Wood, Maryrose: Why I Let My Hair Grow Out (Morgan Rawlinson, #1)

March 6, 2007
218 pages, Berkley Jam

Being sent to your room is one thing. But being sent to another country? 

Morgan's boyfriend dumped her on the last day of school - it seemed the only thing to do was to hack off her hair and dye the stubble orange. Unfortunately, Morgan's parents freaked and decided a change of scenery would do her good. So they're sending her off on a bike tour of Ireland. 

But Morgan gets more than she bargained for on the Emerald Isle - including a strange journey into some crazy, once upon a time corner of the past. There, she meets fairies, weefolk, and a hunky warrior-dude named Fergus, and figures out that she's got some growing to do-and she doesn't just mean her hair.

So Morgan might be reacting a little badly to her recent breakup.

Well...badly might be an understatement.

After she takes the shears to her hair, Morgan's parents totally hit the roof and ship her off to Ireland for a bike tour, hoping (perhaps a little too optimistically) that a little time away from home will straighten her out. The country is unexplored, the fellow tourists all with their own interesting quirks and reasons to get away - and of course, there's Colin, who seems to Morgan to be the perfect rebound boy for her heartbreak.

Of course, this is all before she knocks her head and wakes up to long hair, a beautiful ancient warrior with a familiar face, and a talking horse standing guard over her body. Can anyone say, time travel?

After meeting her and reading her other two series (The Poison Diaries and The Incorrigable Children of Ashton Place - both are still in progress, and both are amazing), this book sets a different tone than Maryrose Wood usually has. Still, though, the writing is pretty good; she hits the feel of a hurt, troubled teenager spot-on. My only complaint would be the coarse language, of which there is a LOT, and a lot of unnecessary innuendo.

Warnings:

Mature language, extremely obvious innuendo, alcohol served to a minor, a bitter teenage girl with no verbal or mental filters - you get the idea.

And let's tally up the rating points!

Points for:

Historical research

Realistic character

Accurately retelling mythology

Minus for:

Language

Innuendo

A rather rushed resolution ending, in my opinion (I felt almost like I was living out someone's confuzzled nightmare after eating cheese right before bed - it was that confusing)

Final notes:

I'm not sure if I'll keep reading this series or not. It's definitely something different, but the language issue is always a touchy spot for me. And besides, I still have the second book of the Poison Diaries (ARC! I am so glad to have a generous younger sister) to finish up... ;)