I didn’t know too much about Daughter of the Forest going in—just that it involved a recovery arc after a deeply traumatic start and that it came highly recommended by a few friends. Had I realized it was a fantasy romance fairy tale retelling, I might mot have tried it at all. And that would’ve been a shame, because Juliet Marillier can really write.
Daughter of the Forest stars the seventh child of a local lord, raised mostly unsupervised in the Irish forests with her six older brothers following her mother’s death in childbirth. Her concerns center on growing and utilizing a wide variety of healing herbs, while her brothers prepare to follow their father into repeated border skirmishes against the Britons. But when her father falls under the influence of a sorceress, she sees her brothers cursed and herself hunted, forced into total silence as she seeks a way to break the curse—and finding help from the unlikeliest of sources.
Had I known the premise in advance, perhaps the most striking aspect of the novel may have been the characterization of the brothers. By all rights, they should be mere plot devices, existing only for the fridging that spurs the heroine on her way. Instead, they are distinct characters, all with their own personalities and relationships with the lead. This makes the reader all the more invested in their stories, and it also deepens the characterization of the lead—we can see the relationships she’s mourning and the reasons for her tireless drive to get them back.
But as good as the characterization is, the piece that really sold me was the prose. I’m not a prose connoisseur, but when I’m so thoroughly invested in mere backstory before the plot has kicked into gear, the author is doing something right from a storytelling perspective. The lead’s childhood relationships with her brothers, with the solitary priest nearby, and with the forest itself are all vividly and beautifully drawn—the sort of story that captures the imagination long before the villain comes into view. And when the plot does ramp up, the storytelling never suffers. It takes its time setting the scenes in good times and in bad, creating a deep sense of connection to the protagonist and her plight.
That deep character connection is vital, because in addition to the curse-breaking plot, Daughter of the Forest is both a trauma-recovery story and an enemies-to-lovers romance, both of which require impeccable character work that is delivered with aplomb. The traumatic events never feel gratuitous, nor are they trivialized with a quick transition to a romance plot. It’s a painstaking recovery that sees new obstacles arise every time it feels like the lead is making progress, and it requires enormous patience and understanding from the male lead. It’s a role that wouldn’t suit a brash young warrior but is played wonderfully by the magnanimous young lord with an improbable quest of his own.
If I have any major complaint here, it’s that the villain is a hair underwhelming. Not in being easy to defeat—not at all—but rather in her ultimate goals being a bit confusing. I have nothing against a power-hungry villain who gets little page time and mostly serves to spur the lead on her journey, and that’s how the villain here seems for most of the book. But near the end, there are some details that start to clash with that conception; that’s what I’d have liked to see fleshed out further. In fairness, this does start a trilogy, and it’s quite possible that there’s further exploration in subsequent books. And even without further explanation, Daughter of the Forest still yields a satisfying ending on its own. There are dangling questions, but there’s more resolved than unresolved, and that that’s resolved is done well.
Ultimately, while Daughter of the Forest is a book I’d have never found on my own, I am extremely grateful to those who persistently recommended it. It’s a beautiful and immersive fairy tale retelling that consistently goes so much deeper than just checking off the big plot points. It provides a compelling romance, a wonderful set of sibling relationships, a fabulous recovery plot, and ties it all together for a satisfying finish, even while leaving threads open for the sequel. Simply a fantastic read.
Recommended if you like: romance, retellings, recovery arcs.
Can I use it for Bingo? It’s hard mode for High Fashion and features a Stranger in a Strange Land.
Overall rating: 18 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.