Cobweb Bride
Cobweb Bride, no. 1
-
-
4.1 • 224 Ratings
-
Publisher Description
Many are called...
She alone can save the world and become Death's bride.
COBWEB BRIDE (Cobweb Bride Trilogy, Book One) 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The ruritanian kingdom of Lethe, nestled between Spain and France, is denied Death's services until he is provided with his Cobweb Bride. Death's absence does not mean freedom from those things that should kill, only from the release of mortality itself. As the mortally sick and grievously injured languish, women from all over Lethe reluctantly offer themselves as Death's bride; unloved Percy is one such volunteer. Not everyone dislikes the deathless state of affairs; the "reeking corpse" of the late Duke Hoarfrost has no intention of abandoning his power merely because he should be dead, and as the migrating brides soon discover, the duke is willing to go to great extremes to keep Death retired. Norilana-owner Nazarian (Mansfield Park and Mummies) writes clean and true prose, but despite Percy's pluck and the laudable zeal with which the grasping duke chews the scenery, the story is a bit too familiar and not especially engaging.
Customer Reviews
Slow to start...
I found this series as I fell in love with the authors "Atlantis Grail" series (which was friggen amazing and I HIGHLY recommend it).
Good lord this series was hard to get into. The first maybe twenty pages had sooooo much going on and soooo many characters to keep track of I was tempted to put it down and pick up something else to enjoy. But I stuck with it as I loved the Atlantis series and knew Vera Nazarian's book would pick up.
I am very glad I stuck with it! I found Percy to be a delight- especially that frying pan to the head! Cracked me right up!
I enjoyed the whole aspect of the dead not really dying and the descriptions of how they felt. I decided to buy the trilogy to finish the series and I'm glad I did!
Vera Nazarian's ability to put a new spin on old tales is fantastic. I agree with another reviewer who said that Percy reminded her of Alanna from The Woman Who Rides Like a Man; strong, oblivious about herself, and confident with a streak of adventure.
Truly poignant and memorable
Perhaps because I am an old man, I could not read this volume without constantly tearing up. These are just my first impressions; this story will occupy my thoughts for days. The author has keen insight into family dynamics and the feelings of young women. I hope you read this book and the rest of the trilogy. I can hardly wait to read the next two volumes myself.
Cobweb Bride
A beautifully creative, lovely glimpse of what death could be if he were a person with feelings and a will. The story was slow to start and introduced so many characters in a short time that I almost gave up. I'm so glad I pressed on because the story turned out to be riveting! I can't wait to read the next book in the trilogy!