The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

Age Range: YA
Pages: 320
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: 1 August 2017
Genre: YA/Fantasy/ Supernatural/Time Travel

Rating: 3 Stars 

When Winter’s dad goes missing during his nightly patrol of the wood, it falls to her to patrol the time portals and protect the travelers who slip through them. Winter can't help but think there's more to her dad's disappearance than she's being told.

She soon finds a young man traveling in the wood named Henry who knows more than he should. He believes if they can work together to find his missing parents, they could discover the truth about Winter’s dad. 

The wood is poisoned, changing into something sinister—torturing travelers lost in it. Winter must put her trust in Henry in order to find the truth and those they’ve lost.

My Thoughts:

I bought this by impulse.  Seeing as this book was primarily a cover-buy, I did not have many expectations for this book.  I was just hoping for an engrossing read fantasy read that would help me with my reading slump.  Unfortunately, while it wasn't a bad book I was not as engrossing as I hoped it would be.

Winter was actually a pretty good protagonist as far as YA protagonists go.  She was a character that was going through a lot.  She lost her dad, she was forced to carry a big responsibility at a very young age, and had to try and balance this responsibility with school and friendship. Despite all of this, I didn't find Winter to be melodramatic or whiny.  She seemed to have an overall decent sense of responsibility and a decent amount of common sense.  She was by no means one of my favorite protagonists I have ever read, but I didn't find her annoying or blatantly unrealistic.  She reacted in ways that I would expect a teenaged reader would.

The real gem of this story was Henry.  He was by far my favorite character and really he was my favorite aspect of this whole book.  He was a total sweetheart and had such a great sense of humor.  I loved reading his dialog, as he had such formal way of speaking, and his lack of knowledge of the modern world was rather charming and made for a fun read.  More than anything he was so sweet and loyal to Winter. 10 out of 10, Henry was a great love interest.

The reason that this book only received three stars from me was due to the plot.  The plot was just overall lackluster for me.  I liked it, but I didn't love it.  I found the plot to be a little slow moving, and overall very predictable.  The story just didn't hook me like I hoped it would.  I went through much of the story enjoying it but waiting for something in the book to blow me away.  And by the end of the book, I was left, not hating it, but not loving it.

This book was an odd one for me because I would give the characters five stars, but the plot was a bit of a let down for me.  That is why I settled on three stars.  I figure it was a decent book overall, and I know that for the right reader, this book would be amazing, it simply, for me and my reading tastes, wasn't enough to wow me.