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Reviewed by Tiffany Ferrell for Readers' Favorite
It all starts with a simple incident in which Ela gets lost in the woods. Though she was only a foot in, she was invisible to her frantic parents. After being chalked up as a one-time incident, life is relatively normal until her sixteenth birthday. When these occurrences continue at an alarming rate, her knowing parents find that it’s time to tell her the truth about her ancestry. This is when Ela finds out that she’s a part of an ancient race of women or druids that possess the ability to see, to hear and feel parts of the planet (nature especially) that others can't. They are able to blend in with the living surroundings and heal destroyed nature. Before she knows it, Ela is being taken to a place called Heartwood and left unwillingly in the company of strangers who descend from the same line as herself. Reluctantly she decided to stay because she is apparently the one they have been waiting for. The one who can restore the destruction of the earth from demons whose sole purpose is to destroy the planet.
I found Nance Newman's Heartwood to be a really fast-paced and enjoyable read. I really enjoyed Elathea’s character and her personality. I think the story flowed nicely and wasn’t over the top with too much detail which, in some cases of books, I feel ruins the whole reading experience. I was a bit undecided with picking this book -- and with it being a YA novel -- because so many are full of teenage drama and pointless pining over boys. However, while Newman shows Ela as a regular girl with crushes, she stays true to the subject and plot of the book. Seeing that this is the first of a series, I must say that I cannot wait to read the sequel to Heartwood!
