Title: Luminous
Author: Jasmine Angell
Series: The Psyne Series (#1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Saga Ventures, LLC
Release Date: Aug 12 2013
Editions/Formats Available In: eBook
Blurb/Synopsis:
What would you do if the world you loved was taken from you forever?
...and what would you sacrifice to get it back?
Magical, Mythical, Mesmerizing…
A powerful race of beings lives and works among us and we don’t even know it. To us, they are known as mermaids, sirens and water nymphs, but they call themselves the Psyne. They have lived on Earth since ancient times, wield powerful magic and have only one weakness—love.
When Psyne suddenly start disappearing around the globe, the remaining aquatars are evacuated to their home world and a ban is placed on Earth. Ilauria, a devoted servant to the Psyne Council, can’t abide abandoning the missing eight, and with the help of her long-time friend, Shivan, and a subversive member of the Venvian Psyne named Adante, she embarks on a harrowing rescue mission to uncover who or what is powerful enough to subdue her kind.
What Ilauria discovers will cause her to question her loyalties, re-examine her dual nature, and will shake the very foundations of the truths her society holds dear.
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Jasmine was born in Tucson, Arizona, the oldest of two children. She spent her teen years living in Phoenix, Arizona and then attended the University of Arizona in Tucson where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing. She married and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where her husband attended graduate school at the University of Utah. There she adopted a love for the changing seasons, snowboarding and the beauty of the mountains.
She spent several years working on a literary novel but found her heart wasn’t in it. Finally she quit her day job to write full time and embraced her life-long love of fantasy fiction. She wrote Luminous, the first novel in the Psyne series (pronounced "sign") and followed it up with the sequel, Prism, due out the summer of 2014. With a third series novel in the works and no end in sight, Jasmine will be spending a great deal of time in the Psyne Universe over the next several years. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she loves to horseback ride, dance, make elaborate costumes just for the fun of it, and is always planning her next decadent tea party.
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Excerpt: THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Ilauria proceeded down a short set of iridescent stairs and breached the invisible membrane holding the ocean back. She dove into the water gracefully and her dress rippled away as she shifted into her Psyne form. Her legs gave way to an opulent fish tail that shimmered blue, green and purple depending on how the light hit it.
Shivan dove in after her, shape shifting with ease.
Like the quintessential mermaid, Shivan’s tail propelled her through the saltwater. The delicate scales of her tail were the same light green color of her eyes and narrowed from her hips only to fan out into resplendent flukes. Gold bands encircled her arms above the elbows and ribbons of light green fin hung from them as a faint glow emanated from the pale skin of her face and arms.
Ilauria paused suddenly, eyeing the two immense statues that flanked the entrance to Aquatarius. They were Psyne, like Ilauria and Shivan, and seemed to stare down at them, their eyes gleaming defiantly with their abundant hair spread out behind them. They were pinnacles of strength, a tribute to the ancient Psyne who had sacrificed so much in order for their descendants to live in peace, without fear of the Fury, their mortal enemies.
Then as quick as Ilauria had paused, she was off again with a flick of her peacock-colored tail, as graceful as a seal.
Shivan pushed against the water and followed her.
The silence of the water enveloped them, with the exception of far off whale song and it was a welcome sanctuary from the babbling voices of Aquatarius.
But it didn’t last long.
As easily as hearing verbal speech, the telepathic announcement from the Council went out to all Psyne:
As of this moment, all aquatars are being recalled from Earth and travel to that planet is hence forth banned.
Psyne as far as the eye could see halted in mid-swim and took in the news. Hearing the Council’s decree again cemented the raw feeling in Shivan’s throat as they swam onward without missing a beat.
As they rounded the edge of a swaying kelp forest, Shivan looked back at Aquatarius looming behind them. The walls of the aquatar headquarters shimmered with mother-of-pearl and were bathed in the blue light of the zenethen energy spheres hanging suspended in the water above it. Shaped like a sea star, the monolithic structure possessed five towers, one between each arm, the intricate spires swirling up towards the ocean surface.
Shivan set off after Ilauria, thrusting her tail to keep up with the furious pace Ilauria had set through the ocean. Their pale skin glowed in the dark water until the sea floor of opalescent sand began to slope ever steeper and the water began to lighten with the shifting bands of sunlight filtering through the waves above.
They swam past a gamboling herd of giant seahorses tossing their heads as Shivan studied Ilauria’s calm demeanor, knowing it wasn’t like her friend to be so stoic.
Ilauria, are you okay?
Shivan felt her telepathy gently blocked by her friend and she didn’t persist but her worry grew more intense. Perhaps she was going to need time to adjust to this new reality where the Council would abandon their sisters.
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