Review: "The Woodcutter" by Kate Danley

If you like fairy tales, then The Woodcutter by Kate Danley will be a very interesting read for you! 

The Basics:

The Woodcutter is essentially the guardian of the magical forest and the liaison between the mortal Twelve Kingdoms and the magical Realm of Faerie.  The Twelve Kingdoms are populated by mortals, some of whom (mostly rulers) have fairy blood.  Some strange things are afoot in this magical land -- maidens murdered, pixies missing, and a mysterious house that appears and reappears at will.  As the Woodcutter investigates, all the pieces begin to come into place and reveal a sinister plot to overthrow all twelve kingdoms at once! 

My Reactions:

I found this book to be well written with a unique POV -- the Woodcutter is a title, but we never find out his name even though he's telling the story (the only bad thing about that was it made it a little harder to emotionally connect, but this may have been intentional).  While the suspense was mild, the evil plot against the forest was well hidden, and it took a while to figure out HOW the Woodcutter was going to fix it.  The kingdoms/forest was a great backdrop to the story, and I was very pleased with the way other familiar fairy-tale characters were integrated without being typical incarnations of themselves.  

Overall: an easy 4 stars!  If you like fantasy and fairy-tale retellings, definitely check it out!