Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Check out that cover! Gorgeous! (My sister thinks its creepy. She's not at all into fantasy.)

Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir. Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

I picked up this book expecting it to be good, but not great. Like eating a bland dinner without all the tasty seasonings and spices.

Boy, was I wrong.

Heartless, book one in Tales of Goldstone Wood, started out like a fairytale with two children playing by the woods, and then jumps ahead a couple years. I was enraptured throughout the whole story, poking my head out of the book everyonce and a while to gaze about the bookstore wondering how much time had passed, just to dive right back in.

To me, a good book is one where I have NO idea what is going to happen next. I hate it when books are so predicatable.

To my delight, I had no idea what was going to happen next. And I happily kept reading until I found out.

It is an allegory, and I've read a couple reviews where people thought it came on too strong at the end. I strongly disagree with that, but it really is a matter of opinion to the reader.

Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, NC, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, and a passel of cats. When she’s not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, studies piano, painting, and fencing, and generally leads a busy life! She studied Illustration at Grace College and English Literature at Campbell University. Heartless is her debut novel.

She is happy to take reader questions at her email address: aestengl@gmail.com. Of the two planned sequels, Book 2, Veiled Rose, is scheduled to hit the shelves in summer 2011.

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• Shelfari

Website/Blog:

• Author's Blog