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#BooktagsBloghop

#BooktagsBlogHop No. 4: The Woodcutter by Kate Danley #fantasy #YA

Booktagbloghop

The purpose of this blog hop is for readers and writers to share what they are reading, have read, are writing, or have written with others. This is not about promoting free or discounted books though some of those may be featured. This is about book lovers sharing what they love about books. This blog hop is about the Joy of Reading and the Joy of Writing with tags of your choosing and is hosted by me, Toi Thomas, the third Monday of the month. Learn more here.

This month’s optional theme is: New Year, birth, fresh start.

Excerpt from Chapter 78

The Grandmother and Red Riding Hood stopped at the base of a mighty oak tree whose gnarled roots ate the ground and whose grand trunk could only be surrounded if ten tall men stood hand in hand. There, the Grandmother and the child transferred the body to the earth.

They stood respectfully as the Woodcutter knelt at the side of his own being. A phantom tear slid down the Woodcutter’s cheek, and it fell, landing upon the earth.

The Woodcutter buried his face in his sleeves.

But where the tear touched, a small mushroom emerged, a mushroom of red with small dots of white on its cap. It stretched and yawned and shook off the dirt and then shrank back as another tear slid from the Woodcutter and landed wetly upon its head. It shook off the tear like a dog come in from the rain, and where the spray of the second tear landed, a second mushroom emerged, waking and shaking as another tear fell. Around and around the mushrooms grew, until the tears stopped and the Woodcutter looked up.

A circle of mushrooms gazed back at him from all sides, a circle of mushrooms grown into a complete faerie circle.

202 words from: The Wood Cutter © 2010 Kate Danley

My Thoughts

Before I get started with my spiel, let me first apologize. I took a bit of a digital cleanse in the last week or so and let a few things lapse. While I will continue this blog hop regardless of outside participation, I must admit that I didn’t promote this very much this month. I will rectify that for the next post and hopefully come up with a nice list of books to sample.

Now on to the book. I absolutely adored this book the first time a read it, which is probably why I felt the need to read it again. There are so many wonderful qualities to this story- a nice balance of the traditional mixed with twists and upgrades.

In this particular scene, there are several types of awakenings happening and beginning to happen. I won’t go into too much detail about the how and why because I don’t want to spoil it too much. In any case, in keeping with this month’s optional theme, I thought the “birth” or creation of mushroom circle was a perfect fit. I must also admit that when I first read this, the dancing mushroom scene, to the music of the Nutcracker, from Fantasia ran through my mind repeatedly. I felt like a child reading Peter Pan for the first time all over again.

So there, a bit of my perspective and a trip down memory lane. If you like fairytales, mythical lore, and fairy magic, please give the Woodcutter a try. Aside from being a wonderfully told story with amazing world building, it has a subtle and positive message to it.

Find this title at Amazon | Goodreads

What are you currently reading? I’d love to know.
Next blog hop post date will be February 15, 2016.

Be sure to hop around and see what others are reading so you may continue to pile onto your TBR list.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Books

Review: The Woodcutter

The Woodcutter by Kate Danley

I give this book a 5.

LoveIt

The Woodercutter is tasked with keeping the balance of the Fae World and the Human World while he, himself is something a little different. In efforts to keep the balance, The Woodcutter must now take on the mantle of detective in order to solve, and hopefully prevent, the murders of young people in his woods.

I am not familiar with the story of a woodcutter and for me, this was an entirely new look into the typical fairy tale world.  It was a little confusing and off-putting at times to see how the many old and new tales intermingled, but in the end I liked it. It can sometimes be risky to mix stories (especially fairy and folk tales) and genres, but I like the way Danley has done it.

The slow pace of the story, I feel, added to the suspense that would build up from time to time and capture my heart. The Woodcutter is reminiscent to an investigative noir character trying to solve a case but with sprinkles of magic all around him. That is, however, when he isn’t taking on the role of nurturer. It’s not unusual to see men as father figures, but nurturer is a little different. The way he is connected to the trees and the way he seeks to help the fairies and the children make him a very unique character that I’ve grown to love.

I think this is a good adult and teen read.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords