5 Stars
Ruth is attacked by a wolf as a child, and ever after has a fear of entering the woods near her home. When her brother leaves to join the Holy Wars, her father is left without help in the blacksmith shop and so Ruth takes over her brothers duties. She is comfortable in her role as blacksmith, and continues to brave her fear in order to visit her grandmother in the woods, who's been cast out of the village for accusations of witchcraft. "Amidst these dark days, a new man enters Ruth's life. William is a noble with a hot temper and a bad name, and he makes her shiver. But the young man is prey to his heritage, a curse placed on his family ages ago, and each male of the family has strange blood running in his veins. Now Ruth must come face-to-face with his destiny at Grandma's house..." (Taken partially from the back cover.)
Okay. Yes, this really is a rewrite of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. And, yes, if I had bothered to really read the back cover first, I might not have read it, either. Another in the "Once Upon a Time..." series, I hoped that this book would live up to the potential it had. Because, truthfully, "Little Red Riding Hood" has always been a pretty creepy tale. So adding werewolves (sorry for the spoiler as I'm sure you were all going to rush out and read this...) to the mix is actually not a large stretch for me. The concept could have been kind of cool. Unfortunately, the writing is as cheesy as the back cover makes it sound, coming across as trite and contrived. The moral of this review? Read every single one of Cameron Dokey's books in this series--but maybe don't bother with any of the other authors.
