The Book Blog at the End of the Universe: Book Spotlight: Sweet Oblivion by Bailey Ardisone

Blurb:

sweet adjective ˈswēt a : pleasing to the mind or feelings
obliv·i·on noun ə-ˈbli-vē-ən, ō-, ä- 1: the fact or condition of forgetting or having forgotten

Have you ever wanted to forget? Nariella Woodlinn has. Many times. Especially when her already frustrating life gets turned upside down by a mysterious boy who randomly shows up in her small town and she can’t seem to understand anything about him, despite how much she tries.
Nari hates everything about her life except for her best friend Rydan, but now that they’ve been separated during their senior year of high school, she has to learn to make new friends without him. When strange unexplainable phenomena start becoming an every day part of her life, Nari struggles to come to grips with reality. And with love.

Naminé has responsibilities. Duties. It is her obligation to fulfill all that is asked of her by their King. But when a glimmer of hope is introduced to her by a prisoner she tends to and it means life or death for her and her people, she does all that she can to turn that hope into reality and finally end the vicious war that has been ensuing since she was born. Even if that means keeping it secret from her King. Even if it means carrying out the biggest betrayal against the King ever seen during her time.

She has hope. She will fulfill her duty. She will not let her people down.

Some secrets are best kept in Oblivion.

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Take a minute to read this DELETED SCENE from Sweet Oblivion:

This deleted scene takes place after Nari gets home from her first day of her senior year in high school. Her foster father, Ray, came home drunk and threw his empty bottle against the wall like he usually does. She walks in to the house and talks about the start of it becoming her chore to clean it up.

***

The day after I lost Teddy, I had been crying on my bed, thinking only of one thing: how could he have taken Teddy? My only friend. I felt lost, alone. I cried thinking that I had failed my best friend because I couldn’t save him. It was my duty to protect him and I had failed. The thought made me miserable.

I had been crying so hard I felt parched and it was hard to swallow. I tried to dry my face and make it look like I hadn’t been crying. I opened my bedroom door and snuck out in the hall. I bravely started out toward the kitchen to get a drink of water.

I barely made it halfway down the hallway when I was struck with pain. I stifled a gasp and held my hand over my mouth. I looked down at my bare feet and saw the blood running over my toes. I looked more closely and realized I had stepped on a piece of glass. Glass from the bottle that had been thrown against the wall in the hallway the day he took Teddy.

I tried not to make a sound as I tiptoed slowly to the bathroom. I kept my hand over my mouth so that I didn’t make a sound with my mouth, desperate to hold back tears, but it was so painful.

Just as I was hoping he wouldn’t hear me, I heard him pause the TV, get off the couch, and head my way. I let out a gasp when he suddenly peered his head around the corner.

“What do you think you're doing?” he said as I met his eyes. I tried to turn away so that he didn’t see the tears running down my cheeks. The pain was bad, and I couldn’t help but let the tears fall.

“I didn't say you could come out. Get back in there,” he snarled.

I hung my head so that my long chocolate brown hair fell into my face and covered my eyes.

“Stop crying like a baby,” he ordered, then shook his head snickering as if he was enjoying my pain and reveled in seeing me suffer. “If you had cleaned up this mess, you wouldn’t have stepped in glass in the first place, stupid.”

I made the mistake of lifting my head and meeting his eyes. I instantly saw a look of disgust on his face as he said, “Don’t look at me with those freaky eyes. They’re just as ugly as your name. N a r i e l l a, he slowly grunted with a drunken slur. “What kind of stupid name is that?”

I could smell the alcohol on him as he talked. I ignored his remarks about my eyes and my name. It was nothing he hadn’t said to my face before.

He was suddenly gone. I listened to him thump back on the couch and switch channels on the TV.

I wiped the hair out of my face, the tears out of my freaky eyes, and cleaned the mess.

And that was how it happened. Ever since that day, I was the one that cleaned up after his mess. All of them. I was the one that would sweep the thousands of pieces of glass that had shattered all over the floor. It was now my chore.

The corner of the living room near the door to the kitchen- that was his spot to throw all his bottles.

I had cut myself several times since that day. Stepping on pieces that I had missed. It didn't take me long to learn to always wear shoes in the house.

After I cleaned the mess and dumped the glass in the trash, I ran to my room. I grabbed my cell phone and backpack, and headed out the door.

Finally.

About the author:

Bailey Ardisone is a collaboration by two sisters born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois. They took the last names of their two grandmothers and combined them together to form their pen name. They both married the love of their lives and spend their days submerged in books, movies, music, or art and love traveling. Fantasy books and movies have been a huge part of their lives and are obsessed with Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Sweet Oblivion is the first book they have written together and is the first installment of a series.

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