A review by slc333
Mistwood by Leah Cypess

2.0

Ok so this started well and I liked Isabel to begin with and was very interested in what happened previously and why she couldn't remember. But then we spend the next 80% of the book wandering along in confusion, amongst a cast of arrogant, and unlikeable characters with the supposedly infallible (but really not) Isabel as these questions are not answered. And while her emotionless shifter state is made much of it was only interesting in the beginning. Obviously she is having human feelings - the story would have been better if she actually developed these properly and someone noticed. Her interactions with Ven would have been perfect for this but that was abruptly cut short then never re-visited. I liked Ven & Isabel together. And I didn't particularly like Rokan. He lies to Isabel and tricks her and he is
Spoiler not the rightful king. Why is he the good guy and Kaer the bad guy? As far I can see we only have Rokan's second-hand view that the original king was bad for the kingdom and he heard it from his cruel, somewhat abusive father who overthrew the rightful king. We don't know it's true. And even if it is true, Kaer is not his father. How does Rokan know he will be a bad king - He doesn't. All this when coupled with Isabel's recollection in the end that she is the princess, Kaer is actually her brother and the shifter merged into her to save her, make her decision to support Rokan and allow her brother THE RIGHTFUL KING to be killed the wrong one (to me) Especailly as Rokan knew he wasn't the rightful heir and Kaer had given him a chance to hand over the throne and live. I felt like the bad guys won
Spoiler I also felt the 'romance' between Isabel and Rokan was non-existent except for Rokan declaration of love at the end of the book. We saw no signs of affection on his part whatsoever - he kept harping on her lack of emotion and humanity, disregarded her advise and had tricked her into serving him. If I was Isabel I would suspect the declaration was driven not by emotion but by the revelation of who she is.