5 Reasons “The Bird and the Sword” is the Perfect Fairy Tale

Milana from A Couple Reads adored this book and forced it upon a number of our mutual bookish friends (who all loved it). I seemed to miss the memo to read it, BUT ALL IS NOT LOST, because I have read it now. I love nothing more than a fairy-tale-esque love story, and The Bird and the Sword definitely checked that box.

Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

Why The Bird and the Sword is the perfect fairy tale: 

1.  The story has a great moral, which is honestly what gives it the fairy tale feeling to begin with. The entire plot has to do with the power of words.

2. Like any good fairy tale, it has a thoroughly crafted fantasy world, but is not overly complicated. It allows the perfect amount of world-building so that the book is not excessively long.

3. The love story is both sweet and sexy. It almost has an insta-love feel to it BUT for me it really worked in the fairy tale framework of the setting.

4. The main character, Lark, is a perfect protagonist and has fantastic growth through the novel. She is mysterious, sometimes meek, oftentimes strong, and ultimately very cool. She’s a character you want to follow  and a woman you care about.

5. The writing is an excellent blend of literary and commercial. It has a prettiness to it but isn’t overly done.

I would recommend this novel for any lover of light fantasy with a sweet love story!

What’s a good fairy tale type of novel you’ve read recently?

A.S. Thornton

A.S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. When not writing, she’s caring for dogs and cats as a veterinarian. You’ll never find animals at the center of her writing, though, because those fictional worlds don’t have veterinarians and her literal brain can’t accept that the poor critters would be without parasite prevention. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available wherever books are sold.