This was the queer witchcraft story we deserve. The characters are complex and fun, and the stakes of the magic and family felt real. The mystery was perhaps underplayed, but teens will like it.

I have very mixed feelings about These Witches Don't Burn.

I wish there had been more background on the magic system. A lot of the rules that Hannah mentioned seem to be counter productive and it would have been nice to get more information about it. 

The parents seemed super shady and were kind of horrible in regards to to some of the issues but were otherwise great and it didn't seem to jive. I wish they would have been a bit more consistently written.

This book better have had trigger warnings for the abusive relationship that was portrayed between Hannah and Veronica.

It was decently written and I wanted to know how it ended but there were too many things that didn't have enough detail or the background information was given too late and there were so, so many characters that just kept doing things that didn't make sense. I could see that with the teens but all the adults were making even more bad decisions left and right that I couldn't believe it.

This ended up being okay because of the high intensity of the ending but I will not be picking up any other books in this series.

Loved this modern take on the Salem witch trials! Fascinating development of the different types of witches, excellent tension throughout the story, and loved reading the f/f romance. A promising start to the new series.

First up in this final installment of this year’s Halloween Reading Roundup is These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling. This YA novel mixes contemporary urban fantasy with a queer romance subplot that has a spin we’re not yet completely used to seeing in LGBTQ fiction. A trigger warning for fire applies to several sections of the book.

Hannah is a 17-year-old soon-to-be high school senior who lives in Salem, Massachusetts. She works in a witchcraft store that caters to the town’s many tourists, but she also happens to be a real Elemental witch who is learning to control the elements. Her ex-girlfriend, Veronica, is also an Elemental, and the two are part of the same intimate coven which is making their antagonistic break up even harder than it already would have been.

Also complicating her summer is the mounting evidence that someone is practicing dark magic in town. Hannah is convinced it’s the work of a dangerous Blood Witch but none of the adults in her coven seem to be taking her seriously and she can’t even talk it out with her non-magical best friend without having her magic stripped away for good. What she can talk about with her BFF, however, is the cute new girl she just met; but is Morgan really flirting with her, or was she just being influenced by the magical necklace Hannah was wearing?

As the darkness in town builds, both Hannah and Veronica find themselves at the epicenter of increasingly brutal attacks and under the watchful gaze of their coven leader and a new local detective. Is there really a Blood Witch in town, and who is behind the escalating violence?

I absolutely loved this book and devoured it in one day. Although the central mystery of who was behind the attacks was, in my opinion at least, very obvious from about a third of the way through the book, this actually added to the tension because I found myself yelling at Hannah to see what was right in front of her before it was too late! Although none of the characters here are the most original I’ve ever come across, they still gripped my attention from page one and kept me turning the page wanting to know what happened next.

I especially enjoyed the different take on LGBTQ romance found here. So many queer stories are focused on coming out narratives or the protagonist falling in love but rarely do we see the other end of these romances. These Witches Don’t Burn shows us the heartbreak, confusion, and conflicting emotions that come with a breakup but through a queer lens. There is also a small homophobia plot in the background here that made the story (unfortunately) feel more realistic, and I liked how this paid off by the end. There is a lot made here of the parallels between witches and the LGBTQ community in the persecution they have historically faced and the lengths many must still go to in order to stay safe, and this is handled in a sensitive and thought-provoking way.

These Witches Don’t Burn is the first in a series and the next book, This Coven Won’t Break was next on my list…

I liked the character dynamics, and I think teens particularly will appreciate the nuanced approach to gender and sexuality--there's explicitly bi witches, there's married lesbian witches, there's a trans witch, etc, and I loved that!

However the witch stuff fell a bit flat for me--the worldbuilding definitely felt like an afterthought to the character development, which can be OK but like........for my money you can almost never have too much witch stuff! And that lack made the witch stuff part of the mystery...underwhelming. Also--and perhaps this is just because of where I live--I felt like the book didn't use its Salem, MA setting to its fullest advantage. For the most part this could have taken place in any suburb.

Still, the characters and the romance were great, and readers who are less passionate about witch stuff than I am will enjoy it.

A great book for fans of all things witchy! The mystery keeps you guessing and the ending will leave you waiting for the sequel.

I enjoyed this title but at times I went back and forth due to the unrealistic moments. Overall, a fun read.

While I really enjoyed the premise-- a coven of real witches who lives in Salem-- I just could not get swept up in the story. I also really was excited for the LGBTQ characters, but they came off as pretty flat and over dramatic. I just couldn't care about the relationships, the threat of a new clan of witches coming to town, nor anyone we had been introduced to in the first 20% of the book.

It was a Do Not Finish for me.

An easy to read book that kept my interest throughout, I would recommend this book to anyone. Thanks for the opportunity.

A fun coming of age book with a gay female main character. It takes place in Salem Massachusetts which adds to the mystique. This is a great book that weaves a mystery in to issues that young adults are dealing with today.

LOVED this book—so, so atmospheric and already want to read it again. The relationships are super realistic and the writing is really unique!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review. 

Wow, this book was amazing! I loved that there were queer characters by an own voices author and the use of magic and witchcraft in this book was great -- it almost left the book feeling more contemporary than fantasy at times. I can't wait to see what the next book is like, I kind of need it now to be honest.

This was a really fun read! Having grown up in Massachusetts, not too far from Salem, it was fun how the story incorporated elements of the area's history and folklore into its own universe. The part-contemporary, part-fantasy world in which some people are aware of magic and others are not can be tough to pull off, and Sterling does it very well. I loved how the book touched on a lot of themes having to do with the pull teens can feel among family/community, friends, and crushes/newfound love. Really looking forward to the sequel!

This was just okay.  I felt like the characters weren't well fleshed out. 

I received and ARC from NetGalley for review

“I step closer to the flames, until I feel the lick of heat against my face. The energy cascades over me, through me,driving out the lingering hurt from seeing Veronica. Numbing bad memories like a magical Novocain.”
Thanks to the author for sending me a review copy of this book through netgalley. 

This is the second book I read in LGBT genre and now that I have read it, I can definitely say that it did not disappoint me at all. So the book started with the usual dramatic scene between Hannah and her Ex Veronica. Let me tell you another tiny detail, I haven’t read this kind of dramatic scenes in quite a while, so clearly I loved it in this book. 

But here’s the thing, Hannah and Veronica, both are Elemental witches and belong to the same coven. No matter how hard Hannah tries to avoid her ex in the beginning, she just can’t. One by one the mysterious things keep unfolding in Massachusetts, Salem.

This book contained such a mysterious vibe along with romance and drama. I literally got engrossed in this story although it was kind of slow paced. I loved the fact that there was a detailed history about different types of witches who exist. An interesting thing was, even these witches had stereotypical beliefs among them.

One thing that irked me was that a few of the male characters were shown as kind of problematic. While I am all for the female empowering characters, there should be a kind of balance.
Over all it’s a very fun, romantic and intense read with all the witchiness …haha. I’d say, it’s a good summer read and would recommend it to all the readers out there.

Hannah is 17, a recently-out lesbian, and an elemental witch. There aren't a lot of actual witches in Salem these days, but she and her family are - of course - in the same coven as her ex-girlfriend, Veronica. As if that wasn't bad enough, now there are weird things going on that sound a lot like they're connected to the blood witch that attacked her on a school trip to New York, and she and Veronica both are targets. (Plus, this super cute new girl who might actually like her? I mean... can you say DRAMA?)

My notes: So good! I really loved Hannah and her family and friends, all of whom seemed very well thought out (even the background characters didn't seem flat). I hope there's a sequel so I can find out more!
*Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this title, in exchange for an honest review.*

If I had two use a word three words to tell you about this book it would be quirky, spells and dramatic! I found that some parts were so drama-filled yet it was fun! That was a lot going on in this book however it all fits together and flows in a well-done plot. 

We follow Hannah who is an elemental witch with the power to control fire, earth, water, and air. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts! (How cool it that!) But her magic is a secret. However, even those magical powers can't help her avoided her ex-girlfriend and fellow Elemental Witch, Veronica, enough. Veronica is a bit intense and can be seen as an abusive ex-girlfriend. When evidence of dark magic starts popping up around Salem she believes it's the work of a Blood Witch. Now she has to team up with the last person she wants to Veronica. When Hannah meets Morgan a new girl in town, she's now trying to balance dating and fighting off an evil that is growing. 

This book does have some light rep, not all of the reps slightly come out and say but there is a lot of hints in the magical world. 

Even though the idea of secret hidden witches isn't a new idea, these characters are what make this story. This is a story of young love, their magical powers and the good vs bad. This witchy love tale of spells, powers and saving a modern Salem!



Content warnings and triggers for blood, animal death, toxic abusive, car crash, homophobia, murder, funeral.

Enjoyable read and a definite title that will be purchased for the library. Perfect for the season of October ( fall )
We will have this book on a display for our Halloween books and video to read and view.
Thank you for the chance to read this book before release

I really liked this book. I felt that it laid out clear definitions to the magic used and how it works. The cast is diverse and enjoyable. Overall I probably would have given it 5 stars but did not know this was a start of a series and was disappointed about that.

I was first attracted to the story by the tittle. Then I saw what the story was about and I just HAD to read it. It did not disappointed at all. This book had everything from mystery and suspense, all the way to amazing characters. I always tend to like a lot side characters, and the side characters of this book were amazing to read about. Hannah, the main character, is also really interesting. I was also intrigued by the magic and witch aspect of the story. I loved the way the author developed the magic and made it fit so well with the setting. Element magic has always been very interesting to me to read about, so I was excited for that, and was not let down.