What’s on my bookshelf? 11-9-12

I’m currently reading the book Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier (and loving it), and that got me thinking that I hadn’t written a “What’s on my bookshelf?” post in a while. So today I will be talking about the books by Marillier that I have on my shelf.

I first picked up Daughter of the Forest in my first year of high school. I remember not being able to put it down. I was so not able to put it down that I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning one night finishing the book, and then I woke up the next morning and needed to reread the last 30 pages or so. It retells a legend about six brothers that were turned into swans, and the setting is medieval Ireland and Great Britain. (While the legend is German, it works to set it in Ireland, too, because there is an old Irish story of The Children of Lir who were turned into swans.) There’s magic, Irish mythology, hardship, tragedy and love.

This was one of the first books that made me cry. It is a love story as much as anything: one of a girl’s love for her brothers that drives her to mute herself for an undetermined amount of time while she performs a daunting task, and one of a forbidden love that happens unexpectedly on her journey.

I next picked up Son of the Shadows and Child of the Prophesy and read them with interest. These both continue the story of the family that started with Daughter of the Forest. Then, for some reason, despite the fact that these were great books, I moved on to other authors and forgot about the series. There are now seven books in that series. (It makes sense, since the series is called Sevenwaters.) She also has five other series of books going, one of which I’ve just started reading with Shadowfell.

Needless to say, I will be asking for the rest of the Sevenwaters series for Christmas, and any others that my family might want to get me by her.

I highly recommend Marillier as a fantasy author. She writes beautifully, and I always find myself rooting for the main character and the others as they strive against evil and their opponents who would keep them from what they need to do. You can’t ask for a lot more in a novel.

About Brittany Westerberg

I'm a lover of writing and books. I graduated from South Dakota State with a master's degree in communications in 2011, the same year I was first published. I'm a wife and mom, and I work in content and digital marketing in South Dakota.