Warped by Maurissa Guibord

Tessa Brody is a seventeen year-old girl who finds an old (REALLY OLD) unicorn tapestry and a book in a box of some other books (no other tapestries) that her dad bought from an auction. When she touches the tapestry, she gets all weird and tingly (not the fun kind of tingly, the transport-you-through-time kind). After hanging the tapestry on her wall, she notices a loose thread and yanks it out (because this is what you do with something that is 500 years-old, you compromise its structural integrity, amirite?). Upon pulling the thread, a dude by the name of Will de Chaucy appears in her room. Will is a super-hot, sort-of arrogant young English guy who was trapped by a witch some 500 years ago. The witch had turned him into a unicorn and woven his life thread (this is important) into the tapestry to keep herself forever young and beautiful. When the witch discovers that her tapestry and book are missing (silly minion lost them, you can never trust minions) and that Tessa has inadvertently freed Will, she is ROYALLY PISSED. Also, the Norn are looking for seven life threads that were stolen from the Wyrd a long time ago and think Tessa is involved (because time travel? suspicious coincidence? I don’t know). So Tessa and Will set out to defeat the evil witch and recover the stolen threads for the Norn.

Sound confusing? It’s not. It’s actually pretty awesome. It’s got a little mythology, a little fate, a lot of magic, and some PG romance. Plus, a trusty best friend and an affably clueless dad. Warped is Maurissa Guibord’s first novel and I must say, that as a whole, it is damned impressive. The narration transitions are a little spotty, but the story flows well, the characters are well developed, there are a couple of surprising plot twists, and it’s just plain interesting. The story wraps up nicely but leaves some room for a sequel. I REALLY hope there is a sequel. And, not to spoil the surprise (but clearly, I am going to), Tessa’s first name is TESSERACT. Because her mom loved A Wrinkle in Time. I squealed.

I loved that Tessa is a smart, pragmatic girl who doesn’t need Will to rescue her, she manages to rescue herself (and him). She doesn’t whine or complain (much), she just applies herself to solving the problem. Will is a bit of a jerkwad sometimes, but ultimately, he’s a good guy to have in your corner. I really only have one problem with this book. At some point, Will asks Tessa for A Midsummer Night’s Dream to read, but he’s from the year 1511 and Shakespeare wouldn’t be born until 1564. That jerked me out of the story for a minute (which I used to check Wikipedia) and that is never nice. Other than that, I pretty much loved every page.

Read it? Oh yes. The Kindle edition is kind of expensive, but your library probably has it.

Warped by Maurissa Guibord