Son of Shadows by Juliet Marillier

Warning!! Possible spoilers of Daughter of the Forest

Growing up in the fortress of Sevenwaters, Liadan has had little cause to worry or suffering so far, the youngest daughter of Sorcha and Red, she grew up surrounded by the love of her parents and her siblings, her twin Sean and her older sister Niamh and other than fending off a possible marriage proposal by a childhood friend she's content with her life working as a healer for the people of Sevenwaters and keeping her mother company.

But things change once her sister Niamh falls in love with a young druid by the name of Ciaran. The men of their family, however, are not pleased by this - due to secrets they won't share - so Ciaran is banished and Niamh is quickly wed to a chieftain from the north, which sets in motion a chain of events that will change everything at Sevenwaters.

On her way back from escorting Niamh to her new home, Liadan is abducted by a band of outlaws, lead by a man they call The Painted Man. After spending sometime with them - taking care of one of the band's members who had been injured -Liadan comes to see them as friends rather than mercenaries and she forms a close bond with the Painted Man, to whom she gives the name of Bran.

Soon Liadan is faced with many choices to make, regarding her family and this man she is falling in love with, even as the Fair Folk tries to intervene and mold her life to suit their purposes. And so, secrets and more secrets begin to be revealed, binding the future of Sevenwaters and Harrowfield together once more.

It took me many years to read the sequel to Daughter of the Forest for different reasons, but I finally decided to go ahead and do it a couple of weeks ago, and I fell right back in love with this mystical world of Sevenwaters and the people who inhabit it. Again, this is no light read by any means, and the story of Niamh is particularly heartbreaking, but things do sort of work out in the end, which is always a plus.

Some returning characters from Daughter of the Forest lost my sympathies completely in this book (say, the 'Honorable' Men of Sevenwaters kind of suck) but I found plenty of other people to like.

Grade:
1/2

PS - Once more I put the Australian Cover, because the US one is less than charming.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Ignored by her father but cherished by her six older brothers, Sorcha lives happily in Sevenwaters. When her brother Finbar rescues a Briton prisoner, Sorcha - who even at a young age is a skilled healer - is entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the prisoner, a young man by the name of Simon.

For many weeks Sorcha takes care of Simon, nursing him through his pain and nightmares and giving him some hope... until her oldest brothers and father return from war and she's summoned home, without her, Simon decides to go, leaving Sorcha to wonder what happened to him.

But Sorcha doesn't have much time to dwell on that, her father has brought home a new wife, Lady Oonagh, who will stop at nothing until she sees Sorcha and her brothers destroyed, finally using magic to turn all six brothers into swans, leaving Sorcha with the impossible task to return them to human form by keeping silent and weave six shirts of starwort for her brothers.

While going about her task, Sorcha is hurt by two men and withdraws into herself and, unsure if she'll complete the task, if she'll ever care about anything enough again, she hops into a boat and heads down the river, landing in the hands of Hugh of Harrowfield, Simon's brother who has come to Erin (Ireland) to find answers regarding his brother's disappearance.

Hugh realizes that Sorcha knows something of what happened to his brother, so he takes her home to Harrowfield, understanding that for her to tell him what happened, she needs to finish her task first. Not that things are any easier in Harrowfield... as Sorcha works on finishing the shirts for her brothers, new and old shadows are cast over Harrowfield, and those she's coming to love.

Okay, sorry for the super long 'summary' I was trying not to spoil much but trust me, this book is epic! I read it several years ago and it's amazing, I re-read it at least once a year. Like I said it's an epic, following Sorcha for several years, it's not a romantic story but it contains one of the sweetest romances I've ever read.

This book is not for the faint of heart, though. There are very dark passages in the book - though there is nothing explicit - and the mood can get very haunting. It took me a long time to finish reading it, and even when I re-read sometimes I have to put the book down and re-group. But if you can put up with it, you'll find an amazing book.

Grade:

PS - I posted the Australian cover of the book because I don't like the US one.
PSS - This is book One in the Sevenwater Series.