Blog Tour Review: Tangled Webs by Lee Bross

Crushed on by kelly, on June 26, 2015, in Blog Tour, Guest Post, Reviews / 0 Comments

Blog Tour Review: Tangled Webs by Lee Bross

BookCrushin is so excited to host the final stop on the Rock Star blog tour for Tangled Webs by Lee Bross! Today we have an awesome guest post from Lee Bross and our spoiler-free review! You can find all the book information below & a tour wide giveaway! This is a great summer read and not to be missed!

Tangled Webs by Lee Bross

Category: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Publication: June 23rd, 2015; Disney-Hyperion
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 323

London, 1725. Everybody has a secret. Lady A will keep yours—for a price. This sumptuous, scandalous YA novel is wickedly addictive.

Lady A is the most notorious blackmailer in the city. With just a mask and a gown to disguise her, she sweeps into lavish balls and exclusive events collecting the most valuable currency in 1725 London—secrets.

But leading a double life isn’t easy. By day Lady A is just a sixteen-year-old girl named Arista who lives in fear of her abusive master, Bones, and passes herself off as a boy to move safely through the squalor of London’s slums. When Bones attempts to dispose of his pawn forever, Arista is rescued by the last person she expects: Jonathan Wild, the infamous Thief Taker General who moves seamlessly between the city’s criminal underworld and its most elite upper circles. Arista partners with Wild on her own terms in the hopes of saving enough money to buy passage out of London.

Everything changes when she meets Graeden Sinclair, the son of a wealthy merchant. Grae has traveled the world, has seen the exotic lands Arista has longed to escape to her whole life, and he loves Arista for who she is—not for what she can do for him. Being with Grae gives something Arista something precious that she swore off long ago: hope. He has promised to help Arista escape the life of crime that has claimed her since she was a child. But can you ever truly escape the past?

Guest Post:

I had the pleasure of asking Lee Bross (Thank You!) a few questions about writing Tangled Webs! I hope you all enjoy! Also be sure to check out my spoiler-free review below!

Why did you chose the setting and time frame for this novel? Do you think it would have the same impact if set in the present day?

I think that WEBS would have been really cool as a contemporary, but I am partial to historical fiction and I loved the idea that Arista would be sneaking into masquerade balls (which were all the rage and many were a mix of the poor and the rich which was just perfect for what I needed them for) I chose 1725 London because it was a time period where crime and decadence and wealth were just all out there. There were huge class discrepancies and yet the rich were just as unscrupulous as the poor were.

When I see the words scandalous to describe a YA novel, I am immediately intrigued! Was it hard to sell this as a YA?

Not at all! I don’t think that one editor comment came back that thought this was not sellable as YA.

What was your go-to playlist or other forms of inspiration while writing Tangled Webs?

Usually when I write I like to listen to alternative rock, but for WEBS I had to find something with no words and that invoked the time period. I found the perfect match in romantic classic movie scores. They were big and complicated and they really struck a chord that helped me be more descriptive and lush with the words. Sometimes I could even picture the dancers at the ball swirling around the ballroom!

Spoiler-Free Review:

[book rating=4.0/5.0]

From the minute I turned the first page of Tangled Webs I was immediately drawn into its fantastical world. I haven’t read a lot of historical YA, so I wasn’t sure what I was in for, but I absolutely devoured this book; hook, line & sinker! It was fast-paced, action packed and so alluring! Plus the romance and the intrigue had me trying to quell my fear of boats to just sail away! All aboard!

I loved the flow of the book and the writing. I don’t read many books written in third person, but after a few chapters I was completely at ease with this type of voice. The historical aspects of the book were interesting in that they were more about the setting than the actual plot; it was the perfect amount to set the scene without being cumbersome. Lee Bross did a great job in deepening the plot and keeping me on the edge of my kindle dying to turn the pages! I had to know more; I had to figure out the mystery; I pleaded for a HEA! But I will keep all that bottled up inside me because loose lips sink ships!

Arista hasn’t had an easy life and hates to her very core what she has to do to survive. Even though she is extremely talented as a criminal she takes absolutely no pride in it, but accepts that this is her only way to keep afloat. She is definitely depressed, full of self-doubt and feels meek, but to the contrary she is very caring, loyal and strong. Plus she can kick-butt and defend herself in the treacherous streets of 18th Century London.

Arista had one anchor and that was Nic, but soon she had to take control of her life and try to do what was best to secure her own future. Plus her run-in with Graeden Sinclair, the son of a wealthy merchant, had consumed all that she may have felt before because nothing ever sparked like it did when she recalled thoughts of Grae and the allure of escape.

The only thing that kept this from being 5 stars was that I craved more romance and unfortunately that aspect of the story didn’t develop they way I had hoped and felt a bit too rushed. One of my biggest pet peeves as a reader is instalove, but I understand that, for the times, the whole point of those masquerades parties was to be swept away in debauchery and scandal, so falling for the beauty at the ball can be expected. But my greedy heart wanted more build up and screen time for the love story mainly because Arista deserved extra kisses on the wrist as well as more dancing and twirling with the gorgeous Grae! Here’s hoping that Grae and Arista get more time to explore their romance in the next installment in this unique series.

Hope you enjoyed my nautical themed review & it wasn’t too hackney! I can’t wait to see what kind of expedition book 2 takes us on! Bon voyage!