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Bookworm Dreams

Hi, my name is Dragana, and I’m a book-o-holic. My goal in life is to read all the speculative fiction novels in the world. (or at least try)  :)

You can also find me on: Bookworm Dreams Blog

Historical fantasy with interesting view why death is an essential part of life

Cobweb Bride - Vera Nazarian

Cobweb Bride with theme about Death looking for a bride and the fact that main heroine is called Persephone fooled me into thinking it will be a retelling of a famous greek myth about Persephone and Hades. But Vera Nazarian didn't do this, instead she created a different and completely unique story.

 

Set in an imaginary European country, Cobweb Bride takes place during Renaissance, one of my favorite historical periods. There will be glittering courts and their intrigues, intricate wigs and fashion, but also we will get a glimpse of how the poor lived in this time, because the heroes ofCobweb Bride are from different social groups.

 

As I already said, Cobweb Bride is about a peculiar subject. Death appears and declares that there will be no more dying until his cobweb bride arrives to his home in Northern Forest. A lot of horrible things happen because nobody can't die: mutilated soldiers in battles never get relief, old sick people are endlessly tortured by disease, even animal can not be killed anymore... The plot of the book unravels slowly. Vera Nazarian does not want to miss anything and in great detail shows us how absence of death influences all spheres of life and of course different reactions of people.

 

This is one of those times when it's better if you skip reading the book summary, because they wrote all events from the first part of Cobweb Bride Trilogy. So if you have read the summary, you might feel that the book ended without much happening or that it was boring. Since I skip reading book summaries exactly for the reason of not spoiling something, I didn't have this problem.

 

I enjoyed reading Cobweb Bride, although it was slow at times. I liked that Persephone aka. Percy is ordinary girl and not some awesome beauty and I enjoyed reading about her adventures. I expected much more romance because Cobweb Bride is advertised as fantasy romance, but the love story is very subtle and starts developing only at the end of the book.

 

In The End...

If you like reading about realistic heroines, alternate history, noble knights and quests, then Vera Nazarian wrote a perfect book for you. If you are looking for a classic retelling of Hades and Persephone myth or a lot of romance, you might be disappointed.

 

Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Source: http://bookwormdream.blogspot.com/2013/07/book-review-cobweb-bride-by-vera.html