Fantasy Book Critic: SPFBO9 Semifinalist: The Sparrow And The Oak Tree by Jamie Jackson (reviewed by Esmay Rosalyne)

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Sparrow And The Oak Tree is an inventive romantasy retelling of the classic tragedy Tristan and Isolde. And whether you are familiar with this source material or not, this story will undoubtedly manage to surprise you in the most unexpected ways. It’s magical, entrancing, intense, unsettling, charming, alluring, mysterious, spicy, surprisingly dark, and… oh right, it has zombies!

For over a hundred years, no one has come out of the forest alive… until the peculiar child that has just inexplicably wandered out of there. The King sends sorceress Isolde, going by the name of Sparrow, out on a mission to investigate and eliminate the assumed threat. So, together with Bear, her mysterious newly assigned bodyguard, she travels to the town of Perdition to complete this supposedly easy task. However, no one could have suspected that the child would be a creature from myth and legend who would whisk her away deep into the forest for his own desperate needs.

Now, fantasy romance/romantasy stories are a very hard sell for me personally, so I was a bit nervous to dive into this one. Slow-burn romances will always be my preference, but I actually was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the instalove/instalust scenario here. The dynamic between Sparrow/Isolde and Oak/Tristan was very compelling and I appreciated that they both had very strong character development and personal motivations outside of their romance. Also, their instant attraction is very believable because of the magical bond/entangling that pulls them together, so I was quite on-board for their passionate feelings towards each other from the get-go.

Though, as much as I enjoyed the dynamic between Sparrow and Oak, I do think that the plot and pacing suffered a bit from the big focus on their attraction and lust for each other. Especially during the middle third of the book, I found myself wishing that they could just be in a scene together without becoming aroused or constantly dropping sexual innuendos into their conversations.

Luckily, those pacing issues were somewhat alleviated by the unique multi-POV storytelling, with Sparrow’s chapters being written in first person and the two male POVs in third person. That contrast kept the narrative feeling fresh and I really enjoyed viewing the other characters through each other’s eyes. It did take me a bit to warm up to Bear’s perspective, but once he met up again with Sparrow and Oak, the banter and tension between the three became very entertaining. Also, I really enjoyed his amusing animal companion, the horse named Horse, who has just as much personality as the main three protagonists.

The unsettling and mesmerizing atmosphere of the dangerous woods ended up being one of my favourite aspects of the story. I desperately wanted to discover more about the mysterious force that was threatening the forest, and while I wasn’t expecting so many gruesome horror elements here (hello creepy reanimated corpses), I actually really enjoyed how much tension and suspense they added to the story.

I also enjoyed the depiction of the Fae here, because I thought it was a nice and refreshing take compared to the overly sexualised Fae stories with all their convoluted court politics that have become so popular in recent years. Here, the Fae live as lone wolves and they all have their own magical affinities, which I thought was so interesting and fun. Though, they are still appropriately treacherous and vicious, except for Oak of course, he is a lovely cinnamon roll… mostly.

I think I ultimately could have enjoyed this story more if it had struck a more even balance between the romance and the mystery elements of the plot. Though, I also fully acknowledge that was not the project of this story, and there’s simply no denying that it delivered exactly on what it promised. Ultimately, I am very glad that I just sat back and trusted the author to bring it all together, because the ending was everything I could have asked for and immediately made me forgive a lot of the little nitpicks I had along the way.

If you are looking for a beautifully written and highly atmospheric fantasy romance with lots of angst, sexual tension, alluring Fae, mysterious magic, entertaining banter, and some surprising horror elements, then I can’t recommend The Sparrow And The Oak Tree highly enough!