Title: Retrieved: The Shapeshifters' Library (Volume 2)
Author: Amber Polo
Publication: November 30, 2012
Publisher: Blue Merle Publishing
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Synopsis:
Dog-shifters once again face
the book-burning werewolves of Shipsfeather in this charming second installment
of The Shapeshifters’ Library series.
Godiva Anglesey, Chocolate Labrador, and the
ruggedly handsome English Mastiff Cynerik are forced to team up against
power-hungry werewolves when Cynerik discovers an ancient Ohio mound that may
hold answers to their shifter history. Knowing the mound’s secrets could
benefit the dog-shifters in the ongoing contest for power, ambitious werewolf
pack Alpha Sybilla challenges timid Godiva to a battle for the territory.
Already faced with a malicious book-worm infestation and a censorship threat to
ban all anthropomorphic books in her library, Godiva, who has no interest in
battling anyone, must turn from running her small town library to train for a
challenge she believes she has no chance of winning. Just when things couldn’t
get any worse, Godiva’s mother announces that family tradition dictates that
Godiva must be married by Summer Solstice… to a Druid. Godiva doesn’t even know
any Druids.
Godiva wants to run her library, retrieve books
for library patrons, and keep people happy. She’s no hero. She doesn’t have
what it takes to face down werewolves or save the world. Cynerik, however,
believes differently. Together they must defeat the werewolves, save the town
and its library, protect the most important archeological discovery in dog-shifter
history… and, just maybe, find love along the way.
Excerpt:
“I’ll give you some background on our imperative mission to destroy the Shipsfeather Public Library. I, myself, prefer fire, but with thebuilding’s new fire protection devices, I doubt that will be possible. We must be creative.”
“We are creative,” Vilma said. “Last week we disguised ourselvesas quilters and smuggled buckets of bookworms into the stacks. My brother-in-law in Sandusky sold them to us as genuine bookworms.”
Sybilla nodded. Maybe these klutzes weren’t so useless after all.
“And,” Olga added, “a lot of local women are unhappy about thetrashy books the library purchases. We’re stirring up censorship issues inall the book clubs.”
“That is excellent, ladies. And to thank you for your independent work, I will describe the war that you have volunteered for.” Sybilla smiled, showing a lot of teeth.
“Throughout history, books have been burned. Buried, shredded,ripped, drowned, conflagrated, inflamed, ignited, enkindled, and torched.”Her nostrils flared, imagining the delicious tang of smoke. “The sweetsmell of burning paper”—Sybilla gave an involuntary shiver—“turns meon.”
Vilma’s eyes sparkled. “Oh yes.”
Sybilla opened her eyes. “Well anyway, if not for book burners,the world would be overrun with books. Remember. Literature is Litter.Biblio-capitalism will destroy civilization.” She raised her chin. “My peopleprovide a necessary service. We’re responsible for all the magnificentconflagrations: The Library at Alexandria, The Mayan codices, TheLibrary of Congress in 1814, Los Angeles Central Library in 1986, the2003 fire of the Iraq National Library, and the Duchess Anna AmaliaLibrary in 2004. We have burned Christian books, Jewish books, and books from religions you’ve never heard of. Without us, there would be books everywhere.”
“Will we get in trouble?” asked Nadia who’d seen the botchedlibrary fire attempt when Helga got caught in the bookdrop afterconsuming too many staff lounge cookies.
“My parents sent me to law school to make sure that humanswho help our cause did not spend time in prison. Our job is immense.Sadly, more books are published every day. Thousands. To be honest,few need burning. But who wants to read them all to find out which onesneed to go on the pile?”
“What about vanity press books?” asked Olga, cutting anotherslice of bread.
“Libraries don’t buy those books. Authors mainly give them tofriends who don’t read them. The problem is—they add to the glut ofbooks.”
“History books?” Nadia asked.
“Filled with lies. Not one gives credit to the influence of werewolves in history. We burn entire cities, not only books. We control the population of this planet. If we didn’t have so much to do, we couldconcentrate full time on book burning.”
“What about eBooks?” Olga asked.
“A West Coast pack is working on that. Their plan is to convincelibraries that all the books in the world can be accessed by computer.”She smirked. “One day all libraries will give up on books, installthousands of computers and hand out eReaders like candy. It might takea few years, but it will happen.” She paused for effect. “And on that day our people will destroy all the databases.”
Vilma asked, “Are any books acceptable?”
Sybilla glared. “Of course, there are books that can be tolerated.Law books, for example. Legal databases are easier to search, but lawtomes are decorative. Books with no redeeming value do no harm. And Icertainly would not destroy underground pamphlets on book-burning.Comic books are not so bad, but graphic novels are getting too intellectual.”
“Do you really think we will see the end of books in libraries in our lifetime?” asked Olga.
“My people have sent infiltrators into publishing companies forhundreds of years to make sure the best books were never published.They are the martyrs for our cause. They have to read.”
Nadia nodded. “I wondered how that worked.”
“Werewolf money has artificially supported the publishingindustry for a very long time. We subsidize literary agents to be suremillions of good books are rejected. How do you think they can afford tolive and lunch in New York City?
You’d think writers would give up.They must be the stupidest creatures on earth.”
Giveaway: A Shapeshifter Public Library canvas book
bag.
A print copy of "Retrieved," dog biscuits, and a tuft of genuine wolf
fur. This giveaway is open only to
US/Canada residents.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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