AMAZING!!! from start to finish this book was so hard to put down! the most amazing descriptions and the language and history is so fantastic. it combines action, romance, fantasy, everything all in one amazing ( I just cant stop using that word) book! I cant wait to read the next one! ( )

What's to like? This book is marketed as feminist, but I have to question this. All other female characters, excluding the MC, are not given a chance to be fully realized. Not only this: the proportion of men to women is staggering and disheartening.

My last complaint concerns the detailed description of rape, and the comparative lack of description for the consensual sex. Many reviewers have pointed this out, but it must be restated.

Is it an interesting tale? Barely. The Hans Christian Andersen telling is far better. Why write this? What was the point? I suppose it's the story she wanted to tell. To each her own, I guess.

Perhaps Daughter of the Forest is objectively good. But who reads objectively? ... who the hell am I kidding? It is far from deserving of its acclaim, and I am mystified as to it received any of that acclaim in the first place. ( )

Three chapters in.

When I picked up this book all the reviews seemed to focus on its being based on a fairy tale. Currently I'm just really enjoying the setting and the characters and have almost completely forgotten this fairy tale basis.

Having finished the book

Things I liked:

The setting: psudo-historical setting made me happy and sad thinking of a magical past world that is now gone (and in the context of the story must inevitably come to an end).

The first person perspective: I liked the narrator and enjoyed seeing her find her way in the world.

Things I thought could be improved:

I thought that when actual magic was employed (turning people into swans and spontaneous torrential downpours) the descriptions were a bit clumsy and didn't provide me with a credible mind-picture of how these transitions occurred. They advanced the books plot, but drew me out of the story which was unfortunate. ( )

I cannot figure out why I didn't like this book more.

It wasn't really the writing style, the prose seemed totally fine. But when I put down the book, I had no desire to pick it back up again. My only thought is to blame knowing the fairy tale. Knowing that certain plot points were coming, and seeing how unhappy Sorcha already was, I didn't want to come back into the book and live through her misery.

Or maybe the book was too long. Months would pass in a few pages, then it would take an entire chapter to get through one night. I think I liked the book better when it flew a little more, I wasn't much for the minutiae.

Also some personal dislikes at the end: monologues and Unexpected Love Triangles.

It still probably deserves to be on several people's favorite fairy tale renditions, it just didn't quite mesh with me.

EDIT with some historical verification: I'm reading Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years) by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. In her Behind the Myths chapter, she mentions Scandinavian women frequently making shirts out of nettles, as long as they are picked moving up the stalk (stingers point up), and that retting by design rots away the stingers after that. The fiber that can be spun from the nettles after retting is finer and silkier than flax.

I believe Sorcha was doing that retting process, but maybe she wasn't since her hands were always knobby from the needles. Oh well. ( )

I debated between the four and five star option. . . And ended up with four. This books is amazingly well-done. Hooks you as quickly as possible. Never disappoints as far as plot-depth, language, characters, etc.
The only thing that detracted from the quality for me was the certain even which happens half-way through the book. While it was a great plot point, I felt like it could have been handled better. I might be wrong. I just felt that she did an admirable job with Simon's early story without being as graphic and I felt that it could have been better. I might very well be wrong. . . ( )