Spirit of the Wood is a short novel length book in the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain. Released 7th Nov 2023 by Astra on their DAW imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a prequel/backstory for the Lauren Mapstone character in the main series. As always, the author does a masterful job with characterization, and the characters really live and breathe. Oddly, Lauren spends most of the book near death, fighting her own internal trauma, and has very little power to act, which doesn't really square with the idea of a strong feminist story.
As a tribute to the author's talent with atmospheric prose, there's a surprising amount of tension and threat in the plot, especially given that this is a prequel of a character who readers *know* is alive in the main series, almost 20 years in the future.
Four stars. It doesn't work as well as a standalone, and will likely appeal most to fans of the extant series. Still, it's well written (as always), engaging, and worthwhile.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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