East by Edith Pattou

This was a refreshing version of the East of the Sun, West of the Moon story. I found the characters to be well composed and believable. In other variations of this story, the mother has been portrayed as evil or as hating the daughter, as happens with so many mothers in fairy tales. But in this version the mother's actions were explained and even after she did what she did she showed remorse, and the birth direction thing, almost like a horoscope, was used very effectively in explaining the mother's passionate reactions, as she followed it like a religion.

The main character, Rose, was well done. She was a 'north born' which means she's high strung and likes to travel. I think the author did a god job in constructing her character as that personality is very much what one would expect of the heroine of this story. This personality type also explained why she would go off to help the guy. In some of the other reviews people commented that the platonic relationship lessened the connection between the main characters and while I agree with this to some extent, I also feel that for the characters to have had sex would mean something different in today's society. In antiquity women were seen as more connected to the body, but in reality would you go running off to save someone just because they had sex with you? Probably not, it's the relationship. And while sex enhances the relationship, Rose didn't know who the man was and only later made the connection that he was the bear. So while I believe that if crafted properly, the sexual aspect of the story would deepen the connection between the two, I think that the way the story was portrayed here doesn't leave much wanting.

Overall, worthwhile read.