Starr
Valentine
Wende
Dikec
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing
Date of Publication: March 10,
2016
ISBN: 978-1-939590-76-3
ASIN: B01AO8XJRI
Number of pages: 176
Word Count: 64,000
Cover Artist: Najla Qamber
Book Description:
What happens when the beautiful
swan becomes the ugly duckling?
Starr Valentine has a perfect
life in Middleton, Ohio. She was named captain of the cheer squad, her mother
finally allowed her to get highlights, and the cutest boy in school asked her
to homecoming. But everything comes crashing down when she finds out her
parents are actually monarchs in exile from a mysterious planet called Vega.
Starr doesn’t want to leave, but loves the idea of being a princess, and
decides moving to an alien world might not be so bad. When she gets there,
however, she discovers that something is terribly wrong.
Starr has always been the winner
of the family, but now everyone is fawning over her chubby older sister, Astra.
And everyone, even a handsome and annoying young duke named Julian, seems to
hate her. That is when she realizes the awful truth. Astra is now the pretty
one. Astra has all the friends. Astra gets all of the attention. And Starr
Valentine, voted Miss Perfect, is now the ugly duckling. Her biggest fear
is…will she be able to turn back into a swan, or is she doomed to be a loser
forever?
Excerpt:
We all met in
the captain’s lounge just after the transport ship had safely landed. My father
wore some sort of military uniform, and he was completely dashing, as always.
“Girls, you both
look lovely.”
I smiled up at
him. “So do you, Daddy,” I said, and he patted my cheek.
My mom fluttered
up to us in a cacophony of lime green lace and feathers. A large gold medallion
was pinned to her breast and she had on the crown she’d worn for the nightly
news. She reached for our hands, tears swimming in her eyes.
“I have
something for you,” she said, her voice trembling. Captain Augustus stood
behind her, looking just as handsome as my father. He held open a wooden box.
Inside were two small, yet perfect, tiaras.
I gasped.
“Diamonds.”
“These are not
your true crowns,” my mother explained. “Those went missing during the
confusion when we were trying to escape. These are just a substitute until we
can find something better.”
I couldn’t
imagine something better. The tiaras seemed perfect. I leaned over slightly so
my mom could slip it onto my head, glad I’d decided to wear my hair up in a
French twist. The tiara was beautiful. I admired myself for a few minutes in
the mirror before looking at Astra. She and my mother stood side by side, their
hair a riot of dark curls, their dresses positively painful to the eyes, and I
sighed. I really hoped they didn’t humiliate themselves too much at the
ceremony. They looked like clowns from a circus performance.
My father, of
course, didn’t seem to notice. He bowed and kissed my mother’s hand gallantly
before linking it through his arm and leading her out the door. I could tell it
was a very emotional moment for both of them. They were returning to the home
they loved after being exiled for so many years. Even I could feel my throat
tightening up.
Astra walked up
and took my arm. “Are you ready?” she asked, and I nodded. It was time to face
the music, or the Vegonians, as the case may be.
We stepped out
into a warm, sultry evening on Vega. Lights had been set up all around the
landing bay, and we followed my parents to an elevated platform near the ship.
People waited as far as the eye could see, and as soon as my parents stepped up
to the podium, the crowd roared.
I stood arm in
arm with Astra, taking in the moment. The city of Celesta glittered in the
light of the fading sun, just beyond the crowd of people assembled before us.
It sparkled like it was made of glass. I could see what must have been the
royal palace on one side of the city on top of a small hill, and it made me
think of Aladdin’s castle, all gilt and white marble. I decided I could
definitely get used to living there.
As I stared at
the people in front of me, I started to notice something odd. The women here
were not at all what I’d expected. Supposedly the most beautiful women in the
universe, they all looked a lot like my mother and sister, with short, oddly
shaped bodies and large behinds. They also dressed just like my mother and
sister, in a riot of colors and patterns.
A quick
assessment told me that I was the only pretty girl around, other than Maya, and
definitely the best dressed. Maya had been forced by her parents to wear some
sort of Vegonian monstrosity made out of a hot pink iridescent fabric. Torture.
I, on the other hand, felt like an elegant swan dumped into the middle of a
bunch of plump, gaudy, peacocks.
I heaved a sigh
of relief. I’d been a little teeny tiny bit worried when I’d heard about how
beautiful Vegonian women were. It was good to realize those rumors had been
pure exaggeration. No one in this crowd could hold a candle to me.
Another quick
look around told me that there wasn’t a single bad looking guy here. I was
completely devoted to Adrian, of course, but I couldn’t help but admire and
appreciate male beauty when I saw it. The boys were all works of art. It was as
if I’d been dropped into a huge candy shop full of the most delicious boys I’d
ever seen, and knew I could have my pick. Of course I would never cheat on
Adrian, but it felt like a candy shop here, nonetheless.
My joy proved
short-lived. None of the boys even looked at me. At first I thought that
several of them stared at me, which made me happy, but soon realized it wasn’t
me they stared at. They had their eyes locked on Astra with the same sort of
enraptured expressions boys usually reserved for me.
A cold wave of
shock crawled over my entire body. Boys never looked at Astra like that,
especially when I stood right next to her. Something was very wrong here.
I smoothed my
hair, which was perfect and didn’t need smoothing. I stuck out my chest and
turned my body so they could see my best angle, but none of them even noticed
me. Astra had suddenly become the center of attention.
My mother gave a
very lovely and heartfelt speech, which I barely paid attention to. The crowd
roared and screamed her name, but I hardly even heard it. People waved and
cheered with tears streaming down their faces, but I felt numb to everything.
When we were
introduced to various dignitaries, everyone said “lovely,” and “a vision,” when
they met Astra. When they saw me, they looked a bit confused and then mumbled
something boring like “nice to meet you.” Something very strange was going on,
and I had to figure it out.
I searched the
crowd for Adrian, but he was nowhere to be seen. One sexy, appreciative look
from him might have been enough to restore some semblance of balance and order
to my universe. But he wasn’t around and I’d been cast adrift in a sea of
beautiful boys to whom I was invisible.
“Art thou okay,
Princess Starr?” asked Captain Augustus. “Thou art pale.”
I blinked as I
digested his words. The Vegonians spoke English, but a weird form of archaic
Elizabethan English mixed with modern slang. The only people who had spoken
like that on the transport ship were the captain and the crew. All of the
Vegonians who been on Earth for the last fifteen years spoke standard, modern
English, although I’d heard a few “thou’s” and “thee’s” begin to slip into the
language of the older passengers, including my own parents.
“I’m fine. Thank
you.”
As the captain
bowed and turned away, I realized I wasn’t fine at all. I stared around at the
sea of happy, glowing, faces, including those of my parents and my sister, and
understood that suddenly, and without any explanation, I had become the
outsider.
“Thou art in hell,
Starr Valentine,” I murmured to myself.
About
the Author:
Wende Dikec has spent her life
traveling the world, and collecting stories wherever she visited. She writes in
several romance genres, and her books are quirky, light, and fun. Fluent in
several languages and married to a man from Istanbul, Wende is a trekkie, a
book hoarder, master of the Nespresso machine, and mother of three boys. A
puppy named Capone is the most recent addition to her family, and she blogs
about him as a way of maintaining what little sanity she has left.
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