Welcome to the Slumbering blog tour! Here we have another gorgeous book, this time the first installment in a wonderful YA series, called The Starlight Chronicles by C.S. Johnson. Read on for exclusive content and a chance to win a print copy of the book!
Slumbering
Publication Date: December 2014
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy/ Satire
Sixteen-year-old Hamilton Dinger leads a charmed life. He’s got the grades for the top of the class, the abilities of a star athlete and Tetris player, and the charisma to get away with anything. Everything seems to be going along perfectly, including his plans to ask out Gwen Kessler, as he enters into tenth grade at Apollo Central High School. Everything, that is, until a meteor crashes into the city, releasing the Seven Deadly Sinisters and their leader, Orpheus, from their celestial prison, and awakening Hamilton’s longtime dormant supernatural abilities. Suddenly Hamilton finds reluctantly allied with his self-declared mentor, Elysian, a changeling dragon, and Starry Knight, a beautiful but dangerous warrior, as they seek to protect the souls of Apollo City from the Sinisters and their evil intentions. Can Hamilton overcome his ignorance and narrow-mindedness to see what is truly real? Can he give up his self-proclaimed entitlement to happiness in order to follow the call of a duty he doesn’t want? More importantly, will he willingly sacrifice all he has to find out the truth?
Excerpt
After the meteorite has fallen, Hamilton starts to wonder if he is crazy; and when he starts getting visions of another time and place, he struggles to accept they could be something more than a mental illness or a physical ailment.
But even in the perfect teenage life of mine, I got bored easily.
Such as later, when I was sitting in drama class.
It was ninth period, and I felt my attention drooping as much as my eyelids. Mr. Lockard was droning on and on about Shakespeare and the Global Theater …or was it Globe Theater? I wondered briefly how Gwen could lap this stuff up like cream. It left a dry taste on my tongue.
Had time passed at all since class began? I wondered. I dared not look up at the clock for fear Lockard would use it as an excuse to call on me.
I shifted in my seat. Immediately, I grimaced at the highly noticeable lack of legroom.
I sighed. Drama was the stupidest class ever. (Ironic I would think so, I know.) Gwen was the reason I’d signed up for it this year. Once she’d been assigned to another period, I made it my life’s mission to drop the class.
Unfortunately, the parentals were not as keen on the idea. Mark and Cheryl made me keep it to “teach me a lesson” about suffering through things I detested. I still hated them for it. My parents would never understand how the anxiety produced in this class crippled my lifetime potential.
Not to mention my actual life was at risk while I was in the class. The drama room was located inconveniently (extremely inconveniently) underneath the stage. The wood-sanded ceiling-stage was composed of creaking boards only two inches thick. Two inches to keep people safe from falling onto unsuspecting students below, who were probably already half dead from boredom.
I was just waiting for the day when an amplifier, or microphone, or some fat kid caused the stage to collapse.
The humdrum of class slowly turned into muffles, which then twirled off into music. I was falling from consciousness, but not into sleep.
I panicked briefly for a moment as I fell back into the world of starlight, where I was flying freely, awing over the wonders of space and time Hubble had yet to find.
But even as I felt uneasy, I let myself be eased into contentedness. I wanted to enjoy it, even as I feared I was going crazy.
That same melody, the one from the hospital, called out to me, and I felt eagerness and euphoria, as though joy and anticipation had procreated an entirely new emotion within me.
My universe started to move with the music—as though the music had become not just sounds beautifully laced together, but a dance for all time and space to follow.
I couldn’t help it when I laughed. Joy had tickled me, inside and out, so I laughed.
“Hamilton Dinger!”
My attention was roughly jolted back to reality as Mr. Lockard (loudly) called me out. The celestial background dropped from my eyes, as though a light switch had been flipped on, chasing away the warmth and protection of darkness, and I was faced with the white-hot exposure of Lockard’s face.
“Just what is so funny?”
“Uh … ” was the best response I could make. I had been laughing aloud, unintentionally. “Nothing.”
About the Author
C. S. Johnson is the award-winning, genre-hopping author of several novels, including young adult sci-fi and fantasy adventures such as the Starlight Chronicles, the Once Upon a Princess saga, and the Divine Space Pirates trilogy. With a gift for sarcasm and an apologetic heart, she currently lives in Atlanta with her family. Find out more at http://www.csjohnson.me
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My Review
5 stars
Hamilton Dinger is one of those guys I hated in school. He thinks he is entitled, self-centered, popular, and a general pain in the butt that everything just loves, according to him. But when a meteor hits town and releases the Seven Deadly Sinners things go crazy. Hamilton has hidden abilities that he is going to have to learn how to use if he is going to protect everyone from the Sinners. Thankfully he has Elysian and Starry Knight to help him accept this new reality and get him caught up to speed.
Hamilton is such a pain yet Johnson writes him where you want to strangle him yet laugh at the over the top behavior. Of course when he sees the monsters he tries to deny his abilities and turns away from his calling to become a hero.
I love this world, I was eager to learn more about it. Although I was not impressed with Hamilton in the beginning I did enjoy following his growth into his abilities and role. This is a great story and has some little nuggets of wisdom wrapped up in it. I can’t wait to see what CS Johnson is going to come up with next for this series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
For your chance to win a print copy of Slumbering by C.S. Johnson, click the link below!
Blog Tour Schedule
April 15th
April 16th
I Smell Sheep (Cover Love Feature)
Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks (Review)
I Love Books and Stuff (Excerpt)
The Bookworm Drinketh (Excerpt)
April 17th
April 18th
JBronder Book Reviews (Review)
B is for Book Review (Excerpt)
April 19th
Blog Tour Organized By:
I would like to thank R&R Book Tours for the opportunity to read and share this book.
jbronderbookreviews 
Fantastic review Jess! I am so glad you liked it! I’m reading it now and enjoying it too. Thanks for hosting today 😁
You are very welcome!