Winter Sparrow
by Estevan Vega
Release Date: Sept 2012
Publisher: Stonehouse Ink
Formats Available: eBook & Print ~195 pages
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Tour Host: RBTL Tours
Book Blurb:
“I’ll grow wings all by myself.”
Mary is a young artist about to enter a new chapter in her life. After years of waiting and searching, she has finally found true love. She’s also just discovered that her fiancé Joshua has inherited his father’s rundown countryside mansion. To add to the rising pressure, her wedding day is so close she can practically hear the music. All she has to do is accept what the future holds. Accept…and be happy.
But something’s missing.
As the seasons change, her doubts turn to fears, and her fears become reality. Through struggle and loss, the love she once possessed for Joshua transforms into contempt. When Mary is confronted with a magical escape, the life she has and the life she dreams of will collide, awakening a mysterious change within. But no choice comes without cost, and each one will draw her closer to the truth.
At times both beautiful and haunting, Winter Sparrow dares you to step into a world where eternity is a moment and every breath is a second chance. The fantasy begins….
Winter Sparrow is a beautifully written story. I read it in about an hour as it is more of a novella than a full length novel. The story is about Mary, a girl who has issues with herself and with her mind. She is in love with Joshua and they plan to marry and live in his dad's mansion out in the middle of the woods. Although Mary hates the house, she loves the garden and reluctantly agrees to live there.However, their marriage isn't what Mary thought it would be and they drift apart. He is tirelessly working on the house for them and she is left without purpose and can't bring out her creativity to paint and is left empty. Then after she has a miscarriage, they become two people who live together rather than a couple. Mary's mental stability starts to unravel and then tragedy strikes and her savior is not what he seems and her life becomes a dream and reality is long gone.
Winter Sparrow is a book that I had to think about for a while before writing about. On the surface it is a romance with a paranormal twist. And while the prose was poetic, the plot has huge holes. Why are the woods magic? Who is Lucas and why is he there? And how does Joshua and his family fit into everything? I was left with more questions than I had answers. As I thought about the story more, I realized that it is more about the symbolism and the allegorical inferences then the actual storyline. This is a story about redemption and is very in line with biblical themes. From this standpoint I can see what Mr. Vega was trying to create.. While I still would like a fully formed book with a back story, more answers and characters that make sense, I am able to see the underlying beauty of Winter Sparrow that left me with a sense of awe and heartache.
FTC Advisory: I was given a copy of this book from the author for an honest review as part of a blog tour. No backroom deals or whispered promises were made.
By the end of September, dawn resembled dark poetry. A spellbound earth sat behind the hills and clouds and dim but rising light. It was made new by irregular colors. The trees on the south end of the mansion flexed rebelliously out of the black dirt womb and created skinny branches. The shades of leaves faded. Mary imagined mutinous veins charging up the bark of its tree—the very same wires that showed the lifeline of every leaf that would soon slip off to die—as a nearly invisible force that plagued the world. The world was so unbalanced. When would she be able to explain the mystery of death? The mystery of change? Or perhaps no clean answer existed for why things were lost. Perhaps only the fallow grounds of the earth displayed the questions with similar unfinished lines.
Mary blinked and realized the sunrise had already come, and she had missed its final movement. She turned her gaze from the strange reality of nature to her still canvas—a pale, man-made thing desperate to come alive again with a fresh soul. Her paint¬ing had no beginning and no end. Where was her inspiration?
The light reaching down from a sky with no conviction seemed like a curse. There was no common ground in her, she knew that now more than ever. Maybe there had never been. She was purgatory, if such a wretched place could be conceived while wives were left empty.
The sounds of her husband hammering in the hallway less than fifty feet away encompassed her. Every time he swung against that drywall, she felt her brain brush up against her skull, wondering if ever he’d hit it hard enough to render her unconscious.
The center of her quivered at the thought of being reunited with him. He didn’t deserve to have her. Nor did the sky, with all of its apathy and neglect. Stuck in this spot. Stuck in this house. Stuck in this body with no life. Her roots had been planted deep, with no true comprehension that these grounds would seek to contain her for eternities no dream could compose.
Estevan Vega fell in love with storytelling in the fifth grade when he was forced to write short stories every day for English class. That's right, forced. But with a little help from his father, he realized, he actually liked writing and loved people's reaction to his work. Now, after many, many moons, Estevan Vega has authored 6 books and several short stories all ready to be consumed by you. His hobbies include singing in the shower, going to concerts, and trying to always emulate Optimus Prime. He loves Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, writing peculiar tales, and still hasn't learned how to whistle.
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