West of Wicked by Nikki St. Crowe

A sharp, fast-paced Oz retelling with addictive momentum and a brutal cliffhanger.

West of Wicked is a fast-paced and surprisingly fresh take on a story I thought I knew. Nikki St. Crowe takes the familiar bones of The Wizard of Oz and builds something more layered and unexpected around them without losing the spirit of the original. I flew through this book and that cliffhanger at the end left me desperate for the next one.

Dorothy is a compelling heroine to follow into this reimagined Oz. She carries a mystery about her own origins that gives her story real momentum and had me invested from the start. Rook, the stranger she pulls from the cornfield, is charming and enigmatic in equal measure—I am deliberately saying little about him because discovering who he is and what he is hiding is something readers should experience for themselves.

My favorite character, though, is the Tin Woodman. Picture Sebastian Stan in full Winter Soldier mode and you will understand exactly what I mean. I need more of him immediately.

The book was not quite as dark as I expected and the romance is still in its early stages, but neither of those things diminished my enjoyment. If anything they left me eager to see where both are headed in the next installment.

This is a strong start to The Great and Terrible Land series and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

If this sounds like your kind of read, you can pre-order a copy HERE or read it with Kindle Unlimited on release day.