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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"For indeed you have a choice. You can flee and hide, and wait to be found. You can live out your days in terror, without meaning. Or you can take the harder choice, and you can save them."
Let me start with this quote for indeed the path to this book was DIFFICULT. So, dear reader, you have THE choice to traverse what lies ahead or not. But once you start, I dare you NOT to stop and keep going no matter how tough it will be. The fruit is at the end.
A retelling of the Six Swans fairytale
Classic historical fantasy of Irish/Celtic lore
This story is about a love that is unbreakable and unyielding to the extreme. *A sacrificial love* A love among seven siblings that withstands a curse. (Finbar is my fave!) A love of the youngest child to sustain ALL (freakin sorts of) hardship and when I say hard, it is DIFFICULT AND TRIGGERING. Should you stop now?
Even while writing this, it sends me back crying and it was a chokehold of a read. The madness, unfairness, heart wrenching suffering daggered into the FMC at a very tender age. A book that made me feel fear and pushed trust to the abyss, of no return.
It is a book I would have stopped before or skimmed/skipped pages but I wanted to take it farther how much ache I could take coz I BELIEVED in redemption - there MUST be!
And if you continue, dear reader, there is A love worth discovering. A love that reminds you are worth SAVING. A love that pushes you to remember that there can be HEALING. That the path of life can be extremely hard but there is magic in what we don't perceive that works and watches over us.
This book showed me a love that goes beyond words - literally. How you can convey the most powerful words if you only know how to LISTEN with the depths of your heart.
"You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path."
"I see you before me every moment. I see you in the light of the water, in the swaying of the young trees in the spring wind. I see you in the shadows of the great oaks, I hear your voice in the cry of the owl at night. You are the blood in my veins, and the beating of my heart. You are my first waking thought, and my last sigh before sleeping. You are - you are bone of my bone, and breath of my breath."
"“I have something for you.” He put it into my hand. A round, shiny, perfect apple, green as new grass with a faint blush of rosy pink. And now his eyes had changed so that I saw what lay there, hidden deep, so deep only the bravest or most foolhardy would seek to find it. He has always understood me better, without words. So I laid my hand on my heart, held it there for a moment, and then moved it over and touched my palm against his breast. My heart. Your heart."
"The girl is not yours, or mine, or anyone’s. But for now, she travels under my protection, and let him who lays a hand on her answer to me." LASTLY, the best [touch her and die] that I've ever read.
A book of severe endurance. Of trusting the process even when you DONT SEE any of the path ahead. There's SO MUCH MORE I want to say but check your emotional and mental health for the triggers, pause when you must.
Let me start with this quote for indeed the path to this book was DIFFICULT. So, dear reader, you have THE choice to traverse what lies ahead or not. But once you start, I dare you NOT to stop and keep going no matter how tough it will be. The fruit is at the end.
A retelling of the Six Swans fairytale
Classic historical fantasy of Irish/Celtic lore
This story is about a love that is unbreakable and unyielding to the extreme. *A sacrificial love* A love among seven siblings that withstands a curse. (Finbar is my fave!) A love of the youngest child to sustain ALL (freakin sorts of) hardship and when I say hard, it is DIFFICULT AND TRIGGERING. Should you stop now?
Even while writing this, it sends me back crying and it was a chokehold of a read. The madness, unfairness, heart wrenching suffering daggered into the FMC at a very tender age. A book that made me feel fear and pushed trust to the abyss, of no return.
It is a book I would have stopped before or skimmed/skipped pages but I wanted to take it farther how much ache I could take coz I BELIEVED in redemption - there MUST be!
And if you continue, dear reader, there is A love worth discovering. A love that reminds you are worth SAVING. A love that pushes you to remember that there can be HEALING. That the path of life can be extremely hard but there is magic in what we don't perceive that works and watches over us.
This book showed me a love that goes beyond words - literally. How you can convey the most powerful words if you only know how to LISTEN with the depths of your heart.
"You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path."
"I see you before me every moment. I see you in the light of the water, in the swaying of the young trees in the spring wind. I see you in the shadows of the great oaks, I hear your voice in the cry of the owl at night. You are the blood in my veins, and the beating of my heart. You are my first waking thought, and my last sigh before sleeping. You are - you are bone of my bone, and breath of my breath."
"“I have something for you.” He put it into my hand. A round, shiny, perfect apple, green as new grass with a faint blush of rosy pink. And now his eyes had changed so that I saw what lay there, hidden deep, so deep only the bravest or most foolhardy would seek to find it. He has always understood me better, without words. So I laid my hand on my heart, held it there for a moment, and then moved it over and touched my palm against his breast. My heart. Your heart."
"The girl is not yours, or mine, or anyone’s. But for now, she travels under my protection, and let him who lays a hand on her answer to me." LASTLY, the best [touch her and die] that I've ever read.
A book of severe endurance. Of trusting the process even when you DONT SEE any of the path ahead. There's SO MUCH MORE I want to say but check your emotional and mental health for the triggers, pause when you must.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
2.5
This story is based on a fairytale (which I'm not familiar with). And it felt just like reading your average fairytale but in 600 pages instead of 20.
My problem is that I don't understand the point of this book. The writing was beautiful, yes, and that's why I finished it and didn't just dnf (also listening to the audiobook helped a lot, I wouldn't have lasted reading it by myself).
I think there must be a purpose to retelling or expanding an already existing story other than just going through the details. This was pretty straightforward, with no subversion of the fairytale tropes, no new perspectives, nothing new to add. It just painted a very vivid picture of every single aspect of the fairytale. And to be honest, I've never read a fairytale and thought to myself, I wish it was 600 pages long
This story is based on a fairytale (which I'm not familiar with). And it felt just like reading your average fairytale but in 600 pages instead of 20.
My problem is that I don't understand the point of this book. The writing was beautiful, yes, and that's why I finished it and didn't just dnf (also listening to the audiobook helped a lot, I wouldn't have lasted reading it by myself).
I think there must be a purpose to retelling or expanding an already existing story other than just going through the details. This was pretty straightforward, with no subversion of the fairytale tropes, no new perspectives, nothing new to add. It just painted a very vivid picture of every single aspect of the fairytale. And to be honest, I've never read a fairytale and thought to myself, I wish it was 600 pages long
I loved 90% of this book, but I'm still going to put it on my "favourites" shelf. I love the idea of combining a fairytale with historical fiction. I thought the world-building was excellent, and all of the siblings characters fleshed out well. I couldn't put the book down, and even read it with a headache because I was so hooked. My only bone of contention was the one character, let's call him "the uncle." I thought he came off very 2-dimensional, and his revealing of most of the plot to the heroine was very "James Bond villain" cliche, where he feels he has won so he tells her his entire evil plan. It took me out of the narrative, which was disappointing. But Marillier won me back after his portion was finished. Other than the uncle, I thought this book was wonderful, imaginative, and even gut-wrenching at times. Very well done.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although this book is not entirely for me in terms of taste, I feel it is a really well-written book. The story is attractive, derivative from different fairy tales and stories but still original. It somehow does make me reminisce about Nettle and Bone but I'd say this book is everything that book could've been and more.
Marillier's character work and storycrafting is splendid. While it is a fairy talesque premise (An evil step mom that enchants the sons of the king and their sister having to save them by performing a task for the fae), the journey and experiences of main character Sorcha is palpable and impactful.
It is an adventurous story, as well as a romance in a historical context of medieval Ireland and Britain. It is a lively setting with political intrigue, wonderful surroundings and side characters that come to live.
I would definitely recommend reading this book and probably this series, Marillier being a master of her craft, although I will probably not continue very soon.
Marillier's character work and storycrafting is splendid. While it is a fairy talesque premise (An evil step mom that enchants the sons of the king and their sister having to save them by performing a task for the fae), the journey and experiences of main character Sorcha is palpable and impactful.
It is an adventurous story, as well as a romance in a historical context of medieval Ireland and Britain. It is a lively setting with political intrigue, wonderful surroundings and side characters that come to live.
I would definitely recommend reading this book and probably this series, Marillier being a master of her craft, although I will probably not continue very soon.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
First one I've read along with Vaginal Fantasy for a while, and surprisingly little "sexy times" for that group. Which, actually, is good because given the young age of the characters it would have been cringeworthy.
On to the tale. It's a very nice take on The Six Swans and various other Irish and Welsh mystery sagas. It is very slow to get going, though - I almost lemmed it at 35% because so little was happening, but it does need the character set-up in most cases. I did get very bored with Finbar being so flipping mysterious, even so. It's worth persevering with for the heart-wrenching death about two-thirds of the way through, but since it's the first in a series it suffered from both a too-neat happy ever after and too many loose threads to be satisfying. So in summary: eh. It's no Mists of Avalon, but if you want something that doesn't go at breakneck speed and like fantasy romance, you're probably onto a winner. OTOH if you like "fantasy that happens to have good relationship writing" as opposed to "a romance in a fantasy setting", you might want to give it a miss.
On to the tale. It's a very nice take on The Six Swans and various other Irish and Welsh mystery sagas. It is very slow to get going, though - I almost lemmed it at 35% because so little was happening, but it does need the character set-up in most cases. I did get very bored with Finbar being so flipping mysterious, even so. It's worth persevering with for the heart-wrenching death about two-thirds of the way through, but since it's the first in a series it suffered from both a too-neat happy ever after and too many loose threads to be satisfying. So in summary: eh. It's no Mists of Avalon, but if you want something that doesn't go at breakneck speed and like fantasy romance, you're probably onto a winner. OTOH if you like "fantasy that happens to have good relationship writing" as opposed to "a romance in a fantasy setting", you might want to give it a miss.