I really enjoyed this book. After a life changing loss, Sarah makes a sudden decision and ends up in Ireland. While there she finds an old journal from a girl who lived in her rental house in the early 1900’s. You get to see Sarah struggle with her life while reading the journal. I loved the dual time lines and seeing Sarah get her life together.

This one started out promising for me. Get drunk and get on the wrong flight and end up in Ireland. Done. Ultimately, it was a bit of a miss for me. The parallel storylines seemed to go too into detail on Anna and I was left longing for more of Sarah. It was as if it was built up so much behind the scenes with meaning (and myth and fairytales) that I was left thinking, so what? The character progression could have been more developed, and there could have been more done with the mythical elements. I wanted more from the Story Collector himself.

The Story Collector
By: Evie Woods

5 Stars

Each time I pick up a book by this author, I get a sense of magic and history. Split between past and present, this presents a tale that not only captivates but intrigues. Sarah in 2011 battles with guilt and grief after a tragedy. She flees to Ireland and finds herself swept into the stories of the past. A mysterious diary with stories of a girl, Anna, from 1911. Annas story will change Sarah in ways she never thought possible.

This story was about fairies but also loss and grief. It shows the magic that comes from memories and healing. It presented a captivating story that was beautifully descriptive. As a descendent of Ireland, it has always been a place of wonder and magic that I hope to visit one day. This book was done well. It was filled with romance, history, and life. It presents a message that will break your heart and then will piece it back together. The characters are done well, and the magic is palpable. I have read two separate books now from this author, and she is a wonder as a storyteller.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

The Story Teller by Evie Woods was a delightful read with dual timelines set in Ireland. I loved both stories and the magical setting. The author does a great job of tying together the historical part of this book with a more modern storyline.

Thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the advanced digital copy of the book.

I found the pacing to be slow, it seems as if everything really happens in the last 30% of the book. I was thoroughly invested in Anna's story. I enjoyed hearing the folklore of the fairies and would have enjoyed more focus on those stories.

Oh, Evie Woods. I will read your stories no matter the premise. The way Woods writes is like sipping a warm mug of tea on a cozy winter's morning. Woods always presents you with interesting POVs and the characters are always different so that jumps in time and place are easy to follow.

The Story Collector jumps back and forth between rural Ireland of the past and the present with a visitor from New York. Sarah escapes her life in New York and visits a tiny Irish village only to stumble on a diary from the past that will alter her world completely.

The side characters in this one are stellar and Woods is a great storyteller. I can't wait to see what she writers next.

Give me any book by Evie Woods. No matter the topic, the time period, the POV, and I want to read it. The way Woods crafts a story pulls me in like almost no other author does.

The characters are lovely, the switching between time periods is done without causing confusion. The magic realism is written so very well. Other than a small part in the middle where the stories seemed to stall for just a few pages, this book is everything one could want from the genre.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book although I did like The Lost Bookshop better. This book was slightly slower paced and I wanted t like it more. It just wasn't for me. Solid 3 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter/Harper Collins for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Practical Magic lovers - you are going to LOVE this one!

Have you ever felt like you wanted to escape reality for a little while and fly to another country? That’s exactly what Sarah does when she starts to feel like her life is falling apart. She jumps on a plane and flies to Ireland where she finds a cottage in Thornwood - little does she know it’s filled with other-worldly secrets.

The past & present are beautifully intertwined as we discover the pages of a 100 year old diary alongside Sarah as she reads stories documented by Anna from the early 1900s. Turns out Sarah’s life is just like Anna’s.

The storyline is enchanting leaving you on an emotional journey wishing nothing but the best for Sarah. I really loved this book!

Ireland just exudes a certain kind of magic! I adored how the feelings toward fairy folk were portrayed in this book. I found the dual past/present perspective to be intriguing and it kept me wanting more. Every character that was mentioned had a purpose and was significant to the plot. I hope the romance was stronger. I was left feeling a little let down by how quickly the story was progressed in both the past and the present. I did, however, feel that this book was authentic to Irish folklore and that I was fully drawn into the narrative. incredibly charming!

In this dual-timeline book, we follow two women's stories in the same Irish village--one reeling from a recent separation (Sarah) and one coming of age (Anna, 100 years earlier). American Sarah makes a spur-of-the-moment choice to travel to Ireland that leads her to find the Anna's diary. As we alternate between the two timelines, both women explore Irish fairy lore, what it means to cultivate good relationships, grief and longing, and how to come to terms with who they are and what they've lost.

I've read The Lost Bookshop by the same author and was looking forward to this new adventure. Sadly, this book didn't measure up. The pacing was slow, even though the modern-day action takes place over a relatively short time. So much good action and important things happen in the last 20-25% of the book that could have come sooner and led into more interesting storytelling! And the prologue set up an interesting idea of the story of the manor house family that then fizzled.

The titular "story collector" was a minor character and while the idea of the importance of collecting and recording stories was an interesting and valuable idea, it didn't drive the narrative so the title and this idea just felt unintegrated for me. The conceit of a diary to tell Anna's story didn't work for me either as the "diary entries" didn't read as an authentic first-person diary voice. I would have preferred those sections just be third-person as well, as "Anna" including exposition and backstory information in diary entries made them not read like diary entries. The information was necessary for the reader, but it didn't work to present them as if she'd write that in her private diary.

I found modern-day Sarah a hard character to care about from the outset. Instead of heading home for the holidays, she got blackout drunk, read an article, and bought a ticket to Ireland, then didn't understand why her family might be concerned and upset and just turned off her phone to hide from everyone and kept drinking. Within a few days of leaving her husband, she was ready to entertain the idea of a new romance with the implication that she had the tools to do it better this time? There were important pieces of Sarah's story that didn't come out until very late in the book that would have helped make her more understandable and sympathetic.

As with The Lost Bookshop, there were some minor characters I found very compelling, like Fe and Marcus. There were some excellent portions and some valuable ideas that I wish had been fleshed out more. I wanted to love this book and was disappointed.

What a fun Irish ride this was! If you like Irish folklore, women protagonists, and a sweet ending then this book is certainly for you! The author did a lovely job of differentiating the voice between the time periods and main characters. There was a great amount of fantasy and fun storytelling at play between the characters dealing with folklore. As the book unravelled, I was drawn in more and more.

I absolutely adored this book!

I really enjoyed both the past and present storylines, though the past was my favorite. I found the characters well-developed. Anna and Harold were my favorites, but I liked Sarah too. The magical elements were beautifully woven into the story. The writing painted a clear picture in my mind as I read. I loved the folklore and fairy stories that were included. The romance in the present storyline felt a little fast, but it made that plot line more interesting.

This is my first Evie Woods novel, and I am very much looking forward to reading more from her!

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter/Harper Collins for this digital ARC!

I felt some frustration with the main character, and I don’t love jumping back and forth in time during the story, but by the end I loved both stories and wanted to hear more about both of them.

If you like a book with a bit of magic, this is one to read. Loved the two timelines and the two women - Sarah and Anna. Very well written.

I read The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods and absolutely loved it, so I knew I had to pick this book up and can confidently say that you should too!

The Story Collector takes place in small town Ireland and follows Sarah who traveled to Ireland on a whim to try to escape her grief. Sarah discovers an old diary from a girl named Anna, whose family lived in the cottage she is renting 100 years earlier. Anna's diary describes her life as a young woman in 1911 rural Ireland, and we read her experience of being hired by a young scholar to help him compile stories about fairy stories and folklore in her town for a PhD thesis.

This is a beautiful story about processing grief and the love and friendship that can be found along the way. I love the incorporation of fantasy elements through the fairy stories and think that cozy fantasy readers should definitely give this book a try!

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my review.

First my thanks to Harper Collin’s Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity for an ARC copy of this novel 🫶

I adored The Lost Bookshop so when I saw a new title by Evie Woods I knew I had to get my hands on it!

Woods’ storytelling ability never ceases to amaze me. She seamlessly blends past and current POVs to form one cohesive narrative.

Her characters immediately grab you by the heartstrings and you cannot help but connect with them and feel the things they feel as you read.

I found myself laughing and crying while I read this story. I read it so quickly, I couldn’t put it down. I was so invested in the characters and story. It takes place during the winter over the holidays and I can absolutely see myself re-reading this again each winter.

I cannot wait for the next book Evie Woods puts out, I will be the first in line to snag it up!

This was such a cozy read!!! Made me want to be curled up by a fireplace during the holidays just reading it from cover to cover. A must read for any book lover. Big thanks to Netgalley & Harper360 for the Digital ARC!

Sarah, hoping to escape her grief, is waiting for her flight home from Newark to Boston when she is suddenly inspired to make her way to County Clare, Ireland, to see the 'lore of a beautiful hawthorn tree'. With the help of a friendly local, Sarah finds herself in Thornwood and settles into Butler Cottage. On a late-night run, she stumbles upon the diary of Anna Butler, a young farm girl, from 1911. In the diary, Anna documented her work translating for an American academic, Harold Griffin-Krauss, who was collecting stories of fairies. Despite the century between them, the women are linked through circumstance and grief. In both timelines, they find themselves on the edges of something otherworldly and contemplate the possibility that fairies are living among them, sight unseen.

The book felt well-balanced between the immersive Ireland setting, fairy folklore, and empathetic storytelling of intense loss. I enjoyed the quirky side characters and the "story collecting" in Anna and Harold's interviews of locals' sightings of the fairies. My only gripe is that I wish the ending to Anna's story had been given more time and attention; while readers can fill in any gaps in Sarah's story, I felt Anna's was unfinished in its' brevity.

I really enjoyed this. I had mixed feelings about the Lost Bookshelf by the author, but I love book themes. This one sucked me in from the first chapter and was a whimsical ride. I recommend for all book lovers.