Book Review: Warped

Warped
by  Maurissa Guibord

Synopsis: (From Goodreads)

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.

Why I Picked This Book:  I am hungry for books involving Greek mythology.  In my searches (which didn't succeed as well as I had hoped they would) I found this book, and it grabbed me.

My Thoughts:
Warped is a fairy tale, mixed with some Greek, and splattered with Kate & Leopold (Boys, that's a movie, in case you didn't know.)  For those of looking for a change from the usual YA Paranormal story, this book could be for you.  Could be.

Imagine getting a strange tapestry at an auction, taking it home, and finding it has a loose string. You pull the string.  And out jumps a man.  Yes, a man.  What would you do?  Well, Tessa pulled a string, and out came William de Chaucy.  Soon she finds that there is more strange things going on than a man living in a tapestry.  A man from the middle ages.  The Norn (Fates) are demanding their lost strings back.  And Grey Lilly has come for her missing tapestry.

I think the over all plot was intriguing.  There is time travel.  Fates.  Second lives.  An evil witch.  Love, yes love.  And some action, here and there.

Tessa did bug me.  Most of the characters weren't too "deep" in this story.  While I don't need to know what they ate for breakfast two years ago, it would have been nice to get a little more of a handle on them.  Tessa was sarcastic, which was nice.  I enjoyed the 3rd person telling, mixed with Tessa's humor (which sadly dissipated near the end).  There just was something about Tessa I did not get drawn to.

I could never quite decide if Tessa and Will liked each other, or hated each other.  While I do know those things can go back and forth, they seemed to too much in this story.  In one scene, they would change their minds three times.  I got annoyed.

Yet I did enjoy the subplot that they had known each other in another life.  It makes you wonder: If things had been different, if Will hadn't been caught by an evil witch and trapped in a tapestry so she can channel his youth and life, would he and Tessa have been together?  Love it.

I feel like if the writing had been fine tuned a bit more, tightened a slight bit, this would have been an even more fantastic read.  It felt... loose.  Connections at times weren't fully made, and the middle did drag.  I still enjoyed it though, so it wasn't bad enough to distract from the overall story.

NOTE: Warped is a fairy tale.  A fantasy.  For those of you looking for a change from YA Paranormal, this could be for you.  While there are aspects that are the same, it is definitely different and should be read different as well.  This kind of book requires you to suspend your disbelief much much more than others.  Just, remember that.

Overall, I enjoyed Warped.  I cannot really say I loved it, but I really did like it.  If I did half stars, I would have given this a 3.5.  But, since I do not, I put it in the "I liked it" slot.  I was pulled into the story and wondered what would come next (though I did manage to predict most of it)  It was a cute love story, with a mystical twist, and warrants a good read from someone craving the fairy tale release.

My Rating:

(3 out of 5 stars)