Book Summary and Reviews of The Story Collector by Evie Woods

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Carmel B

Grief Delayed
I know from experience that grief delayed is grief unresolved. Sarah and Anna are kindred spirits in their quest to find peace following heart wrenching personal loss. Thankfully, there are angels, saints or fairies to help us on our journeys. Effortlessly, Woods transports her readers from the glitz and glamour of New York art museums to the farmhouses and mansions of the Irish countryside and back again. With a cast of talented characters that range from sorrowful, conflicted, mysterious, comical, brave and romantic “The Story Collector” captures our imaginations as well as our senses. Apologetically, I find the ending confusing regarding Sarah and Oran.

Sonia Francis

Secrets, mysteries and intrigue
As a huge fan of storytelling, the title The Story Collector won me over.

Narrated in two timelines; Thornwood village 1910 Ireland and New York 2010.
Sarah Harper changes her flight from Boston to Shannon airport instead . Her life is a bit stagnated with her marriage on edge and personal life in tatters. In Ireland she gets caught up in stories and lives of a rural community. She discovers the diary of a young girl Anna . The more she reads it the darker Anna’s story is. She is enthralled with an Ireland of old that is filled with superstition and mysticism.

Not only is this book a mystery, but it is filled with self exploration and teaches one the power that stories have on our lives . To bring comfort in one’s darkest time and takes one on a lifetime journey.

I came away from this book checking off a reason to read- To learn about and from the past.

An extraordinary story from ordinary people.

Eileen B

A Magical Story
I truly enjoyed the book. The author included two different timelines in the story-line, with each chapter told from the perspective of a character. There was a connection between the past and present, and each woman had to overcome hardships. The book contained elements of fantasy, magic, romance, and historical fiction, all woven together into a wonderful novel. I especially loved the relationship between Martha and Henry as they searched for the lost manuscript and bookshop. All of the secondary characters added to the story especially Madame Bowden Martha's employer. She would show up numerous times to assist Martha with a difficult situation. I did not predict the ending and it was magical.

Emmie Mere

I want to live in this book!
Sarah impulsively boards a plane to Ireland, where she lands at a small and maybe mysterious cottage. She is drawn to a perhaps magical tree with local history and finds the diary of a young woman, Anna, written 100 years in the past. Time jumps explore life for Anna, her meeting and relationship with American Harold, and the local lore in 1910. With Anna's help, Harold explores the idea of fairies and magic in Ireland. As Sarah reads the diary, she finds more in common with Anna, and explores her own pain and grief as she invests in, and learns to trust herself.

I loved this book from start to finish. The author's writing flows so easily and is beautiful without being superfluous or overwhelming. She provides just the right about of verbiage to allow the imagery to come through naturally. Everywhere she takes us, everyone we meet, you feel like you are there.

While mostly predictable, this book was so lovely and wonderful. Absolute 5 stars!

Barbara

Cheerful and Charming
Does anyone actually make a spur-of-the-moment decision to move to another continent on Christmas Day? Sarah Harper does in this unusually charming and cheerful story. She leaves New York and relocates to the western coast of Ireland, on a whim, after reading a small news article about fairies living in a countryside Hawthorn tree of Ireland.

Sarah takes a small suitcase and changes of clothing, but her important baggage includes a failed marriage and slight alcohol addiction. After she arrives in Ireland, Sarah stays near the Hawthorn tree at Butler cottage. The story morphs into a dual timeline when Sarah discovers a diary written in 1911. Miss Anna Butler is the narrator and diary owner, and she tells the powerful story of the Hawley family at Thornwood House.

Magical realism is the genre for this novel, and aptly so. There are convincing tales of fairies or leprechauns that control the lives of the Hawley family at Thornwood House.

Katherine Pond

There is Magic for Those Who Believe
I found this book a true delight.

Sometimes when a book has alternating time lines the story becomes confusing and the reader loses track of where they are in time. Woods handles the switching very well and smoothly.

In 2011 a young woman grieving her failed marriage impetuously boards a plane for Ireland instead of heading home to her parents for rest, recovery and reevaluation. What she finds there is a small village of caring and interesting people. And, in one of her walking excursions a diary of a young girl, who 100 years ago dwelt in the same cottage in which she is staying.

Sarah finds herself engrossed in the tale of Anna, the daughter of the farmer who lived in the small cottage Sarah is now inhabiting. Anna too is suffering a grief of her own that she finds herself not sharing but that is a driving force in her life. Both women become involved with the men who will help them start to sort the pain and move forward through it. For Sarah, it is the local conservation officer, Oran. He and his wife and daughter had once lived in the cottage, too. But his wife died young and he could not remain there once she was gone. He has a daughter, Hazel, a young teen who is quite fascinated by Sarah, the American from New York by way of Boston.

For Anna, it is a young American, as well. Harold Griffin-Krauss has come to Thornwood Village from Oxford where he is studying. He wishes to research the Celtic culture, particularly as it applies to magic, the little folk, superstition. He asks Anna to introduce him to the locals so he can gather their stories and experiences. For Anna, his interest helps her deal with her anxiety to contact the sister she has lost. For Sarah, the story of their exploits helps her to open her mind to the possibility of a future without guilt or sadness.

Hazel at one point quotes Roald Dahl--"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." In their own ways both Sarah and Anna find magic. And while their future is not truly known at the end of the book, there is at least the promise of happiness and contentment.

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