This gentle, luminous story by the author of The Lost Library does not disappoint. The storyline alternates between Anna Butler, a farm girl in the Irish village of Thornwood in 1911, and Sarah Harper, an American from Boston visiting the village in 2010. After a picture of a hawthorn tree in the village strangely captivates Sarah, she boards a flight for Boston but sleeps through the stop, awaking to find herself in Ireland. Impulsively, she decides to stay, and finds herself in Thornwood, where she discovers Anna's diary in a hollow of a tree in the nearby woods. The action of the story keeps its tension by alternating between the two characters and timelines, and the main characters, as well as several secondary characters, are nuanced and well-depicted. Once I started, I wanted to keep reading to find out Anna's fate, set against the background of Irish Republican resistance to Anglo-Irish domination, and also how things would develop for Sarah. How Anna and Sarah each navigate grief, loss, and love, and find their second chances in life, makes an emotional and thoughtful story. Understated supernatural elements (or are they?) are woven into the story, too. The Irish setting, both present-day and past, in Thornwood village, is almost a character in itself.

Evie Woods has done it again! I absolutely loved this book just as much if not more than The Lost Bookshop! This is a cozy historical fiction set in Ireland and I'm so here for it!

Enjoyable read, interesting storyline. Liked the main characters and how the story was told. Would recommend this book.

I had previously read, and loved, The Lost Bookshop, so when this new book from Evie Woods became available I jumped at the chance to read it. This book is equally good, but had a different feel. Not quite so fantasy magic, as the magic found in the heart of Ireland - fairies and their meddling, and small village stories. Set in 1910 and 2010, connected by a cottage, we have Anna coming of age and Sarah escaping hurt. Both searching but not really knowing for what. The searches may bring pain or happiness. Find a quite, comfortable spot, open the book, and give yourself a well earned treat. Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

This book should have been for me. Sadly it was not …
I didn’t like the pace of the story, it was way too slow to draw me in and the characters weren’t interesting enough for me to care about them. I found the whole beginning of the story quite unbelievable, the main characters choices were just too stupid to make sense in my opinion, even if she was drunk.
The book has a lot of great reviews, so maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea…

Lovely tale of healing, magic and hope set in Ireland with a cast of little people and a couple of Americans. Dual timelines, warmth and some real events woven through. Enjoyable, gentle read.

Sarah has suffered some trauma and is heading home to Boston. In the airport, Anna's drinking problem gets the best of her, and she wakes up on a plane heading for Ireland with only a slight memory of how she got there. She decides that time away in a small Irish town may be best for her and decides to stay for a bit. She finds an old diary hidden away, telling the story of Anna Butler, a young Irish girl, and the American student she is helping to collect stories of the fairies in Ireland. Through Anna's diary and Sarah's own experiences, Sarah begins to understand the need to share and soften in order to move forward with her life.
I'm a big fan of magical realism and stories of mythical creatures, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. The novel is full of Irish folklore and history, with a bit of romance added in for fun and drama. It's an engaging read and I very much enjoyed it.

Sarah Harper leaves New York and heads for the West Coast of Ireland. With a lot of heartache to contend with, she somehow knows that this is where she needs to be.

Anna is a farm girl, from one hundred years ago. When Sarah finds her hidden diary, she starts to read it, and is regaled with tales from when she offered to help an American called Henry, translate fairy stories from Irish to English.

This is a wonderful tale, full of secrets and mysteries about the fairies ( The Good People). The author weaves a magical story that held my attention from the very start.

I felt the relationship between Anna and Henry became something rather special, very much a will they, wont they part of the book.

The writing is beautifully descriptive and I felt as though I was there, in Ireland too.

I must finally comment on the cover, it is stunning. I loved the cover for the first book by the author, The Lost Bookshop, and I fell in love with this one too.

My thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’m quickly becoming a fan of magical realism - something I never thought I would enjoy. This book was so fun. I really appreciated the Irish location as we have a lot of Irish heritage in my family. Thanks for the opportunity to read this. Great book!

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.