Teaser Tuesday | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Into the Still Blue, and Here Without You

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Since Doyle created the immortal Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, no other mystery writer has come close to eclipsing him as the standard bearer in crime fiction. A brilliant London-based ‘consulting detective’, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and renowned for his skillful use of astute observation, deductive reasoning, and inference to solve difficult cases.

This collection includes twelve of Holmes’s most famous cases: A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, A Case of Identity, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Five Orange Pips, The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band,The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, and The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

“Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.”

~19%, “A Case of Identity” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

“Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.”

~ 22%, “A Case of Identity” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it’s time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world.

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe-haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do-and they are just as determined to stay together. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won’t even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission-because Cinder isn’t just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he’s also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

She had never known darkness like this. Outside there was always Aether, or sunlight, or moonlight. In the Pod, within the protected walls of Reverie, lights always blazed. Always. This was new, this suffocating pool. She felt the pitch black fill her lungs with every breath. She was drinking the dark. Wading through it.

~3%, Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

He too her face in his hands and kissed her. Aria made a small sound of surprise, and then he felt her relax. Her arms came around his neck, and what had started as a brush of their lips became deeper. He gathered her close and forgot everything, everyone except her, until he heard Reef’s gruff voice behind him. “Sometimes I forget he’s nineteen.” “Oh yes. Easy to do.” The gentle reply could only be from Marron.” “Not now.” “No…certainly not now.”

~7%, Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

Everyone has secrets. Some are buried so deep, their existence is forgotten. But a secret never told can turn into a lie. And in love, a lie is one thing: Poison. Reid’s in love with Dori, though she hasn’t told her parents that she’s fallen hard for the guy they’d forbidden her to see. Now she’s leaving for college, and Reid’s promise not to push her to go public is wearing thin, especially when she can’t – or won’t – return those three important words he wants to hear. Five years ago, Brooke and Reid were a Thing. That relationship is long gone, detonated amid allegations of cheating – but they still share a secret that would stun everyone they know and alter public perception of them both if it ever comes out. And it’s about to do just that.

I look him in the eye and he’s frowning, waiting for me to state my business. I haven’t been scared of my father since I was ten. Intimidated? Yes. Demeaned? Yes. Afraid? No.

Is this what his clients feel like, sitting across the desk from him?

And that’s when it hits me. No, this isn’t what it feels like to be his client. He doesn’t frown at his clients. He may wear a veneer of concern. He may even be concerned. But the face I’m seeing – the eyes I’m looking into now – he’s alarmed. Apprehensive. Worried.

~45%, Here Without You by Tammara Webber

“I want him, Reid. I’ve never wanted anything so much. Is it wrong? That I want him?”

For the the space of a breath, I wonder why she’d think that wanting him could be wrong. And then it hits me. “You don’t trust your own intentions.”

She shakes her head, her eyes welling up.

I lean up and take her hand for the third or fourth time today. It’s still so cold that it feels bloodless. “Brooke, I’ve never seen you be less sure of yourself, and yet more on a mission.”

~79%, Here Without You by Tammara Webber

What are you reading this week?