It is an adaptation of an old Norwegian folk tale entitled "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and was a 2003 ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults.

Rose feels out of place in her family, despite her love for them and her home; she can never live up to the standard set by her dead sister Elise, and is consumed by un-east-like wanderlust and desire for adventure.

Her happy and loving childhood is failing: not only are they impoverished and her sick sister lying close to death, but her parents have concealed the truth of her birth-direction from her—the superstition that has hung over her entire life.

Kirkus Reviews stated "Using multiple narrators, Pattou expands the Scandinavian folktale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" to epic length—adding little to the original."

"[1] while Publishers Weekly saw that "Readers with a taste for fantasy and folklore will embrace Pattou's (Hero's Song) lushly rendered retelling of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon."

"[2] Inis magazine was critical writing that "Pattou has replaced the conciseness of the folktale form (her novel makes use of 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon') with a detail-oriented kind of epic exoticism, and more has been lost than gained in the exchange.

This novel bludgeons the folktale into an overly rationalistic, epic narrative form that relies on exoticism for its appeal and has no meaningful historical or geographical accuracy.