Mistwoodby Leah Cypess

The Shifter is an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats to the Mistwod.But when she is needed she always comes.Isabel remembers nothing. Nothing before the prince rode into her forest to take her back to the castle. Nothing about who she is supposed to be, or the powers she is supposed to have.Prince Rokan needs Isabel to be his Shifter. He needs her ability to shift to animal form, to wind, to mist. He needs her lethal speed and superhuman strength. And he needs her loyalty--because without it, she may be his greatest threat.Isabel knows that her prince is lying to her, but she can't help wanting to protect him from the dangers and intrigues of the court . . . until a deadly truth shatters the bond between them.Now Isabel faces a choice that threatens her loyalty, her heart . . . and everything she thought she knew. (goodreads.com)

I didn’t think I would make the half hour signing of Leah Cypress’ Mistwood at BEA, but I lucked out and I did! In fact I wasn’t even that far back in line. I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of a book I was lusting after and that my stores were not going to be getting in. (Have I mentioned how much trouble I am having with my 2010 Debut Author Challenge? None of the debut novels are being stocked in my stores! I could order them online, but I am seriously trying to not put any more money on my credit cards. But I digress...) So of course I made sure that this book was in my backpack so that I could read it on the train (where I am writing this review, in fact!)Mistwood was a quick read. I was done in the blink of an eye and I have to be honest, I don’t know what I think about it. On one hand it had this potential epic fantasy feel to it though the story was far from epic. I think it was a little too rushed. I felt like the story kept jumping around and just when I thought it was going to go on in one direction, suddenly something else was happening.I didn’t know who to trust. I still don’t even know what Clarisse’s motives were other than to herself and the sort of Big Reveal at the end was just dropped on us and then no time was given to digest what Isabelle had just suddenly realized (and to be honest, I have NO clue how she came to that conclusion. It wasn’t exactly foreshadowed throughout the book. People kept appearing and vanishing and no one seemed to be dead when they were thought otherwise, people were randomly betraying people and it wasn’t always the same person.I would have liked to have learned more about this Shifter creature that Isabelle was supposed to be. It wasn’t really described all that well in my opinion. The ending completely threw me because it seemed to just END and no one dealt with the information they had just received.Somehow I knew this book was going to end with the prince dude falling in love with the shifter, and sure enough. But am I the only one who thought his admission of love was completely out of left field? I felt no connection between any of the characters, let alone a fairy tale love between Isabelle and Rokan. Heck, I didn’t feel any connection between myself and the characters. I felt like Isabelle was 2-dimensional and although I knew I should be caring about her – I just didn’t.I am sad to say I was highly disappointed with this novel. I wish it was just a little bit more threshed out and had more, I don’t know, plot or character development. It certainly needed more character development. That would have made it much more epic and less disappointing.