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5.0 out of 5 stars
Scarlet Moon, April 14 2006
"The Truce Face of Love."When she was only a small girl, Ruth went through a traumatic event---a frightening attack. One day, she was skipping happily in the woods, alongside her beloved older brother, Stephen. It had been during the autumn season. But little did the two children know, even though the magical trees around them whispered desperate warnings to them, that a horrible creature was watching them silently, waiting. A giant wolf with brilliant green eyes jumped out from a bush and bit hard into Ruth's legs. As she screamed, Stephen unsheathed his jeweled dagger and stabbed the rabid wolf. It howled in pain and sulked off to lick its wounds, finally letting go of its fierce grasp on Ruth. As Stephen dragged the nearly-unconscious Ruth back to their small England village, a search party went out to the woods. The wolf that had attacked Ruth was never found. Soon after Ruth's attack, which she miraculously survived with only scars on her legs, Stephen and Ruth's orphan older cousin, Peter, who lived with Ruth and her father, Jacob, had left to fight in the Crusades in Jerusalem. Before leaving, Stephen gave Ruth his jeweled dagger, the one that stabbed the wolf, so that she might have protection from any more dangers in the future, while Stephen is gone. Then he and Peter left. It was the last time Ruth ever saw her beloved older brother Stephen ever again. Nine years later, sixteen-year-old Ruth does the hard work of a man: she is a blacksmith, following in the footsteps of her father. After those nine long years of waiting for news o Stephen, Peter finally returned. His eyes held within them a deep and terrible sadness; his hair was unkempt, his face dirty, his clothes tattered. It was then that Ruth and Jacob learned that Stephen had been killed in battle. Peter brought back Stephen's armor---and on the emblem, the moon was splattered with Stephen's red blood. It was a scarlet moon. Ruth's only solace in her times of sadness, trying to deal with Stephen's unfortunate death, is going to visit her kindly grandmother in a clearing in the woods. Ruth's grandmother, Giselle, was cruelly banished by the other villagers to live in the woods, because she was suspected and nearly condemned of witchcraft. But all Giselle does is study herbs and nature and create medicines. Though Ruth loves learning from dear Giselle, she is petrified of having to enter the woods, and has been afraid ever since the wolf attack, and from then always carries Stephen's precious dagger with her. One day, while working in the blacksmith shop, Ruth meets Lord William, the Earl of Lauton, a handsome nobleman with sharp features and astonishingly bright green eyes. The two immediately click and begin to fall deeply in love. But William fights the temptation of seeing Ruth, trying to force himself to stay away from her, because all the males in the Lauton family have been cursed by a dead witch, as revenge for a horrendous act his forefather once committed long ago, and William harbors within his dark soul an awful secret that would tear Ruth apart if she knew the truth... Debbie Viguie left me pleasantly surprised when I finished reading this fifth installment in the Once Upon A Time series, a line of books retelling famous fairy tales, published by Simon Pulse. I must admit, after reading Viguie's last installment in the series---Midnight Pearls---I was not expecting much out of her. But this dark, ominous, and imaginative retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Only a very talented author could conjure up such a great idea for this very well-known fairy tale and make it original. Read this novel for a story filled with eerie images, horror, often mentionings of blood, the full moon, an unusual romance, and a wolf attacks, for a downright Goth fairy tale retelling. Highly recommended!
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by Cameron Dokey
by Cameron Dokey
by Cameron Dokey
by Cameron Dokey
by Suzanne Weyn
