I promised you guys book reviews for the things I’m reading quite a while ago. So, here are my thoughts on Winnie’s Courage by Jess Reece (first released in 2017). If you like ABC’s Once Upon a Time TV show, you are going to love this epic fantasy adventure based on the classics you know and love.
Winnifred Jones has withdrawn from the world in the wake of her father’s death, with only wine, books, and her cat Watson to keep her company. When she somehow finds herself in the worlds she grew up reading about, she comes face-to-face with the dangers of these adventures. This journey through the dark sides of worlds we all know and love forces Winnie to decide what’s truly important. Can she find the courage to make it home in one piece?
As I devoured this book while on vacation, I identified with Winnie’s brokenness and fear on a very personal level. The loss of loved ones has been a raw spot for me from a very young age. Jess Reece wrote Winnie’s loneliness and withdrawal in the wake of losing her father so realistically that it hit me in a deep, tender place. I know that pain, and I often escaped from that pain between the pages of the same classic fantasy worlds Jess so reverently handles throughout Winnie’s Courage.
I think that was the thing I loved most about this book. Winnie is forced into worlds that she believes are familiar, but it quickly becomes obvious that the classics didn’t tell us the whole story. She has no choice but to face conflict and darkness head-on. This heart-pounding adventure leaves no room for withdrawal. The stakes are life and death, not only for Winnie, but for her companions and all those they come into contact with. I could not put this book down.
Will Winnie find the courage to make it home safely, and at what cost? What will she learn along the way? Find out for yourself. You won’t regret it.
What if the Wicked Witch were real?
Winifred Jones wakes up barefoot and bruised in a strange dungeon instead of her cozy San Diego apartment, and things just get weirder from there when she stops Dorothy Gale from murdering the Wicked Witch, accidentally releasing a magical tornado trapped inside a golden compass.
In the blink of an eye, the three women are torn from the Witch’s castle in Oz and thrust into one fairytale world of Winnie’s childhood after another. Fighting for their lives against man-eating apes, bloodthirsty pirates, and sadistic queens, they share just one common goal: to get back home.
Pick up Getting Back to Oz: Book One Winnie’s Courage today, and join Winnie on her quest as she discovers if she has the courage to return home, or stay lost forever in literary lands both familiar and dangerous.
