This sounded right up my street, I love a bit of YA fantasy. Unfortunately it didn’t keep me wanting more, it was a book I could easily put down & not as easily pick back up again. It seemed to start in the middle & it took a while to really work out what & who everyone was.

** I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

I wanted to like this book. The synopsis sounded like something I would love, the cover is beautiful, the characters seemed interesting... but I couldn't get into it. I put it down a couple times and would pick it up again to try, but I have to mark it as DNF at just over half way through. I just wasn't able to feel any compulsion to keep reading. I would have loved some more world building. This was a fantastic idea for a story, I think it just needs some work to make it an engaging and enjoyable read.

Thank you Dundurn and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

When I saw this book on NetGalley it got my attention because of the cover which I like very much. The description hold my attention so I was glad I got the opportunity to read this book and write a review. Eli is an assassinate who follows the rules, but when an assignment goes wrong, she starts question the things she learned.

When I started reading this story I had the feeling I started in the middle of the story and had no idea who all the characters were. The more I got into the story, the more I got to know the characters and started to like them and the interaction between them.
The worldbuilding I didn’t like, I just couldn’t get a clear picture of the world and the setting, which made it very hard for me to get into this story.

This book ticked a lot of books for me on paper, YA, Witches, dystopian. So I was hoping that I was on to a winner.

The central character, Eli, is the girl of hawthorn and glass, having been built by witches to be an assassin. The book starts well and really captured my imagination, as Eli seemed to be a Buffy like figure, hunting and killing ghosts on the orders of Coven. Why she has to kill the ghosts is unclear, and Eli is very aware that as a creature of magical creation, she can very easily be undone by the same magic.

Eli is then sent on a mission which goes wrong and from here, the book also started to lose pace for me. There is a vagueness throughout the whole book, the purpose of the characters quest wasn't quite clear to me and it felt difficult to cheer them on. Some of the points I felt were missing were wrapped up by the end of the book, but the world building wasn't compelling enough for me.

With the first few chapters of the book I felt as though I had stepped into a movie midway through. Who are the Coven? Why do they need an assassin? What are they hiding? I yearned to know the story of Eli’s making and to save her from the COven’s manipulations. The author did not disappoint, The changing timelines allowed Eli’s story to unfold as she struggled with her own inner demons and turmoil. The authors use of genderless names and fluid sexuality gives the reader the freedom to imagine the details for themselves. I found the character of Eli and her personal narrative to be the heart of the story. Her inner dialogue and drive to understand her place in the world mirrors the anxiety felt by many. The characters of Tav and Cam are perfect in their role of friend, the author giving them enough detail and depth of storyline to Make the reader care about their fate. The ending suggests an opportunity to learn how Eli, Tav and Cam will fare on Earth in the future (I hope this is true!). I would recommend to those readers that enjoy Deborah Harkness or Kelley Armstrong.

I enjoyed this new world and am eagerly awaiting the second book to find out what happens next! The book has several LGBTQ characters who know who they are and are accepted for that. Some discrimination and violence associated with that is mentioned but it happened before the events of the book. I like that they attribute the nastiness in the world to magic gone wrong. Much better than the current reasons everything seems messed up.

Eli isn’t an ordinary girl. She was made by the witches, a deadly assassin using her seven living blades to help them and the coven by completing her missions. But when one mission goes wrong, she begins to question everything. And she ends up on a journey she would never be permitted to take.

Honestly, I loved this book, so so much. It’s unique, it’s creative, and I love the underlying messages of feeling like you don’t belong, or going against all you know, when all you know isn’t really what you think. It’s an new world, a new fantasy, I’ve never read a single book like this before and trust me when I say I will not forget about it soon. It’s enticing and magical and all I could ask for from a book. The description and actions are perfectly balanced so the imagery I see is amazing.

It’s a superb, inclusive, book and I love it!

Yeah, this didn´t work out for me. I ignored the used to oblivion name of the girl of something and something and went for it because of the beautiful cover and the nice blurb. Unfortunately, the characters felt flat and the plot seemed something haphazard put together from a thousand other fantasy books. It feels like the author still didn´t find their own voice, It would be an A+ as a school project but it not feels like a professional, interesting work on its own. I did not finish.

This was a pretty good book. I am honestly very conflicted with my feelings for this book. The story was pretty scattered, hard to follow, not fully developed, and contained one-dimensional characters. However, it had beautiful prose, a fascinating concept, a beautiful world, good diversity, and lyrical writing that I fell in love with. I think people getting into YA would really enjoy this book especially if they find themselves liking the vengeful assassin trope. I think the book had phenomenal potential, it just fell flat on the execution. I wanted so bad for this book to land on my top reads of the year, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Thank you, NetGalley for a free copy of the ARC for my honest opinion in exchange.

--3 stars --

(Received this from Netgalley)

Synopsis
Eli is not human but she's also not a witch. She's a made thing that the witches put together. Her purpose is to hunt down ghosts in the human world with the seven blades she was trained to use. One day everything changes when her mission goes awry and she fears, being unmade. She is later met with this group of humans who want to get the heart of the coven (Eli's world) and have her help them to do it. Eli is already questioning the Coven so she goes along with it. This could possibly be her biggest mistake.

Thoughts
At the beginning of this book, it was a bit scattered. The plot was a little bit confusing but it eventually came together. I loved the LGBTQ representation in this book but I wish there was a little bit more talk about it. It was not the purpose of this book but it would have been cool to hear more of. I loved how this book made me feel like I was on a journey with them and how it left me guessing. I was shocked by how it ended and I can't wait to read book two.

For fans of Sarah J Maas who don't like to buy YA here is a book for you! Assassins, witches, fae. This novel has everything---including a breathtaking cover!

This was not a story for me. After saying that, Eli is someone I can understand. Her anger is justified and understood. I just could not enjoy the story as much as I would’ve liked. It was had to follow and understand at times. Things didn’t compute in my brain. It’s a good concept and storyline.

I've been really torn on my thoughts of this book. On one hand, The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass was beautifully written with diverse characters and unique world-building. On the other, this book was confusing, emotionally distant, and the world-building and characters seemed to be mostly surface level. I wanted to connect to these characters and this world so much, and while the story is compelling, it felt like we never quite got there.

The prose was lyrical and the world was haunting, I just desperately wished for a little more substance. The City of Eyes and the witch council? These things are so incredibly intriguing, yet never felt fully fleshed out. The characters themselves all seemed to be quite interesting, and I was hoping the whole way through that the barrier I felt between us would crumble, but again, I never quite got there with these characters.

Overall I think the concept of this story was brilliant, beautiful, and incredibly compelling, but the execution left me wanting more. Still, I was impressed by this story and am curious to see where this could lead!

There are very few books that I've started reading and never finished, unfortunately this was one of them. I tried very hard for several weeks to get into this book but I just couldn't.

LGBTQ+ Rep
If you’re looking for a great mix of rep this is the book for you! Ellie is queer, it isn’t openly explained what her sexual orientation is, but from the story you can gather that she is part of the community. Then you have the side characters, Cam who’s gay, and Tav who’s nonbinary and one of the love interests. The romance isn’t in your face, it’s implied, subtle, we do get a few scenes that are cute and heart felt. If you don’t like romance in adventure books, this is perfect for you! But if you need that romance to get you hooked, there’s enough for the reader to get interested without feeling overwhelmed.

Magic System
Ellie is a “made thing” basically she was created by witches to do things for them, mainly hunt down ghosts in the human world. She’s not entirely human though, she’s made of certain objects, but she doesn’t know the full list of objects that were used to create her. She does find out of a few along the way. This was pretty interesting to read about, all her weapons are made from her, she looses one and it’s like loosing a limb.

Something I also loved is that the author doesn't simply say what the blades are made of. They explain it through feelings, scenes, things that you can connect with more than just emotions. For example Ellie explains that one blade felt like warm coffee, another feels like ocean breeze, it paints a better picture that seems much more whole than just emotions.

Something I wish would’ve been explained a bit more was how the witch council works, how the palace functioned. The book centers around the characters looking for an object they need to conclude their mission, but I kept having this urge to learn more about the council, and the witches overall. Knowing this is just book 1 of the series I can see it being explained more in the upcoming book(s).

Plot
The overall plot is interesting, the quest to find the secret key is intense. The characters go through many conditions in the witch world, dessert, attacks, it makes for a gripping story. The characters were able to develop at a calming pace though, in a way nothing felt rushed. It seemed as though the bonds they had were natural and made sense.

Something I liked was that the plot was never really fully put on hold to have a monologue where Ellie explained what was happening, there wasn’t any need for it. The author did a fantastic job at making things feel high stake, they managed to get me hooked and not let go of the book for a good portion.

However, during the last third of the book, I found myself loosing interest, things became a bit more sprawled out. The exciting moments became a bit more dispersed, which made it hard to pick it up and continue reading. But in the end, it did pick up pace, and we got a bit more background on a few previous relationships.

Final Rating: 3.5/5

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 2.5

Eli is a made thing. A witch's tool. An assassin. She is sent into the human world by the coven that resides in the City of Eyes to hunt ghosts, so when the mark she was sent after turns out to be a human, she realises there's something not quite right. She ends up embroiled in a plot with the help of two humans who need to reach the coven, with the promise of answers as her driving force. In a bid for the truth, Eli takes on the task of escorting two humans into the City of Eyes in order to steal the heart of the coven, but what she discovers along the way will force her to question everything that she's ever known, about herself, the coven and the human world.

I was SO excited to read this book. That cover. That title. THAT SYNOPSIS! It just screamed a magical adventure that I wanted to fall into and be wrapped up in a little bubble while I devoured it. Unfortunately, this isn't exactly what I got, and I'll admit, I was a little disappointed.

I would pin this story as a young adult, coming of age fantasy. Eli is an assassin, she's not a real being as she is made up of various things such as hawthorne and glass and granite and given life by the witch who is also known as her mother. Her job is to be the perfect killing machine in order to catch wayward ghosts that are lingering on Earth and disrupting things. The place where the coven and witches live is called the City of Eyes, because they literally see everything that is going on. There wasn't a lot of description about the human world because, lets face it, it's the human world and I feel like we're all pretty well versed on what goes on here. On the flip side, I feel like there was too much obscure description about the City of Eyes. I'm gonna put it out there now, this story is filled with so much flowery metaphorical prose that at times I found I became lost and confused because I actually had no idea what was being spoken about anymore. This happened throughout the entire book. And when I felt like I was just getting the hang of it? Nope, it slipped out of my grasp. The City of Eyes sounded so intriguing because it was described as being so fantastical and fantasy and just all around crazy weird, but we don't really get any explanation as to how the world works or what is going on in said world, so this really detracted from the story for me because I JUST WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT THIS MAGICAL INSANE WORLD!

The author's voice, I could understand what they were going for, and I honestly appreciate what they were attempting to do, but it just fell so flat for me. Think Laini Taylor, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, or the Strange the Dreamer duology, this is what I believe the author was going for. Whimsical prose that danced across the page, while painting a stunning picture of colour, sound and emotion that just made you fly through the story on a fluffy cloud of imagination. Instead, it ended up being a convoluted, confusing splash of every single colour of paint on a thousand different canvases that made the story incredibly difficult to follow and become engaged with. I feel so sad because I can SEE what Jerreat-Poole was trying to do with this story, but for some reason, which I can't quite work out, it just did not translate to me - the reader - at all. I'm not sure if it was an editing problem?

The characters, Eli is an okay protagonist, but I felt like she was really easily accepting of things even though she's meant to be a made thing that works for the coven and only the coven. She was so accepting of Cam taking her to meet some strange witch that resided in the human world, and I felt like she was sort of funneled into joining their rebellion or whatever you want to call it. It was almost like "Yes, I am a killing machine, I work for the coven I assassinate ghosts....oh okay, now I'm working for this witch who wants to steal from the people I work for, okay, we're doing this now." There didn't seem to be any suspicion or questioning of what was happening and this really bugged me because Eli was meant to be this top notch, created being who was flawless, at least, that's what I got anyway. Tav was probably the best character, they are a representation of gender fluid and I love that they were included, I do however believe that this character wasn't explored to the greatest ability of the story or the plot and it made me question the point of having this amazing gender fluid character in the story. I feel like Tav's story should have had a major impact on everything and I just didn't get that at all it almost felt like the author just threw this character in to be 'trendy' and with the times? I'm wrong, and I know that I am, I'm just hoping that this character's story gets expanded upon in future installments because otherwise, as said before, I feel like it was just an excuse to be able to class this book as LGBTQ+ for marketing purposes. Cam was okay, he was fairly meh for me, I don't quite understand his point in the story to be honest. Clytemnestra was incredibly interesting, and I'd like to learn more about her. I guess I just feel like this was a lost opportunity to really delve into what life as a gender fluid person is like, this was a chance to help people understand, and it just wasn't taken.

I just felt like I didn't connect with any of the characters at all. We got rough backstories and stuff that was loosely connected to the reasoning behind why they were following the Hedge-Witch in the human world on her rebellion, but I just didn't care. I felt like all of the dialogue, interactions and narrative of these characters was so cold, detached and emotionless. It was almost like "Oh no, they are drowning in the sand. Oh phew, they are now safe again. I was so worried" if you can picture that in a robotic voice devoid of any emotion at all. I don't understand how the dialogue and actions and pretty much everything elicited absolutely no emotion from me whatsoever. It was as though these characters were going through the motions and it was just so robotic and clunky and unfeeling that it left me feeling annoyed. It's almost as though the sentences that would have helped connect the characters to the reader were all edited out and all that was left over where the 'doing' sentences. Instead of "I felt my heart shatter as her fingers slid out of my grip" it was more like "My heart broke as she fell away" It just feels like there was something huge missing from it all and it made me really sad.

I wanted to badly to love this book, maybe that was my problem? It sounded right up my alley and I was pretty keen to get into it, but it just didn't deliver for me. I feel like a different editor may make a huge difference to the story, but I could be wrong. I'm not sure whether I will continue at this point, unless the writing style and the authors voice can evolve and develop rather quickly between this book and the next, I probably won't because I feel like I'll just be disappointed again and be left feeling frustrated because I can understand what the author was going for, but they just did not make it.

I tried to like this book. I truly did. The witches and science behind it was what made me want to read it in the first place. The story telling was chopping and I never figured out the point of the story. It was a jumbled mess of what many think have to be in a story to be successful and it had poor execution.

There are books I think I'll like based on the description. There are books I think I SHOULD like based on the description. And there are books that I downright expect to like, whether for the tropes involved or the plot description. This book was the latter. And it is, I believe, to-date the lowest rated book on this blog.

As has become a common thread at this point, I rate books that confused me lower than those that didn't, regardless of whether or not I enjoyed them. And, y'all, I really didn't understand this one at all. From the synopsis, I expected a Scapegracers-like tale of witches, assassins, and ghosts. What I got? I - erm - fantasy, I think? The worldbuilding was so flat and vague that I didn't understand the mechanics of anything. What exactly are witches? Where do they live? What are ghosts if not the souls of dead humans? Why do witches kill ghosts? What is the Heir Lord, and why is it Kite?

Moreover, this was the sort of book where everything was happening and yet, at the same time, there was no plot. The main character, Eli, an assassin made by witches, spent more time describing her blades than expressing any kind of emotion whatsoever. The side characters were so strange and yet somehow boring that I couldn't tell you a single thing about them. No, really, even stereotypes are too nuanced to encapsulate the sheer boredom of our side characters - these were characters who were little other than their names.

I wanted DESPERATELY to like this book but I just.... didn’t, at all. I appreciated the casual way LGBT rep was incorporated into the plot, but beyond that, I have no compliments. I felt nothing for the characters, was not invested in the plot, and felt absolutely nothing whatsoever other than confusion or mild disdain. That's it. I can barely string together enough emotion about this mess of a novel to write my review.

Just skip this one, okay?

Good read. The characters were well written and compelling. This book puts you right in the story. As a fantasy fan, I have to say that it was one of the best tales yet. An excellent choice for those who want to read about a strong female lead.

Title: The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass
By : Adan Jerreat-Poole
Genre: Sci Fi & Fantasy | Teens & YA
Pub Date: 06 Oct 2020
Review Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3215082475

Eli is a.... well in someways she is a girl but nothing about her is normal. Eli may look like a human but she is in fact a witch's daughter. A being made form stone, fruits, and Hawthorn. These creatures are not treated in a loving way, Eli was created for one thing, to kill ghosts on Earth.

Life, if it can be called that is almost mundane for Eli. Until she makes the worst possible mistake, can her mistake mean the Coven will undo her? in essence killing her.

Using fantasy as a backdrop it is clear that this book is showing the reader what it is like to be part of the LGBT+ community, How people fear what they are not used to and how damaging the effects of abuse and phobia can be. Not just homophobia but also racism and much more hate in the real world.

Spoiler Warning

Though the book began with a good hook and very little "telling" that did change. By the end of the book I did feel like we were being told a lot instead of being shown, it didn't spoil the book I just noticed the difference in style.

It is a crucial part of the book that Tav is gender fluid/non binary how ever I felt the lack of description quite annoying. Firstly anyone who is either gender fluid or non binary still has a physic. Also it ruined the twist in the book. I could tell that if the author was holding this back, we only got a description of Tav's face almost half way into the book, then I knew it was for a reason and I guessed it quite quickly.

Over all I enjoyed the writing style and representation. I felt the morality of Kite and Eli's mother to feel believable.

The mishandling of the big twist and the love triangle were the only two downsides for me.

I think if someone wants to read a story of betrayal and self discovery, with a diverse bunch of characters in a fantasy setting this would be it.

Already looking forward to the squeal, Hedge-witch needs to pay!
Shipping Eli and Tav aka El-tav (No matter Kite's reasons)