About the Book:
Title: Echo North
Author: Joanna Ruth Meyer
Release Date: January 19, 2019
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400
My Rating: 5/5 ⭐️
Summary:
Echo Alkaev’s safe and carefully structured world falls apart when her father leaves for the city and mysteriously disappears. Believing he is lost forever, Echo is shocked to find him half-frozen in the winter forest six months later, guarded by a strange talking wolf—the same creature who attacked her as a child. The wolf presents Echo with an ultimatum: if she lives with him for one year, he will ensure her father makes it home safely. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes.
In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, each room must be sewn together to keep the home from unraveling, and something new and dark and strange lies behind every door. When centuries-old secrets unfold, Echo discovers a magical library full of books- turned-mirrors, and a young man named Hal who is trapped inside of them. As the year ticks by, the rooms begin to disappear and Echo must solve the mystery of the wolf’s enchantment before her time is up otherwise Echo, the wolf, and Hal will be lost forever.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed Echo North. It was a very intriguing retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" and the Norwegian folk tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". It took both of these tales and spun both of these stories and created an enthralling adventure that kept me turning the page until the very end. You read from the perspective of Echo, a girl content on living a quiet life away from the prying eyes. After an accident left her face permanently scared, her life was turned upside down. When dire situations arising at home, Echo’s father heads for the city in order to earn more money to help support his family, however, he mysteriously disappears until Echo finds him frozen and dying in the middle of the woods with a talking wolf by his side. Echo’s only option is to agree to the wolf’s terms and that her father will be saved, only is she agrees to live with him for one year.
I found it really interesting that the book mainly focuses on two versions of Echo's life. Her life in the mansion with the wolf and her life in the book mirrors with Hal. In the mansion, Echo was in charge of maintaining the rooms that were slowly collapsing, in addition to that she would slowly find small pieces of someone who was previously with the wolf before she mysteriously disappeared. Then she would spend her free time traveling from one story to the next where she meets Hal and slowly starts to fall in love with him. I really enjoyed their chemistry, it flowed so easily as they both went through good days and their struggles. I loved being able to see their journey unfold and see their relationship bloom.
The plot twist in this book honestly took me by complete surprise. I’m going to try to be vague, but it was definitely something that I never saw coming. After that, I knew I had to know how it ended! I was cheering and hoping Echo would get the happy ending she deserved. In the story, I really loved the idea of the book mirrors! It would be extremely cool to be able to travel into your books, see a scene play out in front of you and be able to play an invisible role in a story without you effecting the story in anyway. I also found all of the rooms in the mansion very cool. There were so many rooms, all filled with different things, you never knew what would be behind each door. Overall, if you're looking for a new and unique Beauty and the Beast retelling, I definitely suggest picking this book up!
If you’re interested in checking out Joanna’s pages, the links are below along with places you can get the book.
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