Scarlet Moon by Debbie Viguie

“Ruth’s grandmother lives in the forest, banished there for the “evil” that the townsfolk believed she practiced. But if studying the stars, learning about nature, and dreaming of flying are evil, then Ruth is guilty of it too. Whenever Ruth took food and supplies to her grandmother, she would sit with the old woman for hours, listening and learning. When she wasn’t in the woods, Ruth was learning the trade of her father, a blacksmith, now that her brother would never return from the Crusades. 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 make of the family has strange blood running in his veins. Now Ruth must come face-to-face with his destiny at Grandma’s house…”

This is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood, a story that I have never really been that found of. However, I actually loved this book! It really brought the whole fairy tale to life, and gave the characters so much more depth. Ruth isn’t your typical girl. She is very pretty, but knows how to fight. She has a love of learning and nature, but works as a blacksmith. William is a great character and you really feel for him and the trails he has to live through. They have great chemistry together. You fall in love with Grandma, and I couldn’t help picturing walking through the beautiful woods to go for a visit at Grandma’s house. The story was full of love, passion, adventure and mystery. There are some parts which are a bit violent, so I wouldn’t recommend it to a young audience. My only complaint is that the book was too short; I would have loved it if it had been a full length novel and really delved into the characters and the story. Since the author was limit to page count, some parts did feel a little rushed, or tied up too quickly. Those were all easy to overlook though, the story as a whole was just fantastic.

Of all the Once Upon a Time books this is by far my favorite. Some of the others seemed to be out there, but this one was more along the lines of a traditional fairy tale and yet was still unique.