Teaser Tuesday #19: Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Teaser Tuesday 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!


This week's teaser comes from the following book:

Title:  Monstrous Beauty
Author:  Elizabeth Fama
Series:  n/a
Publisher:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYC)
Publication Date:  September 4, 2012
Source:  Netgalley
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

My teaser:

"He ignored the girl and flung the door open.  The light flooded out, and he heard the man scream again, muffled but with discernible words this time.  "You're kellin' her!"  It was coming from the crypt."  -- p. 174 of galley

Well, are you sufficiently teased?!?  :P  Even if I didn't know this novel was set in the Victorian era and incorporated evil mermaids into the story, I would still be intrigued.