The Girl of Hawthorne and Glass
2 stars
DNF 68%
This was not the fantasy book I was hoping to read. I pushed myself to like this book and keep reading and to be honest I should have quit it long ago. There just wasn’t anything to love. It was just very flat. I wanted to push through because I liked the idea but then I just couldn’t. It seemed like the plot was just all over the place to me and I got tired of trying.

DNF at 37%
I couldn't connect with the characters or the story so I decided to not continue further with the book.

Did not read, and thus cannot provided an accurate or fair review for this work. It seemed interesting but I did not find the time to read it thoroughly.

I had to give up on this one. It didn’t hold my attention. I tried and tried but I just couldn’t get into it but don’t let this discourage you.

I was wooed by the beautiful cover and wonderful blurb. Unfortunately, the author bit off more than they could chew. They had a very unique concept, but it had a lot of aspects, world building/magic requirements that they just couldn't keep up with.
It felt lile the author only really had a clear direction with the first part of the book, then winged it for the second. It became confusing and contradictory and just all and all unclear.
There's weird and unusual, and there's unplanned. This felt unplanned.

While I was dubious to start with, this one went out with a bang.

MC was a little droll but this was well and truly made up for by the secondary characters that helped her along the way.

I found myself really loving the maternal figure in this one despite her relative lack of involvement.

Really loved the children who were left behind and the concept behind their special place.

It lost momentum in parts but most definitely is worth finishing. I am super intrigued as to where it is going to go once there is a new instalment

I requested this book because of its gorgeous cover, but the story was lacking something. I loved the LGBTQ rep, but the world-building lacked something and I was very confused.

First of all, the cover is gorgeous! The story itself though, was just okay. I felt like something was missing.

I just don't know.. I really wanted to love this. The premise of the book and the cover was just amazing. But I had so much problem to connect to both the story and the characters and it made the whole reading experience kind of flat. I think it was hard to read because I felt so confused all the time.

I was so excited about this book as it sounded fantastic, but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

There were some fantastic ideas here, and the premise was fantastic, with a witch-made ghost assassin and a creepy world that I was really interested to learn more about. But instead of world building there was just... chaos. I was left feeling confused by the world, the events unfolding, the plot and a lot of the characters.

There was a lot of flowery writing and endless descriptions which was beautiful at first but in the end added to the confusion. There was switching between past and present but it felt really undefined, and left me never quite sure if I was reading a memory, a thought, the present or something else entirely.

I feel like I have absolutely no idea what happened in the second half of the book and I have just finished it. I couldn't connect to Eli because despite her being interesting in theory, her character arc was just confusing and I couldn't tell you much about her at all. There was a lot of snappy dialogue, brooding and trying to be edgy, which honestly sums up all 3 of the main characters too.
Tav and Cam were great characters, but there wasn't enough distinction between the personalities to make them truly remarkable.

I did love that there was LGBTQIA+ rep in all 3 of the main characters, with there being queer relationships, characters and Tav being non binary. Tav's pronouns and gender just being accepted by the other characters was wonderful. They were what kept me reading when I almost DNF'd this book several times, as I wanted to know more about them. Ultimately, despite my interest in Tav's story, I won't be picking up the second book until I know the worldbuilding and writing have improved compared to this book. I was fascinated by the ideas, but not the execution. I would like to try reading something in future by this author, as clearly they have an incredible imagination and this was definitely unique and initially captivating, but this book wasn't for me.

Also as a note *SLIGHT SPOILER*
I wasn't a fan of the fact that Tav's deadname was used as a plot point. As a non binary person that made me really uncomfortable, and I felt it was unnecessary.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but unfortunately there was just something missing. It’s a very weird and unique book, which I appreciated, and I liked the characters, but for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. The world building reminded me a lot of Holly Black and Melissa Albert, so I think that anyone who is more of a fan of urban fantasy would enjoy this a lot more.

I don't even know where to start here.

Lets go the good parts first.

1. The cover - It is incredibly beautiful and I love it. One of the reasons I wanted to read it.
2. The blurb - When coming to decide what books I want to read I always go for the blurb first. I liked the blurb for this book, it drew me in and made me excited to read it. Thought it was going to be such a good book.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

The blurb for this book was amazing, the book however did not meet my expectations for this book once. Who doesn't want to read about an assassin who was created by witches and kills ghosts. Hello I do!

What I can tell you however that is not what I read. To be completely honest I am not even sure what I read. I am utterly confused by this story and what was going on.

I clawed my way through this book and I wish I hadn't.

Thank you so much to Dundurn Press for providing an advance reading copy of Adan Jerreat-Poole’s The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is about an assassin. Eli is made to be deadly, and killing fuels her. Not until she is tasked to kill a human that she starts questioning everything around her. She discovers there is more. She discovers no one is to be trusted. She discovers she wants to know all the lies and truth.

This book was complicated-good. It gave a new twist to witches, ghosts and assassins. It’s like a mash of Alice in the Wonderland and Wizard of Oz with a sprinkle of a witches-faerie sandwich. The worldbuilding was good but I admit there were times I was a bit lost. The twist it had on witches is fresh but with the tropes we have with witches and covens, it does get you confused. For me, I had a difficulty leaving those tropes which may have contributed to my confusion.

In the book, Eli is hyped as this polished, really good assassin only to see her using Google (I think, where can you search for names in an iPhone?) to search for the person she is going to kill. There is no problem with that but seeing as that failed, and with all the magic they are supposed to have, is there nothing else they could use? One might argue that they were just given a name and nothing else but surely, there are other ways? Also kind of dumb for a high governing body to just send a name of a person they want to be killed immediately.
[spoiler] I’m also confused. The person Eli found said that the person was her mother yet it’s actually Tav? Are you saying Tav has a grown daughter? I got the impression they and Eli are the same age.

The novel started at a fast pace but it kind of lagged by the middle. Their whole journey reminded me of the journey in Wizard of Oz and the Alice of Wonderland mashed together. The beautiful imagery and description of the world made up for it though. I also would like to point out the three-word names of the main characters. I’m not sure if that was intended or completely an accident. I also appreciate the diversity in this book and how the author beautifully entwined the harsh reality people of color and LGBTQ+ face.

What I love the most though is how the three characters, Eli, Tav and Cam, didn’t return to The Sun and instead stuck with each other because they trusted each other more than the others, after what they’ve learned. I’m glad Tav and Cam did not make the dumb decision of returning seeing as they were such devoted to the Hedge-Witch.

I’d recommend it to everyone, especially those who love urban fantasy, witches and assassins. There will likely be a second book, unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be reading that but who knows?

I loved the premise of this book and that's what had me excited to read it. Unfortunately I didn't love it like I wanted to. This was just kind of meh to me, it felt very rushed and the characters weren't as fleshed out as I'd like. overall it just felt forgettable and sadly I don't have much more of an opinion than that. some of the writing was really beautiful though and I'm interested in checking out more of the authors work.

Have you ever read a book that took you forever to finish, but you’re not sure why because the book was actually a really good read? No?! Just me?! Cool. The Girl of Hawthorne and Glass was an interesting fantasy book full of witches, ghosts and tons of magic.

I loved a lot of different things about the story and the writing. The way that Eli interacted with the children witches was great! The description of the human world and the magic world through the eyes of someone who didn’t really belong to either side was thoughtful and fascinating. It really added a lot of depth to the story and helped to establish the world that the author created in a way that was extremely relatable to the reader. I also really enjoyed the fact that the author included non-binary and non-cis characters and that there was no real fanfaire about pronouns and “wait you’re non-binary?!” the characters just were and were allowed to just be! It was great to see this kind of representation in a fantasy story!

All in all, The Girl of Hawthorne and Glass was a pretty good story and was solidly entertaining! If you’re a fantasy fan, you should check it out!

Going in to this book I wasn't sure exactly how things were going to go. The writing is beautiful, poetic, and imaginative, but its only in the world building do I feel like that pertains to. The character building is very lacking and would bring this book over the top if there was just a bit more,

The main character, Eli, is an witch-made assassin that was created to go to the human world to kill ghosts that threaten both worlds. But during one of the assignments she kills a human. She then was sent to kill a ghost that has been gone for a very long time. Things aren't right and she needs to figure out what is going on before she thrown into so more trouble.

One of the highlights of this book was the non-binary character Tav who, I feel, was the best written character and the highlight of the book,

All in all the book wasn't bad but was a very stereotypical YA novel. I may be interested in the sequel depending on teasers.

A great casual read. Would recommend to anyone interested, it also has an amazingly designed cover, how can you resist?

How thrilling this book sounded when I first came across it on Netgalley. An assassin created by witches to hunt down ghosts in the human world. Sign me up! It almost sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately that's exactly what it was. Too good to be true. I wish I could have loved this.

I love the premise. I still stand behind that. The general idea of the book is very compelling and the beginning actually worked it very well. I liked the fast pacing and Eli's internal struggles. The way she was convinced there was no other path for her, that she had no meaning if she wasn't the assassin she was created to be, but still slowly learned that perhaps there was. That things could be different.

For some reason the book took a bad turn in the second half. It started to get confusing? The rules of the world started blending and I was raising my brows at certain parts because it seemed like too much of stretch.

My biggest issue is probably that I couldn't make a real connection to it. The characters were likable and yet I felt very detached. And I can't for all the world love a book when I can't connect. That's just how it is.

Overall this book was kind of confusing and had potential but it just was not for me, I kept waiting to get invested and it never happened. The dialogue was annoying at times and it always felt like a lot was going on without anything ever actually happening.

This book was a bit of a flop for me. But I realize that I am not necessarily the target audience. If I was, I most likely would love it