Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a beautiful cover! I was fortunate enough to get the Owlcrate exclusive cover of this and I love it, absolutely gorgeous. Made this the BOTM in my book club, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first book by Shea Ernshaw I’ve ever read. I had seen The Wicked Deep but hadn’t paid much attention to it, now I’m considering grabbing a copy of it here soon.
I won’t be writing a synopsis on this, goodreads provides a pretty good one already, so I’ll just dive into my own personal thoughts on the book.
It is cozy but it is also eerie. I loved the cozy feeling of the book, a lake, cabins, winter, fireplaces and the like. Growing up in Maine surrounded by these things (and now living without in Oklahoma) this was a nostalgic taste of the woods for me. As for the eerie bits, those were interesting too, I enjoyed the lore of the Walker Women, witches, and their nightshades.
(view spoiler)[I am a bit bummed it only focused on the Walker Women, what if one of the Walker Women had birthed a son? I also got really tired of the 60% of the book that was ‘did he do it??’ and ‘is he lying’ and ‘OwO those eyes though, I mean I know he might’ve murdered someone but man can he kiss!‘ I just sort of wanted more Walker Women lore, or more clues as to what actually happened, and I felt that Oliver and Nora fell in love too fast (like instantly attracted to each other but took the whole book to do much of anything about it). I suppose I wanted more chapters in the Wicker Woods. It was more of a chasing each other around saving each other from their own dumb decisions and slowly unwraveling their love and mystery together.
I did like the ending however, it was sweet. I would have been mad had Oliver just left completely. The twist at the end was nice too. My husband asked about it and I pretty much summed it up as a winter woods witch adventure with some The Sixth Sense and Edge of Tomorrow sprinkled on top. (hide spoiler)]
Despite my criticisms, I did enjoy this book, and it made me crave more cozy winter adventures. Perhaps less murder mystery ones though, and more cozy winter stories like the cozy winters in Urchin and the Heartstone (those have battles and things too!)
This book was definitely a breath of fresh air from the last two books I read, and I would recommend if you like magical forests and mysteries, and slow burn romances, this is the book for you.
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