Juliet Marillier's book touched the heart of me. From the turn of the first page I was swept up in the perilous journey of Caitrin, daughter of Berach. An anachronism in the early years of the Norman invasion, Caitrin has been trained in languages and script by the best of men, her father.

That slender thread is all she has to sustain her when her headlong dash from a life of desperation lands her in the eerie wilds of the west lands. At the end of her coin, near the end of her strength Caitrin is left on a woods-lined path by a carter who refuses to go further into the wild magic he fears. She finds shelter for the night with the people of a village; who will only allow her within the barricade after she recites a Christian prayer. They warn of the ancient darkness surrounding the keep on the hill, Whistling Tor. Fear has them barring their doors each night and using every rune of protection they can lay their hands on. But to the keep she must go if she has any hope of evading what pursues her. How can any dark whispers of uncanny magic be more terrifying than what she flees? The keep on the tor is a world within a world, led by a man of fire and ice with halting step and eyes of piercing blue.

Nothing is as it seems. The mirrors reflect on the past, not the present. A tangled garden hides a treasure in a corner and secrets at its heart. And the people who walk the halls? They are the deepest puzzle of all.

Any reader who has faced bone deep fear will identify with Caitrin and the choices she must make. HEART'S BLOOD is the most satisfying of books, with a happy ending, hard won.