A deeply immersive book, filled with lush prose and gorgeous imagery. I loved reading this and as soon as I was finished, I wanted to immediately start over.

This was an intriguing fantasy with an engaging plot and great world building. I found myself getting lost in this world and really enjoyed this.

Enjoyed the heck out of this!
I really loved following Eli and was roothing for her from the start.
Kite i was on and off about, and still am.
I wanted to hug Cam so badly.

I always put off DNF-ing a book for as long as possible but it's been over a year since I picked this book up and then not long after put it back down again. The writing just really didn't click with me and I felt no investment in the main character. I can make do with one of these things but can't deal with a mix of the two.

Eli, a teenage assassin is a made-thing by witches sent to the human world to kill ghosts. She ends up befriending a rag tag crew in hopes of avoiding being unmade, and ends up getting more than she bargains for. This exquisitely dark and whimsical story is the perfect read for spooky season. It has cruel characters and strict witches, ghosts hiding among humans and magical worlds. I would recommend this for fans of The Hazel Wood & The Night Country by Melissa Albert, as well as Gallant by VE Schwab.

I was given this book by the publisher and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Honestly, this book should have slayed. The premise is awesome. I mean a ghost assassin sent by witches to protect humans, come on! It's inclusionary with straight, transgender and homosexual characters, say more!

But it's a dud. It started off great but somewhere near the middle when we got to the Wasteland it lost me.

I DNF'd it, and after reading others reviews I'm kinda glad I didn't force myself to finish. I sadly was not a fan.

This was not a book for me. I was not a fan of the characters or the plot. I think this just a case of my type of book.

I couldn't personally get past the first 5 chapters. Very slow to get going and no real character explanation or development even after being 5 chapters on. It has a very over done theme to it. I believe it is time for a change up in the YA genre. Even the cover in and of itself was extremely over done. The same dark black background mixed with some flowers and a couple other things. Nothing draws you into picking up the book.

As much as I wanted to like this book I could not get into the characters or the story. It felt rushed and the plot didn't feel fully developed.

This was such an underdeveloped story. I was so disappointed, I wanted to really like it. But the plot, the characters and everything else was just literally flat. Shelved under DNF.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The first 75% of this book was excellent. I was kicking myself for not picking this up sooner. The ending fell flat for me though. Such a wonderful premise, great characters, and then just meh for an ending. I needed more.

The description of "The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass" made me so excited for it, not to mention that the cover is beautiful. One of the strangest things about this book for me is the fact that the title is literal, The girl was literally built outta hawthorn & glass. Which means this is the first time I’ve read a book where the title was literal. This story and world have the potential to be amazing, but unfortunately it fell flat for me.

Sadly I had to dnf this book, after trying to read this countless times. The plot, characters and writing was just not to my liking..

This synopsis sounded so interesting and so intriguing. I was excited to get the arc for it but sadly that's where the excitement ended.

From the time i received this arc which was 2020 till now 2022 I have been trying to pick this book up and get into it. Thinking to myself maybe it's my mood or maybe it's not what I want to read right now but after 2 years of trying and rereading parts over and over I think its safe to say it's time to move on from this book.

I found the writing to be inconsistent and all over the show in some parts. The world building was lackluster and the characters just did nothing for me at all.

I'm sure this book would be great for some people but I am not those people sadly.

**Thank you, Netgalley and publisher, for giving me an electronic ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

I wanted to like this book, which is why I pushed off writing my review. I liked the idea of an assassin made from a witch and ghost hunting. However it felt like it was a rough draft, I felt like it could have been polished more.

This was a strange book, with real potential, though it felt underdeveloped.
Our main character is Eli, a girl made up of fragments of the world around her. She has been created by a witch in order to cross worlds and kill ghosts that have made their way to the human world when she is asked to.
We learn that Eli has often pushed against expectations, and when one of her missions goes very wrong, we see her become much more focused on what she believes to be right.
This was a curious blend of fantasy and paranormal. I loved the interaction between Eli and the humans she has to rely on for help. However, everything felt rushed and I never really felt that I understood why Eli was sent to do what she was. That being said, the closing stages set up a potentially intriguing plot.

I wanted to love this so badly that I am a bit disappointed in how I actually feel after reading this. I want to say that the idea and premise sounded amazing and would have been a 5 star read if the execution was there. I really enjoyed the characters and their relationship in this book. Where this book let me down was the pacing and meandering of the plot. It was a slog to get through and the plot felt a bit directionless and haphazard at times.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is a fun diverse fantasy adventure that takes us along the story of an assassin named Eli who journeys through a magical world of witches and something more.

The writing was a bit of a miss to me, unfortunately, and the worldbuilding wasn't able to capture my interest since it wasn't super well developed. Stories about manmade protagonists who have to rediscover their humanity are always interesting, but Jerreat-Poole wasn't able to build upon this general trope very well. That plus the weird pacing made it hard to keep track of where the story was going and why it was going where it was.

I did enjoy the character dynamics, though, and the casual inclusion of diversity in race and orientation was a very enjoyable element to see in a high fantasy-type world. I'd be interested to see where this cast goes in the next book.

Overall, not the strongest debut but certainly has its charm and room to develop into a solid fantasy series!

Thank you Netgalley and Dundurn House for the arc!

Is she a girl? Is she a stick? Is she an assassin?


Eli being just a teenage girl is an understatement! Assassin…and made by witches solely to do their bidding. The thought of being made just to do something for someone else is awful, but being given wrong information is worse! Killing someone you weren’t suppose to and will make you question even the people that “made” you! Worried that because of the mistake or wrong info that she will be unmade, Eli does everything in her power to fix it and make these witches happy. Having help from some humans… trying to find something for the coven while also questioning everything makes Eli’s task even harder. How will she deal with that along with just being a teenage girl… Kind of.


Though I love Eli, Cam and Tav as a character and a group, this isn’t my favorite story. I just wasn’t able to be fully immersed into it at all. It makes me said because I really wanted to like this story. I think this is why it has taken me so long to read it. I’m always afraid of the hype I give on books. Though I didn’t hate this one, it just wasn’t my favorite. Poole does an amazing job building the world and the characters, I just think this story isn’t made for me. I give it a 3/5 because I did love the world and the characters, but the story just fell a little flat for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy.

Unfortunately I didn't click with this book's writing style, so I have to DNF.