Reviews and Comments

A breeze of a read.
The found family trope is quite nice and not overly done. 
The author conveys a simple feeling of love and admiration for bees, bee keeping and the natural world as well as subtle mentioning the problems plaguing the current world. 
The only issue is that it felt too short and I would have liked a bit more opportunity to connect with the characters. 

Characters in this book: 5
The entire series : 3
I started reading this series in an extremely vulnerable moment in my life and it worked, it worked like a charm. It made me fantasize about living in the countryside so much it showed in my Google search. Now I'm studying rural development..

However, after finishing the three books I'm very much done with it. Won't pick up another book by her:
- first things first, the solution to all your problems should be - move to the countryside, specifically move to the Scottish countryside, The Highlands 
- be an ENGLISH woman, you heard it, nothing else works, you have to be an English woman from London.
- When you move you will meet all those handsome Scottish men but alas be aware that you might be the only woman (desirable) in the radius so they will all be over …

Odd, tragic and hard to put down. The only downside is that I'm not Irish so frankly did not understand some passages.

I have a special group of books "Books I loved so Much I don't want to read". It might sound counterproductive but sometimes the fact that if I read a book I like it will end is just not acceptable.
This was one of those books. I've read it for months, I've read excerpts of it out loud, I've quoted those same excerpts to my husband in a drunken rant about how much I love this book.

I wish someone had in fact added a map of the Cairngorms so I can follow it along but even without it. Nan Shepherd has given me a book I will read over and over again.

Dear Fredrik Backman.,

Almost 4 stars.
I'm late to the party but better late than never I guess
I've mixed feelings about the book. It's definitely hard to get into it at first, it's a bit slowish in the beginning and Elsa is kind of annoying but after a while it gets better and I got invested. .

HOWEVER, Elsa's constant pop culture references were extremely annoying, I don't know what Fredrik Backman thinks is "nerdy" but things such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Marvel have been so overused to the point of oversaturation, so that fell flat especially since there are more children with those interests than without. Elsa should have had far more obscure interests than most readily available pop culture to be considered an odd kid in my book. Sincerely,
A Former Odd Kid

Few things about this book : 
A) It's a retelling of Jane Eyre with more likeable character. That kinda gave me the idea of the big twist though it still managed to surprise me. 

B) I've reluctantly started this book. I wanted to read something that was set in my beloved Scotland without feeling irritated by the amount of stereotypes.

It's fair to say that it surprised me quite nicely. It addressed mental health, drug abuse and the way people treats neurodivergent children as if they were inherently in need of fixing. The romance is in the background and does not push itself too much which was nice. 

In conclusion, I love it to bits even if some parts hit a bit too close to home.

P. S. It was also lovely to revisit the setting of a small town in Scotland and enjoy the wonderful descriptions of lochs, corries, …

I have waited 6 months to read this book, even if I bought the moment it came out.
Why? Because it was simply too hard to say goodbye to this book, both to the world of Winter and the house in the fir grove but it has indeed created what was promised. A sanctuary for witches, chierty and all the followers of the forest. 💙❄

The odd magic,characters and phonetic familiarity is what made this book so great for me. Granted, it was a bit hard to get into and I stopped after reading a third of it for no apparent reason but when I finally continued reading I couldn't put it down. Besides the characters I have really loved the setting and most importantly the names of places that I could pronounce and felt odd seeing in a book written in English. Old stories and elements are taken and used nicely without making them a cheap copy of the real world things they were inspired by.