A roller coaster of a read, it takes the reader through stories from both sides of the First World War, through to today, nicely weaving the stories together in a very satisfying way, including some great twists. I love the idea of Katerina, with her skills and talents, a woman who stands out from the crowd in more ways than one. Then we have Miriam, a young woman who should have been studying but finds herself working in a prisoner of war camp. And then Edie, present day, struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband so decides to move to a place where she’d found happiness as a child.

It’s a moving read, showing how racism and bigotry affected peoples lives in so many ways during the war, how women struggled to cope with inequality and the poverty for the families left at home during WWI, literally starving, and often homeless. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this beautiful novel early ⭐️
Pulled on the heart strings and kept me reading long into the early hours. I adore tales that span different eras & timelines and this one didn’t disappoint

I was so glad I was sent a copy of this. Iris Costello is truly magical. She writes about three stories, which don't seem to have any connection to each other (although you know they do) until right at the end, when everything is revealed.
After her previous work, I didn't think she could deliver another story like this, but she did. Absolutely stunning.
I got more attached to Kitty, Miriam and Otto rather than to Edie, but I will keep them and their stories in my heart for a very long time.

Iris Costello has done a really good job of weaving together the stories of three very distinct characters across different timelines and diverse experiences to make up the plot of The Story Collector.

We first meet Edie, whose relocation to her great grandmother's cottage in Cornwall results in her stumbling across an untold piece of history. Originally there in order to seek inspiration for her commission working to develop a set of Tarot cards, she finds herself taking an unexpected journey into the past.

With 3 POV and different timelines involved in this story, we also meet two German women - Katerina, who runs a bakery in the East End of London, and finds herself at a decided disadvantage when the war breaks out and she is perceived by many to be one of the enemy.

Meanwhile, at a POW camp in Germany, Miriam, a German, falls in love with a British soldier held captive there. It is a relationship which could cost her dearly...

This well- told story explores diverse individual narratives that examine certain overarching themes such as racism, prejudice, and inequality. The result is to engage the reader's emotions and attitudes in ways that bring home the universality of core human emotions. It gets 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Set across two different timelines this is a really beautiful story. I’ll read this again as I just know it’s a book I’ll go back to again and again.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Iris Costello deftly weaves together the stories of three women, two from WW1 and one from the present day. Through the narrative she reminds the reader of the power of both hatred and love, and the importance of looking past ethnicity, identity and societal labels.
Set in London 1915, Germany 1918 and present day Cornwall, the stories are not obviously linked. However, Costello has structured her novel to allow the reader to slowly uncover the generational connections.
‘The Story Collector’ is likely to appeal to those who are interested in lesser-known aspects of WW1. The author has clearly read around her subject and has used her findings to very good effect. Nowhere does it feel as if research has been included for research’s sake. Whilst her central characters’ emotional responses to trauma feel somewhat sanitised at times, Costello creates a mostly authentic-feeling picture of the process of grieving.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK, Viking for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I just reviewed The Story Collector by Iris Costello. #TheStoryCollector #NetGalley

I’ve given this three stars as it was well-written and historically correct but this book just didn’t hit its target with me, unlike this authors first book.

I enjoyed the story of Kitty and her tarot cards but it lost me with the trips into the POW camp..

Too much information and too many time jumps for me.

I received this book as a ARC and I based off the synopsis I was very excited to read it, even as I started the story I was still excited about being able to read this book as I like mysteries and it is a type of book that I typically enjoy. It was originally put down as a romance book but there is nothing in the book that I would class as a romance book.

It is a story of three different time lines and how people's lives can intertwine together with them even expecting it. I know that in the synopsis it does say that it's the story of three women but as you start reading the book you realise that actually it's the story of time and how it effects those in it instead.

First part is set in London during WW1 however it's not just her story but also the story of everyone in London from all various social statuses who have different needs and what the war was like for those left behind while the men fought in the trenches. The second part, is in the prison camps from the perspective of Germans (especially those to sympathies with the Allies prisoners) and how every decision you made during the war despite it's side had a consequence. Then the third part, was from present time and how the decisions and lives of both those in the trenches and those left behind shapes the world as we know it today.

The reason why I gave it three starts instead of four or five is that despite the synopsis and how much I liked the story overall the world building was the main focus and sometimes even pushed the main story aside to the point that it was hard to read and hard to understand. I wish that some parts of the story would have been cut, not because they were irrelevant to the times but rather because they took away from the overall story overwhelmingly and you found yourself wondering how it relates but you were left feeling like it didn't.

Good premise ruined somewhat by some really unlikeable characters- Edie and Kat and also Americanisms in a UK book. There's nothing worse! Especially when inconsistent. This is a UK author after all.. Not a fan of Tarot either or psychics and I couldn't help think- oh for heaven's sake just do x at so many points. Such a shame because the blurb drew me in and I was settling down on a Sunday to a really good read. Bit like looking at a really juicy apple and discovering a worm inside. Disappointing.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Having read The Secrets of Rochester Place, I was very much looking forward to reading Iris Costello’s new story.

Set across 3 different timelines, two over the First World War and one modern day, this is another hit for me. The story of Edie, whose beloved husband David died in suspicious sounding circumstances; Katerina, who finds herself targeted by local mobs; and Miriam, a nurse/scholar conducting interviews in a POW camp.

The perspective of the WWI stories was different to anything I have read before and I found them both intriguing and very interesting; each focussing on the impacts of war on these two women.

The three stories are connected but the connection is only revealed later in the book and I think it’s testament to the skill of the author that the stories didn’t rely on finding that out, I spent my time enjoying the stories unfold, rather than trying to work out how they were connected to each other.

Beautifully written, showing the horrors of war, the cruelties of life and the strength of love, this is another absolute winner from Iris.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

begins in the present day with Edie. She has recently been widowed and relocated to Cornwall to live in her great grandmother's cottage. Her father owns the cottage, but he believes Edie should live there because it is presently unoccupied and a location for her to try to rebuild her life. She's been asked to illustrate a deck of tarot cards, and she's hoping that her visit to Cornwall will inspire her.

Katerina appears in the following chapters. A German bakery proprietor who lives and works in London's East End. When war breaks out, Katerina discovers that her German heritage puts her in jeopardy. As the war progresses, animosity toward the German community in London grows.

We then travel to Germany's Danholm POW camp, where Miriam works as a nurse, assisting in the care of sick and injured British captured military personnel, as well as an assistant to a German Professor conducting linguistic research and using the prisoners as part of this project.

This is a terrific book with many secrets, twists and turns, and yet it is very tragic. Sylvia Pankhurst appears briefly in the novel, which prompted me to dig up her work and life story on Wikipedia, which is intriguing and closely related to the plot. The other question I had, as I had no idea, was why there were so many German immigrants in London before to the onset of WWI, and I found this interesting as well.

It's a fantastic book that has given me a lot to think about and research. That's better than any history lecture, for sure. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Having enjoyed Rochester Place I was looking forward to this book. And it didn't disappoint. Three different lives, three different times (just), and a mystery that left a bit of angst at the end of quite a few chapters. I enjoyed it very much and thought that the ending was perfect. With thanks to all concerned for an e_ARC to read and review.

I enjoyed reading this book and meeting the main protagonists: three strong women, who all come with their own stories and timeline. They are Katerina Drechsler, a German baker and Tarot card reader, Miriam Ziegler, a German linguist conducting a study into British dialects in a PoW camp , and last but not least there is Edie, who has just accepted a commission to design a modern set of Tarot cards, hoping the work will help her through her grief following her husband’s death. She lives in present day London and Cornwall, where she makes some mysterious discoveries that provide the link to Miriam and Katerina, whose lives we begin to follow during the years of World War I.

All three are great stories in their own right and when they eventually merge together, they are more than simply the sum of their individual parts. All in all, this book is a story about stories that are told in many ways: through a deck of Tarot cards and through Miriam’s collection of accounts as told by British Prisoners of War, which in the end provide the key to Edie’s family history.

Interesting, intriguing and captivating.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another wonderful book from Iris Costello.

The book is set during WWI and now.

Edie's husband David dies after an incident / burglary at their London flat, she decides to decamp to her great grandmothers house in Cornwall.

Kitty, a young German is living in the East End of London during WWI, when the Germans sink the Lusitania and innocent civilians are drowned, locals attack and ruin her late fathers bakery.

The book follows both women as they come to terms with what has happened to them

A great read...

This book is truly magical! It features an exceptional plot, unexpected twists, and poignant moments. I didn’t feel that link between Kitty, Miriam and Edie was apparent until the conclusion, which ensured I remained captivated throughout. A delightful and contemplative novel - highly recommended.

Beautifully written story. I love Kitty, Miriam and Edie. So vulnerable, but strong women and their interwoven lives story. Great read.

Spellbinding, addictive, beautifully written.
Richly atmospheric, evocative and moving - a triumph of storytelling.

Tarot cards and magic aren’t really my thing, but I gave this story a chance and was glad that I did. It’s beautifully written and the stories of three very different women weave themselves together like a complicated crochet pattern so that, by the end, you are left with a wonderful finished masterpiece. Excellent!

I had no idea what to expect with this book but it blew all expectations out of the water!

I loved this book, and how it kept me guessing until the end - there is not a lot worse than a mystery/secret that you can guess a mile off in a book.

It was a great reading experience and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I find varying points of view help me burn through a book a lot quicker, and this was no exception.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘The Story Collector’ is a historical fiction book, which spans generations, involving long buried secrets slowly being uncovered.

The book has three immersive timelines - Katerina, a tarot reading, German native who has learnt to hide her true identity so she can more peacefully get by in the east end of London during WW1, Miriam, a German women who is interviewing English prisoners of war for linguistic studies, and Edie, a recently widowed, present day, English women, who moves back to her families coastal home and starts uncovering secrets that somehow might just tie them all together.

The three timelines each had their own intrigues and heartaches, but my favourite chapters were Katerina’s. I really enjoyed her use of tarot, and the exploration into what it was like for the women who lived in London during that time period, with the fight for women’s rights heating up, alongside the struggles of the war.

It really isn’t obvious how the stories will intertwine until the end, which I enjoyed - it kept me guessing quite a bit, and helped to keep me engaged as the story progressed.

I found the story overall to be quite enjoyable - I was never majorly moved one way or the other, but I still had a good reading experience and would recommend it.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.