Published: November 5, 2019
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 323 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 3.5/5.0
Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance perfect for fans of Practical Magic, where dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods—and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.
Be careful of the dark, dark wood…
Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.
Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.
But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.
For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.
I’m slowly making time to read the books I’ve received in subscription boxes in the last year and this is my latest read. Winterwood is beautifully atmospheric and it’s cold, wintery setting was the perfect counterbalance to the sweltering heat this time of year.
This is the story of Nora Walker, who comes from a long line of magically inclined women, though she doesn’t seem to have the same level of talent. She can walk into the dark part of the forest, where she gathers lost things to sell in town or keep as her own. One fateful night she finds a boy, one who went missing weeks prior and somehow survived a blizzard. Oliver Hunstman has secrets of his own – what happened that night, when one boy died and another went missing? Is he a murderer? Did one of the other boys commit the crime?
This was a great read that was easily finished up on a lazy weekend morning. Is it deep? Nah. But is sure was entertaining and I loved the setting. Those big mountain lakes, surrounded by dark pines, with a boys camp on one shore and a seasonal village on the other. It at once feels modern and old-world, probably because the power was out for the duration of the book. I liked Nora and some of the minor characters had a surprising amount of detail and weren’t necessarily either good or bad.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed this, though I’m glad it’s a standalone. The story was wrapped up succinctly and if a sequel were to appear, I would avoid it. No need to stretch out a complete story. There were a few harrowing moments, a big twist that I sort of saw coming, and a bit of angst/pining. It’s described as a romance, but it’s not really that big of a part of the story. Sure, Nora and Oliver end up ogling each other but it wasn’t that important.
Powder & Page 
Leave a comment