Christine and Ethan Rose’s new book Rowan of the Wood. Rowan tells the story of Cullen, a twelve-year-old foster-child/bookworm. Cullen loves to read, fantasy epics are his favorite, and suddenly he finds himself in one! Cullen finds a wand in the forest and his body is no longer his, Rowan, a druid priest from the 500s, is inside his mind after having been imprisoned in the wand for nearly 1,500 years!

Rowan longs to be reunited with his love, Fiana, but despares that she is dead by now. Little does he know that Fiana has been searching for him all these years, but she had to turn to dark magic to keep herself alive, so she may not exactly be as he remembered…

I’m going to be completely honest: I did not expect to like this book. I have gotten so many stinky books lately that I’ve been really depressed and wasn’t planning on putting this book on the top of my “to-read” list, but then I saw the contests the authors are hosting: http://www.christineandethanrose.com/?p=394
Holy cow! I want to win one of those! (Check your e-mails soon, I'll be sending around my newsletter with more information about those contests) I immediately sat down with the book and gobbled it up in one day.

And ya know what? I actually liked it! I thought that they were able to artfully blend pagans and druids, vampires and epics, modern times and ancient times. It was just the thing to get my mojo back again!

With that said, I do have to say this:

I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone under the age of 14. I know the intended age range is 10-12 year-olds, but I don’t think it’s quite right for them. The writing is simple enough, but there are some things that I just don’t think kids would understand-- Cullen has some deep thoughts about God; he’s treated cruelly by his foster parents (but they don’t beat him, which I liked); and there are a few sexual references (not many, but enough for me not to recommend it to someone age 10 or 11).

Aside from that, though, I thought it was a fun, light read. It’s no Marillier or Hale, but then again, Marillier and Hale have almost reached god-like status. ;)

~Enna Isilee