** ARC provided to me by Harlequin Teen for an honest review. **

I'm going to share my thoughts on each story as I read so please excuse the massive amounts of updates and times this shows on your feed. This book doesn't come out until late August but I've been in such a witchy mood that I had to read it ASAP. Right off the bat, guys, these stories are all so diverse and there's a bunch that are own voices. (yay!) Here are my thoughts.

1. Starsong by Tehlor Kay Mejia - 4 stars
This is a great story about a Latinx (own voices) sixteen year old trying to find her way and gain her mother's approval after making some poor life decisions and changing her ways a year ago. Trigger warning for substance and alcohol abuse related to said poor decisions. She's a bruja who is finding her way with magic, art, music, and makeup. A girl after my own heart. She is a bit of a social media star and ends up talking with a doubter, another young teenage girl who puts her faith in magic and their discussion quickly turns to Luna wondering if she's queer and flirting with her. It was frankly, adorable. There was also additional diversity in the reference to clients of Luna's who hired her to paint their polya portrait for their living room. The normalization of a poly relationship was pretty awesome to read. Overall, I really loved Luna, am rooting for her and her new life path and want so much more of her!

2. Afterbirth by Andrea Cremer- 2 stars
This is a story set in 1650 New England about a midwife being accused of witchcraft after daring to insinuate that a servent's child was the illegitimate child of the master of the house. Overall, I just didn't connect to the story or the characters but I'm not surprised. I'm not really one for historical fiction.

3. The Heart in Her Hands by Tesse Sharpe-4 stars
I really enjoyed this story on a few different levels...one all the generational witches, tea lovers, and kitchen/garden witches you could ever want which I LOVE! There are angry deities and rebellious strong women that I adored. It's a story about defying fate, the idea of soul mates being predetermined, following your love and also features a loving and heartwarming f/f love story. I really enjoyed this one!

4. Death in the Sawtooths by Lindsay Smith-3 stars
This one is probably the darkest of the stories so far. This one follows Mattie who serves Lady Xosia, the Lady of Slumber, or death. There's an entire witch/wizard order to this short story...very Slytherin vs the rest of the houses feel. Mattie is being judged for the actions of prior followers called to serve her patron and suffering judgments for their ill deeds. It's a story of judgment in a small town, overcoming stereotypes, and a bully turned friend-ish. There's some creepier TW for bullying, bloody attempted murder type deals.

5. The Truth About Queenie by Brandy Colbert- 5 stars
Okay, so I'm a sucker for the unrequited love storyline but oh man, Queenie and Webb have my heart. We have an all black cast of characters and Queenie who is a witch denying her powers because she believes they went wrong in her youth and hurt a friend. I just loved and connected with so much of this story and I would absolutely read a full-blown novel centered around Queenie. I adore her.

6. The Moonapple Menagerie by Shveta Thakrar- 2 stars
This is a story about friendship, learning to push past doubt, and trusting in yourself and those who care for you. It was a sweet story about teenage shapeshifters who take on a churel (demon) who wants to insert themselves into their play...or maybe just teach them some life lessons. It's a sweet story less about magic and more about friendship.

7. The Legend of Stone Mary by Robin Talley- 2 stars
I'm not sure why I couldn't connect with this story. It's about a small town girl named Wendy who has always been warned away from the woods where a statue of her great great (a bunch of times over) grandmother's statue remains to remind the town of the witch who was killed there. It's a story, at its heart, about not repeating the mistakes of the past but the magical/witchy vibes were slim to none. There was a f/f relationship that had potential but even that wasn't fleshed out for me.

8. The One Who Stayed by Nova Ren Suma- 5 stars
Oh my goodness, that was the most tension and dread in a story that I've read in a long long time. Reading that and knowing what Mirah was about to encounter was heartbreaking. I read the entire story with teary eyes and a hurting heart but the short story was still absolutely beautiful. At its core, it's feminist, empowering, and about women coming together to support other women, to help them at their darkest hour. Such a very powerful story. Trigger warnings for sexual assault, rape, and assault.

9. Divine are the Stars by Zoraida Cordova-4 stars
This was such a beautiful magical realism story and that's saying something because I rarely connect with magical realism. I loved this story about Marimar and her cousin Chuy going back to see their dying grandmother. It's a beautifuly/ugly look at family, greed, and love. I absolutely adored it, and the fact that it is an own voices Latinx story makes it even more amazing.

10. Daughters of Baba Yaya by Brenna Yovanoff- 4 stars
Okay, maybe it's because I'm coming up on Easter and us Greek's are dying all our eggs red in preparation but I'm totally connecting with the Orthodox Russian in this story. This story is gritty, dark, and dangerous and I'm about it. It's about girls who are done sitting back and listening to bullies, about girls who are finding their agency, their power. No longer will they let boys call them sluts, or whispers and taunts be unpunished. Serious The Craft vibes and I live for it. Consider yourself warned- some girls smile just to show you their teeth.

11. The Well Witch by Kate Hart-2 stars
Historic stories don't do much for me but a girl living alone in the rugged Texas outback all alone with her mom passed away and her father gone for 3 years who can call water to her and build an oasis around her--I could get down with it. Then 3 men on the run wind up at her place, taking up residence in her barn and I was waiting for something "worse" to result from the story and while it didn't I still wasn't a fan of the way the story panned out. There was a strong woman of color who was self-sufficient and then turned victim in the lamest of ways. I couldn't get behind that but the beginning was pretty promising.

12. Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths by Jessica Spotswood- 5 stars
Wow! Okay, total Three Dark Crowns vibes here as we deal with three sisters who know that their family curse means one of them will go crazy and murder the others (plus we have a poisoner in the midst). I loved the sisters. I felt for Jo who has to make a difficult decision to spare her sister's lives. This is a story about family, fate, and love and how doing what you think is right can turn out so so wrong. I loved the vibe of this story, which felt very Victorian but also featured normalized bisexuality and a f/f marriage arranged by parents for the purposes of social status gain. YES to all of it.


13. Love Spell by Anna-Marie McLemore- 5 stars
This was such a beautiful beautiful story about a bruja who is living with her tia in an attempt to learn her craft. She also still attends Catholic mass and gets communion and struggles to mix her magic and her faith and be accepted by those around her. Her magic comes in the form of healing broken hearts and helping those who have lost love move on. She starts to fall for an acolyte and feels such despair because holy men can fall for witches, can lust for them, but will never marry them or be with them publically. She struggles to maintain her faith and her crush/first-love while balancing the knowledge that he can never be hers. It was heartbreaking and beautiful, hopeful and real. It doesn't hurt at all that this is an own voices Latinx story with a trans male love interest. Honestly, just such a lovely story!

14. The Gherin Girls by Emery Lord- 5 stars
Another in the collection that is so hauntingly written. This is a beautiful tale of sisters, the bond they share and their unconditional love they have for one another. As the oldest of four girls, oh my heart broke and rose with this story. At its core, it's about abuse (though hinted at and never described) and how abusers seek to isolate you from those who love and want to protect you. As somebody who has seen their sister in unhealthy/abusive and healthy/loving relationships, I related to this on so many levels. Of course, it's got magic, but the love of a sibling that will always hook me. One sister identifies as a lesbian though it's hinted at that she may be pan/bi like their eldest sibling. Another diverse and amazing read in this collection and one that had me tearing up more than a little bit. Love these strong amazing sisters.

N/A The Only Way Back by Tristina Wright- N/A
I'm skipping this story as it will not be in the finished version after sexual assault allegations were brought against the author. I'm so happy that Harlequin has taken to heart this incident and removed the author and her story from the finished version of this book.

15. Why They Watch Us Burn by Elizabeth May-5 stars
I have tears in my eyes as I write this last review. What a stunning, diverse, amazing, beautiful, feminist, empowering af story this was. This was the perfect ending to this collection. This story has TW for rape/sexual assault though not described it's heavily implied and understood. This story centers around Night and the 12 other women taken into the woods to repent for leading men to sin. It's a haunting and all too true analogy for how we treat survivors of sexual assault and rape and oh my goodness, the sisterhood, the love in this story is overwhelmingly beautiful. There's a trans character and a f/f relationship in this one as well as messages of hope, support, and strength. Such a stunning story!

This collection is the absolute definition of feminist, empowering, witchy, and haunting. I loved every single second of it, even those 2 star reads because as a whole I walked away knowing this is a book I will recommend, will come back to, and will think about for a long long time. What a beautifully crafted collection this is.

This collection overall was pleasant to read. It definitely gave me some ideas on how to approach magic differently in my own writings. Some of the stories were a bit boring, and a few alluded to some disturbing themes related to the dark side of humanity, which while somewhat interesting, were definitely not what I was expecting in this collection. But I suppose they are needed to add a balance to the good and bad sides of life and people. Overall, would recommend this book if someone wants some witches and magic reading in their life.

*I was sent an e arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. *. I was really excited for this one, but it was kind of a let down. I thought the stories would have a more magical base to them. A few of the stories I really enjoyed such as The Truth About Queenie by Brandy Colbert. I really enjoyed some stories, which really disliking a few. Overall 3 stars.

I could not WAIT to dive into this 15 story anthology alllll about witches and witchy stuff. I'm usually on the fence regarding short stories because I don't always feel content with such a short glimpse into these worlds. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how most of these stories came together and I felt satisfied for the most part. I also loved all of the different representation throughout the book - it's very diverse and that was much appreciated. Some of the stories were a little tough to get through. I did have to take quite a few breaks because the middle of the book had a lot of stories that started to blend together for me. However, the beginning and end of this book are definitely strong and delightful. I would recommend to those who enjoy short stories, witchcraft, and a lot of diverse perspectives.

Average Rating: 4 stars

With the exception of a few stories, I LOVED this collection!! This is a must for any YA collection.

"She has that look on her face. That "I'm going to solve this with food or fury" face."
This book is a little jewel, 15 short stories about women and witchcraft. In the past or the present, here or there, it explores different kinds of witchcraft, different cultures, and characters. I loved it all. All the 15 stories. Of course, some more than others. But overall, each of them has wisdom and beauty in it!
Each main character lives a struggle, but also has magic in their life. They learn and grow through the stories and so do we.
I recommend this book to all women, witches or not, who wants to dive into their power within!

Full review on the blog!

I DNFed this book. It wasn't anything against the book. The writing was fine but I just don't think witches are necessarily for me. I don't feel its fair to give this a star rating since I did not finish it so I gave it three stars because I was just indifferent. Maybe I will return to this during Halloween.

All about the W's: Witches and Women

If you enjoy stories revolving around strong, weak, and inspired women, you will likely take to this series of short stories. If you enjoy a little magic and magical realism, you will enjoy the short stories.
If you enjoy stories that include a bit of romance for the straight and gay crowd, you will absolutely dig this book. I think this story has a little bit of everything for women readers with a little magic in them.

With so many short stories involved, I find it can be a bit difficult to follow the characters and their various names and story lines. But I was pleasantly surprised to experience this issue very little through out the book. In addition, I really enjoyed most of the stories presented. It started a bit slow in my opinion, the middle and the end, containing some of the best stories. But there wasn't a story that I didn't enjoy. There was a little of something for each woman out there. And many of the struggles were incredibly relatable. Each and every author did quite well in their story creation.

I waited a while to be approved by NetGalley to review this book and it was well worth the wait.

Title: Toil & Trouble 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft
Author: Tess Sharpe
My Rating: 2 Stars

What it's about: As the title implies, 15 Young Adult short stories featuring women and witchcraft.

What I liked: I liked the witchcraft and the diversity throughout these stories. I love the cover art.

What I disliked: Pretty much all of these stories bored me to tears. I just couldn’t get into them and on the rare occasion that I was interested in one of them, it ended way too soon, as short stories often do.

Overview: I was so pumped about this book, it was everything I’m interested in, but it just fell very flat for me. In the end I’m only giving it a 2 star rating, because while I finished it, it was a struggle. I had to keep pushing myself to continue.

I want to begin by mentioning I often avoid anthologies. I do so simply because the different authors can have such different styles and the stories do not always flow well. I did see some of that here. I had a difficult time transitioning from certain stories at times. I also dislike anthologies because I am always so unsure of how I should rate them. Do I take the time to sit and take notes on each story and review each individually? Normally, yes I would if I was intending on reviewing it. This time though, I decided against it. I have too much going on and it was just too inconvenient to do. That being said, my rating and review are based on the book as a whole. And in doing so, this will not be a lengthy review.


I don't have too much to say about the cover here. I enjoy how this cover depicts so many images associated with witches. The cover is colorful, but not overpoweringly so. It did catch my eye, so mission accomplished there!


Now for the stories...I always mention that I love seeing diversity, well this book is full of it. We encounter gay witches, witches that are people of color, and even young witches. The women shown here did not follow society's norms. They are not married, educated, stay at home moms. They are strong and independent women. I simply cannot express how happy I am with the immense amount of diversity in here. So many people need representation in literature and are finally getting it.


As I anticipated, there were some I really enjoyed and some that were meh...or I disliked. I mean, we can't all win, right? I wish I had taken notes while reading so that I was able to give more detail about what I did and did not like, but with so much going on in life right now, I was unable to. I have to read where I can...not always able to take down notes. I did love some of these stories. I flew through them, wanting more. Some could even be expanded on, making a second short story or an entire novel. Others I longed to be over, slowly making my way through the pages and hoping to stay awake.


With that in mind...this book does have a little something for everyone! I admit there were a few I wanted to skim past, but I have such a hard time doing it. I feel like I need to give each book a real chance. Personally, there were not enough stories I enjoyed for me to purchase this upon its release in August.

A collection of short stories with only two things tying them all together: female protagonists and magic (specifically as witches). From there, each story is wildly different from the setting, the type of magic, the unfolding of the story. Some are simply about finding yourself and being true to yourself while others do focus more on the aspect of magic and what it means for that particular world. This is a very inclusive set of stories, too, with both gender and sexual fluidity, heroines from different races and backgrounds, and societies that do not always look like our own. If you are looking for magic and read that is a fresh breath of air from the typical, cliche stories normally read, I highly, highly recommend this collection.

First of all, let me thank Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for the chance to read and review this book: Toil and Trouble, pre-release. As always, these thoughts are my own. This review is spoiler-free and no main plot points are revealed.

I give this story 3 stars.

Please note that this anthology contains stories by authors Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, Brandy Colbert, Zoraida Cordova, Andrea Cremer, Kate Hart, Emery Lord, Elizabeth May, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Lindsay Smith, Nova Ren Suma, Robin Talley, Shveta Thakrar, and Brenna Yovanoff.

Synopsis: A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch.
In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world.

Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

Anthologies
So I write short stories even though I used to dislike them. While reading these, that same feeling of dislike swept over me and I buckled down to try to decipher why exactly I didn't love some of these.

And I figured it out.

I'm unfamiliar with most of these authors but I do know they write long-form novels. Maybe some of them dabble in short stories, or maybe they all are prolific short story writers and I just do it wrong. But I realized while reading these that several of these stories are just snippets of a story. There's a definite beginning, but there's no resolution. It's not the snippet at the end of the story where your questions get answered. It's just a picture in the middle, and I don't like that. I don't like not getting the answer to the singular question that is the story. Now, not all of the stories were this way-- I'd say less than half were unfinished to my tastes.

Lessons Learned
What I took away from these stories, the ones I liked and the ones I didn't were two things:

Witches "don't need no man"-- because they are gay/lesbian
Witches are good
Now, neither of these things were surprising to me and mostly in the stories they come off as cute or normal but it's important you know that heading in. While I have a moral argument against the gay lifestyle, I didn't feel like these stories shoved it down my throat. My favorite of the stories was Starsong by Tehlor Kay Meijia, and it was definitely queer. It was also darling.

I LOVED how this story had so much diverse ethnicity, but it wasn't ALL Latinx or black. There were some white girls, too. And I liked that it didn't seem to matter-- it all felt natural.

All told, there were 15 stories in this anthology and this review on Goodreads goes through a bit of each of them. (Note: I don't necessarily agree with the review, just that the writer does mention each story individually.)

Trigger Warnings for Toil and Trouble:
There are some difficult things talked about in this book, not limited to: death, bullying, rape, assault, and the occult.

It was difficult for me to rate this story since it was an anthology, and there were some stories I liked and some I did not. Honestly, I'm just going to leave it at three stars.

This collection was good. I could break down my opinions on each story in this anthology, as I took notes on my thoughts throughout, but quite frankly, I don't have much to say about a decent number of them. So instead of boring you with my lack of thoughts on some stories, I'll just sum up my opinion of the collection as a whole.

Some stories in here were absolutely incredible and I would love to have been able to read more. While some on the other hand, I really never connected with and just kept reading for the sake of moving to the next story. I ended up putting this down for now and didn't get to the last few stories just yet, since about 3/4, a lot just blended together and it felt more like a chore. I'm sure I'll go back and read the last ones, as I see other reviews praising the ending of this anthology; however, I feel I'll get more out of them if I give it a break before going back.

On the plus side, this book nails it for diversity. There are so many #ownvoices writers in here, and different stories cover so many different lives. Plus yes I was super excited for the f/f witches in this anthology, and they didn't disappoint.

Stand-out stories: The Heart in Her Hands, The Truth About Queenie, The Legend of Stone Mary, The One Who Stayed, and The Daughters of Baba Yaga.

A great selection of stories that seamlessly blend into a cohesive collection of tales of magic. The magical elements never felt out of place or unbelievable. I enjoyed that not all the stories were driven by romance and those stories that were about romance were diverse in their love. A great collection about the strength of women.

Disclaimer: I was given an ARC of Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Possible spoilers ahead!

I don't think I've ever voluntarily read a collection of short stories in book form. I'm greedy; I've always wanted more than a short story format can offer. Slower pacing, more about the characters, and a deep dive into the world around them. Becoming immersed in a fictional world is my happy place.

So, why did I feel such an intense need to request an ARC of Toil & Trouble? The cover caught my eye at first, for sure. As soon as I saw Witchcraft in the title... I don't think I've ever clicked on an ARC so fast! Then I read the description, saw it included LGBTQ+ characters, and that was it. I was hooked.

Out of all fifteen short stories, there were maybe two that I could've done without, but the other thirteen made the whole collection worth the read. The final story in the collection was hands down my favourite. It was incredible, beautiful, and empowering. I'm sure I'll be rereading Toil & Trouble in the future just because of that story.

All in all, I absolutely loved Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft and I cannot recommend enough that you pick it up once it releases. I mean, LGBTQ+ witches, you guys. What more do I have to say to convince you to mark your calendars for August 28th?!

I received this book via NetGalley and am providing my honest review.

Honestly, I didn't start this book expecting to like it much. I requested it because it was a series of short stories by authors whose work I enjoy and/or want to read, but I'm not much a fan of witches. I enjoy Harry Potter (I identified strongly with Hermione growing up), I've seen Charmed, and Regina Miller is one of the best witches I've seen on screen. However, witches (particularly traditional Catholic-inspired witches) are normally not my first supernatural choice. So, this book was a pleasant surprise. It's full of lgbt romance, feminism and magic, so what's not to love?

Some that stand out were:
"Starsong" by Tehlor Kay Mejia
-LGBT romance
-An instagram famous witch connected to the stars, who paints her nails with colors which ward off the envy of others, debates magic and science with a girl in her DMs.

"Afterbirth" by Andrea Cremer
-Historical.
-The birth of a child goes wrong and a midwife is accused of witchcraft.

"The Truth About Queenie" by Brandy Colbert
-Romance
-A girl in love with her newly-famous male best friend has to learn how to get in touch with her powers again to save him from heartbreak.

"The Legend of Stone Mary" by Robin Talley
-Some LGBT romance
-Wendy wants to finally see the statue of her magical descendent and changes the fate of her town while doing so.

"The One Who Stayed" by Nova Ren Suma
-I really can't describe it.

"The Well Witch" by Kate Heart
-Romance, Historical.
-I enjoyed the premise and the plot, but didn't enjoy the execution. The romance wasn't for me. It was like Cinderella trapped in her tower, but if Cinderella had stopped waiting for the prince to come and burned down the tower to find him instead. A
-A woman lives alone in the Texas desert after her parents died, with only a mule and her powers as company. Three strange men enter her oasis with need of hospitality, which she grants under the condition they make themselves useful. She falls in love with one of them. When he leaves, the other two take over her oasis and leave her defenseless. She waits for her love to return. When he doesn't, she does after him.

"Why They Watch Us Burn"
-LGBT, Romance, Friendship/Coven
- 13 women are banished to the woods to serve their punishment for various "crimes" they've committed as women. For Night, her crime was "hexing" a man into sex and it heavily reflects how women and assault survivors are treated in our reality. The women form bonds with each other and work not only for survival, but for each other.

What's not to love about an anthology of YA feminist witch short stories? TOIL & TROUBLE: 15 TALES OF WOMEN & WITCHCRAFT has a tale (or two, or three, or fifteen) for every reader. From historical witches to modern witch covens to young witches just coming into power, there were a lot of great reads here. I definitely had a couple of favorites, but I wouldn't want to unduly influence any readers by naming names (though if you know anything about me, you might be able to guess which ones--sister stories anyone?). I was glad take my time to savor each story.

To say this book is up my alley would be an understatement. Part of my Twitter handle includes "Sarcastic Witch." So, needless to say, when I saw this book, I clicked the "request" VERY quickly. Feminist stories, women, and witchcraft? Where do I sign? I could not be more in the target audience.

And I loved it!! This book felt like it was made for me. I haven't read an anthology of stories probably since college (it's been almost a year since I graduated). I have nothing against them. Who doesn't like a bunch of stories for the price of one? I just tend to gravitate toward novels. But I am so glad I found this one. The cover is gorgeous and fun and could not be more perfect to draw in someone like me. But that's enough of my rhapsodizing, let's get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

Since this is an anthology, I thought I'd give a short synopsis of each story as the Goodreads description does not really do it justice. Each story is different from the others, so you'll never feel like you're reading the same story over and over again. Here are the basic plots of each story:

Starsong by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Instagram star, Luna Mendoza, is witch-y and does magic. She's has had a tough time with partying but is now recovering. She has a mom who worries about her a lot but mainly worries Luna is going to turn into her aunt. Luna doesn't like to leave her house after what happened with her drinking. But then she starts interacting with another girl on Instagram, They end up liking each other, and make a plan to meet. (This story is cute as hell.)

Afterbirth by Andrea Cremer
A midwife and her apprentice during the 1600s attend the birth of a "creature," with the mother sadly dying soon after. The midwife is jailed when she can't "properly" explain the "creature," and eventually is put to death. But she passes on all her secrets to her apprentice.

The Heart in Her Hands by Tess Sharpe
A soulmate story. Bettina is part of a coven but she has fought against the rules most of her life (to the disappointment of her mother). She ends up meeting her soulmate unexpectedly but she doesn't want him. She'is in love with her best friend, Augusta (Auggie) and they fight to be together. (Such a refreshing take on the soulmate trope.)

Death in the Sawtooths by Lindsay Smith
Mattie is an outcast to most of her witch community. Her patron is Lady Xosia, Lady of Slumber and because of that, she works at Fred's Funeral Home to prepare the bodies of the dead and people don't necessarily understand that. She makes sure the souls go to where they're supposed to so no one can use or twist them into something else. During the story, we see the popular girl from school and one that pulled multiple pranks on Mattie, Savannah, Mistress of Glamours, comes to the funeral home to ask for her help. Kids are dying at the school and they don't know why.  Another student (a boy...surprise, surprise) is using the souls for wicked purposes. Mattie and Savannah work together to defeat him.

The Truth About Queenie by Brandy Colbert
Queenie has a crush on her best friend, Webb. But when she finds out he has a girlfriend now (Blythe), she feels heartbroken. But she is also scared of herself. Queenie performed a spell when she was younger and the girl she did it against died. So when Webb's girlfriend falls ill, she thinks it's her fault. She must find a way to cure her with her magic.

The Moonapple Menagerie by Shverta Thakrar
A group of shape-shifting friends (they can turn into animals and humans) are in a coven together. They are working to put on a play, but, once her friends leave her for the day, Shalini cannot figure out a way to write the ending of the play, so she decided to cast a spell to summon the churel. The churel is a creature that grants wishes for a price. But what the churel wants might just pull the friends apart.

The Legend of Stone Mary by Robin Talley
There is a legend of Mary throughout the town. She never bothered anyone but they still turned against her and let her freeze out in the cold. A statue of her is now in the park to memorialize her. But Wendy (one of Mary's descendants) has never seen the statue. Her mother told her to stay away from it, but one night, after she's done working with a couple of her co-workers on Halloween, they decide to go see Mary (and Wendy has a crush on Karen and she is going too) but when Wendy gets close to the statue of Mary, she starts to feel pulled to her. She almost becomes possessed. You'll have to see what happens when Wendy makes it to the statue of her ancestor. 

The One Who Stayed by Nova Ren Suma  (Trigger warning for sexual assault/rape)
This story is about a coven in the woods. It is made up of all the girls who have been hurt by boys and men on the bend of Old Fork Road. But they might have another girl joining their group very soon...

Divine are the Stars by Zoraida Cordova
Marimar and Chuy's family returns to their family home to find their grandmother, Rosa Divina. At first, they have a hard time getting inside the house because it is covered in leaves and vines but when they do. they see that Rosa Divina has turned into a tree and she is the reason the house is encased in branches. Rosa Divina is about to die. As she passes away, she gives everything to Marimar but leaves a flower on each person who cared for her.

Daughters of Baba Yaga by Brenna Yovanoff
This story is about Stony, her life growing up, and her culture. She meets a girl named Harmony and through her, Stony figures out ways to get back at the bullies in her school. (There is a pig involved.)

The Well Witch by Kate Hart
Elsa lives in the middle of nowhere in the desert. But one day, three men come upon her house. At first, they're fine. They just need to rest. But then their horses die and they end up working for Elsa until they can find a way home. Eventually, Elsa falls for one of the men, Zeb, but he has to leave to find provisions for everyone and the other two men are not as nice. They quickly take over Elsa's house and lock her in her room. But she figures a way out and makes them regret ever messing with her. (So good!)

Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths by Jessica Spotswood
Jo lives with her sisters, Georgiana and Eleanor. They are known as the Campbell Witches. Jo gets a vision where she is coming down the stairs of the Winchester house as an old woman to meet her grandchildren, meaning she ends up marrying a Winchester. But the only Winchester available is Nathaniel and he is Georgiana's boyfriend.

There is a prophecy that only one Campbell sister survives to old age and Jo thinks if she makes this vision come true, her sisters will hate her so much that they will leave and they will all survive until they are old. While that may be true, she doesn't consider what life would be like alone and with her sisters hating her.

Love Spell by Anne-Marie McLemore
A young woman lives with her aunt and they help people forget their heartbreak with their potions and tonics. She falls for a boy who gives the communion at the church she goes to sometimes. But once he sees her house and her family, he doesn't seem to want to stick around. He loves her but knows his family wouldn't accept him being with her. One day, when she is alone at the house, he shows up asking for a favor. He is so heartbroken from not being able to be with her that he wants her to do the love spell on him. But something completely unexpected happens when she starts to do the spell. (Really cool story!)

The Gherin Girls by Emery Lord
Three sisters, Nova, Rosie, and Willa, meet together in their childhood home for the weekend. Each sister has her specialty. Nova is the cooking witch. Rosie is the plant witch. Willa is the feeling witch. Rosie and Willa go to the store to get some food for dinner and see Rosie's abusive ex-boyfriend there. Once they get back home, Nova and Willa worry about Rosie because when she finally left him, she was a bit of a mess. We see all the sister's points of view at some point during the story (which I love!). Once Nova makes dinner, we see them take care of each other and bond. We also get to see how Nova and Willa deal with their respective relationships. (My favorite of all the stories!)

Why They Watch Us Burn by Elizabeth May
A woman (Faye) accuses a man of touching/assaulting her. In the society in the story, women who accuse a man are sent away to the woods. They make them cut down the trees that they will use to burn them with. While she is all alone when she first gets there, Faye ultimately meets other girls who are there for the same reason as her and they use their will and their magic (they figured they might as well be what they are being accused of) to grow flowers around their little hut, despite it being winter. They also give each other names because they are not allowed to use their own names. Faye ends up falling in love with a girl named Blue (Faye is known as Obsidian.) When Faye ends up in the solitary hut, the girls sneak out and bring her food and talk to her to keep her sane. The girls will not let their captors win, no matter what the cost.

I thoroughly enjoyed every story in this anthology. Each one pulled me into its world and fully immersed me in the characters and what they were going through. I can't wait for more people to read these stories. I know so many of my friends will enjoy this book. I am giving Toil & Trouble 4 out of 5 stars. If this book sounds like something you'd like, please pick it up when it comes out.

Toil & Trouble comes out August 28, 2018.

Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

This is a great compilation of short stories - some so good I wish that they were full length. That said, there were some stories that I skipped entirely and that didn't flow with the order of the title. I did enjoy the different perspectives and the inclusion of LGTBQ voices.

Every short story in this collection is so fantastic that you won't want to put it down for a second. Stories about witches, magic, and women of all kinds, each author writes a highly original tale. Recommended for grades 8 and up.