Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #0.5
Published by Harper Collins
Publish Date: October 30, 2012
ebook, approximately 68 Pages
Source: Bought
Before Perry and Aria, there was Roar and Liv.
After a childhood spent wandering the borderlands, Roar finally feels like he has a home with the Tides. His best friend Perry is like a brother to him, and Perry’s sister, Liv, is the love of his life. But Perry and Liv’s unpredictable older brother, Vale, is the Blood Lord of the Tides, and he has never looked kindly on Roar and Liv’s union. Normally, Roar couldn’t care less about Vale’s opinion. But with food running low and conditions worsening every day, Vale’s leadership is more vital—and more brutal—than ever. Desperate to protect his tribe, Vale makes a decision that will shatter the life Roar knew and change the fate of the Tides forever. –(summary excerpt from Goodreads)
I’ve recently been re-reading Under the Never Sky in preparation for the release of Through the Ever Night. (My audiobook re-read blog post is coming later today or tomorrow – watch for it!) Because I knew that this ebook was available to me as I read Under the Never Sky – I think I paid a little bit more attention to Roar this time, because I knew I would be spending a little extra time with him once the book was over. I remembered liking him the first time I read, and I remembered all of the details about him. I believe that since I listened to the audiobook while I was re-reading along with print, I gained a new perspective on his voice, his demeanor, his whole character as a whole – and I found that I loved him so much more.
If You’ll Remember: In Under the Never Sky, Roar and Perry are great friends, and Roar is madly in love with Perry’s sister Liv. Liv does not really make an appearance in Under the Never Sky – she is talked about in some detail, though, and we can tell that it is with sadness and heaviness. We find out a little bit about her throughout the first book – Liv has run away and Roar desperately wants to find her.
Because I like Roar so much, if there was more to the story of Roar and Liv, I wanted to know it. So I grabbed the novella.
There is also so much of Perry in this book – he is so very present, in fact, that many of his actions and thoughts from Under the Never Sky make more sense (not that I was ever really confused by him). Veronica Rossi is able to show in a short space how Perry feels fiercely protective over not only his sister and his friend, but his entire community, and that he would do nearly anything to protect them.
A final observation from this novella is the relationships between pretty much all of the characters – pick any two of them, and the relationship Rossi has written between them is obvious and so well-thought, so well-written. This is something that I noticed last week on my re-read even more than I noticed a year ago when I first read Under the Never Sky, so I may have been more fine-tuned to this observation when I read this novella because of my recent re-read.
Veronia Rossi stands out to me as an author with an ability to write fantastic characters living in an awesome and well-built world. These characters are well-developed and show growth, which I love, and I love that Under the Never Sky is character-driven with a little bit of action. This shorter story is much the same, just on a smaller scale. It’s a lovely, smaller piece of work that will hold me over for a few more weeks until Through the Ever Night is released, and I’m anxious to see how the new information that I’ve learned will play into the new story.
Roar and Liv is not a novella that is absolutely necessary to keep the plot flowing, in my opinion. At this point, I don’t really think it is necessary to learn vital information about any of the characters either. Am I sorry that I paid for, downloaded, and read this short book? In this case: no, I’m not. I did learn more of these characters’ stories and I’m going into the next book with more information and new/additional perspectives on a couple of them, and I can only imagine this will add to whatever may be coming up in the second part of this series.
Great Characterization
Romance: No triangle.
Short stories/Novellas
Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi
If you have, do you plan to read Roar and Liv
before continuing with this series?
About Asheley
Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.
You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.
Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!
I really loved getting to know Roar and Liv's story, but I found myself wanting even more. I was kind of sad when this novella ended, and I definitely think it could have been even longer. I wanted it to be more like a mini-novel instead of a few chapters. Having read book two now, I definitely don't think it was necessary reading but I'm still glad that I did. I think it made me even more invested in Roar and Liv's journey and hope for the future. And then also kinda broke my heart even more.
I agree that I wish this one wouldn've been a lot longer. Destroy me was I think double or a little over double the length of this one and I felt like it was really meaty. With this one, I liked it, but it just needed more. BUT I do love Roar, and I was glad to have a little bit of his story with Liv.