Saturday, February 21, 2015

Goldilocks / Patria L. Dunn


Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Fantasy / Folk Tales / Young Adult

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Patria L. Dunn hails from the small town of Louisa Virginia. Born in 1981, a true child of the 80's; her interests range from classic to unimaginable. A young woman with many talents and many titles such as: Pianist, Author, Poet and most importantly Mother, if you ask her about her accomplishments she will tell you: ‘The best is yet to come.’"

For more, visit Dunn's website.

Description:

“At seventeen years old, Hannah Adler has already lost her mother to a brutal murder, and her father to a job that keeps him away more often than not. It couldn’t get any worse for this depressed teen, except it does when she is abruptly uprooted from the city and only home she’s ever known and deposited in the gold rich mountains of Hinsdale Colorado. Never one to make friends easily, the only thing that keeps Hannah grounded is her star quality cross country talent. While running through the woods behind the cabin, that is now her home, gives her solace, Hannah quickly discovers that this seemingly enchanted forest is hiding something that no one is willing to talk about.”

Appraisal:

"There are three bears, a girl with honey gold blonde hair, and a secret lair, but this story is far from the children’s fairy tale our parents used to read to us when we were kids."

Paul Adler, trying to reconnect with his daughter, takes a job as a mine inspector for Golden Wonder Mines in Colorado, where he won’t have to travel as much. Leaving the D.C. area is not an easy adjustment for Hannah to make, at least her new school has a cross country team for her to join. The relationship between Paul and Hannah is strained for a while, however Hannah relents and vows to try to adjust to living in the middle of nowhere. At least their cabin has an indoor bathroom.

When school starts things seem quite ordinary and Hannah makes a couple of friends on the cross-country team. However there is one boy that seems to stand out from the rest at school, he is larger and a little different from the other boys. His name is Jake Bear and he intrigues Hanna. As the story unfolds she can tell that he is keeping things from her.

The mine is having trouble with cave-ins so Paul is very busy at work and gets worried about Hanna running in the woods. Hanna loves running in the woods until one day she is stalked by a huge wolf. Luckily a bear comes out of nowhere and saves her. Ms. Dunn has done an excellent job creating an ancient myth for this world, which makes the story read like an urban fantasy. The plot keeps a steady pace as new elements come to light and things start to change between Jake and Hanna. It’s a unique story that turns the old fairy tale upside down with a few unexpected twists. The characters are easy to like and the author’s descriptive prose paints realistic pictures of the wilderness. This is a fun read to get lost in.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found a small number of proofing problems that include missing, extra words, or wrong words.

Rating: **** Four stars

No comments: