Title: The Puzzle Ring
Author: Kate Forsyth
Publisher: Scholastic/Pan Macmillan
Category: Historical Fiction/Children’s Fiction
Published: 1st June 2009
Pages: 409
Price: $16.99
Synopsis: An ancient curse. A ruined castle. A journey back in time.
Hannah Rose was not quite 13 years old when she discovered her family was cursed. . . .
The arrival of a mysterious letter changes Hannah’s life forever. One day she is an ordinary teenage girl. The next day she discovers she is heir to a castle in the Scottish highlands—a castle that was cursed more than four hundred and forty years ago.
The curse has haunted her family for generations, culminating in the disappearance of Hannah’s father the day after she was born. A prophecy tells of a Red Rose who will save a Black Rose, solve the puzzle ring, and break the curse. Red-haired Hannah is determined to be the one.
Yet, to break the curse, she must go back in time to the last tumultuous days of Mary, Queen of Scots . . . a time when witches were burnt and queens were betrayed and the dark forces of wild magic still stalked the land. . . .
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If you’re looking for something new to read, then go no further than Kate Forsyth’s 2009 novel, The Puzzle Ring. Set in Scotland, the novel begins in modern times, with the main character, Hannah Rose Brown, discovering the truth about her heritage.
From the opening words about not quite thirteen-year-old Hannah Rose Brown, I was hooked. The opening line swept me into the action and I soon found myself preoccupied by the book, dreaming about it, eager to get back to it when I was away from it.
The Puzzle Ring has become on of the books I own that I want to revisit and practically re –read as soon as I have finished it for the first time. I felt at home in Scotland, drawn to the ancestral home of my own family. Kate Forsyth created a world that I could feel myself living in. I smelt the snow, heard the sounds of Wintersloe and smelt the sixteenth century smells, found myself playing for Mary, Queen of Scots and helping Hannah in her quest.
This book reaches a wonderful conclusion that I never saw coming and it fitted the story perfectly. I cannot wait to revisit this book.
