Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: All That Burns by Ryan Graudin | Guest Post

Welcome to our stop on All That Burns tour for Ryan Graudin. This tour is hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours.

All That Burns
All That Glows #2
Author: Ryan Graudin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: February 10th 2015
Review Source: Harper Teen

In this thrilling sequel to All That Glows, the worlds of magic and mortal are colliding as London celebrates its new king, marking an era of unity between the Faery realm and the human one. Emrys, the Faery guard to the British royal family, sacrificed her powers to be with King Richard, choosing love over immortality. But now, as Emrys struggles to navigate her place between the Faery queen’s court and London’s lavish galas, danger looms beyond the Thames.When a prisoner with dark, strange magic breaks out of Queen Titania’s labyrinthine prison, endangering Emrys's king and sparking an uprising, Emrys must make the hardest decision of all.

Will she reclaim her magic to save Richard’s life and lose him forever? Or stay powerless as the kingdom goes down in flames?

My 5 Favorite Moments from All that Burns

I’ll share my five favorite moments from the beginning of the book. Since I don’t want to get too spoilery!

1. The Prologue:

“Once upon a time, there was a king who fell in love with a Faery. He gave her his heart and she gave him her immortality. Together they built a kingdom—of stone and magic and legend—and they lived happily there.
But their happiness did not last forever. Nothing does, after all.
In the shadows I watched and waited.
The Faery’s heart slipped away to another.
The king’s kingdom burned.”

I love this prologue, because it introduces us to a malevolent narrator (who has no more first-person presence throughout the book), and sets the mood for portents of disaster. It also ties various elements of the book together into nice parallels (that are a bit spoilery, so I won’t talk much more about them here.)

2. The first chapter opens with Princess Anabelle dressing Emrys for a gala and training her to walk in heels.
It does not go well. This moment holds a special poignance for me, because I hold the exact same opinion toward heels that earth-bound Emrys does.

“The only thing I’m afraid of is twisting my ankle off in these contraptions.” I point at the solid green stilettos on my feet.
“They’re called heels,” Anabelle laughs. “And they’re fashionable.”
“More like torture devices.” I test my wobbling balance on the four-inch spikes. “How do you walk in these things?”

3. In ALL THAT BURNS, Emrys is just beginning to face the consequences of her choice to give up magic for the sake of being with Richard. The full force of her powerlessness and mortality comes into play in chapter two, when a Kelpie attacks the yacht on the Thames, where Emrys and Richard are attending a gala. She automatically assumes her role as Richard’s protector by jumping in the river and facing their attacker. I love this moment because it shows us just how much Emrys’s situation has changed, even when she herself hasn't:

“The Kelpie’s spell sings and weaves through the currents, seeking me out. I’m trying to fight it, trying to break away from the predator. But my gown is so heavy and the Kelpie’s magic is everywhere. In my ears and nose and pores, begging me to unravel. To give it all up to the water’s deep.
I don’t have the magic to fight back. Some dim, clawing though bubbles from the back of my mind. Richard is right. I shouldn’t have jumped.
I’m going to die.”

4. And of course, I have to add a love scene to the list:

“It’s just the king and I. Wrapped in the cool autumn leaves.
A soft wind tears across the gardens, into our window, kicking up color and threated every orange strand of my hair together. Richard brushes the tangle from my face, fingertips unbearably light over my cheeks. It reminds me—in a faint, aching way—of magic. The way a spell burned just under my skin. Swelling. Waiting to explode. This is what his touch does to me. Every time.”

5. Princess Anabelle became a much more prominent character in this story. Her practical “get it done” attitude goes to entirely new levels when trouble strikes. This leads her to go on the run and steal a police car.

“I thought I’d adjusted to cars—but it seems that’s only when Anabelle isn’t driving. Her knuckles grip the steering wheel like iron. She hunches forward in her seat, foot pressed all the way down on the gas pedal. My heart stops with every red light we burst through. It’s nothing short of a miracle that we haven’t been noticed by all the plice cars roaming the streets. Though that could be because Anabelle flipped out own blue lights on as soon as she revved the engine.”

Ryan Graudin grew up in Charleston and graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in Creative Writing in 2009. She is the author of All That Glows and The Walled City. She resides near Charleston with her husband and wolf-dog. You can find her online at www.ryangraudin.com.

Her work is represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.