Book: Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian

Cobweb Bride was published July 15, 2013 by Norilana Books|Number Of Pages: 293

Series: Cobweb Bride #1

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Paranormal

Goodreads|Vera Nazarian’s Website

Goodreads Summary: Many are called…

She alone can save the world and become Death’s bride.

Cobweb Bride is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death’s ultimatum to the world. 

What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?

In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary “pocket” of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill….

Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness… Her skin is cold as snow… Her eyes frozen… Her gaze, fiercely alive…

While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war… A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father … Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court…. Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living…

Look closer — through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars…

And one small village girl, Percy—an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter—is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs.

As a result, Percy joins the crowds of other young women of the land in a desperate quest to Death’s own mysterious holding in the deepest forests of the North…

And everyone is trying to stop her.

Cobweb Bride is definitely another book that is one of the more interesting ones I’ve read this year.  Cobweb Bride has such a detailed world, and there so many different but also very interesting stories.

I was sort of reminded of the Persephone story, especially as there’s Percy (or Persephone, as some call her) and she’s Death’s champion.  Death stopping…death…until he finds his Cobweb Bride is definitely different, and in a good way!  Everything is very vivid, and there’s this really cool renaissance vibe to it.  Much more than what you’d normally see with fantasy.  And there’s also this very interesting alternate history sort of feel to it too.

It did take a while for me to get into Cobweb Bride, because there are quite a few stories to keep track of, and it did start off pretty slow.  I think it’s because you’re getting introduced to all of these different characters and ideas, and it takes some time for everything to come together.  But I actually didn’t mind, because there is a level of detail that makes it really easy to get interested in!

One interesting thing: how the suspended deaths of livestock will affect the food supply.  I’m curious to see how this plays out, because it is sort of interesting.

And: the connection between Percy and Death.  It’s hinted at, and not fully explored, but it’s possible we’ll see more of it throughout the series.  I just think it’s interesting that there is a strong connection between them.  I am curious as to what Percy being Death’s Champion means and how it all plays out.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed Cobweb’s Bride, and I can’t wait to read the next book!  It’s definitely unique, and there’s so much there that I think it’ll take at least one or two more reads to catch everything!  There are several stories that took a while to come together, but they came together in a really interesting way.  Cobweb Bride gets 4 stars.

Book: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Published July 2012 by HarperCollins|Pages: 304

Where I Got It: E-book|Nook Store

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy/Paranormal- Fairies

Goodreads|Follow Jodi Lynn Anderson On Twitter

Goodreads Summary: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair…

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it’s the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn’t grow up.

I totally LOVED Tiger Lily!  Like a couple of other books I’ve read recently, I can’t believe I’ve put it off for so long!

It’s an interesting take on Peter Pan, and…I hate to say this…but…I had no clue who Tiger Lily even was before reading this book.  And even if I did, she clearly made no impression on me whatsoever.  But I sort of think it’s a good thing, because I didn’t go in with thoughts on what a good re-telling would be.

Moving On: I’m not sure how I feel about Tiger Lily as a character.  I liked her, but…there’s something unlikable about her too.  As weird as this might sound, I liked her and didn’t like her at the same time.  But she and Peter really are good together. even though things didn’t go the way I expected.

I do have such a soft spot for Tinker Bell, who is such a great narrator.  We see everything through her eyes, and we see how Tiger Lily changes through Tinker Bells eyes.  Perhaps this is why I didn’t completely warm up to Tiger Lily, but I can’t imagine the book being told by anyone else.

And Peter!  We don’t see a lot of him, but we definitely see how much of an effect he has on Tiger Lily’s life.  Tiger Lily doesn’t have a happily ever after, but things do end in the best way possible for Tiger Lily and Peter.  It was a bit darker than I expected, but Jodi Lynn Anderson did such a good job creating this world and told such an imaginative story that I totally want to watch Peter Pan right now.  I could imagine everything so clearly, and I just love the whole feel of the book.  

Final Thoughts:

All of the love surrounding Tiger Lily is so totally deserved, and Tiger Lily is such a beautiful book.  I can’t recommend Tiger Lily enough!  Tiger Lily gets 5 stars.  

Book: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Published February 2013 by Atria Books|Pages: 225

Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #1

Genre: YA Contemporary

Goodreads|K.A. Tucker On Twitter

Ten Tiny Breaths is an e-ARC from netgalley.com

Goodreads Summary: Four years after losing her parents, best friend, and boyfriend in a drunk driving accident, twenty-year-old Kacey Cleary runs away to begin a new life in Miami. Hardened by the tragedy, she’s determined to keep everyone at a distance—until she meets an irresistible and mysterious neighbor who is determined to melt the ice over her heart.

I really enjoyed Ten Tiny Breaths!  There are so many things that I really liked about it, and there were some things that I thought were really interesting.

So: Kasey.  She’s pretty bad-ass, and a bit on the cold side.  She keeps a lot of people at a distance, and isn’t the most trusting person. Generally speaking, I’m not a big of fan of characters like Kasey.  But I completely understand where she’s coming from and I totally warmed up to her by the end of the book.

Kasey had a lot of healing to do after the car accident and after living with her aunt and uncle, she decided that she and her younger sister needed to leave Michigan and live their own lives.  I really liked their relationship, and that both girls tried to take care of the other.

Interesting Thing #1: Kacey ends up working at a bar in a strip club.  Kacey seemed to have some reservations about this at first, which is understandable.  I find this interesting because it wasn’t seen as a bad thing at all: Kacey saw it as a temporary thing, and no one made a big deal out of it.  I liked that Kacey did what she needed to do in order to take care of Livie.

I liked seeing Kacey’s struggle with opening up and trusting people and making peace with the accident.  She’s made some really bad choices along the way, and that is interesting thing #2.  She has A LOT of issues, which she does get help for by the end of the book, where they seem to be mostly resolved.  But since this is the first book in a series, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her journey.  Anyway, I like that she’s really flawed, because it shows she makes mistakes and isn’t perfect.  I think that’s why I’m not bothered by how tough she is.

But forgiveness is a super-important part of the book.  While Kacey has to learn to forgive herself, she also has to forgive the guys who caused the accident that killed her best friend, her boyfriend and her parents.  She does, but it takes her time, especially with a twist that I should have seen coming.  I wasn’t sure about her and Trent before this, and I’m really not sure about it after.  I mean, I get why she felt the way she did about everything, and I get why she fought her feelings for Trent on so many different levels…but I just found something about their relationship not very believable.  I also get why Trent did what he did, even though I didn’t particularly like some of his actions.

Final Thoughts:

Ten Tiny Breaths is very intense but also totally worth it!  I wanted Kacey to be okay and be happy and learn to trust people.  I loved that the smallest moments and steps forward were so special, and Ten Tiny Breaths was a hard book to put down.  Ten Tiny Breaths gets 5 stars.

Book: The Telling Room: A Tale Of Love, Betrayal, Revenge And The World’s Greatest Piece Of Cheese by Michael Paterniti

Expected Date Of Publication Is July 30, 2013 by Dial Press|Expected Number Of Pages: 350

Series: None

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction- Memoir/Travel

Find The Telling Room On Goodreads, Barnes And Noble and Amazon

The Telling Room Is an e-ARC from netgalley.com

Goodreads Summary: In the picturesque village of Guzmán, Spain, in a cave dug into a hillside on the edge of town, an ancient door leads to a cramped limestone chamber known as “the telling room.” Containing nothing but a wooden table and two benches, this is where villagers have gathered for centuries to share their stories and secrets—usually accompanied by copious amounts of wine.

It was here, in the summer of 2000, that Michael Paterniti found himself listening to a larger-than-life Spanish cheesemaker named Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras as he spun an odd and compelling tale about a piece of cheese. An unusual piece of cheese. Made from an old family recipe, Ambrosio’s cheese was reputed to be among the finest in the world, and was said to hold mystical qualities. Eating it, some claimed, conjured long-lost memories. But then, Ambrosio said, things had gone horribly wrong…

By the time the two men exited the telling room that evening, Paterniti was hooked. Soon he was fully embroiled in village life, relocating his young family to Guzmán in order to chase the truth about this cheese and explore the fairy tale–like place where the villagers conversed with farm animals, lived by an ancient Castilian code of honor, and made their wine and food by hand, from the grapes growing on a nearby hill and the flocks of sheep floating over the Meseta.

What Paterniti ultimately discovers there in the highlands of Castile is nothing like the idyllic slow-food fable he first imagined. Instead, he’s sucked into the heart of an unfolding mystery, a blood feud that includes accusations of betrayal and theft, death threats, and a murder plot. As the village begins to spill its long-held secrets, Paterniti finds himself implicated in the very story he is writing. 

Equal parts mystery and memoir, travelogue and history, The Telling Room is an astonishing work of literary nonfiction by one of our most accomplished storytellers. A moving exploration of happiness, friendship, and betrayal, The Telling Room introduces us to Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras, an unforgettable real-life literary hero, while also holding a mirror up to the world, fully alive to the power of stories that define and sustain us.

The Telling Room is definitely one of the more interesting books I’ve read this year.  It is a book about cheese and stories and betrayal and history.

So…I felt like there was a lot of rambling.  There are a lot of stories, and there were times when I felt like Paterniti went off on these random, story-driven tangents that didn’t seem connected to this apparently awesomesauce cheese and the intriguing cheesemaker. And somehow, Paterniti managed to bring these seemingly unrelated stories back to the cheese.  There were times when I wished that he just got right to the point, but the strange thing is that I can’t imagine the story being told any other way.  And…The Telling Room really is more than a book about cheese.  Storytelling is also a really important part of the book, and there are several different stories of what was really going on with that famed cheese.

Seeing Paterniti’s obsession with this cheese, and how his own story got entangled with Ambrosio’s was interesting.  Some things really do make an impression on us, and that our own story can very much be changed by the stories we seek out and the stories that find us.

There is one thing I didn’t truly didn’t like about The Telling Room: the footnotes.  I appreciate a lot of the history incorporated throughout the book, but the lengthy (to me) footnotes at the end of each chapter got tiresome after the first couple chapters.  Had they all been at the end of the book, I, at the very least, would have skimmed them, if not outright read them.  After several pages of footnotes on my Nook, I got bored to the point of ignoring them completely.  

Final Thoughts:

So, I totally want to hunt down this cheese and try some, even though I know that’s not going to happen!  The book rambled on times, but it all connected back to Ambrosio’s cheese, so it was interesting to see how it all connected together.  While the footnotes made the book feel a little cluttered, I really liked this story about stories.  The Telling Room gets 4 stars.

Book: Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Published January 2012 by HarperCollins|Pages: 400

Where I Got It: E-book|Nook Store

Series: Under The Never Sky #1

Genre: YA Science Fiction/Dystopic

Goodreads|Follow Veronica Rossi On Twitter

Goodreads Summary: Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.

As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.

They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love – one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY

The first book in a captivating trilogy, Veronica Rossi’s enthralling debut sweeps you into an unforgettable adventure.

Under The Never Sky was another one of those books that I was scared to read because once again, I didn’t want to be that weirdo who didn’t like it.  Sometimes it feels like that is the story of my life.  Once again, I am kicking myself for waiting so long to read it, because I absolutely LOVED Under The Never Sky.

What is really interesting about Under The Never Sky is that it’s science-fictiony but also has a dystopic. paranormal-ish vibe to it.  Reverie and the Realms and the outside world with the Aether.  I will admit that certain things completely went over my head…like, I spent a good chunk of Under The Never Sky wondering what the Aether was.  And then I felt stupid for not knowing what it was, because it’s in the freaking summary, and my moment of idiocy could have been completely avoided if I had actually bothered to read the summary.

But…as much I loved Under The Never Sky, I wanted to know why the Aether was there and why it was so bad, and why some people are living in pods protecting from the Aether and why others are not.  Some of the details were really fuzzy for me, but Rossi did it in such a way that I completely and totally believe that we’ll learn what is going on.  There are some gaps that do need to be filled because the sci-fi seems more magical than scientific.  Unlike a lot of books where I’ve felt like gaps weren’t filled in, Rossi really does make it feel like there’s this whole world that you’re going to learn more about.  It’s very gradual, and wasn’t irritating, but I do have questions that need to be answered.

Under The Never Sky is told by Aria and Perry, who take turns narrating the book.  It did take a little bit of time to get into Under The Never Sky, but before I knew it, I couldn’t wait to see what happened.  They’re okay as characters, and it was Roar who really stole the show.  I’m hoping I warm up to Aria and Perry as I finish the series.

Final Thoughts:

I so loved Under The Never Sky!  I can’t wait to keep reading and learn more about this really interesting and complex world.  Under The Never Sky gets 5 stars.

Book: Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Published January 2011 by Penguin Group|Pages: 448

Where I Got It: E-book|Nook Store

Series: Across The Universe #1

Genre: YA Science Fiction/Dystopic

Goodreads|Follow Beth Revis On Twitter

Goodreads Summary: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone – one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship – tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Across The Universe was definitely one of those books I was putting off because I was scared that I would be that weirdo who didn’t like it.  Thankfully, that hasn’t happened!  I didn’t love it, but I did enjoy it a lot, and I’m sort of kicking myself for taking so long to read it.

It did take a while to get into.  Part of it was the dual narration and the two very different stories.  But the dual narration actually wasn’t horrendous, and it did work surprisingly well.  For me, it took a little  bit of time for the two stories to come together, but once they did, I found myself really enjoying Across The Universe.

The lies that have built over the years and everything that was done to keep a ship that is way behind schedule…while horrible, I also understand why all of the elders did the things they did.

We do learn about why a lot of scientists (and other important people) were frozen and sent to another Earth-like planet.  And while it’s enough to give an idea of what’s going on, I was hoping for a bit more.  I don’t mind the details we got, and I have the feeling we’ll be learning more as the series goes along.

I do like Elder and Amy together.  I don’t love them together, but I think I’ll warm up to them…while I love romance, it wasn’t a major element of the book.

What I did find interesting was that Amy’s parents expected her to stay on Earth, and not go with them across the universe.  Like, at all.  So I can imagine that learning that piece of information would be hard to handle.  And that because she was unfrozen 50 years earlier than necessary, she’ll be older than her parents when they are finally unfrozen.  Oh, and someone running around unfreezing certain people and making sure they die so that they can’t be forced into slave labor or fighting on the new planet…there’s definitely a mystery, which does get solved by the end of the book.

I was actually very much reminded of Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder.  I think it’s the structured community on a spaceship floating towards something that they have in common.  They are two very different stories, of course, but there is a very similar feel to both books.

Final Thoughts:

I really liked Across The Universe!  There’s definitely an interesting cast of characters, and a very interesting world on Godspeed.  If you like Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder, you’ll like Across The Universe.  Across The Universe gets 4 stars.

Book: Home To Whiskey Creek by Brenda Novak

Expected Publication is July 30, 2013 by Harlequin Mira|Expected Number Of Pages: 409

Series; Whiskey Creek #4

Genre: Adult Fiction/Romance

Home To Whiskey Creek is an e-ARC from netgalley.com

Goodreads|Follow Brenda Novak On Twitter

Goodreads Summary: Sometimes home is the refuge you need-and sometimes it isn’t Adelaide Davies, who’s been living in Sacramento, returns to Whiskey Creek, the place she once called home. She’s there to take care of her aging grandmother and to help with Gran’s restaurant, Just Like Mom’s. But Adelaide isn’t happy to be back. There are too many people here she’d rather avoid, people who were involved in that terrible June night fifteen years ago. 

Ever since the graduation party that changed her life, she’s wanted to go to the police and make sure the boys responsible-men now-are punished. But she can’t, not without revealing an even darker secret. So it’s better to pretend…. 

Noah Rackham, popular, attractive, successful, is shocked when Adelaide won’t have anything to do with him. He has no idea that his very presence reminds her of something she’d rather forget. He only knows that he’s finally met a woman he could love.

Whiskey Creek seemed  interesting, and there were some things I liked, but for the most part, Home To Whiskey Creek was okay.

I did like the small town feel, and how everyone knows what’s going on with everyone.  It’s a town full of secrets and you know everyone has their own history with everyone.  Whiskey Creek is one of those series where everything is set in the same universe but there isn’t one continuous story.  You definitely don’t need to read the previous books to understand what’s going on with this one, but there were a few times when I felt like there was a story that I needed to read.

I didn’t care for the romance, and I didn’t feel like there was a lot of passion or chemistry between Addy and Noah.  Even though they went to high school together, he has no clue who she was and didn’t seem interested in Addy until she told him she had no interest in him.  And Addy had a crush on him in high school, and has held onto that crush to the point that her feelings for Noah were a factor in her divorce from her first husband.  There were other factors, of course, but her feelings for Noah were one such factor.

I did like the relationship Addy had with her grandma, and overall, Addy has some…interesting…relationships with other people in town.  Actually, a lot of the relationships in the book were interesting, and felt very much like the relationships you’d see in a small town.

I thought Addy struggling to come clean with her rape over a decade earlier was interesting.  There are consequences to finally coming forward with it, especially in a town where people are more likely to not like her or believe her story.  Her dilemma was fairly compelling, but I found the characters to be a little uninteresting, and I didn’t feel completely connected to the characters.

Final Thoughts:

Home To Whiskey Creek was okay.  I liked the small town feel and Addy’s dilemma, but the romance wasn’t there for me.  Home To Whiskey Creek gets 2 stars.