Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Mistwood
Author: Leah Cypess
Pages: 310
Mistwood #1
Published by Greenwillow
Release Date: April 27th 2010
Source: Library
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Summary: (From Goodreads)
 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.

My Review:

Mistwood is an intriguing and magical debut novel, one that has a certain enchanted atmosphere that is definitely hard to forget. I have to admit, Mistwood didn't meet my expectations, though I did enjoy it.

As I said before, I absolutely adored the atmosphere in this novel. It actually reminded me a bit of the almost timeless feeling from Graceling by Kristin Cashore. The magical land, a castle at somepoints....this was an aspect that I really enjoyed about this novel.

The characters were interesting enough, but I did find it hard to delve into them. There were points that I was rooting for them, cheering them on, but there were also points where I didn't care about what happened to them.

I have to admit, I did love the plot. The extra twists and turns, specifically the revelation at the end really threw me....I totally did not see that coming. It makes perfect sense, and I'm not lying when I say that Leah Cypess is a genius with incorporating that twist into Mistwood.


The main reason this book is not 4 or 5 stars is that I found it hard to get through at some points. I was okay with putting it down many times, and there were times when I had to force myself to start a new chapter. This review could confuse a lot of people, but I will say that I am glad I did force myself to continue.

Nevertheless, I would definitely read another book by Leah Cypess. Her next book, called Nightspell, looks fantastic. Mistwood definitely had that perfect charm and a great plot.