Book Review: Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0782-2
Publisher: Bethany House
Retail: $14.99

Rose Red trusts no one with her secret. She hides in the forest, her face veiled in rags, shunning the company of all save her old father and her nanny goat. Her life is bleak and lonely.
Until she meets a privileged young man sent to spend his summer in the mountains. Headstrong young Leo startles everyone by befriending Rose Red, and together they begin searching for the monster rumored to be stalking these lands.
But the hunt, which began as a game, holds greater risk than either imagines. Soon both are forced to test their trust in each other as a far more terrifying scourge puts their entire land at risk.

The genre is fantasy and reminded me of books I had read when I was younger that were also in this genre. Perhaps The Lord of the Rings…but not quite. A cross between C. S. Lewis and Tolkien? The second book in the Tales of Goldstone Woods series, Veiled Rose features Rose Red, a girl with a very real secret. She is the main character, with Leo, Daylilly, Foxbrush, and a few other characters speckled throughout. The dragon, the lady in Leo’s ‘dreams’ and the wood thrush (yes, a bird…but is it really?) are the other characters prominent throughout the story.

“…subtly laced with legends and Christian allegory akin to C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series.” (Elizabeth Ponder, Booklist, as cited by Bethany House)

Three hundred sixty five pages in this story (the book says 384 pages, but that includes a prologue and first chapter of the next book, Moonblood) and I stayed up until almost 2 am to read more than half of it. I finished it the next morning. Because I hadn’t known about this series, I didn’t read the first book. It would have been a little easier to follow if I had read the first book, I am sure, but I still enjoyed the second in the series.

There are fairie people, dragons, goats (lol, well one goat), demons (I would venture to call them that even if they aren’t spelled out that way in the book), good and evil, right and wrong, struggles against wants and needs. It was a very interesting book to me. There wasn’t mushiness in the book (I cannot stand ‘love scenes’) but you can sense love and adoration and there is at least one scene where there is a brief but passionate kiss.

It wasn’t often that I knew what was going to happen next and it was appreciated. The characters were not as detailed as I had hoped. The imagery with words didn’t paint very clear pictures for me (but that could be me being spoiled) in many parts of the book. The plot was quick but I really liked how the characters portrayed quite human traits. Even the goat

I liked the book and went looking for the first to read. I went looking for it at my library. They don’t have it. Imagine that… (sarcasm). I received this book free in exchange for an honest review and was not required to write a positive one.