Winter has a strange job. Something she must keep from her classmates and friends. Something she used to do with her Dad, but now he is gone, the whole responsibility falls on her shoulders alone at the age of sixteen.

There is a wood behind Winter’s house. Inside this wood are gateways to other times. Winter’s job as Guardian of the Wood, is to find any travellers who arrive in the wood, and guide them back through their own door. These travellers arrive confused and scared, depending on how long it has taken Winter to find them. She talks them back home through their particular time’s gateway to prevent any damage to history and its inevitable flow-on effects.

Most travellers arrive by accident – until a boy a little older than Winter appears in the wood. He is unhappy at being sent home again, seeming to know more about the wood than he should and he vows to return.

Little does Winter know that dark forces are building. Being in the wood at night brings certain death, but now that darkness is building during daylight hours too.

Will she ever learn more about her father’s disappearance? Who is the good looking guy from another century and what is he looking for?

Not realising this book was about time-travel, The Wood surprised me at first.

With an intriguing concept, I was hooked from the very first page to the intense conclusion. It has a strong female protagonist, an eerie wood, terrible creatures with gruesome consequences, and just a touch of romance.

Author – Chelsea Bobulski

Age – 13+

(Time-travel, Grief, Loss, Mystery, Creepy, Fight, Battle, Monsters, Courage, Romance, Betrayal, Trust, Family)