Author: Shea Ernshaw
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: November 5, 2019
Pages: 320
Source/format: e-ARC//Publisher
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Synopsis (from goodreads.com):
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance set deep in the magical snow-covered forest, where the appearance of a mysterious boy unearths secrets that awakens the enchanted, but angry, woods.
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.
M Y T H O U G H T S
Nora is descended from a long line of Walker women who bear magic and are consider daughters of The Wicker Woods. Two weeks ago, a storm blew four feet of snow over Jackjaw Lake and Fir Haven. Two weeks ago a boy went missing and one boy was found dead. The woods are rugged, unkind and should be untrusted but Nora still walks through them because she is drawn to the woods. She always finds lost things in the woods during a full moon. After finding the missing boy from Jackjaw Camp for Wayward Boys in the woods, Nora feels connected to him. Oliver is changed by the woods.
Nora is the girl that lives across the lake. The boys at the camp tell Oliver to beware of the Walkers because the Walkers are witches and they cannot be trusted. Winterwood invokes magic within you. It's the magic of believing yourself and honoring your own power and history. While Nora's mother tries to stamp out the Walker lineage, Nora embraces it.
Shea Ernshaw's writing is gorgeous and atmospheric. She breathes life even into inanimate objects like The Wicker Woods. Winterwood is written in alternating POVs. Readers experience what Nora and Oliver experience. Ernshaw's novel is spellbinding and the descriptions are vivid, suspenseful and mysterious.
Nora is descended from a long line of Walker women who bear magic and are consider daughters of The Wicker Woods. Two weeks ago, a storm blew four feet of snow over Jackjaw Lake and Fir Haven. Two weeks ago a boy went missing and one boy was found dead. The woods are rugged, unkind and should be untrusted but Nora still walks through them because she is drawn to the woods. She always finds lost things in the woods during a full moon. After finding the missing boy from Jackjaw Camp for Wayward Boys in the woods, Nora feels connected to him. Oliver is changed by the woods.
Nora is the girl that lives across the lake. The boys at the camp tell Oliver to beware of the Walkers because the Walkers are witches and they cannot be trusted. Winterwood invokes magic within you. It's the magic of believing yourself and honoring your own power and history. While Nora's mother tries to stamp out the Walker lineage, Nora embraces it.
Shea Ernshaw's writing is gorgeous and atmospheric. She breathes life even into inanimate objects like The Wicker Woods. Winterwood is written in alternating POVs. Readers experience what Nora and Oliver experience. Ernshaw's novel is spellbinding and the descriptions are vivid, suspenseful and mysterious.
There are some instances in the book where there is a lot of repetition such as how Oliver shouldn't trust Nora or how Nora shouldn't go into the woods. At first it was bothersome to read but then again, it could be part of the characters'' own internal monologue and how their thinking patterns look and sound like.
I enjoyed reading the excerpts from the Spellbook of Moonlight & Forest Medicine. The excerpts included information about the Walker women like Florence and Willa. The Walker women remind of the Owens from Practical Magic. Both the Walkers and Owens are witches and the women who fall in love with men who come and go.
Winterwood is a well-written intriguing novel to read during a crisp autumn night with a mug of tea while curled with a blanket on the couch. Readers who enjoy Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic and Halloween Town will fall in love with Winterwood. It's the perfect October/November read.
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