Cloaked

Cloaked

Rachel Kovaciny

She never imagined she'd need to flee for her life.

Mary Rose feels uneasy around Mr. Linden from the moment she meets him on the stagecoach ride to her grandmother's ranch in Wyoming Territory. But he works for her grandmother, so that means he's trustworthy, doesn't it? Everyone else seems to view him as honest and respectable, and Mary Rose wonders if she's overreacting. 

She tries to ignore her suspicions until one night, she discovers his real reason for being at the ranch. Now, if she's going to save her grandmother -- and herself -- she's going to need to run faster than she's ever run before.

     I will almost never pass up an opportunity for a fairy tale retelling. It's one of my favorite subgenres, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Now westerns, on the other hand, aren't usually my thing, but after reading Rachel Kovaciny's The Man of the Buckskin Horse, I knew that she was someone who could pull even a reluctant western newbie like me into her stories.

     And Cloaked is certainly a winning one! It has a wonderfully relatable heroine (with a fondness for butterscotch, something I mention because I was inspired to go make some of my own while I was in the middle of reading) and some other memorable characters like her feisty grandmother and my personal favorite, the protective Hauer. The fairy tale aspect of the story is certainly recognizable, but it isn't overpowering, and compliments the developments of the relationships very well. Overall, Cloaked is equal parts adorable and suspenseful, and I'd recommend it to fans of westerns and/or historical fiction.

I received an ARC copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for my honest review.