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Friday, March 19, 2010

Recommend Me (3)


Kate at The Neverending Shelf is hosting this new and fun weekly meme where you recommend a book, old or new, that you really enjoyed.

This week, I'm recommending a faerie series that hasn't really received the attention it deserves. And.. there's a unicorn - if you feel like you need more unicorns in your reading! :)


The Tree Shepherd's Daughter
by Gillian Summers

Summary (via the author's website):

When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Keelie Heartwood is forced to leave her beloved California to live with her nomadic father at a renaissance festival in Colorado. After arriving, Keelie finds men in tights and women in trailer trash-tight bodices roaming half-drunk, calling each other lady and lord even after closing time! Playacting the Dark Ages is an L.A. girl’s worst nightmare.

Keelie has a plan to ditch this medieval geekland ASAP, but while she plots, strange things start happening—eerie, yet familiar. When Keelie starts seeing fairies and communicating with trees, she uncovers a secret that links her to a community of elves. As Keelie tries to come to grips with her elfin roots, disaster strikes, and Keelie’s identity isn’t the only thing that’s threatened.

One part human determination and one part elfin magic, Keelie Heartwood is a witty new heroine in a world where fantasy and reality mix with extraordinary results.


There are two more books in the series, I've read the 2nd but not the last one.

Into the Wildewood

The Secret of Dread Forest

Gillian has a kick-butt website and her books are all via Flux (*cough Lament by Maggie Stiefvater cough*).

Here are my short Goodreads reviews (from a year or so back):

The Tree Shepherd's Daughter: Interesting start to a trilogy about a girl who can speak to trees and use their power to heal. There are some great characters and some intrigue that should keep the trilogy enthralling.

Into the Wildewood: The second book in the series and it still had a great element of plot and characterization. The ending did seem a little too tied up nice and neat, but then again, there is hopefully another book coming. I like the new characters, Robin Hood and his merry men, the Pickle Man, Lulu the Witch, and of course, Lord Einhorn, the unicorn. It's a great mix of angsty teen life melded with the world of the faire and the elves and other creatures that exist in it.


What do others think?
Since this is not a widely known book, I couldn't seem to find a recent review of any of them around the blogosphere as of late.. so I will quote Tamora Pierce, who reviewed the first two on Goodreads.

The Tree Shepherd's Daughter: "I liked this very much--the girl with "tree" allergies is sent to her father on her mother's death, only to learn that her allergies are the proof that she is a tree shepherd, that her father is an elf who never divorced her mother, and that he lives from Renaissance Faire to Renaissance Faire.

I literally read this in one day. I'm looking for the next book even as I type, and I understand the final book is scheduled for publication in the spring!
" *4 out of 5 stars

Into the Wildewood: "Great fun! Keelie is forced to deal with deeper levels of her magic than she has learned--or her father thinks she is ready for--when they reach a Renaissance Faire in a forest that is dying despite the efforts of its caretaker unicorn. The trees and the unicorn will do anything to draw on Keelie's power, no matter what it does to Keelie, or to anyone else! Add in her relationship with the cross-grained cat who is her guardian, the stick-like wood fairies, and the critical full-blood elves, and anyone who knows me can see why I liked this book and the first one in the trilogy." *4 out of 5 stars


See, my idol liked them too! :) Now go find a copy and let me know when you read it!

3 comments:

  1. This sounds great - teenage city girl feeling awkward with her dramatic dad, and finding out she's more like him than she wants to be. And that's probably just a little piece of the story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooo - sound really good. Never heard of it but I kinda have a thing for Renaissance Fairs :)
    Thanks!

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