Do you remember that song that goes like... Tale as old as time... Yep, Disney. I'm shure you remember. This book had promisse but it didn't work out. The world is not well explain and a worst version of so many others that use the same principle. Poor girl, ostracized because she is "strange", trying to live her life in a world full of monsters, find out that one is not so much monster as she tough it was. I can think of at least 10 books with the same plot. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that stories with this plot will be bad. I actually enjoy reading about this and specially love the worldbuilding needed. But execution is key. And this just fell flat for me. It fell like a mash up of a few pop culture icons with a boring, boring story. Really I end up skipping 1/3 of the thing and when I get back to reading I didn´t miss a thing. In the middle of the book. Where things should happen. I'm pretty disapointed. I like the previous series of the author and I have high hopes for this, but in the end I feel that I got a belle and the beast without the talking furniture, where the beast is Angel from the 90's TV series. Is well writen in the sense of gramatic and prose, and because of that it gets a star. But really, that was reeeally boring.

Holmberg's novel is set in a small village of Fendell which is close to the wildwood, through which supernatural creatures. collectively called mystings, have a tendency to slip through the veil from the monster world. We follow Enna, a girl living with her father (once a renowned sword fighter, now demented) after her mother's passing. One day she's a normal girl, selling mushrooms with her father in the market, and taking care of him. The next day she's marked by a monster, summons a trickster and as by magic she is swept away on a quest to save herself and her soul.

I did like the world building, it felt believable (as far as fantasy worlds go!). The descriptions of the wildwood were beautiful and very poetic as were the descriptions of the mystings (they felt original too!). The plot point of Enna's grandmother's journal with all the descriptions of various mystings were great, and I liked that a part of the story was about her finishing/editing this book, continuing on with her grandmother's work. I would have loved if the magic system was a bit more explained than it was. That part of the story felt rushed, unfortunately. I did like the romance part of the story, it was cute - although I did expected it to happen as soon as Maekallus turned up in the story, which made it quite boring. Cute, but boring.

I was happy to read the novel, it was enjoyable and I also enjoyed that things didn't always work out for Enna straight away: she had to actually research and study to get to where she wanted to be. I also enjoyed the sort of slow pace Holmberg was going for. There wasn't really a "save the world" plot, more so a "find oneself/save oneself"-situation which was great to find in a fantasy novel. Enna wasn't a chosen one, she was Enna.

The story of a girl and a monster who become part of each other piece by piece.

I really enjoyed this book. I love fairy tales and am just starting to get more into the fantasy genre so this was a great book that had aspects of both of those. The characters were fully developed and completely awesome, even the supporting characters. There are hero’s and villains, humans and monsters, magic spells, enchanted stones and all that jazz. What could be better?

This is the story of a girl named Enna who is a bit of an outcast in her village because her papa’s mind is not all there. What most of the villagers don’t know or remember is that her father lost part of his mind in the war against the misting. The misting are monsters from another world or dimension called “The Deep” they come through portal rings to the wildwoods and at one point an Orjan called Shroud had amassed an army of monsters to go to war with humans.

Enna’s Mother was killed during that time while pregnant and her father had to cut Enna out of her body. He later went into the deep and brought back a telling stone that Enna now wears on her wrist. It warns her when misting are near. Her father warned her never to let anyone see it. Though he sacrificed a lot to get it and he was the only human to ever go into The Deep.

“The mortal realm will devour a misting body. The monster realm will destroy a human’s mind.”

When Enna is attacked by a Gobbler misting and the telling stone warns of another close, she decides to summon a misting that she can bargain with to protect her. That is how she meets Maekallus who is a Narval misting. I won’t give away any spoilers as to his appearance, but to say he is humanoid. Though all mistings do not have a soul.

Enna and Maekallus end up bound and have to work together to save their lives and Enna’s soul. The resulting adventure is truly original and the way the romance built up was very good.

I really just got an epic romance fairytale feeling from this book. At one point I was crying like my dog was dying. Because there are sometimes when the differences between two people are just too big to overcome.

As with every Holmberg story, I was so sad to reach the end. Beautiful characters and a unique and vibrant world. Enna is a strong and fierce protagonist who is trusting and powerful in equal measure. Maeksllus was an interesting character as well, as he changes through the course of the book.