From the dust jacket: “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.”

We received a new shipment of books in the library at school the other day, so I was in heaven!  I picked up a bunch of books, and Mistwood happens to be one of them.  With such a beautiful cover, I was drawn to it.  The synopsis peaked my interest, and I was glad to see an original idea–the shifter being a magical creature (not a werewolf) that protects the royal family.  I’ll admit, when I first read the word “shifter,” I was thinking werewolf, and immediately groaned, “not another werewolf story…” but I was relieved to find out that this novel is nothing of the sort!

Most of the novel is shrouded in mystery.  Isabel is a shifter, meaning that she can shift into anything–mist, stone, a wolf, a bird, etc.  She is magically bound to protect the royal family, but something happened, and she has forgotten everything about her past.  It is here that the novel opens, and Isabel must grapple with her fleeting memory, her animal instincts, and her new found humanity–a trait she is told she should not possess.  Hence, the mystery.  Cypress does a wonderful job keeping the reader focused and interested in the story through the many betrayals that ensue between all the characters, as Isabel tries to figure out who, and what, she really is.  The characters were sound, and it was easy to like that characters you were supposed to like, and to hate the characters that were evil, although some twists in the story will realign your loyalties as your read.  I am very excited to read the next novel in this series, Nightspell, which will be coming out at the very end of May, however I have heard that this sequel will stand alone, and does not continue with the story of Mistwood.  Four stars!