Book: Daughter Of The Forest by Juliet Marillier

Published by Tom Doherty Associates

Purchased for my Nook (384 pages)

Genre: YA: Historical Fiction/Fantasy

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Juliet Marillier

Goodreads Summary: Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with six sons: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid, with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor, each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar, grown old before his time by his gift of the Sight; and the young, compassionate Padriac.

But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift.

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 her 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.

Daughter Of The Forest…it’s okay.  Marillier is so good at describing things, and I loved the setting.  It was so cool to see ancient Ireland and pieces of the conflict with Britain.

Let’s start with the characters.  I didn’t like Sorcha.  I appreciate what she did for her brothers and the sacrifice she made for them but I just couldn’t connect with her.  And the romance!  It is yet another boring and obvious romance.  Speaking of romance, I think one reason why I didn’t like Sorcha was because she didn’t want to get married.  Understandable, but given she’s the only girl in the family, and her dad wants to make things safe, her getting married was bound to happen.  Plus, it just didn’t seem to fit with the time period.

There were times when we got a lot of info, but also times when we didn’t get all that much.  Then there’s the fact that Oonagh is only around long enough to turn Sorcha’s brothers into swans, only to disappear and never be heard from again.

Plus, she was way too calm.  I know she wanted to save her brothers, and couldn’t make a sound for years, but you’d think she’d show more of a reaction when coming across obstacles.

Overall, I give it a 2 out of 5.  Interesting setting and time period but I didn’t particularly care for Sorcha or Red.