Mystical Places

An interesting book, full of ideas for spiritual places to visit. I appreciated the style of writing and the illustrations.
It made me travel and add some of the places to my bucket list.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

How delighted I was to be able to read another book by Sarah Baxter having enjoyed her “Hidden Places” which forms part of a series with this title and two others.
Amy Grimes continues with her vibrant and bright illustrations to compliment this edition which bring each location into a rich focus and prompt further investigation.
Sarah has in this book identified a number of places across the world which create and sustain an aura, stirring the sense of the unknown, spiritual places or unique spots where the unexplained adds to their mystery but where latent magic endures.

What such books do for me is to regard the world beyond its tourist stops which one ticks off, buys a souvenir and gets a selfie with said evidence in the frame. Me with Niagara Falls, on Safari and where that film was made, no not just any Beach!

But this kind of writing opens my mind up to the unfocused, the recently discovered, examples of the endurance of spiritual belief and human endeavour. It creates for me a new type of destination and brings evidence that indigenous peoples the world over were not waiting for civilisation to come to them from Europe or elsewhere.

Having recently been spellbound by Stefan Zweig’s essay on the building of the cathedral at Chartres. I was pleased Sarah included the labyrinth hidden under the chairs in this sacred place of pilgrimage. Along with the Hartz mountains, also mentioned here I have now 2 new places I wish to travel to while I have a mind and an able body to undertake such journeys.
Living in the U.K. I guess planning a jaunt to France and Germany doesn’t capture the global dimension this book brings and should leave with the reader.
Perhaps I’ll surprise you and myself by making it to more far flung locations like: Cadair Idris, Wales; Mount Mani, South Korea or Lake Guatavita, Columbia.
The truth is this book has inspired me like any fine travel writing, as Sarah writes with a wonder and with rich emotive and descriptive language about the places she identifies as inspirational.
I trust you will find this guide equally moving.

I love these inspired travel places books. This compilation of Mystical Places does not disappoint. This look at 25 mystical places worldwide has an explanation of each site and an accompanying drawing. Many of these sites were new to me, and I enjoyed reading a bit about each site and how they are unique. This would be a great book to peruse at leisure or read a chapter a day.
Highly recommend this and it's companion books.

This is a lovely, short guide to some of the world's most magical and ethereal locations. The illustrations are as important as the words and the artist deserves at at least as much credit as the writer. It would have been nice to have had more detail of some of the locations but this kind of overview is not easy to do and Sarah Baxter deserves much credit for leaving you hungry both for more and longing to visit most of these places. In the current conditions this is both frustrating and testamant to the book's power.

This travel log is amazingly beautiful. During a time where most of us are quarantining the idea of traveling to a mystical place seems to good to be true. Each page is illustrated with remarkable drawings that exhibit exactly why each place is so special. I recommend this one highly.

My imagination ran away with me reading this beautiful book. I was taken to magical and mystical places around the globe. I learnt about the history of each of the 25 sites from Tintagel, England to the Nazca Lines, Peru. Beautifully illustrated and presented I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this amazing book!

Much like this team's 'Hidden Places' book of secretive areas of wonder, this merges arty artwork and slightly flowery text to convey the magic of places rich in folklore. What we get is not to be used strictly as a guide book, then – although you certainly gain some tips for what you would find in the Harz mountains, and it's got the new bridge to Tintagel covered by both word and image. No, this is more a cosy fireside companion – a way to get a sense of the places and their stories without getting wind-blasted or having to get to the far east of Iceland. Or attacked by golems. It merges the facts of the sites and the folk of the people who have lived or visited there really nicely.

I adore Sarah Baxter’s Inspired Traveller's Guides series and her latest offering is absolutely gorgeous! Filled with stunning illustrations and intriguing text, it takes you to 25 of the most mystical areas of the world including Xanadu in China, the Gedi Ruins in Kenya, the Nazca Lines in Peru, and The Pinnacles, Australia.

Ah what wonders await you as you open the first page and find yourself entranced. You’ll want to add these amazing sites to your bucket list as you dream longingly from your armchair.

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 15 Sep 2020

Thanks to the author, Quarto Publishing Group — White Lion Publishing, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#MysticalPlaces #NetGalley

In this travel guide, Sarah Baxter takes readers to magical, enchanted and, well… mystical places around the world. Starting in her own country, following the legend of King Arthur, and with pitstops on every continent. Colorful illustrations by Amy Grimes take the place of photographs in more conventional travel guides. I must say that I looked up pictures of the places on the internet, because the illustrations are beautiful but don’t show all the details you can see online. I’m curious as to why the author chose these particular places. In the introduction she mentions other places she could have included, but she had to choose 25, even if she doesn’t explain why she picked those. A prettier version of Atlas Obscura, Mystical Places will help readers travel from the safety of their couch.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/White Lion Publishing!

5/5 Stars!

I absolutely adored this cozy and fun read. After reading this, I have added each of these places to my to-go list. Very well done! I will be picking up each of Sarah's books written prior to "Mystical Places".

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

This book is an absolute must for anyone who loves old myths and fantasy, especially when colliding with the real world. I absolutely love mythology and reading about how myths have impacted the reality around us. One of my favorite pastimes is falling down the wikipedia labyrinth about mystical places and dreaming about visiting them one day.

The stories are great to read, and even though I've studied many of these stories and locations for years, I still learned something new, which is always exciting!

While the illustrations are nice, almost Disney like in quality, they seem a little more whimsical than mystical. Some of the pictures seemed a little too bright and cheery when the stories/locations would have been better served by something darker and moody to really set the atmosphere.

Overall, a nice job, and something I would have in my library.

“Mystical Places” is not your ordinary travel guide, instead Sarah Baxter introduces us to magical locations on every continent (except Antarctica). Forests, mountains, crumbling ruins, lost cities, and mystical desert drawings inspire travel off the beaten path of the regular tourist destinations. Many of these locations have origin myths of the counties attached to them, which make them even more interesting.

I especially enjoyed the artwork. I noticed someone else mentioned they would have preferred real photographs vice drawings. I feel the drawings lend themselves to the mystical qualities of the locations.

If you enjoy travel and learning about the cultures of the countries you visit, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group, the author and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this book, feeling that you could pick it up at any point and be able to read about that location without feeling lost. The art, while lovely, could have been enhanced by some actual photos of the areas these mystical places are said to be. It's a light read, and it's a book I could see curling up with this fall, by a fireplace and pondering days gone by.

This is such an enchanting book. This book combines folk stories and travel in to a beautiful creation, each chapter focuses on a specific place somewhere in the world where there are folk stories or myths attached to it. This book takes you all over the globe with evocative writing and little known stories, all illustrated in a way that is modern and lovely. I highly recommend this for anyone who is looking for a little more creativity than a travel guide book.

Mystical Places beautifully transports readers across time and space to elucidate the mystical origins and stories of various places around the world. The artwork is stunningly serene and coupled with detailed but brief descriptions of how history has forged the perspective on these places. Absolutely something I'd recommend!

This short read provides an overview of twenty-five mystical destinations around the world, and is sure to stoke anyone's wanderlust. The descriptions, which span roughly two to three pages, recount the mystical qualities of each site, while meandering and mentioning lots of other sites along the way. It's not brilliantly focused, but it does appear to be well-researched and it's accompanied by compelling illustrations. This will make an excellent gift for your loved one who is sad to be stuck at home and not out having an adventure.

This is my second Sarah Baxter book, and also the second one I read from the Inspired Traveller’s Guide series and I can say that I’m really enjoying myself.

The first selling point for me is the travel aspect. Offer me travel advice and I’m in. But even better, I’m a simple girl, I see a travel book about mysterious places, I click.

Mystical Places delivers, too. It offers a variety of locations all around the world, which have certain legends and a strange, magical aura linked to them. If this is the first review of mine that you’re reading, let me tell you, I like everything that is mysterious and eerie, so this book is perfect for me. In fact, I added three locations that are easier for me to visit to my travel list off the bat. I even googled how to get from the city where I live in Poland to Harz mountains – the book got me so inspired.

(Weirdly enough, this was the first time I ever read/heard about Nan Madol in Micronesia, which looks absolutely stunning, but then, as it happens, the day after I read about it was the second time I heard of the place in a completely unrelated article. How about them apples? P.S. I also googled how to get from Poland to Nan Madol, just for fun, and Google could not give me a single proposition. )

The charm of Mystical Places is that it gives a brief but interesting information about exciting and potentially unknown places (well, I’ve passed by the Old-New Synagogue in Prague on one or two occasions), and it mixes practical tips about accessibility and the normal description of the location with the more out-there-mythological ideas which locals, but not only, have about the place. From the City of Elves in Alfaborg, Iceland, past the gate of Hell in the Alepotrypa cave in Greece, to Gedi, the city of the jinns in Kenya and Malinalco, the seat of the Mexican goddess of magic, you’re in for a great adventure!

The art of the book compliments the writing wonderfully – it’s simple, but absolutely astonishing and relays the charm and mystery of the place perfectly.

I’m looking forward to the other books in the series, my wanderlusts needs to be fed!

The fourth book in the exquisite Inspired Traveller’s Guides series by travel writer Sarah Baxter this time focuses on destinations renowned for their links with folklore, magic, myth and mystery. This is a delightful romp through some of the most visit-worthy places in the world. From Scotland to Spain, India to Iceland, there is a diverse range of locations for the globetrotting among us and that will tickle the fancy of just about everyone interested in places that have captivating stories attached to them. For those in need of travel inspiration or additions to their bucket list, this series is unmissable as it has both of those in abundance, and Mystical Places is no exception. Each entry is concise yet considered and is written in surprisingly lyrical prose. Perhaps now more than ever, in this time of global health concern, visiting places such the 25 enchanting settings found between these pages can attempt to satisfy our wanderlust from the comfort and safety of our humble abodes.

There's an intriguing mix of prominent mystical locations and those that are lesser-known and the way the book is written and structured allows for you to dip in and out of it as you please. It would make a superb coffee table book for that very reason and the 2-3 double-page spreads dedicated to each setting gives enough of an overview to fascinate you as a reader and entice you to possibly seek out further books on the place in question should you wish to. One of the biggest selling points besides the entertaining writings is the lush and simply exquisite accompanying illustrations which complement everything else spectacularly. Amy Grimes’s artwork is undoubtedly some of the most stunning I've encountered in any book in a long while. A thoroughly entertaining, accessible and informative read from the moment you pick it up. Simply sublime and spellbinding. Highly recommended. Many thanks to White Lion for an ARC.

Throughout history, humankind has told each other stories. Sometimes these stories center on places that become sacred through their association to the legends that are told.

Sarah Baxter highlights 25 such locations from all over the world. Each brief chapter includes a short description of the site and the stories associated with it.

"In these pages we meet mythical kings, sacred summits, and enchanted architecture, plus a cast of elves, giants, ghosts, golems and sea creatures without which our planet might be a more logical and well-reasoned place but also less colourful and compelling." pg 6, ebook.

I thoroughly enjoyed armchair traveling from Africa to Canada, China to Portugal, and more. This book gave me so many ideas for places I want to see when I feel comfortable boarding a plane again.

And, in the meantime, there's always the possibility of travel-filled day dreams.

In the chapter about Cadair Idris in Wales, Baxter writes: "It's said that on the very crown of the peak there is a long, wide platform of stone slabs that is the Bed of Idris and that whoever sleeps on that bed will suffer one of two fates: they will wake up either as the most profound poet or completely mad." pg 18, ebook.

Worth the risk, right?

I was also taken with the descriptions of the Stone Circles of Senegambia, thousands of ancient stone monuments found in Senegal and The Gambia.

"Stories passed down the generations claim that the stones were put in place by the gods at the very dawn of time. Other legends suggest they are the gravestones of an ancient race of giants or chiefs and that a curse will fall on anyone who dares disturb them..." pg 76, ebook.

I had never heard anything about these circles, despite taking a class in ritual and religion in prehistory from Oxford. I am also fairly well-read in world mythologies yet there were surprises on almost every page.

Highly recommended for travelers, armchair or otherwise, who are seeking destinations of mystical significance or anyone who wants to learn about legends from around the world. The only trouble that may be encountered for the mystical tourist is the remoteness of some of the locations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations I cited may change or be omitted entirely from the final version, which I believe is slated to be published tomorrow.

Better than I could have hoped for! I loved the use of artwork rather than photographs of the regions being written about. The art itself was beautiful and made the possible to really delve into the mystical notions of each location. The moods and movements (the felt of haunting winds, cool and damp underworlds and the heat of the sun) within the stories could be felt in each work of art. As the author states, there are many more mystical places than these but I appreciated the wide range of locations featured in the book.

The perfect book for travelers, artists, or people seeking beauty in the worlds. While reading I couldn't help but think this would be the perfect book to use as references for landscape drawings since no one can travel during the pandemic. I found myself yearning to visit most of the places featured. Many of them made the bucket list! This book is pure magic and escapism, perfect for any time of the year. It always surprises me what the world has to offer.

Especially in today's situation where travelling options are limited (and definitely not recommended!), books that transport me to different places are more than welcome. This book was an enchanting journey to 25 legend-filled places all over the world accompanied by gorgeous fairy tale-like illustrations.

This book is a really exciting and creative travel book. The writer selected 25 places in the world that were somehow mystical, special, and beautifully presented them.
I love legends associated with places, so I requested it right away on NetGalley when I saw this book. I think the selection of the 25 places went pretty well: I didn’t know almost any of them, but I was interested in all of them. As for the content, I think it wasn't well-chosen because it couldn’t hold my attention. The stories weren’t bad, but they weren’t special either. I read it and I forgot about it almost immediately.
What makes the book special is that instead of images, there are illustrations about the places ... The illustrations are beautiful, they make the book really unique.
I loved this book, I found the concept exciting, but it was hard to hold my attention.

Personally, I was less interested in the ´mystical´ aspect of the book, but rather into the travel writing approach and the ways in which the travel experience of different places around the world was convened. From this point of view I´ve found the reading experience inspiring and would be interested to use some ideas in my own travel-related works. The visual content is at a great extent satisfactory and it connects smoothly with the text.

I really enjoyed this book, it has some stunning illustrations that really brought the places to life!

The book was very easy to read and I was able to pop in and out of the book over a few days and read a few chapters each night. I love books like this so it was right up my street.

I thought that the layout was great and the number of images in the book really worked for me and made me enjoy it even more.

It is 5 stars from me for this one – very highly recommended!