A bit of whiskey, a touch of impulse, some blind trust, and maybe a bit of fae magic sprinkled liberally. Touching and engrossing story weaving past and present, overcoming grief and disappointment, and finding yourself as well as found family. Bittersweet to the end, but satisfying all the way.

I was gifted The Lost Bookshop for Christmas and was charmed by @evie.gaughan take on magical realism.
I was very excited to be given the chance to review her newest book, The Story Collector.
Living on a farm in rural Ireland in the early 1900’s Anna has a good life. When a stranger knocks on her family’s door looking for help repairing his bicycle his unexpected visit ends with Anna in his employment. Harold has come from America to make an anthropological study of the belief and stories of fairies. Anna is hired to be his translator and liaison with the people of her community. With a story of her own she wants to share, Anna will first decide if Harold is the sort of man to be trusted with her dearest secret.
In 2011, Sarah takes an unexpected trip to Ireland over Christmas. When she finds the diary of a young girl she is intrigued by her story and the village she has found herself in.
This is a very calming book. It feels like a story being told around a fireplace on a rainy evening. I love Woods treatment of magical events and beings as fact but not exaggerated or sensationalized. This is definitely a cozy book. It does touch on grief and loss but it’s handled with care.
Thank you to @onemorechapterhc and @netgalley for letting me review #thestorycollector
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My daughter read this one on her own, being a lover of Evie Woods books. She reports that it was just as much of a 'hug in a book ' as the previous books. The story does not depict a perfect life showing that bad (and good ) things happen to us all. She really enjoyed it.

A charming read. A gnarled hollow hawthorn tree with an intriguing find at its heart reveals the story of Anna and Harold to Sarah, a visiting American who is grappling with grief in the same rural village in West Ireland. Anna and Sarah are 100 years apart, but both have experienced loss.

Harold, an American academic, is studying Celtic folklore, traditions and beliefs. These are at the centre of the story and add magical elements. He and Anna cycle around the countryside happily collecting stories for his research, until the events of one evening threaten both their ways of life.

Coupled with an atmospheric manor house and a whole host of intriguing local characters, in both timelines, this is an immersive read.

The author has a real talent for description and you feel as if you too are deep in the Irish countryside.

I really enjoyed this novel and hope that others discover it too. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read a copy.

I cannot resist a dual timeline book! I was completely captivated by Anna, a girl living on a farm in Ireland in 1910 and Sarah who is in New York in 2010 (but travels to where Anna was). Part fairytale, part folklore, part historical whimsy of the idea of a century before yours - there is magic to this story and the characters within it. I also really liked that the author touched on the social and political climate of Ireland in the early 1900's. I think there could have been more depth and power, pizazz and punch, to the story. But it can be appreciated as is.

This was a great book! It’s the second book I’ve read by the author and I will definitely read more in the future! Reading about Anna’s life in the early 1900’s and Sarah’s life 100 years later in the same location was interesting. Heartbreak and grief woven in with love and healing.

This was my second read from Evie Woods and I love her writing and the heart that she puts in her stories.

This one was wound throughout with Irish folklore and Celtic tradition. It seems that all of the books I'm reading lately are...must be the influence of The Good People, themselves!

The dual timeline kept me reading although I must admit that Anna's story kept my interest much more than Sarah's.

I love the stories, tales, traditions and dialogue rooted in Irish history. The Irish language being so well researched, it was lovely to learn and read. I was surprised though that, although the language used was historical in Anna's timeline, there was only one eejit in the entire book!

I liked the ending to Sarah's story but was a bit sad to read Anna's. I thought the magic would turn out better, happier ending for her.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author and publisher for a temporary copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one! It was set in two timelines with two female MC’s. In 1910 Anna is an Irish girl helping an Oxford scholar collect stories from locals of the fairy faith. However, things take a dramatic turn…

In 2010 Sarah goes to Ireland to escape New York and the end of her marriage. She rents a cottage in Thornwood and discovers Anna’s diary.

This book is well written, I could almost feel this damp of Sarah’s rental cottage as I read the book. This book was a page turner, I couldn’t wait to see how both Anna and Sarah’s stories ended.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK, and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book to read and review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book and it was a bit too twee for me. An interesting concept but one that I have read a lot of recently. It's an over-used trope for me - the old diary and the fairy folk. I would recommend it as it's a popular theme.

I really enjoyed this book. I love how it goes back and forth in time. It is a book that really focuses on the mysticism of Irish folklore, which I personally really enjoy. I love both the main characters, Sarah and Anna and found both of their stories intriguing and interesting. I felt a real sense of concern for both and could not put this book down until I found out how their stories ended. I have not previously read a book by Evie Woods, but I definitely would now that I read The Story Collector. I would definitely recommend this book.

Evie Woods has done it again!! I loved this so much 😭😭 the story is told beautifully across two time periods and I loved how the two main characters linked together. I enjoyed the hint of magic in this and all the fairy stories the villagers had. This was such an enjoyable book and I can’t wait to see what else Evie Woods has in store for us!

Evie Woods’ THE STORY COLLECTOR is a dual timeline story that follows Sarah in the present day, when she accidentally finds herself in a small village in Ireland, and Anna/Harold in pre-WWI Ireland.

I requested this book when I was halfway through Woods’ first novel, The Lost Bookshop. Unfortunately, I ended up not loving that one and didn’t find much more redeeming in this one. The characters fell flat and the magical realism didn’t hold up. I didn’t find myself invested in any part.

No more Evie Woods for me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Absolutely loved the Lost Bookshop and have been anticipating this second book. Evie has such a wonderful way of writing that allows you feel like another character in her stories. Instantly transported into the environment and timeline of each character. I loved added suspense/drama that comes along with her stories and this one did not disappoint in that aspect.
The mother daughter relationship was also one that drew me into the story and hooked me.
The Story Collector has made an impact and has been on my mind the past week since finishing it. This will definitely be a highly recommended novel and will have a lasting impact on me.
Evie Woods has officially become an auto buy author for me!

I really enjoyed this book 😊 It’s set 100 years apart (in 1911 and 2011) and the author takes you both time frames. It starts in 2011 when Sarah boards a plane for Ireland unbeknownst to her (she thought she was traveling to the US) and ends up staying in a cabin during New Years. She finds diary from Anna that was written in 1911, where she tells a her story.
If you enjoy a story that takes you an adventure, then I highly recommend this book. I’ve read another book by this authors and it was just as wonderful ❤️
Thank you NetGalley and Evie Woods for the opportunity to read this book before it’s been released ☺️

Another Evie Woods book that I loved. When I saw another book coming i HAD to request it. It was so enjoyable and I was sad to reach the last page. The story was so great and easily to connect with.

My Thoughts /

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, publisher HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and author Evie Woods, for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for July 18, 2024.

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.
— Ursula K. Le Guin

Oral traditions are the backbone of Indigenous knowledge transfer, and storytelling is the beating heart by which much of this is shared. Storytelling serves to connect individuals and communities to their place and time as well as each other. Other important aspects to storytelling are that stories are used to teach history, cultural beliefs and etiquette, values, customs, and spiritual beliefs.

In The Story Collector, author Evie Woods, takes the reader on a journey into the past, back to a time and place full of myth and storytelling.

Written with a dual timeline, you follow the story of Anna Butler, a young girl, who lives with her family in the small town of Thornwood in Ireland during the early 1900s; and then during 2010/2011 we meet Sarah Harper, who lives in New York City. The author has the two stories interconnect in such a way that the two separate tales become one [captivating story].

At the start of the story, we learn that Sarah Harper has made the decision to end her marriage. She is at the airport ready to board a plane heading to Boston, where she will meet up with her family for Christmas. But an impulse decision has her abandoning those plans and sees her boarding a flight to Ireland. Immediately upon arriving in the Irish Republic, Sarah is realising the consequences of her impulsivity. Nevertheless, she's here now and wants to make the best of it. With a little help, Sarah finds her way to a pretty little village called Thornwood; and the cottage she's staying in could grace the cover of a postcard. Exploring the area, Sarah finds a book hidden in the trunk of a tree. The book, Anna's Diary, was written by eighteen-year-old, Anna Butler, in the year 1910.

Anna's Diary chronicles her days as the daughter of a farmer and a young unmarried woman. Then, by chance, she meets a gentleman by the name of Harold Griffin-Krauss, an educated man, who is travelling through Ireland as part of his thesis studies. Interviewing locals and collecting stories regarding the local folklore and paying particular attention to whether the fairy faith is still alive. He wasn't just collecting fairy stories - he was keeping the memory of his ancestors alive.

Both timelines were well documented - the characters: well, they ranged from charming to oddish, from surprisingly different to strange and then just weird. However, I was drawn more to the earlier timeline. In a nutshell, it was more memorable. Opposing chapters flowed seamlessly throughout and the past and present melded together like melted wax.

I'd like to believe that as a species we haven't lost our connection to folklore and mythology or a connection to our immediate environment - to the flora and fauna. But I'm more inclined to think that in our 'modern' world we seem to have lost touch with the natural sense of feeling connected to nature. This story has rekindled my senses and inquisitive thought processes surrounding why it's so important to keep these stories alive, and for that I'm very grateful Woods for bringing us this story. On the face of it you might think this is just a story about fairies, but we need to appreciate the inner meaning of the dialogue and the fact that you can't apply conventional thought and thinking to what is substantially, unconventional writing.

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

This was a nice enough read with an interesting concept. The characters were likable, but I didn't feel like I got to know them all that well throughout the story. It felt quite surface level. Despite having an interesting concept, I felt like we didn't really get enough substance. The idea of the fairies was brushed over and overshadowed by other things so I didn't really feel like we'd explored it enough in the end. For me, the 3rd person perspective for Sarah meant I didn't connect as closely to her as I did to Anna. The first half of the book felt too slow and then the last 50 pages seemed to rattle off an ending too quickly. I didn't feel as satisfied when I finished the book as I hoped I would.

Overall, this was okay but I'm not sure it was for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book especially the links to the past and present. Great characters and a great read would definitely recommend. Thanks to NetGalley, author and publishers for the ARC

This book takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery, magic, wonder, and healing old wounds.

We discover the story of Anna, an Irish girl who lived 100 years ago, through her diary read by Sarah, an American woman who went to Ireland on a whim. As both of their stories unfold, the scene starts growing into magical realism, introducing us into a world of fairies that are much different to Tinkerbell. Emotional, adventurous, heartwarming, but also strong, this book is perfect for a cozy night in with some tea, while also having fierce undertones of fighting for what's right and overcoming trauma.

Personally, I did feel that the story was a bit flat at times, mainly because I was mostly invested into Anna's narrative rather than Sarah's, but I loved the different take on fairies and all the reports we read about in Anna's POV.

Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter for granting me an eARC of this book.

A cute/nice read. The historical story of Anna and Harold involving fairies and mystic was more enjoyable than the present day story of Sarah and her quest to find solace with her life. The book had characters that were flawed but they were outnumbered these who were kind and sought to bring happiness to others .