Fantasy Book Club Series discussion

I so love this book! It is one of my favorites, and the writing is nothing short of brilliant...felt as though I were in the midst of an Irish Forest.

I loved this book too! It felt so magical and I absolutely love Red :)

Wow this blew me away. I just didn't expect it to be so good. I love the folksy fairy tale quality of it. It really could be read as a book on it's own...I don't feel the urge to plunge into the next one. I mean that in a good way though. It was very satisfying.

I do wonder about Simon though. A good part of the book was about him being treated by Sorcha and building some kind of relationship. There didn't seem to be much point to that in the end. Kind of a fake left, go right move? Anyway...I hope a love triangle doesn't become a theme in the following books.

I liked this a lot--it was lyrical and yet not flowery, and the story moved right along. I liked the main characters well enough, Sorcha, Simon, and Red, but I really liked reading about the brothers, the hermit priest/brother, and the women characters in Red's household.

Strong female characters were a treat in what first appeared to be a more traditional story. This retelling of The Six Swans, with the Celtic setting and history, was very memorable, retaining some of the traditional tropes (evil stepmother) while introducing a few twists.

Maggie wrote: "I so love this book! It is one of my favorites, and the writing is nothing short of brilliant...felt as though I were in the midst of an Irish Forest."

Me too! I have read the series several years ago, so I am going to do a reread with the group.

I read this book a year or two ago and really liked it. It wasn't horribly predictable like some books are. I especially liked the ending :)

The links contain spoilers, don't read them if you have not finished the book.

This book is a retelling of The Six Swans by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm If you are interested here is a link to an online version of the original tale: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm049.html

Hans Christian Anderson also has a tale, The Wild Swans http://hca.gilead.org.il/wild_swa.html, which is very similar.

Rebecca wrote: "I didn't realize it was a retelling."

She adds much more to the story -- but it is my favorite retelling of the Six Swans.

I really love how our author builds in storytelling into her book.

I was surprised in a good way, it was absolutely beautiful writing and I was expecting the old fantasy tropes but it didn't feel like that at all. I'm generally not fond of romance but I even felt emotional when Red and Sorscha were reunited and he told his story to her family

I just finished this and really enjoyed i so I've already started the next book Son of the Shadows. I'm also not drawn to romance books but I felt this was nicely balanced in the plot overall.

I will be continuing with the next book in February.

I agree...the romance was pretty realistic instead of being too saccharine.
Son of the Shadows is a very different book, looking at Sorcha's children :D

I finished this yesterday. I don't know what's wrong. I should've really liked this book, but I didn't. I didn't hate it, it's not bad, I just found it hard work to read. I had to force myself to read it. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the fact that I chose to start it at that point in time because it was the club book and not because I felt like reading it.

I don't know if I'll continue the series, at least I won't start the next book today. I'll have to see if I feel like continuing in a few days.

From reviews I wasn't sure I would like this going in, but I did. It had a good flow and nicely written. There were some parts that were slow going though, but for a first in a trilogy it didn't seem too bad. I did enjoy the characters.