Anyone a fan of Juliet Marillier? She is probably my favorite fantasy author of all time next to Tolkien. She's what I would classify as historical fantasy, which is basically my favorite genre to read. She is not Christian and draws heavily on ancient European mythology depending on which book you read, but not in a bad way at all! Her narratives are very lyrical and folklorish. I would highly recommend Wildwood Dancing and its sequel Cybele's Secret, both of which are young adult novels. The first is set in Romania and the second I can't quite remember where, but both are incredible. The other book series I would recommend by her are any of her Sevenwaters novels. By far her best book of all time is Daughter of the Forest which is a retelling of "The Six Swan Brothers". This is highly, highly, highly recommended. Just a slight warning to anyone younger than 16 that it deals with some heavy subjects. There are two others in the trilogy that are not as good and aren't really necessary to read after the first one since they're about the girl in the first one's Daughter and niece respectively. However, the stand alone companion novel Heir of Sevenwaters is very good, so I would recommend reading that one.

I've read a few others of hers, but none that I can really recommend.

I read Wildwood Dancing a few years ago. I liked its twist on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" but I don't remember anything else at this point. I don't think the sequel had come out by then, but I really wanted to read it. *puts both on reading list*

I know I didn't check out many of her other books then because some of them looked iffy to me...probably because of the "heavy subjects" you mentioned.

I would recommend Daughter of the Forest, but not reading beyond that one. There is one scene that deals with rape. Other than that there isn't too much. This book does nothing to glorify sex outside of marriage, and does a good job of showing the importance of marriage I think.

No, I haven't actually heard of this author before. *Makes note of name*