Book Review: Scarlet Woods

Author: Brooke Passmore
Publication Date: December 2012
Series: Scarlet Woods # 1

Past, future, and love all exist in the door through time.

Modern and independent seventeen year old Morgan Westbrook thought she had seen all there was to her home town of Scarlet, Georgia, but one day while walking in the woods behind her house she discovers a mysterious door masked behind the trees. After admiring the door’s timeless beauty she walks through Past, future, and love all exist in the door through time.

Modern and independent seventeen year old Morgan Westbrook thought she had seen all there was to her home town of Scarlet, Georgia, but one day while walking in the woods behind her house she discovers a mysterious door masked behind the trees. After admiring the door’s timeless beauty she walks through its entrance to venture into more woods, but what she doesn’t know is that the door is a gateway through time that takes her back to the year 1863 during the days of the Civil War in Scarlet.

Without knowing that she had traveled back in time, she stumbles upon Danny Carson, an attractive young man who is appalled to see that Morgan is wearing skimpy modern clothes instead of a nineteenth century dress. Although they find each other completely different than anyone they’ve ever known, they cannot help but feel drawn to one another. After spending time in another century, she discovers that she's time traveled back to the year 1863 and that the door took her there. For months she and Danny journey back and forth through the door to experience the joys of traveling to both of their centuries. When dilemmas of unwanted marriage, slavery, and war are thrown at them, they must face the perils that time travel has delivered them in both the future and the past.

 

“People in Scarlet didn’t dare enter the woods late in the evening. They feared the idea of foul killers or fictional monsters haunting the trees at night. But when it came to the woods Danny was fearless. He’d visit at any time of day to get away from things just for a little while. He found the depths of the trees, the forever running creek, and the prowling Spanish moss to be an escape from his regular routine. Plus, he being the practically the only visitor at any time of day, gave him the full run of the place. The woods were his.”

 

 

This book has a great concept/plot behind it. It reminded me a lot of The Lake House starring Sandra Bullock. It consists of a boy, Danny and a girl, Morgan who are from two entirely different time periods but find each other in the depth of Scarlet Woods. I loved the fact that Danny’s horse, Nashville, is what joined them together. I am such an animal lover, so this drew me in right from the start. I did feel like things were a little rushed and somewhat coincidental at times. Danny just happened to go looking for his missing horse when Morgan was riding Nashville through the woods, and from there they were instantly friends and there was already a conflict between time periods. It all just felt somewhat rushed to me, as far as how fast it all happened.

 

I love anything to do with past, present, future time shifts or time travel. I thought Brooke did an excellent job of allowing each character to truly represent their time. Danny was utterly confused when Morgan started mentioning 21^st century technology, and Morgan was equally dumbfounded when she walked onto Danny’s family plantation. I love how Morgan and Danny break each other into their individual time periods, and I think that Brooke captured each character’s feelings very well once they realized what was going on.

 

In Danny’s world, the Civil War was taking place and Morgan’s best friend’s brother was also away at war. I thought this was a subtle, simple detail added by the author. I haven’t ever really read that many books that take place during the Civil War, so this was a nice change. It was nice to see how the perspective of war factored into both of their lives. I thought it almost connected them in a way. There were other things that had taken place in their lives that gave them common ground as well. I thought that the chemistry developed between them was very nice, and especially so for them being raised in two different centuries!

 

***A big thank you to Brooke Passmore for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review***