Veiled Rose

After her first novel Heartless, Anne Elisabeth Stengl continues development of her fantasy world in the second book of the Tales of Goldstone Wood series. This time we are taken to Southlands, a land where we had been briefly in her first book. Leo and his cousin Foxbrush are sent away to a mountain retreat to study over the summer. Leo longs for adventure and finds it, befriending someone shunned by the rest of the world. Masks rule the world, where people are not who they seem to be. Behind it all, evil is lurking.

Although not as pronounced as in her first book, the allegory to Christian life shines forth, with love, truth, and a quest for meaning as themes. There is definitely more of a fantasy element in this book. I didn't enjoyed as much as the first book, probably in part because I already understood some of the allegory. However, I did find it touched me more personally than did the first. And I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series Moonblood.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available now at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.