Malinda Lo

Forced into becoming an indentured servant when her family dies, Ash lives a lonely and desperate life with no hopes for the future, until she meets Kaisa, the King's royal Huntress, who teaches her to love, live, and dream once again.

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

One late afternoon when the sun was spreading honey-gold over the autumn trees, Ash lay on the riverbank beneath an old oak whose limbs grew nearly down to the ground to form a splendid, secret room. She had been reading an old fairy tale that afternoon, and when she finished the story, she looked up through the leaves across the river and saw a woman there.

I love the way Lo interweaves fairytales and folklore into Ash's world. There are many stories sprinkled throughout, and I like this in particular because of the mention that the King's name was lost to time. The history and politics of the country fade away, but the stories remain and bolster traditions.

"Tomorrow is the Fast of Lysara," Gwen whispered, kneeling down next to her and trying ineffectually to close the trunk. 

"Oh," Ash said. She had first heard the tale of Lysara when she was very young, for it was a popular one, but she hadn't given it a thought in years. Lysara had been a beautiful but penniless young woman from the Northern Mountains and when the King, whose name had long been forgotten, first set eyes on her at a Yule bonfire, he fell in love with her, and she with him. The King's advisors disapproved of the match because it was thought that she was half-fairy, for her eyes were as deep and richly verdant as the forest. But even though everyone knew that no good could come of a union with a fairy woman, the King was so deeply in love with her that he arranged to be married within a fortnight. The first year of their marriage was marked by uncommon prosperity and joy, but it was also their last. Exactly one year after their wedding, Lysara died giving birth. During her short reign as Queen, the people had grown to love her dearly, for she was the embodiment of true love, steadfast and sweet. SO the anniversary of her wedding day became known as the Fast of Lysara, when young girls made wishes upon their clean linen pillows to dream of their true love.

Ash is full of beautiful, serene imagery like this. I loved this brief line in particular.

The sun shone down in long beams of light, raising the dew from the ground in misty breaths that lingered in the hollows between tree roots.

This was my favorite spoken fairytale in the book.

"There is a story," Ash said, "of a stag that runs into a valley, and of the huntress who followed it." They had reached the horses by then, and Ash went to re-saddle Saerla, who turned her moonlight-colored nose toward them as they approached. 

"The entrance to the valley was hidden, but there was a secret entrance that was revealed only by the light of the full moon, and one night the huntress was watching that very location and she saw the entrance revealed. So she went in."

"In the valley there was a cave. Inside, it was like a palace made of gold, and the huntress walked down many richly appointed corridors before she came to what seemed to be a throne room. And on the throne was a woman dressed all in white, and she was incredibly beautiful, but she was also incredibly sad, because she had been cursed to spend her life locked in the cave, and the only time she could leave was as a stag."

"What did the huntress do?" Kaisa asked. 

Ash finished buckling the saddle in place and said, "The woman asked the huntress to chase her down, as a stag, and to kill her. And then, she could be free."

Ash dreamed that she was walking through the Wood at midsummer, and when she looked up through the canopy of leaves she felt the warmth and heat of the sun on her face. 

There was someone walking beside her, and she was not surprised to turn and see the huntress, who smiled at her and extended her hand, and Ssh took it. 

Small white flowers bloomed all around them, and as they walked the flowers became vines that climbed up the tree trunks until it was as if the trees wer ehung with blossoms made of snow.

Ash quotes

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