Unlike most lands feeling the spread of civilisation, the woods here are creeping closer to houses and farms each day. Beings in the woods, which seem enticing to children, become malevolent, and young women walk into the wood and never return.

A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT by Rebecca Hahn introduces us to Marni, who grows flowers with her grandfather, and whose friend Annel has vanished among the trees. Annel's relatives are suspicious that Marni was involved. A small weed called dragon flowers keeps appearing in her garden. In folklore, this weed is linked to lost girls, fatherless babes and heartless dragons. She doesn't feel part of the village. She doesn't like the landholders who come to buy flowers. She's got royal blood but no title. Where does she belong?

When her grandfather dies, and the wood folks try to call her to them, Marni goes at last to the castle and asks for shelter. She secretly hopes to kill the king who was responsible for her mother's death years ago. The people link the encroaching trees to the presence of a real dragon, or a curse, and some consider Marni could be either one.

I enjoyed how the locations in A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT are thoroughly described, with contrasts between the woodland glades, the hardscrabble gardening, and the palace luxury. People behave differently too. Marni has a lot to learn, and that includes magic. All she knows is gardening, and the persistent dragon flower has suddenly sprouted in the castle flowerbeds....

I like the gradual building up of tension and superstition, turning to action by the fearful populace before Marni takes action to save her life. Could people be dragons in another form? Are forests the only danger? What happens to the lost girls? Only when Marni is brave enough to face her fears and her own nature can we see the answers. What, then, will she really want?

Rebecca Hahn's deftly woven imagined land and legend is a subtle read rather than a swift-moving one, with a theme of self-discovery. A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT is a lovely and thoughtful read, which should lure any young adult and many adult fantasy lovers into the depths of the book.