Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the story of two women, 100 years apart in the same place in Ireland. Anna, a young farm girl who volunteers to help a young Cambridge graduate student, an American, translate fairy stories from Irish to English. A century later, Sarah boards a plane to Ireland as a last minute, drunken decision, made after flushing her marriage away. Both women unearth dark secrets that tread the line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen.

I really enjoyed this story. The alternating past and present POV were very well done and as a whole, the writing is skillful. Both stories are expertly woven together. I loved the 2 female characters and could relate to both. The magical realism, something that I am picky about when I read in that genre, was splendid and not too far out into the ether. It did not hurt that I do like fairy stories! Also, the bits of romance were a nice touch and added to the story.

Highly recommend!!!

This appears to be a re-release of the book (originally published in 2018) and is a dual timeline (1910 and 2010) taking place in the small village of Thornwood on the west coast of Ireland centering around Anna, a young farm girl and Sarah, a New Yorker trying to find herself following a tragic event and subsequent separation from her husband.

When an intriguing American academic (Harold) shows up on her family’s doorstep, Anna volunteers to assist him in translating local folklore surrounding the Good Folk (fairies) for a book he’s writing. We get lots of fascinating folklore tales, and Harold is eager to perpetuating the art of storytelling to keep Irish traditions alive for the next generation. Following an otherworldly, horrific event/murder in which an innocent person is arrested, Anna and Harold have some difficult and heart wrenching decisions to make concerning their futures.

Sarah “accidently” finds herself in Ireland as she seeks time alone to come to terms with a devastation loss. While there, she discovers Anna’s diary and becomes immersed in her story. She also meets her landlord who is recovering from his own loss and raising a teenaged daughter.

I actually preferred Anna’s story here. It’s filled with intriguing stories, and I found both Anna and Harold very compelling. Sarah’s story did not have the pull for me that Anna’s did. And for me, the endings for both timelines left me a bit disappointed and unsatisfied.

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for providing the free arc of The Story Collector for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of The Story Collector, by Evie Gaughan, from Harper 360 | Harper360 /NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

I so wanted to like this more than I did. Because, Ireland. And, faeries.

Alas and alack, the magic was not there for me; perhaps because the author went with the more pedestrian spelling of fairies?

And because our main character was neither likeable nor believable to me?

Sigh.

Oh, well. That’s how things go sometimes. At least Evie Gaughan gets props for writing a novel, which is more than I’ve done!

Description
An evocative and charming novel full of secrets and mystery, from the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop

In a quiet village in Ireland, a mysterious local myth is about to change everything…

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.

With a taste for the magical in everyday life, Evie Woods's latest novel is full of ordinary characters

3.75? The story was fine and very easy but I struggled to get through it. The main character is very relatable at times, and I do genuinely adore her.

This is a very comfy read, and if you enjoy a story about starting anew this is for you!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy

I really enjoyed The Lost Bookshop, and The Story Collector has some of the same charming/sad elements. In The Story Collector, we meet Sarah on Christmas Eve. She’s supposed to fly back to Boston to stay with her sister after becoming estranged from her husband. She instead flies to where her ancestors are from, the West Coast of Ireland. There she finds a diary of a girl named Anna that was penned 100 years earlier.

Both Sarah and Anna find solace and healing in the stories of fairies and the people of the village.

NetGalley provided a copy of this novel. The paperback version of this will be available in the States on August 15, 2024.

This was not for me. Which was surprising because based on the description, it sounded like a book I would enjoy a great deal. But there was something about the writing that I just didn’t enjoy. It didn’t feel organic and the interactions between the characters felt stilted. I felt zero investment in the characters in the 2000s and it very much felt like the FMC just fell in love with the first (and only?) age appropriate man she met. The characters from the past, on the other hand, I was deeply invested in and found myself wanting to skip the chapters in the present to find out what happens with them. But my excitement dimmed significantly with the ending. It was deeply unsatisfying. The end of the present felt rushed, it felt like none of the core issues of the FMC were addressed on the page, and we just glossed over all of her very problematic behaviors and grief to arrive at a happy-ish ending. I appreciated the parallels between the past and present, that was a clever use of the two temporal points of view. But the chapters were divided unevenly and it felt like more care was given to the past than to the present. Overall, I’m quite disappointed, but grateful to have been given the opportunity to read it.

This was a really great book because it was back and forth in time. This woman named sarah that comes with her marriage. She lost something very precious to her was a child. My husband jack and her could not get along anymore. But she was going to leave him and go to boston to live with their sisters for a while. At the airport she started reading this story about how this fairy tree was saved. She ends up going to ireland and staying in this house. She still had a drinking problem but she minced herself and all the fairy tales around. And then I went back into the past about Anna who lived in this college in the 1900s, and she meets an American who is interested in the fairy tales and was writing a book about it.. This was interesting because it really showing a lot of class.Distinction about the big Mansion on the hill. The lord's son named george had a reputation with women and he fancied anna. Sarah found a diary in a tree and she started to read it.Find out more about anna's life. There's a lot of twist and turns in the story but it was very interesting. We're focused on the story collector because they were collecting stories about the fairies who live in this area based on Celtic MYT. H.. I learned a lot about these different types of fairies and how they played a very important part of their lives

Anna's and Sarah's stories in The Story Collector are enchanting and captivating. I personally enjoyed Anna's story more than Sarah's; however, I still have love for both. Anna's story is uncovered through a journal that Sarah finds shortly after arriving in Ireland. Anna's story is about her figuring things out as an underclass woman in the 1910s. Shortly into her story, we are introduced to Harold, an American traveling to find information from the locals to support his thesis. Anna impulsively offers to help as a guide for the local area, helping him get information about faries, a local superstition.

Meanwhile, Sarah is dealing with the struggles of a failed marriage, issues with alcohol, and also finds herself in Ireland. Having no place to stay, she tries to stay at a hotel in the area, but all rooms are unavailable. Luckily, they set her up at Bulter's Cottage, owned by a local family. Two particular members of the family, Hazel and Oran, have frequent visits/run-ins with Sarah. With these characters, Sarah learns how to grow from her past and forms relationships with locals. Both stories have their ups and downs, some better than others; regardless, I could not put this book down.

Evie Wood's writing style draws me in and makes me forget I'm reading. Their books are magical, fit many genres, and are just well written overall. Any book from them is automatically added to my list to read next. I love how they normalize issues in their characters lives, not making them the big issue in the end. It's more than just about the issues each character has; it's about the story in the end. There are no words to describe how much I appreciate how I feel after reading their books.

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I really enjoyed The Lost Bookshop by Woods. I'm not much of a historical fiction person but she intertwined it with modern day magical realism and that really drew me in. The same can be said with this book. Though the magical realism isn't quite as prominent in this one.
I loved the idea of an American abroad in Ireland learning about the culture through the locals and a diary hidden in a tree! It was fun to jump between the present of 2010 and the past of 1911. And the folklore of the fae as related to Ireland was really fun.
The prose is eloquent and easy to read. Each chapter easily moved the story along. Woods inserted the historical parts at just the right times to ensure the reader understood the story line. This made it easy to see the story unfold.
The modern romance was nice enough but not really a huge part of the story. I liked watching the FMC, Sarah Harper, grow and learn about herself. It was interesting to see how she was able to come into her own while being in another country and trying to learn their traditions and understand their culture.
Going into this book, I was not aware of the Irish folklore associated with fairies. I know about them from reading some paranormal books. But never in the context of Ireland the the superstitions that go along with them in that country.
I will admit the pacing was sometimes a bit slower than I would have liked. Mostly with the chapters set in 1911. But overall I enjoyed the story and I really enjoy the way this author writes. I will be picking up future books by her! I would recommend this book to anyone who loves stories by TJ Klune and/or Meg Shaffer.
3.5 stars rounded to 4

Loved this sweet story! Sarah makes a spontaneous trip to Ireland to recover from a failed marriage. She finds a hundred year old diary and reads of local faerie lore while she learns to heal in this close knit community. The book jumps from past to present as we discover old stories and legends with Sarah.
Now I’m not a huge fan of typical faerie books but this story was still rooted in reality. Definitely recommend!
I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book and provide an honest review.

This book is in two time frames 2011 & 1911. The character Sarah from 2011 is in the midst of divorce and suffering heart break. She gets drunk at the airport and wakes up in Ireland. It started because she saw an article that the town was saving a tree because it has faeries the good people.

The 1911 characters were Anna and Howard. Howard is an American seeking stories about the “ good people “ faeries “ so he has Anna help him around the local town and talk to people to write a book about the good people.

There is divorce, heartbreak, child loss, and to me a mediocre love story as well. I was hoping for more Faeries, love, magic, happiness and this book did not give that.

However the writer is amazing.

I wanted so badly to like this story by Evie Woods, but the first chapters of THE STORY COLLECTOR were so off-putting in what felt like a formulaic, "insert here to elicit XXX emotion" that I abandoned it when it became clear that it wasn't going to deepen or fulfill the wonderful promise of the premise. I kept slogging until it felt like I was working way too hard to figure out the story. References to the United States were hackneyed and several absolutely wrong, making me feel displaced and ill at ease with the entire Ireland experience. So very disappointed with this effort from a fine writer and a terrific publisher. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

3.5 stars

It was a good book! I didn’t love it as much as I did The Lost Bookshop. I love Evies writing style though. The magic realism she threads within her books really sweep you away. And especially with the backdrop of Ireland.

I enjoyed the Anna’s story more than I did Sarah’s. Sarah’s chapters felt disjointed and the development was hard to see in those chapters. I felt like Oran and Sarah talked only a handful of times, then they are together. I think there would have been a lot more complex things going on for both of them. I liked how reading the journal helped her grieve.

I loved Anna’s story. It made the most sense to me how she thought she was just a “farmers girl” and was unworthy of George’s attention. But the story showed how wrong that idea was.

I did want a different ending of Anna and Harold’s story, but I do understand why the ending was that way. The love that Anna had for her family couldn’t be taken away. I just hope Harold lived a fulfilling life after he got back to USA.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A charming storyline that goes between two timelines. The characters are engaging and magical. If you like folk stories and magic give it a read.

Enjoyed this book, I love old crazy folk tales that are told by older generations. In some ways this was a very sweet story, albeit with a lot of disturbing happenings along the way. I’m Irish and loved learning about the history, whether real or not.

This story was told in a dual timeline between Sarah in 2011 and the diary of Anne in 1911. Sarah is recovering from a loss and detours her trip home to see her parents. She flies to Ireland after reading an intriguing article about a tree and Irish folklore. In Ireland Sarah discovers a diary written by a young girl named Anne in 1911. Anne was assisting an American to collect and record local folklore.
In my opinion the novel lacked the anticipated magic one expects with Irish folklore, the narrative just fell flat. The book was a slow start and didn’t pull out of its stagnant state until the last 1/3 of the book, then it was great.
The tense of the journal was off and seemed out of sync with something written first person in a diary. I was waiting for a connection between Sarah and Anne through the diary but it never showed up. While some of the imagery was beautiful, I expected so much more. I would have liked more description and interaction in the back stories of the story collector. Overall the story was somewhat disjointed and hard to connect with the characters.
I did enjoy the last 1/3 of the book, and how the author wrapped things up, even though it seemed rushed.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book as an ARC. These opinions are my own.
I give it 2.5/5 stars.

Unhappy wife gets drunk at the airport. Hearing a story about a fairie tree, she swaps ticket to Boston for one to Shannon and wakes up in Ireland with a hangover.

Her story parallels one told in a diary she discovers shortly after arrival. Written in the early 20th Century, the diary author is a young Irish girl hired to escort an American collector of fairie stories.

The experiences the people interviewed share are magical and mystical. Evie Woods' writing is especially grand in the diary.

A very enjoyable read.

I loved the author's previous book, The Lost Bookshop, so I knew I had to read this latest book! Going back and forth from present day, to the diary that tells Anna's story, it is an interesting look at the culture of Ireland before their civil war for independence, and how superstitions still played a part of their life, and how some of those have remained to present day. In the present day, Sarah doesn't know why she is called to Ireland, to a mysterious town of Thornwood, far off the beaten track, but once she gets there she feels at home, and realizes she was called their for a reason- not to find Anna's diary, but to heal herself, and in doing so, help heal others in Thornwood. It's a book that will have you entranced and ready to head to Ireland, so it's perfect for late summer reading!

I really enjoyed this book. The characters, setting, magical realism and the magic of books all gave off such a cozy vibe.

For me it was not my cup of tea. I found the story hard to get into and I was not interested in the characters.