North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus
Candace Jane Kringle aka Candycane Claus
Candace Jane Kringle aka Candycane Claus
Genre:
YA
teen romance/humor/fantasy
Publisher: elfpublished
books
ISBN: 978-0615681917
Number of pages: 302
Word Count: 80,000
Cover Artist: Jessica
Weil
Book Description:
MEET SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD CANDYCANE CLAUS. She's the most
popular girl at North Pole High. Her father is world-famous. And every day is
Christmas. What more could any girl want?
BOYS! And the new boy, Rudy Tutti, is hot chocolate. But he hates anything to do with Christmas!
When Candy and Rudy are forced to work together on a school Christmas-tree project, her world is turned upside down: Her grades start to suffer, she loses her taste for ice cream, and now the two North-Star-cross'd teens must contend with her overprotective father — Santa Claus — before Christmas is ruined for EVERYONE!
BOYS! And the new boy, Rudy Tutti, is hot chocolate. But he hates anything to do with Christmas!
When Candy and Rudy are forced to work together on a school Christmas-tree project, her world is turned upside down: Her grades start to suffer, she loses her taste for ice cream, and now the two North-Star-cross'd teens must contend with her overprotective father — Santa Claus — before Christmas is ruined for EVERYONE!
Excerpt 1:
SNOW POD RACE
“Woo! Look
at them go!” Snowflake screeched, circling her arm in the air as if trying to
stir the clouds.
Everyone
cheered for Tinsel as he quickly took the lead.
The open
space at the top of the course gave Rudy a chance to test Red-11’s reactions to
his movements before he’d have to worry about obstructions. He was doing all
right. And by that I mean, he probably wouldn’t die.
But Tinsel
rode his machine like it was part of him. He knew the track intimately and
could effortlessly take advantage of a small dip or minor jut to increase his
momentum.
It was no
contest.
Rudy
careened down the steep mountain, through the fresh powder, as the first patch
of trees started to rush past him.
Tinsel
zigzagged, just to buy time, giving his opponent a fighting chance to catch up,
out of good, honest, North Pole fairness.
But then he
cut sharp in front of Rudy, forcing a swerve. Rudy’s Snow Pod bobbed onto its
side. He continued down the hill that way, an unstoppable bullet.
From our
faraway perch, we could just make out a blurry red streak headed straight for a
great big tree. Six snow scooter engines roared to life as we descended the
hill for an up-close look at the impending carnage.
Red-11
wobbled from Rudy’s desperate fight to upright her, as the immovable object
before him rushed closer and closer.
Silentnight
whooshed down the hillside on his snow scooter beside me, his sleek butt
involuntarily contorting itself in the direction Rudy’s would need to move to
survive. “Steer, Rudy! Twist your butt! Up, like this!”
At the very
last second, Red-11 curved around the staunch, immobile fir—close enough for a
shave.
I exhaled.
Another tree
sprang up in his path. He had even less time to think about this one. He
swooshed around it. A candy cane threatened him next. By sheer luck, he curled
through a snowbank, coming down right-side up, and eluded the wrath of the
thick, deadly cane.
Tinsel
sailed over a snowy knoll, his loud cackle streaming past our ears over the
whistling wind.
The two Pods
raced side by side. Tinsel inched Green-13 closer to Rudy. He bumped the red
Pod, but Rudy surprised us all as he maintained control and even took a slight
lead.
Delicious
and Johnny and the others shouted for Tinsel to go faster, faster, don’t let
that freak beat you!
I tried to
stay neutral, keeping my cheers to myself. Frankly, I didn’t know who I wanted
to win. As they continued down the mountain, neck and neck, trading off the
lead position like an evenly matched unicorn race, I would silently switch my
allegiance to whomever was the underdog of the moment.
That may
sound like a fierce lack of loyalty on my part, but I kind of wished they both
could win. And no, not because I was spoiled and wanted two boyfriends. Lords
a-leaping! One boy was almost more than any teenage girl could handle. It was
more like the way my father wanted every child to have a new toy on Christmas.
About not wanting to see either of them lose. Or get himself splattered onto a
tree. Not over me, for goodness sake!
But both of
them were playing for keeps. Mere seconds ahead of another tree, neither would
back off. In their high-speed game of chicken, one was about to get plucked.
Excerpt 2:
GROUNDED
Thirty-two
tiny hooves clippity-clopped up the walkway alongside two heavy boots. My whole
body quivered. I’d been waiting alone in the dark, empty stable for over an
hour, sitting in front of the storage space under the sink where I sometimes
used to hide when I was little, wishing I could still fit—my father might be
making me live out here from now on.
I shuffled
outside to help unhook the reindeer’s harnesses and guide them into their
stalls. The pits of Daddy’s coat were stained with perspiration from walking
the girls home. Neither of us said a word. I waited for him to break the
silence, then decided an apology would sound more sincere if offered before
being demanded.
“I’m really,
super-duper sorry, Daddy.”
He kept
tending to the animals as if he hadn’t heard me. Then he made a heavy sigh and,
without looking at me, as if he were talking to Cupid instead, said, “In over a
hundred years, I have never had to pick up my reindeer from an impound lot.”
He went back
to filling Cupid’s water bowl.
I’d never
felt so small.
“Look at
Blitzen!” Daddy’s face turned purple. His eyes widened as if they had a mind to
shoot out of his head and spank me. “She’s shaking! These deer need to be in
tip-top shape! I have a mall tour coming up.”
I deserved
to be scolded, even though it seemed kind of pointless since the things he was
yelling at me were not things I didn’t know. As he bellowed about my foolish
irresponsibility, I couldn’t help but remember how proud I’d been of my dad the
first time I got to go with him on a mall tour—his annual visit to every
department store in the world, where he finds out what you all want for
Christmas. My father, at his best. He so loves getting out there in front of
all the good little children, it shines from him as if his soul were composed
on a Lite-Brite set.
I sometimes
envied the attention he lavished on all those kids during all those business
trips. Kids he barely knew. Then this one time, at the Millenia Mall, a little
girl named Kimberly told me how lucky I was to have the coolest guy for a dad
all year round. To her, he was a rock star, and it was easy to see why.
“It was so stupid
of me to take the sleigh,” I told him. “I don’t blame you for being mad at me.”
Daddy tore
off his gloves and whipped them to the ground so fast it made me shudder, along
with half the reindeer. “That right there is what angers me the most. That you
want to protect that miscreant sleigh thief. He has dragged you down so low you
don’t even know which way is Christmas anymore.”
“But Daddy,
I’m the one who took the sleigh. Rudy had nothing to do with it.”
“Don’t you
lie to me. I am still your father. It’s not too late for you to wind up on the
Naughty List too, young lady.”
Sweet
Nicholas! He’d never threatened to N-List me before. He’d never even joked
about it. Nobody born in the North Pole, let alone of Claus blood, had ever
come close to making the List. It just didn’t happen.
Daddy parked
his jumbo butt on a wooden stool and ran his fingers through his beard. “Your
mother thought I was being too hard on you over the incident with your grades,”
he said. “She thinks I should butt out of your ‘private affairs’.” He made air
quotes and sneered like the words were choking him. “Boys, she meant.
Well, look where boys have gotten you so far.”
He popped a
handful of jelly beans in his mouth and kept lecturing while he chewed. “…No,
in truth it appears you require even more discipline. I was prepared to let you
come with me on my mall tour this year, but now,” he blinked for dramatic
effect, “I’m afraid that can’t happen.”
My reaction
was the last thing either of us expected. It started with a laugh, but that didn’t
hurt his ego enough. “Good!” I shouted. “It’s boring going to malls with
you. You only pay attention to those brats who line up begging you for toys.
You think they idolize you, but you’re just buying their love, and I don’t want
any part of that. I’m sick of being a Claus!”
About the Author:
Candace Jane Kringle is a junior at North Pole High. She
likes candy canes, unicorn races, and making snow angels. Her father is the
most well-known and beloved toymaker and distributor in the world. Her memoir, North
Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus, is her first book. After high school,
she plans to enroll at North Pole University and write more books.
All info in the post above was provided by the author and Bewitching Book Tours. I was in no way required to write a positive review. All my reviews are my honest and personal opinion
. If you have any questions or comments, please see my FTC disclosure or Review Policy.
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