You will be able to see from my other reviews of Frost Hollow Hall and The Girl Who Walked On Air that I love Emma Carroll's writing. Her books are so good that any new release is one of the highlights of the year to me.
In Darkling Wood is as easy to read as her other books. We've had ghosts, we've had tight rope walkers, this time it is fairies, woven into a lovely, imaginative story.
Alice is sent off to her grandmother's house at short notice when her brother finally finds a match for a heart transplant operation.
Her grandmother, Nell, is a strange lady, and doesn't welcome Alice as warmly as she should. Nell lives alone alongside the beautiful Darkling Wood, and has plans to have it chopped down, a plan resented by all her neighbours.
But Alice soon realises that Darkling Wood is more than it appears to be, it is something quite magical, and could the fate of it decide the fate of her sick brother many miles away in hospital?