ARC Review--West of Wicked by Nikki St. Crowe

 

Dorothy Gale doesn’t know where she came from. She has only the vaguest memory of her life before landing in the dull, gray world of the vast Kansas prairie.

Then a cyclone rips through the night and carries her, her dog, and the farmhouse somewhere a lot farther than Dorothy imagined. She’s in a strange land that’s apparently cursed, shrouded in shadow. And to get home, Dorothy needs to seek out a wizard, following a treacherous path and watch out for a never-ending list of forest beasts, witches, a cursed mercenary, and perhaps most dangerous of all, the wizard himself.

Nikki St. Crowe vividly reimagines the world of the Wizard of Oz, where the villain gets the girl...and the girl gets the power.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

West of Wicked by Nikki St. Crowe caught my eye with that mesmerizing cover! It screams Oz and boy, did this book scream Oz! This was a twisted and unique take on the classic, The Wizard of Oz and spins the classic on its head.

Dorothy is a young woman living with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. She was left with them as a child, by a mother she has no clear memory of. She longs for more from life, her casual fling with a childhood friend isn't quite the life she wants to lead but finding herself with no other options, she's about ready to settle.

Then as we all know, a twister enter Kansas and Dorothy, along with her childhood home and faithful dog, Toto, are whisked away to a land far from ours and crash lands in Oz. Although the house falls on a familiar witch, that is not what kills her. For this is a new Oz, one we have not seen before and things work a bit differently here. But in the end, Dorothy and the Witch's fate are set and she is left with a pair of sparkly, silver shoes and a task to go to the Emerald City and find the Wizard so that she might plea for a way home to Kansas.

Along her journey she does make a friend. She finds a young man who was strung up on a pole in a cornfield who has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there, so she names him Rook until he gets his memories back. While a reader may be on the lookout for more friendly faces, we do eventually get to see said faces, but they are not friendly.

Our Tinman actually works for the West Witch and he was sent to find Dorothy and bring her back, alive, to the witch and if he does this, she will set his imprisoned brother free. It definitely adds a different kind of danger to the story.

This was told through multiple points of view, which was enjoyable, but there were times when a new character got introduced and it really kind of threw me off my game. Once we learned who they were, it still didn't quite make sense as to why their point of view was being shown as they had yet to meet with Dorothy. Going from Dorothy and the Tinman and Rook were obvious choices and made the story flow really well, it was just the occasional curveball that came in with someone totally different that kind of made it hard to follow sometimes.

This is my first St. Crowe novel and I wasn't sure what to expect romance wise. Dorothy is definitely a woman who knows what she wants. So when things start to heat up between her and Rook, it wasn't really a surprise.

I feel like this series still has a lot of secrets to share. As things progressed, I worried this would become more romance focused, but luckily that was far from the case. Still that worry kept nagging at me for most of the book, so it was hard to just enjoy things. Dorothy's thought processes had me thinking things would turn in that direction sooner rather than later, but it really was more later and even then, we moved right back to the actual plot!

So much was revealed in the ending of this one! I was half convinced I might not continue this series but the ending pretty much sealed it. Things are definitely shaking up in Oz and I am eager to see where that Yellow Brick Road will take us!

If you're wanting a hot new take on The Wizard of Oz filled with action, secrets, and adventure with just a hint of romance, then this is definitely a read worth checking out!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

West of Wicked releases April 14, 2026