I adored every single minute of reading Silver in the Wood. This folktale-esque fantasy novella follows Tobias Finch the keeper of the ancient Greenhallow Wood. While Tobias has quietly seen to the maintenance of the Wood for centuries holding back the malignant Lord of Summer the entry of a new owner of Greenhallow, the ever-curious and excitable young folklorists Henry Silver, upends Tobias' meticulously managed routines and reignites that evil entity.

Silver in the Wood is one of those books you can just sink into. In 112 pages Emily Tesh subsumes you in her earthy writing style. Tobias is an incredibly internal protagonist whose quiet steadiness perfectly conveys his centuries of life. What first feels like steady comforting routines ultimately reveals itself to be a deep loneliness and hidden guilt that is slowly resolved as the novella unfolds.

I wouldn't recommend Silver in the Wood to those who prefer a more lively romance as this book definitely indulges in the slowest of burns. Still, Tesh teases out the tenderness between Silver and Tobias excellently. While there is an initial attraction between these two the romance is built on slow understanding and quiet moments of intimacy. The subtleness of the romance makes that final kiss between the two oh-so-satisfying.

I adore everything about Silver in the Wood. Every line of every page scratched an itch in the recesses of my brain and nourished an unknown desire for earthy mythic stories.