Daughter Of The Forest
Author: Juliet Marillier
Trope: Slow Burn
Point of view: Single, First person
Relationship: MF
Type of series: Standalone part of a series
In a nutshell: Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment.
But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift-by staying silent. If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever.
When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs at ever being able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all.
Content warning: Sexual assault, fairly graphic description
What I thought: This was a gorgeous retelling of The Six Swans in which Sorcha is tasked with saving her brothers from a curse that turned them into swans. Part of the task Sorcha must complete is she must remain silent while doing so, which means for years Sorcha doesn’t speak a word and learns to communicate silently to make herself understood. Sorcha goes through so much in this story, and so we experience everything along with her as we live it all through her eyes. Juliet Marillier has created such a rich world full of description, especially as there is so little speech as a result of Sorcha’s voluntary muteness. There is a fairly graphic rape scene, which I read once and now skip over every subsequent re-read so take the content warning on board as you read. I love this book it is one of my all time favourites, and highly recommend to anyone liking historical fantasy.
