The Crossed Keys Chronicle

The Story Collector

The Story Collector book cover

The Story Collector is the second book by author Evie Woods (Gaughan) by publishing date and it’s the third book I’ve read from the author overall. While there is never any claim of a shared fictional universe, all three of her recent novels share so many thematic commonalities I like to think of them as a trilogy. All of her works thus far have featured :

  • a fish-out-of-water female protagonist
  • a dual-track narrative structure featuring the past and present
  • at least one surreal bit of magic/paranormal occurrences that happen in the story and are just simply accepted by all the characters.
  • the present-day protagonist finds a new love interest

In this particular novel our present-day protagonist is named Sarah Harper. As the story opens, she is heading back to her parents' home in Boston after deciding to separate from her husband and leave their NYC apartment on Christmas Eve. While waiting for her flight, a chance encounter with a ceramic gift shop sheep and an Irish newspaper article highlighting a story about a motorway being diverted due to fairies, causes her to change her to flight to Shannon, Ireland instead. The logistics of booking international travel while in the airport on a holiday are nearly as magical as anything related to the fae folk.

Once she arrives in Ireland, a series of fortuitous events leads her to stay in a cottage in a small village that happens to have both an old Great House and a fairy hill. Shortly after arriving, she finds an old diary hidden inside a tree, which introduces us to the main character from the past: Anna, an 18-year-old girl who helps an American researcher searching multiple countries for stories about the fae folk.

I won’t spoil the details, but the rest of the plot is a very paint-by-numbers story that obviously involves Sarah finding love in the small village and rediscovering her joie de vivre while learning more about Anna and her interactions with the very real fae. It’s all enjoyable enough if you don’t think too hard about it. For instance how can Sarah randomly stay in Ireland for weeks on end? Why is her family not super bothered by her erratic life choices? And how does a diary stay dry in a metal box in a tree for hundred years? None of these things ultimately matter and that’s probably for the best.

If you are looking for a pleasant, but not very deep, story that takes place in Ireland and has a moderately happy ending, I think this is the book for you. If you are hoping for fraught historical fiction about fairies, you should probably look elsewhere!