A 15-second viral TikTok video detailing the plot of the novel helped the author land a publishing deal.
But the road to landing a publishing deal forLightlarkwasn’t free of obstacles.
Aster faced several rejections from publishers before creating a 15-second, viralTikTok videodetailing the plot of the novel.
Amulet Books
Exclusively read an excerpt fromLightlarkand see the cover below.
Grim sat at one of the benches in the abbey, elbows on his knees.
He watched hershe could feel his gaze on her but couldn’t bring herself to look back.
In an instant, he was behind her.
She felt his breath on her bare shoulder and tensed.
“When I left my chambers, everything was burning.
And all of the rulers were dead.”
She turned and found his face drawn, more serious than she had ever seen it.
“I was a ruler of realm.
When all I had ever trained to be was a warrior.”
Darkness billowed out of him in waves, snuffing out even the limited light creeping in from the window.
A flash of lightning struck outside, but its light did not reach them.
Turned to face him fully.
“I know what it’s like to have responsibility you never wanted .
and never thought you deserved.”
Grim’s hands were tightly wound by his sides.
She tentatively reached out and opened one of them.
Ran a finger across his palm and felt him tense in front of her.
“Will you show me?”
she asked, knowing she shouldn’t.
He seemed to know she meant his powers.
The extent of them, beyond the simple demonstration he had given weeks before.
And she seemed to know that he needed a release.
Grim looked intently into her eyes.
“Are you sure you want to see?”
He was warning her, she realized.
Warning her that she might see something she wouldn’t like.
Still, Isla nodded.
She wanted to see it.
The thing she wanted more than ever.
He was so close his nose almost touched hers.
“Not here.”
He glanced at the window.
Isla heard the rain, still raging, but not as violently as before.
“Do you mind going outside again?”
She shook her head and followed him back out of the abbey.
Her eyes stayed glued on Grim as he walked to the cliff, to its very edge.
His back was tense, his cape glued to his shoulders, and the muscles there rolled back.
It whipped right past her, inches from her face.
She stumbled back, the force of it almost making her fall over.
As quickly as it had struck, the darkness dissolved.
Isla took an unsteady breath.
In the places night had touched, life had been ripped away.
And those bones would splinter and crack until they were fragments in the wind.
This was worse than fire.
Grim’s darkness left nothing behind.
He had turned back to the cliff, hand fisted at his side.
A hand that wielded terrible, terrible power.
Grim went still when she trailed two fingers over the back of that hand, against her better judgment.
When she said, “Show me more,” he grinned.
And gripped her by the waist.
They shot off the cliff, to the sand belowand this time, Isla didn’t scream.
Because somehow, they had skipped the entire middle of the jump.
She couldn’t see where the ocean ended and the sky began.
They both churned and eddied, desperate to touch.
“Hearteater,” he said.
She looked up at him, only to see something peculiar in his expres sion.
Worried that she would cower from his terrible display of ability?
Hate him for what he was?
She remembered his words.
I am the monster.
Part of her was afraid of it.
But she wasn’t afraid ofhim.Even though part of her screamed that she should be.
“Tell me how I’m feeling,” she whispered.
Rain fell from his hair and onto her cheeks.
He swallowed, reading her.
“You’re feeling .
She motioned toward their surroundings and shrugged.
She had asked him to show her more.
Instead of grinning again, Grim’s expression darkened.
The ocean curled with a giant wave that crested before them and collapsed into cliffs just feet away.
His mouth was suddenly at her ear.
“I could open a black hole that would swallow the beach.
I could turn the sea dark as ink and kill everything inside of it.
I could demolish the castle, brick by brick, from where we stand.
I could take you back to Nightshade lands with me right now.”
His voice was deep as dreams, dark as nightmares.
“I could do all of those things.”
His lips pressed against the top of her ear, for just a moment.
“And I mightif I didn’t think you would hate me for it.”
She looked down at their bodies, pressed close.
Just flimsy, drenched fabric between them.
Red dress against black, a rose dipped in midnight.
“Why do you care what I think?
You barely know me.”
Grim’s shadows flared, though his expression did not change.
“I know enough,” he said.
“What about staying away from me?”
His lips were right above hers now, his words practically pressed against the corner of her mouth.
“I gave it an honest effort,” he said.
“But it turns out .
I’m not that honest.”
Lightlarkis available for purchase now.
