Joanna Ruth Meyer writes the most beautiful, original fantasy. Every story I read from her has me enthralled from page one and this one was no exception. Owen lives with his baby sister and his father who is secretly and astronomer for the King. They live at the edge of an enchanted woods where the trees sing siren songs to lure men to their deaths. The trees slaughter them and steal their souls. Everyone fears these trees, especially Owen as his mother disappeared and never returned. But when he faces one of the sirens, she is not quite the monster he feared and the two fall into star-crossed love. They quickly find themselves in the middle of an epic, brutal war between the king and the mother tree for control of the land.
This one is a reverse Beauty and the Beast retelling with a dash of Romeo and Juliet and a sprinkling of several other Grimms tales. The writing is beautiful and poetic. The characters are ones you instantly love and want to root for. And yet, with all fairy tales, there is creeping, dark evil which threatens to ruin them all. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Meyer has definitely become an auto-buy author for me.
What’s your favorite kind of tree?
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