Review: Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

Hey all, Dani here.

Today’s review is for a book that I absolutely had to get reviewed before the end of the current winter-y season. It’s just thematically appropriate. Anyway, I’m so glad to finally be starting to get nicely ahead of the game when it comes to prepping posts on this blog. I sat down for a few hours over the weekend, and I’ve dedicated a little bit of time each day so far this week to writing reviews and getting posts scheduled. I’m excited about being a bit more organized this year than I’ve been in the past.

Anyway, let’s just go ahead and jump into today’s review.

Book Details

Format: OwlCrate Edition Hardcover

Pages: 323

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

ISBN: 1534462791 (ISBN13: 9781534462793)

Summary

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.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

I read this as part of my #JolabokaflodReadathon. So, okay, it isn’t a super long book, and it does have a way of drawing you in so you want to keep reading. I can say that I love the fact that this book was a pretty quick read.

Oh, and it was actually really atmospheric. I can absolutely admit that this book is best enjoyed in the middle of winter, preferably when there is snow on the ground and you’re cuddled up under a blanket with a nice big mug of whatever hot beverage you prefer beside you. When I read this I had a big mug of hot cocoa, complete with a bunch of mini-marshmallows. It definitely heightened the reading experience for me.

The Walker Women are all very interesting, though most of them we only get to know because of these brief interludes in-between chapters. Still, I can say that I would greatly enjoy further stories about the Walkers and their odd and interesting abilities.

The interactions between Nora and the rest of the characters was all right, though her somewhat loner mentality made things a bit more awkward. Oliver was mysterious, and it was clear that there was some sort of connection between the two characters.

This may not have been my standard book to pick up. I though Ernshaw’s other book was good but not great, so I was willing to try another book by her. And I think I prefer this one, but I’m still not wholly blown away. I don’t usually gravitate towards books that focus on death or mystery, but I was intrigued by the woods in this one. Plus, okay, yeah, it was in my OwlCrate so I didn’t go out of my way to pick this book up or anything.

I do enjoy Ernshaw’s books. They have a nice magic to them, but most importantly the atmosphere of her novels is done so well. That’s probably why I’ll pick up the next one as well…provided that the concept sounds interesting.

Where to Get a Copy

You can grab your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound.

You can also check with your local library.