Guest Post and Giveaway featuring Meg Cabot author of Abandon

Please welcome renown author Meg Cabot to Parajunkee.com. Meg Cabot is the author of the Young Adult novel, Abandon a retelling of the myth of Persephone and Hades. At the end of the post there will be a special giveaway of Abandon, also don't forget to check out Mrs. Tae Mae's review of Abandon - "Meg Cabot's writing is phenomenal."

The Legend of the Necklace

by Meg Cabot

When Pierce, the heroine of my book, Abandon, is resuscitated after the accident in which she dies when she’s fifteen, she tries to return to her normal life.

But she can’t, and not just because of her parents’ divorce, the loss of her best friend . . . or the mysterious place she remembers having gone during the short time she was dead, and the dark stranger she met while she was there.

It’s because of something she finds around her neck when she wakes up in the emergency room . . . something she wasn’t wearing when she died.

But Pierce can’t show anyone the necklace she took away from that dark place—even to prove that she isn’t making up having gone there—because every time she does, something terrible seems to happen to someone.

Where did the necklace come from? Who forged it? And why does the diamond in the center seem to change colors depending who is around?

Pierce is determined to find out . . . . without getting another person she loves killed.

The inspiration for the necklace at the heart of Abandon was the Hope Diamond. Colored diamonds (like the Hope Diamond) are the most rare and sought after stones in the world. They’re completely different gems than sapphires or emeralds. The Hope Diamond is a fancy blue-grey (a jewelers term) like the diamond in Abandon, and is said to have originally been mined in India.

And because it was stolen by thieves from the eye of a statue in a temple, the Hope Diamond is supposed to be cursed. It was owned at one time by Marie Antoinette, who met an unhappy fate at the guillotine. During the French Revolution, the Hope Diamond was stolen from the Royal Treasury, only to turn up a little while later in England.

Pierce is horrified when she discovers that her necklace may also have a connection to the French Revolution, and to a long-ago shipwreck off the coast of Isla Huesos, an island in the Florida Keys to which she moves hoping to start over after her accident.

As Pierce uncovers the truth about her necklace, she learns that it, too, maybe be cursed . . . or may only protect the rightful owner from evil.

But is Pierce its rightful owner? And why would she need protection?

All Pierce knows is that for her, the necklace might just mean the difference between life and death . . . and whether John Hayden—the person who gave it to her—is someone to fear . . . or the only person she can really trust.

One fun fact: The inspiration for the necklace in Abandon isn’t entirely from the Hope Diamond . . . a little bit of it came from a necklace I actually own! I bought it to wear on the television show Kelly and Regis Live when my book The Boy Next Door was a Kelly Ripa Book Club Pick.

Although the stone at the center isn’t a diamond (and doesn’t change colors, the way Pierce’s does), it’s always brought me luck!

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knows what happens to us when we die. That’s how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who’s made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible. Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her. What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows…just like she knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven. But she can’t stay away from him, either, especially since he’s always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she let’s herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears most. And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her: The Underworld.

Giveaway sponsored by Scholastic, FAN their new facebook page:

Contest Deets ONE WINNER:
One randomly chosen winner will receive a copy of Meg Cabot's Abandon
Contest ends Friday the 13th (May 13, 2011)


Requirements:
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