed desert cult, escapes with only a change of clothes, a pouch of Oblivion Powder and her mute little brother, Thorn. Arriving at The Greening, a boarding school for orphaned teens, she can finally stop running. Or can she? The Greening is not what it seems. Students are rampaging out of control and as she cares for the secret Fireseed crop, she experiences frightening physical changes. She’s ashamed of her attraction to burly, hard-talking Blane, the resident bodyguard, and wonders why she can’t be happy with the gentler Armonk. She’s long considered her great beauty a liability, a thing she’s misused in order to survive. And how is she to stop her dependence on Oblivion to find a real beauty within, using her talent as a maker of salves, when she has nightmares of Stiles without it?

When George Axiom, wealthy mogul of Vegas-by-the-Sea offers a huge cash prize for the winner of a student contest, Ruby is hopeful she might collect the prize to rescue her family and friends from what she now knows is a dangerous cult. But when Stiles comes to reclaim her, and Thorn sickens after creating the most astonishing contest project of all, the world Ruby knows is changed forever. This romantic fantasy set in 2099 on earth has a crafty heroine in Ruby, and a swoonworthy cast, which will surely appeal to the YA and new adult audience.

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Catherine Stine writes YA, New Adult and middle grade fiction. Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One, illustrated by the author won finalist spots in both YA and Science Fiction in the 2013 USA Book News International Book Awards. It was also granted a 2013 Bronze Wishing Shelf Book Award and a 2013 Indie Reader Approved notable stamp. Her YA Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book. Middle grade novels include A Girl’s Best Friend.

Fireseed One sequel, Ruby’s Fire is earning advance praise from reviewers and authors:
“Ruby's Fire, returns to the sun-scorched earth of Fireseed One. In this long-awaited sequel, Stine delivers a thrilling adventure led by a new and exciting cast of characters. Ruby, Armonk, Thorn and Blane are memorable, and the romance is really well handled. Favorite quote: " It feels wrong to lean on Armonk right now with Blane staring at me, a hungry, lonely look in his eye. It’s as if he’s never been hugged, never been fed, never been loved..." ” -YAs the Word

More and more, Catherine enjoys writing speculative tales where her imagination has wild and free reign. She has taught creative writing workshops at the Philadelphia Writing Conference, Missouri University Summer Abroad, The New School and in her own ongoing NYC writing workshop. She loves her readers, and enjoys blogging.

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Finally Stiles eases his grip. My arms throb. I’m sure there are bruises wherever his palms have dug in. Why isn’t he sleeping? I gave him five times the dose I give myself when I need Oblivion. Stiles lowers me toward the mattress and one of his hands goes to untie the red curtain. It billows down around us, to the rhythm of the wind. I tense up, every muscle flexed to run. The powder’s not working!

Somehow with this stranger, I’m filled with unexpected lightening. “You’re from that desert cult,” he remarks, as if he knows everything about anything.

“How do you know?” The lightening fades.

He says, “Those flower brands on your wrists. There’s talk about your people, down in Chihuahua. How you think the flower is god, think it lives in the sky.”

“It does.”

“Does the flower god sit on a throne like a king?” Laughter escapes him.

I’m proud of my skills. But I only dare reveal a tidbit. “I make potions.”

“Like that stuff you sniff up when you think I’m asleep?” Bea’s warm blue eyes turn to chilly cat slits, which frighten me.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think you do,” she retorts, but softens inexplicably. “We all have our vices.”

I’m too shocked to protest. “Um, really, what’s yours?”