Title: Mistwood
Author: Leah Cypess
Fantasy YA
Published April 27th 2010 by Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins
Goodreads summary:
The Shifter is an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats to the 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.
Review:
Much like the novel’s title implies, a great deal of the events in Mistwood are shrouded in mystery.
We open meeting Isabel, the kingdom of Samorna’s Shifter. Not human, her only purpose is to protect the king. Isabel has lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years in the Mistwood, where she can shift forms from human to animal to the very mist itself. And now her king needs her. But the problem is that Isabel can’t remember anything– not even how to shift.
Cypess builds a novel that is an easy read with a very smooth flow. It’s a story that’s easy to fall into, but I wish that the characters had ventured beyond the castle and the Mistwood– I think that it would have added “texture” to the world. As it was, I felt that the castle and Mistwood were interesting places, but the world itself didn’t come alive for me.
Some reviews have claimed that the character of Isabel fell flat, but I have to disagree. Isabel struggles to be flat. That’s what a Shifter should be. A Shifter isn’t supposed to be bogged down with humanity or such mundane things as emotions, but Isabel is. So what does that make her?
And certainly there’s an element of romance in Mistwood (isn’t there always?) but I truly appreciated how it took a backseat to the rest of the story because there are court intrigues and Isabel’s personal mysteries to work through. And those fascinated me far more than a romance would have in this novel.
Cypess truly threw me for loop with an unexpected twist near the end. I love when authors manage to pull that off. To surprise me and have me believe it because all of the pieces fit and make sense with the rest of the story.
With plots against the crown, and the question of who has the right to it, Mistwood is a novel where everyone’s loyalties are in question– even Isabel’s, herself.
Overall rating: 3.5/5. It’s always pleasant to discover a fantasy author whose work reads as easily as Cypess’s. I will definitely be picking up the companion novel, Nightspell.
