Mundie Moms

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Book Review- Warped

By Maurissa Guibord
Published by Delacorte Press
Released on January 11th, 2011
Source- Random House
4.5 stars- I highly recommend picking it up

Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy (quoted from Goodreads).

Maurissa Guibord had me completely wrapped up in her debut book, Warped. It's one of those books you sit down for a few moments to read and find you are so invested with the story, that you can't put it down. It's a story the flows well, and blends together elements I enjoy. Maurissa weaves together a story of love, life, loss, fate, destiny, magic, danger, time travel, and action in the form of classic battle of good vs evil that will span centuries. The setting, the characters, and the story itself was one I found myself completely drawn to and gladly welcomed the sleep I lost in staying up to read it.

I enjoyed that fact that Tessa's father owns a book store, which is how they wound up coming home from an auction with boxes full of books and the Unicorn tapestry. The tapestry itself is something I was drawn to as much as Tessa. Things start to happen as soon as Tessa touches it and her dreams have become strange, as they take her back to the 1500's where there's a dashing young knight and her unicorn, which is the one that's in the tapestry. It's not until she pulls a thread from the tapestry does her life turn upside down as William de Chaucy is no longer in the tapestry, but right in front of her.

That's just the start of what Tessa has unraveled. To say that Tessa has to make some hard choices is an understand-statement, as The Sisters of Fate, also called The Norn sisters think Tessa stole 7 threads that have interrupted fate, and Lila Gerome, a centuries old witch wants the Tapestry back. Tessa either protects Will and will lose her father and the way her life has been, or she gives up Will and her life will be restored to how it once was. The problem is, how do you give up someone who's fate is intertwined with yours?

I absolutely loved how this story unravels, both in the modern day and in the 1500's England. The settings are beautiful and the characters are great, as The Norn Sisters, Lila, Tess and Will's stories all connect at some point through out history. Opal, Tessa's best friend is fantastic, as she just goes with the flow and is there for Tessa no matter what strange things Tessa tells her. My favorite characters are Will and Tessa. Maurissa takes her time in unmasking Will's angst, and at times haughty attitude towards Tessa, while at other times you can tell he's falling in love with her. I really enjoyed being able to understand Will more and not having everything unveiled all at once. Tessa is so put out with Will at times and other times she can't help but be drawn to him. Who wouldn't be drawn to a hot knight with a 16th century British ancient? Really, I loved their chemistry and watching them fall in love.

Warped is a debut book I highly recommend picking up. It's a story that's beautifully detailed, perfectly layered and brilliantly told. It's history, lore and magic are unique elements to the story that is about love, sacrifice and believing in fate, as a beautiful centuries old love story unfolds with in it's pages.

You can find out more about Maurissa by visiting her site here-

Thoughtful Thursday- Australia Flooding, Brazil Mudslides, Author L.K. Madigan, Piracy & Harper Teen's The Dark Days Tour

I'm interrupting our Meet The Admin post, as three brings were talked about a lot yesterday on twitter that caused me to either reflect on things, had me wishing I could do more to help and made me think about what part of stealing don't people understand.

What Can I Do?
I don't know if you've seen the devastation that is plaguing Ipswich & Brisbane Australia and Brazil right now or not, but in Australia, the rains they've had since Christmas have caused havoc, destroyed lively hoods and taken lives. Yesterday I sat at my computer reading news article after news article and watching videos on the flooding. I'm heartbroken for the thousands of people who are effected by their worst flooding in over 50 years. I'm sitting here feeling guilty as I have a roof over my head and my kids are playing next me, when many of the people have just lost everything. I felt helpless as I wanted to do something and wasn't sure what to do. In doing some research I found a site you can donate to that is in Australia and goes to the help needed there- The Queensland Government http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html They also have a lot of other information on the site, and have a list of ways you can donate. It's set up so those world wide and local can donate.

Brazil- is suffering from one of it's worst natural disasters in decades (reports are saying) as the death toll has climbed to over 400 people, as mudslides & flooding have destroyed neighborhoods, taking everything in it's path this past week. It's so heartbreaking reading the accounts of those who tried to save their loved ones, only to have the waters wash them away. I can't even begin to imagine. Like Australia's devastation, Brazil's looks unbelievable. From what I've read up on, Brazil has more rain in it's forecast. Like I mentioned above I've wanted to do something to help, but I've not found any where were you can make a donation to help the people effected by the mudslides and flooding. I'll continue to look and if you know of a legitimate site, please let me know.

Reflection
Yesterday authors were tweeting words of encouragement and a link to author L.K. Madigan (Lisa Madigan), author of The Mermaid's Mirror, shared with her followers & friends to a very personal blog post. Her post will leave you in awe and admiration of her strength as well as in tears over her battle. Please go here to read what she wrote and leave her a comment- http://lkmadigan.livejournal.com/185246.html

Stealing is Stealing!
This is an issue that shouldn't be happening, and yet it's happens more and more every day. I'm not being dramatic when I say that. There is no if, ands, or buts about stealing. It's black and white, stealing is stealing. Yesterday twitter was all aglow with discussions about piracy, as a fan of Sarah Rees Brennan's told her she illegally downloaded and read one of her books. This angers me, as not only is Sarah a friend of ours, but why do people think it's okay to do this!?! It doesn't matter if you're stealing the book from the book store or downloading something in illegal in the comforts of your home. Stealing is stealing. What you're doing is taking away from something that author depends on. The majority of authors are struggling like the rest of us to get by. They have rent and mortgages to pay, other bills to pay and so on. The money they earn from selling their books is their pay check. I don't know about you, but I'd be pissed if someone stole from my pay check, (not that I have one right now as I'm a SAHM), as I reply on every bit of it.

Seriously- Sarah Rees Brennan, already shares a lot of free stuff with her fans. It's not hard to have patience to wait for a book to come out or to your area. There's a number of things you do-
* Borrow the book from a friend.
* Buy if from the Book Depository if you're international. They're in-expensive and ship world wide for free.
* Visit the Library- It's FREE to check out a book.
* Visit the author's and publisher's sites as often times they'll have cookies and links to read the few chapters for free.
* BUY the book, from the book store, from a second store, anywhere... just BUY the book.

From a readers point of view, that ticks me off so much. As you're not just taking away from the author, but from the fans. Your stealing something that an author has spent years working on. I know, kinda weird that an author can't write a book over night and yep, it takes years. You're slapping them and the publisher in the face when you're stealing their work. You what, that ends up effecting me as a reader as a book that's not selling well (and is illegally down loaded a lot) isn't accounted for and therefore the publisher can/will pull it as the author nor the publisher doesn't make any money on it. Being a huge book fan, that peeves me off.

Don't just take my word for it, read what AUTHOR Saundra Mitchell wrote about it here

And you can read what our friend Carla wrote about it here


Harper Teen's The Dark Days of Supernatural Tour- TX Book Bloggers are pleading HarperTeen to bring The Dark Days of Supernatural to Texas. This is an awesome tour that will feature some of our favorite authors, like Ellen Schreiber, Cynthia Hand, Claudia Gray, Courtney Allison Moulton, and Kimberly Derting!

Normally we don't beg, as TX sees a lot of fantastic authors, but together TX bloggers are coming together to beg to bring the tour to TX. The wonderful ladies at Blue Willow in Houston have even offered to host the event. Being that TX is a huge state, full of book bloggers, A LOT of books will bought at the event. There's a handful of TX bloggers who have petitions on their sites that you can go link to like- Girls in The Stacks, A Blog about Nothing, GReads, and Cari's Blog.

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