Keturah and Lord Death

This book was lovely. I have been in the mood for a book that is sweet, simple and beautifully written and this one delivered quite nicely. It's not a fast-paced sort of story, nor does anything spectacular happen in it. It's very much an old fashioned fairy tale--at least, that's the overwhelming feel of it.

"I will tell you a story of magic and love, of daring and death, and one to comfort your heart. It will be the truest story I've ever told. Now listen, and tell me if it is not so."

Keturah is sixteen when she get's lost in the forest--sixteen when Lord Death comes for her. She knows it is her time to die, but she tells the Great Lord a story. She tells him about a girl that is waiting for her true love.

“...the girl longed for a love that could not be ended by death. From the time she was young, she knew that her true love was there, somewhere, living a life that would one day intersect her own. Knowing this made every day full of sweet possibility. Knowing that her true love lived and breathed and went about his day under her same sun made her fears vanish, her sorrows small, and her hopes high. Though she did not yet know his face, the color of his eyes, still she knew him better than anyone else knew him, knew his hopes and dreams, what made him laugh and cry.” 

Lord Death listens and when she stops, the story hanging and unfinished, he tells her to go on.
Keturah tells him that she will finish telling him the story...tomorrow.

She asks for one more day to live.

And Death gives it to her. One more day to find her true love.

If she doesn't find him, though, than she will marry Lord Death himself.


“You, my lord, are the ending of all true stories.” 

Most stories in this day and age don't really put much importance on a girl longing to settle down and get married. For a girl's dreams to be quite simply a home to call her own, a husband that she loves and who loves her back, and her own little baby to rock to sleep. 

It was so refreshing.

Keturah is a very well-written character and the type of heroin that I wish would show up more often. She's brave without realizing how brave she is. She's not daring, she doesn't long for adventure and she doesn't want to die. But she makes sacrifices for her family, her friends and her town. She cares about people she doesn't really know. She puts others first all the time.

I really loved the way she faces Death.

“Tell me what it is like to die," I answered.
He dismounted from his horse, looking at me strangely the whole while. "You experience something similar every day," he said softly. "It is as familiar to you as bread and butter."
"Yes," I said. "It is like every night when I fall asleep."
"No. It is like every morning when you wake up.”

I love the way she longs so much to find her own true love. Not the shallow, passion-only type of love, but the real, grow-old-together type of love. It's sweet and sad and wonderful.

I confess, the whole ending made me cry. It was the perfect way to end the story, but it leaves you with a slightly achy feeling inside. Which is sometimes the way the story just has to end, you know?

This book is on the 'I will own this someday' list. I've never read another book like it, and it was so well done....

That's all for now!

Except, here's a video of Tom Hiddleston doing one of the most amazing Shakespeare monologues ever. 

It. Is. Awesome.