What a wonderful dual timeline story.
Following the breakdown of her marriage an impulsive decision to go to Ireland unearths a hundred year old diary.
Both tales are full of love and the mystical fairies but set in their own time.
But your own personal beliefs to the side, curl up and enjoy this wonderful tale.
Finding yourself and letting out the grief.

Where to start?

I most definitely enjoyed reading this book as it's an historical romance (sort of) which I find very comforting. At the same time I had this unsettling/ edgy feeling throughout the whole reading because of the fairies topic.

I'm still digesting the story. It goes back and forward in time, just like in "The lost bookshop". I loved everything Anna, Sarah not so much. Sarah's storyline didn't do anything for me, she was so into Anna's diary all the time that everything else seemed irrelevant.

I had left it halfway, when I picked it up again, and I ended it in one sitting. That's how absorbed I was in the story. Evie has a magical touch with her stories because you do feel a sense of real magic. I believe Evie Woods is now an auto-buy author for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to publisher HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review. Thank you, Chloe, for the heads up!

I was fortunate to be given an ARC copy of The Story Collector to read in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Evie Woods, NetGalley, and the One More Chapter publishers of Harper Collins publishing.
I absolutely adored Woods' first book, The Lost Bookshop and had been anxiously awaiting Woods' next book, The Story Collector. The Story Collector and Woods did not disappoint in any way.
Woods has a gift for storytelling and creating characters a reader can be invested in. When The Story Collector was finished, I found myself wanting more of the story. Its not that Woods story wasn't complete, its just that I enjoyed the writing and the story so much. Woods has well thought out concepts for her stories and understands how to captivate a reader. I will continue to look forward to reading more from Evie Woods. Hopefully someday I will have an oppprtunity to see Ireland myself. Woods has captured the beauty and essence of Ireland perfectly.
Don't hesitate to add The Story Collector to your to be read pile. Better yet, go ahead and pre-order this book as you won't want to wait to read it. The Story Collector is an exceptional and enjoyable read.

This book was totally unexpectedly delightful. I read it all in one day, and that alone says something!
It's a historical fiction novel mainly about Irish beliefs of fairies, and superstitions. In the description it says it's a historical romance. And there's romance in it, but it's not the focus of the book. It would be undermining all the other elements in it.
The book is written in a way that it's alternating between past and present, which is a style I love. It's very beautifully and skilfully written in my opinion. I loved the main characters. I loved the different stories integrated into the main stories.
I didn't know about Irish beliefs of supernatural events happening that are related to people who died. I definitely want to read about this.
This book also has a very magical vibe that's close to movie "The Holiday". That's why I couldn't put it down, it just warmed my heart.
I would definitely recommend this book to people who love to travel through time, or to different places and learn about different customs happening somewhere else.
I will pick up other books from this author. It's a gem.

"My skin prickled as I poured the tea. I had no idea that my neighbours had such a close affinity with the other world. Was it something we all experienced, yet kept close to our breasts for fear of betraying The Good People and suffering the consequences? And what of Harold? Would his story collecting release the secrets and cause untold chaos?"

County Clare in rural, West Coast Ireland in 1911-12 and 2011-12. The reader meets two women grieving the loss of their sister and daughter respectively. Bound by location and a found diary, fleeing a broken marriage, American Sarah escapes into the world of farmer's daughter Anna, assistant to visiting American academic, Harold, who is researching Ireland's myths and fairy folk. Grounded in the Irish landscape, in na Daoine Maithe (The Good People AKA fairy creatures), and in the societal expectations of each era results in an intoxicating and ensconsing tale. I loved the duel storylines and longed for happy endings for Sarah, Anna, Oran and Harold. There are secrets, mysteries and love in this beautiful story of hope and determination woven with Irish folkore.

I loved The Lost Bookshop so I was excited to receive The Story Collector. I loved the duel storylines that span decades and seeing parallels between life in the different eras. I’m also a sucker for magical realism. This is definitely a book I’ll be recommending to my friends who need a charming read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

I enjoyed The Lost Bookshop so I was eager to read this. I've only started it but wanted to note to the publisher pre-publication that if it's whisky she's drinking at the airport, it's not Irish. Whiskey is distilled in Ireland. I'm not being pedantic, but I am Irish.

I was so excited to read another book by Evie Woods, having not long finished The Lost Bookshop.

I love the magical realism of the book and the folklore about fairies. This story was fast paced and engages you to want to keep reading. I loved that athere was a bit of romance, mystery and hope for second chances within the story. Another wonderful book by Evie Woods, my only complaint if you can call it that was that I was left wanting to read more.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah is married to Jack, but since they are having problems, she takes a break and, for the Christmas vacation, decides to go to her sister. Instead of taking the plane to her sister's, she finds herself in Thornwood, Scotland. She realized it when she arrived because she was drunk.
She asks at the only hotel there for a room; the hotelier, however, suggests another place. The owner takes her to a small house, "The Butler House," in the middle of nowhere.
While staying in Thornwood, she meets some local people. One evening, she finds, in the trunk of a hollow tree, a tin can with a diary in it. Flipping through the diary, she finds herself in 1911, reading Anna Butler's diary and her adventures with Harold Griffin, an American boy who went to Scotland to do a doctorate on fairy-related stories.
The story alternates between Anna's adventures in the diary and Sarah's interactions with some of the local people.
The story is very well written. Like in "The Lost Bookshop," recently published in Italian, in this book too, the story alternates past and present with different main characters, Sarah and Anna. I found myself most engaged and intrigued by Anna's part, while Sarah's part is a bit more funny.
Anna and Harold go around the village to collect stories of people's encounters with fairies. Every person they meet, because Harold is "The Story Collector," tells a story experienced firsthand. Anna herself has personal experiences with fairies.
Spoilers. The ending is... I personally had a sort of unmet expectation.
Still, the story is compelling because I really read it in a short time and had fun.

This beautiful story is set in Ireland (one of my favorite places) and follows Sarah as she navigates finding purpose and herself after the breakdown of her marriage. Along the way, she finds a lost diary and unlikely friends. Told in a nonlinear timeline, alternating between the diary of a young girl named Anna, and present day Sarah, the story unfolds into a magic tale of folklore, fairies, and magic. My only complaint is I wanted it to be 100 more pages.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit, probably just as much as The Lost Bookshop. I loved the different perspectives in time, which felt as though they were more smoothly executed in this book than her first, and the discovery of Anna’s diary was a good vehicle through which the author explored Ireland’s fairy lore.

Sarah, as a primary character, felt disjointed to me. Not only due to the improbable trip that kicked off the story, but also with regards to the drinking, the anxiety, etc that seemed at odds with her character. Her sad backstory was an important one and was hinted at throughout the book, and though this explained her relationship with her ex-husband and her avoidance of her family, the rest of her choices seemed to exist to check off boxes on a list of “How Women Handle Trauma” rather than being so deeply inherent to her. Perhaps if her personality had been fleshed out more than just in relation to her backstory and Anna’s diary, it would have been a better fit. The involvement of the Hawthorne tree in the tea at the end also felt forced.

Anna’s story on the other hand felt rich and vivid, sketched out beautifully in her relevant time period by the author. I enjoyed her narrative so much and looked forward to the chapters that dealt with Anna’s diary and the story with Harold.

All in all, this was a good follow-up second book for the author. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it those who liked her first effort.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the ARC.

✨3 stars✨

I was really excited to read this book when I requested it and I was really enjoying it for the first 20%. Also the rich Irish setting was definitely a highlight.

However, the further I got into the story, the more similar Sarah’s voice in 2011 and Anna’s voice in 1911 sounded which often made it difficult to differentiate which storyline I was reading, especially as the chapters seemed to be randomly labelled sometimes but not always. For example, chapter 10 says Anna’s diary, chapter 11 is unlabelled and then chapter 12 says Anna’s diary on the next day but what was the point of a short chapter 11 without any signposting of when it was taking place? This happened throughout the book. Also I found the sporadic jumps between past and present to be random and in the end took away from the flow of the story especially as both narrative voices sound so similar which added to the confusion throughout. So for the majority of the book I was left frustrated and a bit bored but overall it was just okay.

I think if you enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies, with the diary, the look for fairies and the rich setting then you may enjoy this book. I will be picking up The Lost Bookshop by the same author because I have the ebook on my kindle already.

I received an ARC from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

My second Evie Woods book. I enjoyed The Lost Bookshop so thought I'd give this one a go. I usually enjoy a dual timeline story but I'm sorry to say I found The Story Collector disappointing. I immediately guessed what Sarah was running away from and unfortunately the rest of the story was as predictable as well. I enjoyed the stories about the 'fairy folk' but the main story not so much. I did finish it but found myself skimming a good 30% as I knew where the story was going.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

I think it must be difficult for authors to write their next book after such a runaway success, the expectations, the pressure... I do wonder if this is what happened here with "The Story Collector" by Evie Woods. Her last book, "The Lost Bookshop" was OUTSTANDING and full of wonderful characters and charm therefore "The Story Collector" had big shoes to fill. I mean, the story was good but just not excellent. Set over two time periods we follow Sarah in the present (well 2010/2011) and Anna in 1911. Each storyline had their merits and I did enjoy reading about the myths and folklore of Ireland. It was just lacking something but still a really enjoyable read.

The premise of this book sounded great,

The book started with Sarah about to board a flight to …… to be with her parents and sister after divorcing her husband Jack after “the big event”. Many times this “event” was alluded to but was almost a let down when you found out what it was (even though it shouldn’t have been). However, Sarah did not get on the flight but took a flight to Ireland, after reading an article in a newspaper.

Typically Sarah finds herself renting a fabulous cottage and embroiling herself in the history of the village.

I’m not sure what category this book falls into, all I know is that it didn’t really grab me. The story was ok but didn’t really set me on fire. I love the folklore aspect of the story but felt it petered out without coming to any conclusion.

This would be a great book to read if you are at a loss and don’t know what to read

Neither good nor bad.

Her marriage ending, and her heart burdened by grief Sarah impulsively heads to Ireland to escape the exhaustion of her life. While there she discovers a diary which tells of a long ago love story mired in the mystical beliefs of the old Celtic legends of fairies and good folk. It will take time, and a little bit of magic, for Sarah to make peace with her past and embrace the future.

Thank you once again to Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishers, One Chapter for allowing me to enjoy an early copy.
Evie writes so beautifully and magically it's hard to not love what she writes!
The Story has well defined characters and the setting is fantastic. Anna's the main protagonist and the place sge stays in,Thornwood house is at the centre of it all. Its enchanting and mysticalc and beautiful.
In 2010, after experiencing a marriage breakdown and wanting to escape it all, She decide to visit family in Boston but a snap decision makes her take a flight to Ireland instead.
Once there on a walk, Sarah finds a book hidden in a tree.
In 1910 Anna the daughter of a farmer helps an American gentleman called Harold with his Oxford uni thesis researching folklore.
Sarah's two worlds interweave, connect and collide. By finding the book and meeting the locals in County Clare, Sarah begins to see the mistakes she has made and what she wants out of life.
This book was a beautiful read once again!

This is my first book from this author , it was a pleasant read, her writing style it’s easy and nice. However I did find this story slow, but will be reading more of her books in the future.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4⭐️

One hundred years ago, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate fairy stories from Irish to English. But all is not as it seems and Anna soon finds herself at the heart of a mystery that threatens her very way of life.
In New York in the present day, Sarah Harper boards a plane bound for the West Coast of Ireland. But once there, she finds she has unearthed dark secrets – secrets that tread the line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen.

I did struggle getting truly gripped by the story in the first half of the book, however the second half had me hooked and I couldn’t put it down. A lovely story which doesn’t necessarily end how you think it will. Covering the hard subject of grief and loss in a beautiful lyrical way.
Definitely an author I’ll be looking to read in the future.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in return for an honest review.

I love Evie Woods, her last novel was a triumph, so I was really looking forward to reading The Story Collector.

As a LOVER of Irish Lore and Mythology this was right up my street.

I did prefer Anna's story to Sarah's but inly marginally. Woods has such a great way of pulling the reader in.

The Irish language is so well woven through the story!

The ending of the book just proves that maybe magic is not the answer to all our problems!

A brilliant read, would highly recommend.

Thanks to Net Galley & the Publisher to access to this book in return for an honest review.