YA Historical Fiction Book 2: Daughter of the Forest

Book: Daughter of the Forest

Author: Juliet Marillier

Publication: May 2000
Pages: 411

Summary (from Good Reads):

A beautiful retelling of the Celtic "Swans" myth, Daughter of the Forest is a mixture of history and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love... To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has ever known and embarks on a journey filled with pain, loss and terror. When she is kidnapped by enemy forces and taken to a foreign land, it seems that there will be no way for Sorcha to break the spell that condemns all that she loves. But magic knows no boundaries, and Sorcha will have to choose between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once. 

My Thoughts:

Now I will admit that at first, I thought the book was a bit slow going. It was filled with lots of description and getting to know the setting and the characters but the plot sounded so good I persisted in reading it. I am super glad I did. This book had me reading until twelve minutes past five in the morning! I'm not even kidding. After the first hundred pages it got seriously good. It had me nearly crying laughing and screaming with happiness! There was a part that really effected me to the the point where I was nearly in tears! I thought Sorcha's relationship with her brothers (who all sounded hot) was so special! It made me want a brother! They cared about her so much it was amazing. In fact I think that's what I liked so much about the book; Sorcha's relationship with different characters. Because the book was so long I thought that Marillier was able to develop the characters a lot so we saw their progression. Although I think that a hundred pages could have been cut from that book and it wouldn't have made any difference; the book didn't really need to be that long but once I got into it I didn't notice the length. Also the moral tales that Sorcha told went on a bit and by the end of the book I found myself skipping them. I think the best part of the book was Sorcha's reaction after an awful event. I read 350 pages in around 4 hours after that event. I empathised with her so much! Daughter of the Forest is the first book in the trilogy and even though I enjoyed it a lot, I won't be rushing to read the second book at this moment. Partly because of the length and partly because I've heard that it isn't as good as the first book and I don't want to be disappointed. All in all I would definately recommend this book!

Food Rating: 4/5

Page Rating: 6/8