Happy Friday Bibliophiles!

I hope you had a wonderful work week. You’re almost to the weekend, so give yourself a huge pat on the back!

Today’s post is yet another review.

This time I read Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh.

I received a free copy of this book as a perk of being on TOR’s eBook club (you can join here for a free eBook per month) ages ago.

I got so overwhelmed with other books that I almost forgot about this one. Luckily I’ve been slowly reading everything on my Kindle, so it popped back up and I gave it a go.

So, what did I think? Keep on reading to find out!

Blurb

There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.

When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.

GoodReads

Amazon

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I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

This is my first time reading something by this author, and I had fun!

While this wasn’t a perfect read, it still had plenty of redeeming qualities.

In a nutshell, this novella centers on a being named Tobias. For 400 years he’s lived a relatively solitary existence in the Greenhollow with his cat and dryads. That is, until a beautiful young man enters his life one rainy day and changes everything.

The best thing about this book was the setting and concept for me. We get a lot of great detail throughout, and you can really imagine each beautiful, verdant scene in your mind’s eye as things unfold.  I also loved the paranormal aspect of things. Tobias was an enigma with some paranormal abilities, and things got even more interesting in the later half of the book. Why have I never noticed how amazing dryads are? I’ve seriously got to find more fiction centered around them!

The characters were great. Tobias had a lot of progression throughout. He’s less human at the beginning, but over time you get to see his human side emerge and it’s a wonderful thing. I also liked how practical and smart he was, despite being illiterate. There wasn’t a single time where his actions didn’t make sense to me.

Silver was a beautiful young man with a great personality. But I have to say, Bramble was a favorite of mine (Pearl too!). I just loved how different she was and how protective she was of Tobias. She was also something of an enigma, much like him.

The plot felt simple in nature, and I enjoyed that. The romance element was subtle throughout and definitely worked for me. Less is more with romance if you ask me.

Given all this praise, there were some parts throughout that really confused me. Mainly, the folklore around the central character and the world itself. There’s a lot of extra information that’s shared throughout the book sporadically, but there wasn’t enough knowledge given to complete the picture if you’re an average reader. That didn’t work for me. I wanted a solid explanation of things by the end, but we got tiny bits here and there. It felt like a mystery that I never quite solved, and that left me feeling unfulfilled.

That being said, this was still quite the epic gay fantasy novella, and I’m definitely not going to forget this experience anytime soon.

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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