Mistwood By Leah Cypress Review #61

Author: Leah Cypress

Publisher: Greenwillow

Pages: 320

Rating:

The Shifter is an immortalcreature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats tothe Mistwood. But when she is needed she always comes.

Isabel remembers nothing. Nothing before the prince rode into her forest to take her back to the castle. Nothing about who she is supposed to be, or the powers she is supposed to have.

Prince Rokan needs Isabel to be his Shifter. He needs her ability to shift to animal form, to wind, to mist. He needs her lethal speed and superhuman strength. And he needs her loyalty—because without it, she may be his greatest threat.

Isabel knows that her prince is lying to her, but she can't help wanting to protect him from the dangers and intrigues of the court . . . until a deadly truth shatters the bond between them.

Now Isabel faces a choice that threatens her loyalty, her heart . . . and everything she thought she knew.

This review is going to, probably, sound mostly negative. But I do not want to give the wrong impression to people reading this review. I did enjoy this novel, quite a lot. I couldn't stop reading it, and when I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it. This book was fast pace, and enjoyable. But in the end, I came to conclusion of giving it three stars. Now onto the review!!

Something in Mistwood that bothered me, was Isabel (protagonist) knew things that were never mentioned before. The best way to describe this is, there are scenes were she'll just randomly start thinking about someone (or talking). She'll say there name and all about them, and as a reader your thinking: when did she meet this person. I felt this story biggest problem was the timing. It was rushed way to much, to the point where I was getting confused.

Now for anyone who hasn't read this novel, Isabel comes to this castle as a shapeshifter. But she has no previous memory of her life. Now I believe that this rush in the story, made me feel that her loss of memory was unbelievable. I think that if the story weren't so fast paced, and spent more time going through the days when the main character first got there then it would be a bit more realistic.

The characters were all strongly built, my favorite being Rokan and his sister Clarisse. Even though the story is told in third person, which by the way was magnificently done, Isabel was the character you as a reader felt more in touch with. At first I found her character development quite slow, and really saw none. I really didn't notice any change in her until the very end, and somehow that worked out really well. Especially with the romance element, which is very distant in the novel. It's obvious, but you don't really feel it until mid way through. But when the scene comes for romance between protagonist and love interest you'll be happy and disappointed.

Which leads me to my next point, I hope there is a sequel. This novel would feel incomplete without it. Some of the mysteries are still yet to be resolved/found out.

The plot twists were mostly predictable, there was only one that shocked me.

Overall it was a good book, but I thought it could of been developed in some areas. The writing is beautifully done, and it will be easy for readers to get into the world of Mistwood and become attach to it.

Yours Truly,