The people have come to this land for the Redcap trees. They do not know what secrets are here in the unknown land and have met tragedy. They have since made Mistaken home and a truce with the Benevolence to protect them from the Bright Eyeds. As part of the truce they offer blessings. Every 7 years they hold a Hunt in which the women scatter and the men find their brides. Curiously some never come back from the Hunt, assumed to be lost beyond the boundaries when they were not found. Greer is daughter of one of the wealthy men in Mistaken. She is in love with Ellis Beaufort and plans to be his bride this Hunt. However, she watches him walk beyond the boundaries as she hides in the hollowed out tree. Why he does this she does not know. Why wont her father and the people of Mistaken lead a search party for him? Greer sets out on her own after discovering her fathers and the Stewards biggest secret.
Erin A. Craig is a local author whom our book club has come to love her novels. She writes beautifully and makes you imagine the world she creates.

Beautiful romantic adventure in Canadian wilderness. Nice stroke from Erin A.Craig in writing a story in color of dark fantasy. A mystery is haunted in love, danger, braveness and the fate.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC. This is Erin's adult debut. I give it four out of five stars. We meet Greer Mackenzie, who lives in Mistaken. Mistaken is a town guarded by these Warding Stones, which protect the village from the Bright Eyes. However, if someone ends up in the town and doesn't leave before sunset, they are forever trapped and can never leave. Greer has always wanted to go exploring and feels kind of stifled by this. While she thinks she can never leave Mistaken, she is happy to be married soon to her love, Ellis Beaufort. Every seven years, they have The Hunt, where all the eligible women hide in the forest and the eligible men claim the woman they want to make their bride. Right before the last one, Greer's mother died, so she's had to wait an extra seven years. This year, right before The Hunt, tragedy strikes one of the families, setting in motion several events that forever alter Greer's life. However, Greer is not one to back down from a challenge and takes matters into her own hands to fix what she can. Along the way, Greer learns things about the town and her own family that shock her. Despite this, she still has a mission in her mind and doesn't plan to stop until she accomplishes what she set out to do.

I think she did a great job with world-building. I did like the characters, especially the main character, Greer Mackenzie. There were a few chapters that jumped back in time, and I wish that when we went back to the present time, it would indicate that at the beginning of the chapter. I love her Young Adult books, and I thought this one was pretty good. It definitely gave me Small Favors vibes (one of her YA books) at the beginning, but then she did make it different. While the main character was older, I definitely thought this book was more tame than her young adult books, as far as not as much spice compared to House of Roots and Ruin, and not as much horror as most of her YA books. If this was your first book that you read of hers, then I could see people giving it five out of five stars, but as someone who has first read all of her YA and loves them immensely, this one just was not quite the same level.

Erin A. Craig is one of my favorite authors for romantic fantasy and A Land So Wide definitely did not disappoint!

Greer is a young woman seemingly stuck in the very small bordered town of Mistaken. She always wondered what was beyond the warding stones and what of the world was beyond. But outside the stones and the safety of Mistaken, there are monsters with a horrible bloodlust, the Bright-Eyeds, that have destroyed many other villages. The small town of Mistaken is blessed by the Benevolence and have the Warding Stones to protect everyone. The residents don't dare go beyond the borders after sunset and the final bellows have rang out. They may safely leave the towns boundaries during the day, as long as they return by nightfall. As much of a blessing as the Warding Stones are, they're also as big of a curse trapping the towns residents permanently within the boundaries.

At the start of A Land So Wide, I had no idea where the book was going to go, which was definitely part of the excitement. But at first, I really struggled to get into it. It took me over a quarter of the book to finally get fully invested. However, once I was finally invested, I was all the way in and was completely sucked into the beautiful storytelling. And Erin A. Craig is an extremely blessed storyteller. I ended up very much enjoying this book, just like I've enjoyed all of her books before this one.

I did feel that although A Land So Wide was the authors adult debut, it still felt like a young adult novel for the most part.

Despite my initial struggle to get engaged in this book, I ended up loving it by the end. I would definitely recommend this romantic fantasy!

Expected Publication Date: September 9th 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pantheon, and the author for this electronic ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own.

4.5/5 this book was haunting but so beautiful! It’s a very unique world. I love that it’s a standalone. Great for fans of Anathema! It has somewhat of horror vibes but not so much as to detract from the rest of the story. I certainly saw some of the plot points coming but I still fully enjoyed the journey! I didn’t anticipate how it would end! Overall a fun read I would definitely recommend!

This book had me captivated from the start. The world building was done in a way that completely immersed me. I liked that the story behind with the history of the area and how the community to be. The main characters were so well developed and relatable. This is such the perfect book for anyone who loves magical worlds with unique magical elements to it, characters that show personal growth, and a story that keeps you guessing.

In Mistaken, a town far from any civilization, if you follow the rules you live. Like making offerings to the Benevolence for the protection of all. Like being inside the warding stones before sunset so the Bright-Eyeds don’t get you. Greer, with curiosity and adventure in her blood, follows the rules but makes her life fun and interesting by exploring where she can, drawing maps of everything, and imagining unknown places. Everything changes and dissolves into chaos the day the stones move, massacring the Calloway family and their herd of sheep. Now Greer must brave the wilds, and the Bright-Eyeds, to save her beloved and escape an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

Recommended to anyone that loves romantasy and Scottish folklore retellings.

If you're in the mood for something darker and atmospheric this is the ticket for you. It's all shadows and dark corners and for a while you're not quite sure what's going on but you just got to roll with it. You really root for the main character!

Greer has lived in Mistaken her entire life. She and the rest of the town must be behind the town barriers before dark or the magic will pull them back regardless of what is in between them and the town. Greer has been happy living in Mistaken and is ready to soon start her life with Ellis, her long time love. But when Ellis disappears on the day they are supposed to be married, Greer sets off to find out what happened to Ellis. Along the way, Greer discovers secrets about her family and the town.

This story drew me in from the very beginning and has the feel of telling stories around a campfire. A dark mysterious story that keeps you turning pages to learn more.

Everyone who lives in the town of Mistaken, stays in Mistaken; until strange events start happening. Greer, a mapmaker who fantasizes about leaving, notices some strange things happening around her. As she tries to focus on pleasing the Benevolence, the group that bestows protection from the monstrous Bright-Eyeds, she feels as if someone is watching her. Then her lover, Ellis, mysteriously leaves the town in front of her very eyes, followed by one of the Bright-Eyeds. She follows in an attempt to save him, and learns more about herself, her cursed town, and the land and lore surrounding both. This suspenseful and emotional romantasy is well plotted and has great world building.

Meet Greer Mackenzie. Her story will haunt you long after you close the book. She has lived in the same remote settlement all her life. A settlement steeped in tradition and superstitions that hold its small populations firmly in place. So firmly in place that if you spend one night within the boundaries of the town of Mistaken, you can never leave. Every evening the large warding stones that create the edges of town mysteriously activate. The villagers have come to believe that these stones keep out the monsters living in the woods and lands nearby. But they also hold the citizens captive by being physically pulled back within the boundaries at nightfall. They called home to Mistaken as if tethered by an invisible thread, even to the point of death as a result, if trees or other obstacles are in the path of their route home.

The time has come for Greer to marry, and she longs for none other than Ellis Beaufort, ancestor of the Scottish lumber merchant who founded Mistaken. She and Ellis have made plans for their future together but those plans come crashing down as Greer watches in horror as Ellis is exiled and goes beyond the warding stones. Greer must find a way to leave Mistaken to rescue the love of her life without ending her own.

This is a tale busting with the sharp edge of dark mystery that will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading!
* Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for sharing the advanced digital edition of this book. This is my honest review.

She does it again! Craig is the queen or eerie but beautiful fantasy settings. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as her other series! Definitely recommend for fans of romantasy in unique and darker settings.

Nothing is more devastating than completing a story you had high hopes of loving, yet finishing with feeling the exact opposite.
Not only was the story a touch too predictable, the characters all felt bland and one-dimensional. Characters that I did have interest in exploring, that were described to be very important in the main characters life, had basically two scenes in the whole book and never again spoken of.
The pace dragged so often for me that I often considered not finishing yet wanted to see the outcome of the main character. And to my surprise, not only did she do what I had expected of her, it concluded in a way that made absolutely zero sense to me.
Why make a whole coven of monsters go basically extinct to save your people, then to enable them to travel BACK to where those creatures homeland where they most likely still are?
I wish we could have gone more in depth with Greer’s dreaming and how it seemed Finn could be IN them, and knowing what took place. It felt as if his whole purpose as a character was to be Lachlan’s opposite, being two sides of the same coin, with Greer’s parents trying to force her to be with anyone that wasn’t Ellis.
This whole story honestly makes me think this was originally made to be a continuation but was simplified into a standalone with a lackluster ending.

I loved this…reminds me of the village movie. It’s very eerie and disturbing but also exciting and I loved the secrets that unfold. Settlers of a New World developed a village, and it was protected by massive standing stones put there by godlike creatures . They were being protected from the bright eyeds, terrible creatures that destroyed other villages, but not their town of mistaken. While the standing stones protect the villagers, they also keep them captive, pulling them from wherever they might be outside the stones to the inside every sundown . After dark, no one can get past the stones . Greer is a girl growing up in the town and her father is one of the elders. Every seven years all the girls in town run and hide and all the boys in town go searching for them… When they find them, they marry them and procreate. This is how they keep the town running. But there’s more than that… A secret every seven years. A sacrifice. When Greer escapes her fate of marrying a hateful boy and escaping through the standing stones into the wild country, being stalked by bright eyes where she goes and what she discovers is a wonderful fairytale. This book has everything… Murders mystery suspense love. I really really enjoyed it. Thank you NetGalley for the digital copy.

I was really captivated by A Land So Wide, a dark fantasy novel by Erin A Craig. It is the first novel I’ve read by this author and it didn’t disappoint.

I enjoyed her writing style and thoughtful descriptions throughout the story. Greer is a great FMC, and I enjoyed seeing more of her story unfold as she learns of the past and who she is. The flashback chapters woven throughout were helpful in piecing the story together and didn’t abruptly stop the flow of the story.

That being said, towards the second half of the book, I felt like some of the story was rushed while other parts too slow. The plot twists were *mostly* predictable but I still enjoyed them. Overall, I give the story 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars because I enjoyed the story overall and stayed up late many nights to sneak in one more chapter!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC! 🤎

respectfully…what? 😀

there was so much promise? so much potential? and that’s…where it went?

Erin Craig always knocks out the vibes and this was no different but the story wrapped up way too fast, it was oddly fantastical but poorly explained. It simply wasn’t long enough to do the story justice.

Bummed for sure. Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

I was so excited to see that veteran Young Adult author Erin A. Craig was branching out into adult fiction and I was not disappointed with her adult debut novel, A Land So Wide.

First off, the vibes of this book are meticulous. Gothic, bloody, spooky horror set in the remote Canadian wilderness in the 1700s? Sign me up. Greer Mackenzie is a direct descendent of one of the founding families of Mistaken. Mistaken is a typical lumbar town. There is a mill that employs many of the citizens (owned by Greer's father, Hassel). Barn dances are a prime form of entertainment for the young citizens of the town. And everyone who has ever stayed in the town past sundown must return within its borders every night thereafter the rest of their lives or risk being torn apart when being returned to it by magic force. It's within these confining limits that we find 27-year-old Greer on the verge of marrying her sweetheart, Ellis Beaufort. Greer is a map-maker, an ironic pursuit when one cannot travel farther from home than what you can safely return from before sundown. Her soul has wanderlust of a terrible sort, but she knows she can live a small life in Mistaken as long as her long-time sweetheart Ellis is by her side. When complications arise from The Hunt - a long-held tradition in Mistaken were eligible bachelors hunt for their hidden future wives in the woods outside of Mistaken - and Ellis goes missing, Greer learns that the invisible walls around Mistaken are not as impenetrable as she once believed and that there are things in the woods just waiting for one such as her to come through.

With rich, lush prose that transports us directly to the middle of the unexplored Canadian wilderness, Erin A. Craig tells the story of some of the original creatures to go bump in the night. Pulling no punches, 'A Land So Wide' is both a romance and historical horror story. This story is great for those who may be looking for a stand-alone fantasy novel. I was horrified, sad, entranced and engrossed in equal parts reading this book. And that epilogue? I questioned everything I thought I knew about how it had ended. I'm in love with this novel, and I hope that Erin A. Craig continues branching out into adult novels.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pantheon, and Erin A. Craig for providing me with an eARC of this novel for early reading and review. <3

Surrounded by forests and wilderness, a small settlement survives supernatural predators and attacks by giving gratitude and tribute to The Benevolence. The Benevolence has granted the community of Mistaken with magical ward stones. These ward stones keep the enemies out and the citizens of Mistaken safely inside their perimeter when night comes.
Greer, the daughter of a prominent man in the community, just wants to marry her longtime love, Ellis, but her father stands in the way. When Ellis goes missing past the ward stones one night Greer chooses to follow him, to bring him home to safety, but the creatures in the forest have other plans in mind.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the opportunity to read and review this book which I am giving 3⭐️.
I really enjoyed Greer as a main character and liked her relationship with Ellis. I wish that a bit more time had been spent actually developing their relationship for the readers. I would say I enjoyed the first 70-75% of this but right around that point it started to drag for me and once the finale actually started to happen I was ready for this book to be done. I was satisfied by the conclusion of this book but honestly would have no interest in having a copy of this for my home library or reading it again, it just drug on too long for me.

I loved this dark fantasy, loved the town of Mistaken, loved Greer and her unflinching courage. The vibes were immaculate. This is one to recommend!

**I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are entirely my own**

I must start by saying that I did not realize this was Erin Craig's debut adult book. I went into it thinking it was YA (I will admit, I did not read the synopsis at first. I just saw that Erin Craig had a new book coming out and immediately knew I was going to read it. After about 15% of the way through I did read it and my expectations changed a bit). All of that being said, this didn't feel like an adult book to me. It felt just like any of the author's other YA books. The main character, even though she is said to be 27, doesn't feel 27 (that's how old I am right now, actually and when reading, she felt younger than me by quite a bit). I also didn't feel like the scary parts of the book were much scarier than any of her author's books and the romance and "romantic scenes" (there really weren't any if I am being honest) weren't much different than her YA books either. So the tone of the book overall threw me off a little.

None of that though made the story bad, just a little thrown off. The story itself was good and I really enjoyed it. The random little love triangle thrown in for who knows what reason was a little weird though. I will also say, I did struggle a little with the first half of the book. There was a month and a half long period where I didn't even pick this book up and read other things because it felt a little slower than I normally expect from one of her books. Once I picked it back up and got into the second half of the book though, I flew right through and didn't want to put it down.

Overall, it was a good books. Not really what I was expecting out of a debut adult book, I do wish it would have had a more adult tone to it as that's what I was what I was expecting (after I read the synopsis). I don't think it ruined the story though. It ended up being a fun read, with a pretty happy ending.