The main thought I had when I finished this book was that I needed more. More of everything. More character development, more mystery and definitely more world building.

Adrienne Tooley’s debut novel has a fantastic premise. The sunshine girl and the grump girl? SIGN ME THE HECK UP. That is a trope I can read over and over again. I thought the first 10% of this book was very intriguing and I loved reading from both Tamsin and Wren’s perspectives.

As the book progressed, I feel like the plot suffered from some pacing issues. The travelling section was very dialogue heavy and I felt like I was told things and not shown things enough. I did appreciate that Tooley tried to capture the violent nature of the plague and it made the stakes a bit higher.

Towards the end, however, Tooley didn’t follow through with the high stakes promised earlier in the book. I wish she had kept the mystery surrounding the dark witch alive until the very end. Revealing so much information about the dark witch to the reader felt like the plot was being explained to me which took away some of my excitement and made the book very predictable in my opinion.

I commend Adrienne Tooley for attempting to write a standalone fantasy. I felt like I grasped the basics of her magic system and I like that the magic had actual consequences in this book. The world was also described pretty well, considering this is a standalone novel. A map wasn’t included in the ARC I read but I hope the actual book will have one.

Although I got very annoyed with Wren’s nativity at times, I did enjoy her interactions with Tamsin and my absolute favourite trope, THERE IS ONLY ONE BED, was incorporated, which I loved. Their relationship really blossomed on the page and it kept me reading.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but I wish there had been more world building, more laying the groundwork for the mystery and I wish that the twist at the end had not been revealed so early on. Otherwise, this was a great sapphic YA fantasy debut.

An inexplicable plague sweeps the land. Magical source Wren is fighting to stop it to save her father. Cursed witch Tamsin just wants to be left alone, to harvest feelings of love from hapless customers who need magic but can't afford to go elsewhere.

Wren's love for her father is very strong, though, and Tamsin's reserves are very low. So when Wren approaches Tamsin to ask her to help hunt the dark witch causing the plague, Tamsin agrees -- for a price.

What follows is part adventure, part romance, part family drama.

Tamsin's curse comes from a dark past, which unfolds to readers slowly as Tamsin puzzles through diary entries written by her lost sister in her final days.

Tamsin's story is one of grief, of being pushed out of everything she knew because of past mistakes, and having no one left to mourn with. And Wren is newly struggling with the loss of her father (and the eventual loss of her love for him). Wren becomes a friend willing to push back at Tamsin's habitual bitterness and cruelty. Together, they recover some of what they both have lost.

I am pretty picky about the enemies to lovers trope, rather than a staunch believer in it, and this one ultimately wasn't for me in the way the relationship started and developed. I was more interested in the themes related to loss of family, which do play a major role by the end, but feel very quickly and neatly resolved after the book's emotionally fraught first half.

However, there's a lot of interesting things going for this book: some fun magical worldbuilding, a clear and propulsive quest that merges well with character growth and growing feelings, generally propulsive prose, a lot of banter. It's something I'd recommend to a lot of readers, especially people who really enjoy enemies-to-lovers YA where the characters are initially frosty but grow to see the truth of each other.

4 stars out of %

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a dual pop, stand alone young adult fantasy. It follows a witch named Tamsin and a magic "source" named Wren as they try to stop a plague from wrecking the lives of people in their kingdom. The plague takes away memories and love from the victim's minds and Wren is worried about her ill father forgetting her. Tamsin has been banished from the Witchlands and cursed to never feel love again, so all of her deals include her taking a little love from others. The two girls journey together to the origin of the plague after striking their own deal, and fall in love along the way.

I really enjoyed this story! It was very character driven and each girl had her own unique voice. They had good banter and chemistry together, very "grumpy and sunshine" - esque. The plot itself was a very simple adventure type which I liked but it didn't blow me away. The parts I loved the most where the diary entries from Tamsin's sister. The writing thrived in those scenes which were incredibly cold and off putting, and we got more and more snippets of Tamsin's dark past. Wren's chapters were fresh and light and I liked the levity she brought to the story. It definitely wouldn't have been as good without both girl's pov's switching every chapter. I would've appreciated more story time spent in the Witchlands scenes since I thought that was the most interesting and entertaining of the settings. Also the climax and exciting third act were a bit rushed. I think that comes a lot with stand alone fantasy books. It did all wrap up, I just found it to be at a weird fast pace compared to how slow going the rest of the story was leading up to that. Overall, a fun book with sweet characters that I enjoyed reading!

Have you ever started a book and from the first chapter thought to yourself, "I know I'm going to love this book"? That was me reading Sweet & Bitter Magic. We open with Tamsin's point of view - she's snarky, sassy, and utterly emotionless. Her charge for magic? Love. As we watched her drain the love a woman feels towards her husband, we find that Tamsin has been cursed for her actions of dark magic. She can't appreciate colors, beautiful things, or feeling anything towards anyone.

Then we meet Wren. She's the polar opposite of Tamsin - a sweet, bubbly girl who loves and appreciates everything she sees, even the tendrils and smells of magic that surround everything. But Wren has her struggles too. Wren is left with her father, sick and unable to care for himself after her mother died. She spends her whole life caring for her father, selling eggs in the market and worrying about his needs before her own. Wren has even given up the opportunity to train her magic for her father, settling to stay in the village with him for forever, instead of learning how to control her magic as a source.

Until a magical plague strikes and leaves desolation and chaos in its path. Wren's father is quickly struck down, forgetting his own daughter in the process. For fear of losing her father, Wren strikes a deal with Tamsin: they will hunt down the dark witch and end this curse, and for Tamsin's services, Wren will give up her love for her father.

The first interactions between Wren and Tamsin was so small, so minor in passing, that I didn't even realize how important this moment would be until Wren was banging on Tamsin's door for theft. Their first real conversation, and all the other ones that happened later, had me giggling and smiling like a fool. Tamsin's snark and sass pairs so well with Wren's positive outlook on life. Their dichotomy was just so well done that most of my reactions are based on funny, snarky comments they make towards each other. And while they're not enemies, they are certainly not friends as they embark on this journey.

Tamsin's reason for banishment and the clues we get about the reason was also really well done. I love how little clues and hints are dropped over the book instead of just receiving an information dump in a scene/chapter. And while we know that Tamsin was banished and cursed due to her use of black magic, we are slowly fed why she used that magic in the first place and the terror that it caused afterwards.

I really could go on and on about the things I love in this book. We have a sapphic enemies to lovers romance, the one bed trope, and sunny, bubbly character with dark and gloomy love interest. The magic system and world is also really interesting and I wanted to see more of that. The first 70 or so percent of this book takes place in the human world, either in their village or travelling, and the remaining 30% is in the witch realms. I honestly would love a sequel to dive more into the magical realms, especially after the mention of Southern Trolls and the short interaction with sprites.

Overall, I loved this book so much. From watching Tamsin and Wren go from enemies to lovers, to the discussion of death and how to deal with grief, and the amazing magic system that I wish I could have learned more about - this was fantastic.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of Sweet and Bitter Magic!

rating 4/5

This was one of my most anticipated releases and I'm so glad I got approved for this ARC! Sweet and Bitter Magic did not disappoint.

This is an LGBT (wlw specifically) standalone fantasy about witches. I absolutely loved it. I've been looking for more sapphic fantasy reads, and this was exactly what i had in mind. The characters had great chemistry and the slowburn was executed perfectly. I became attached to the characters very quickly and was super invested in their development. I want to protect both of them forever. It also contains my favorite trope ever in enemies to lovers so that was great to read.

I do wish there had been a bit more action involved but I didn't mind that much since it is heavily focused on the characters journey with healing and grief, and it just makes you all the more attached to the characters.

Adrienne Tooley did a masterful job when creating this book. The writing was great, the pacing was appropriate, and the characters felt real, complex and relatable, not to mention the romance was to die for.

Sweet and Bitter Magic deserves a spot on every fantasy lovers TBR!

A very sweet adventure-love story with multiple kinds of love (and how they're not always sunshine and rainbows).

What stuck with me most about this story is the theme of love: romantic, platonic, familial, filial. We have Wren who loves her father dearly, but also feels stifled and burdened by that love (although she never admits it in those terms). We have Tamsin who deeply loved her twin sister, but had tied her life to Marlena in a very unhealthy way, same as Wren did to her father. Wren's is selfless to the point of forgetting she's her own person with her own life to live, Tamsin's is selfish to the extreme where Marlena wasn't really given the option to be herself. Neither is inherently *wrong*, but they both end up biting both characters in the ass in more ways than one.

Then there's the love between mother and child vs. love of duty, love between siblings vs. love for self, and of course romantic love. Not all of them end up neatly fixed with happy endings (and for good reason), but the overarching theme that connects all of them together is hope. The hope that damaged relationships can eventually be mended given time, hope that love can last beyond insecurity and an unpredictable future, hope that things can work out even if not in the way one wants. I think that ends up being the most important thing to take away from this book (at least for me).

I really liked both Tamsin and Wren despite their flaws. Tamsin is certainly selfish even before her curse, and her lack of empathy is certainly cruel to the young mother she meets at the beginning of the story, but it's understandable. I can't say I'd do any different in her shoes. Wren's biggest flaw is that she's so painfully insecure and anxious about *everything*, and I completely 100% related to that. Anxiety and fear of looking stupid or doing the wrong thing and causing hurt to someone is a hell of a burden to have.

The only thing that made me kind of go "...huh?" is when Wren first tells Tamsin that without her love for her father driving her to end the plague, why would she even want to continue, yet a few dozen pages later she's almost in tears because a meal Tamsin conjured was taken from someone else, so that nebulous person *might* not have bread that night. Girl, you're whining because some unseen person may or may not have bread for a night but you're only concerned with ending a deadly plague because of your dad? Priorities, Wren. Get them in order.

I fully stand by the claim that every trope is better when it's queer. And this one has some of the book community's favorites: reluctant partnership, the sunshine one and the grumpy one, there's only one bed, stronger together, etc. Also these girls are so cute when they (finally) admit their feelings for each other.

Tamsin (the grumpy one) is a freakishly powerful witch. And witchcraft is balanced with personal sacrifice (pain, energy, dizziness, seeing spots, injury, chill, etc). Wren (the sunshine one) is a source, untested and untrained. A source has a store of magic that can be used by a witch to supplement the witch's own magic. But they can also see/hear/experience external magic (we see it through Wren's eyes as colorful ribbons or clouds and hear it through Wren's ears as shrieks, songs, and rhythms from the world around her). But there is also another kind of magic: dark magic, stolen from the earth. This magical trifecta is awesome and I was totally here for the different ways they intertwine throughout the story.

There were a few things I didn't like, though. The travel felt very nebulous. If you look at the map, Beyond (the normal part of the country) and Within (the Witchlands) are approximately the same size. But the travel times were super vague (like, we stopped for one day under a bridge Beyond and didn't stop again until we were through to the Coven's castle in Within? But then when traveling through Within, we stopped at two vastly different inns?) There was also some repetitive phrasing/action. In the first half of the book, every time Tamsin stops walking, Wren runs bodily into her. It was amusing and cute and awkward the first time, but it happens at least 4 times. And then calling Tamsin/Wren alternatively the witch/the source instead of using their names. Like... It happens so often through the book and every time Tamsin looks at "the source" it sounds like an object rather than a person. Or when Wren touches "the witch" you almost forget that these girls have a bond and a companionship and (eventually) a relationship.

That being said, I still very much enjoyed Tooley's debut and the queernormative society she built and the sunshine/grumpy magical duo.

I’ve been anticipating this book for months now. I was so excited when I was accepted to receive an early review copy! And I was not disappointed. I’m loving the world created in this book. I was sucked in from the very start’

A charming book that was exciting and very sweet - also it's sapphic so that's an extra bonus. I would definitely recommend this book to any YA fantasy reader!

★★★☆☆ 2.5/5

there was no infodumping in this book, and the writing was very easy to settle into immediately. unfortunately, there was little else that made this book stand out. lackluster worldbuilding, minimal character building, anticlimactic ending. it was a nice read, but it didn’t stick with me after i had finished.

(arc provided by netgallery and Margaret K. McElderry Books. all thoughts and opinions are my own)

Unfortunately I was very disappointed in this. This book needed another pass through editing. How is this a world that seems to be maybe based on 14th century Europe but the author used the phrase “she tried to stay out of the limelight”? Limelight is a 19th century invention.

Also this:
“Water flooded the streets, slipped through the cracks in windows, and filled the dormitories to the brim. Most girls got out. One girl didn’t.”
This is just poor writing.

On top of this, I paused reading at 30% and we had JUST started the journey. We barely knew anything about the world at this point. The pacing of this was not great.

I received a copy of this to review by TBRbeyondtours and netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

From chapter one, I was hooked. We got a sense of Tamsin and her curse straight away and I loved that we saw what she lost and how she uses her magic. And Wren looked after her sick father, wanting to leave and explore the world but staying because she loved him.

The two characters are thrown together as a plague devastates the land, leaving people with memory loss until they become husks of their previous themselves.

THE RELATIONSHIP. I can't describe how much I loved reading Wren and Tamsin. They were adorable, Tamsin is obviously unable to love so she just finds Wren a complete and utter nuisance. While Wren thinks that Tamsin is cold hearted and cruel. As we get to see their relationship in the book, I fell in love with them.

The plot was intriguing and kept me entertained. That reveal at around the 54% mark left me shook. I really enjoyed the way the author wrote the story and the ending too!

Definitely recommend picking this up, it was amazing, gay, the writing was incredible. Just PICK THIS UP!

Sweet and Bitter Magic lived up to its name: some parts sweet, some parts bitter, all adding up to a reading experience that is total magic. I adored Tamsin's character, one of those people who lives with deep regret and as a result is unable to show love, or at least, that's what she thinks. I loved the banter and development of the reationship between herself and Wren and how their relationship develops. I loved the family aspect of this family and how Tamsin and her sister are connected to the Within and how this world worked. The magic system was also really unique and witchy. Tooley's writing style is probably my favorite thing about this book. It's so atmospheric and understated that reading this book felt like I was watching a dream unfold. Sweet and Bitter Magic is a delighfully witchy story about love, forgiveness, and redemption that is well worth the read.

A well-crafted tale of unexpected allies and familial grief/obligations, with evocative imagery and winks to familiar fairytales.

In Sweet & Bitter Magic, you follow Tamsin, a witch who, after using dark magic to try to save her sister, is exiled from her home and cursed never to love again. A few years later, dark magic infests the land and spreads a plague. She then meets Wren, a girl with untrained magical powers that wants to save her father from this plague. Together, they embark on a journey to discover the responsible behind the dark magic and end it.

One of the crucial aspects of a fantasy story is its magic system. And when we're talking about a YA standalone, there's a balance to be met. Sweet & Bitter Magic nails it with magic that is easy to understand. It's explored enough not to leave important questions unanswered and still feel exciting to read. This magic is the central point of a plot that is pretty straightforward. There's a villain that needs to be taken down and a pair of unlikely heroes who don't get along hunting them down.

Our heroes, Tamsin and Wren, couldn't be more different at first glance. Tamsin is grief-stricken by the death of her sister. She also has difficulty connecting with other people due to a curse that doesn't allow her to feel. This curse is something I struggle with because it's hard to understand precisely what it entails and its limits. Maybe I was distracted, but I could never pinpoint the rules, and I like magic with strict and explicit ones.

Wren sacrifices her dreams to be there for her family, which same girl. It's a pleasant journey to follow, of her discovering the world, her powers, and even being corrupted a bit.

Also, spoiler alert, there's a sapphic romance between Tamsin and Wren. There's an early attraction that slowly evolves to love, with an enemies to lovers dynamic. The will-they-won't-they moments will leave you with butterflies fluttering in your belly. So damn cute.

Apart from the budding romance, the cornerstone of the story is Tamsin's relationship with her sister, Marlena. Although she's gone, Tamsin unveils how complicated their relationship was without her even noticing. Her overprotectiveness of her sister ends up making Marlena feel constrained. It's a great exploration of sibling dynamics, and I'm a sucker for those.

However, the character's relationship evolution feels weird. They start with an intriguing dynamic and wrap up nicely by the end. But it feels abrupt, like there's a jump from one to the other because the middle section is too busy with the plot. There aren't enough interactions to see the feelings between the characters grow or change.

Plot-wise, all the threads click together, the character arcs are complete, with growth from everyone. There are some attempts at plot twists, and I saw some people were surprised. But maybe because I read so many mystery/thrillers, I saw them coming from a mile away. Some reveals are too obvious, so that's a bit disappointing.

Still, Sweet & Bitter Magic is a pretty enjoyable YA fantasy standalone. It involves a cute sapphic love story of two powerful witches connecting with their powers and each other.

Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows two POVs, one of Wren an innocent wide-eyed young woman who has spent many years taking care of her sickly father. The other protagonist is Tamsin, a banished witch with no love in her heart. They have to team up to save the world from this mysterious dark magic that is sucking the life out of nature and people.

I really wanted to enjoy the book because the concept is awesome, the magic system is great (always a sucker for the give-and-take magic) and the witch coven stuff is cool. Alas....the writing wasn't really great.

I also felt like the author was making everything...'easy' to understand. So many info dumps that weren't necessary, show, not tell! Please!

The romance does have a decent foundation/chemistry but I think the problem boils down to Tamsin's "curse". She's supposed to not be able to feel anything, love, happiness, etc, but...she 'breaks' that rule all the time. So how are we supposed to believe in a romance when the one character isn't able to love? Ah, no, she's able to love because...reasons? I think explaining the curse or changing the terms of the curse would've made more sense and stopped me from questioning her constant feelings, ha.

To avoid heavy spoilers, the villain at the end was predictable and the dialogue/fight between them was...weird. Stilted, almost. I think more pages and expansion on the worldbuilding and character depth would've helped.

If you're into witches and cute lesbians, go for it. ;)

Wow. I haven't been moved by a book since... I don't know... months ago probably. Along the years I've become more... prudent with my ratings for YA fantasy, because I'm just not the intended demographic. Indeed I do think that as adults reading YA, we have a responsibility coming from our privilege. With that being said, this book was breathtaking. It was incredibly beautiful and so different than what I have ever read. What a fresh breath of air! I laughed. I giggled. I grinned. I cursed. I cried. This book made me feel a lot of emotions. IT IS LITERALLY THE BEST FEELING when you read a book and even the quotations in this book were beautiful. Wow.

The romance was so beautiful and it completely stole my heart. I loved the interactions between Tamsin and Wren and the romance between them was so real and beautiful. They respected each other and loved each other.

The reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because for me 5 stars are for books that I will reread again and again. While I loved this book very much, I do not think I will reread it. But hey, we'll see whether I will ever reread this book or not because I absolutely loved this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for the e-arc of this book!

Tamsin has been cursed so she is unable to feel love unless she bargains it away from others. Wren has been trapped under the weight of her secrets and her father's expectations for her. When a plague caused by dark magic seeps through, Tamsin and Wren make a deal to work together so they can stop the plague before it gets even worse, and they have to travel to Within the Witchlands to do it...

The writing in this book pulled me in right away! I loved the vivid imagery and details that Tooley used to tell the story, and I thought the mix between plot and character development was absolutely perfect! I love both Tamsin and Wren and their interactions and relationship growth was absolutely everything! It was written so organically and I absolutely loved the progression.

I thought the plot was extremely interesting and I loved the way magic worked in this world. I loved the mysteries and revelations throughout. The two POV's were absolutely perfect for this book. They were distinct yet flowed together so nicely. Tooley did an amazing job deciding which character was going to tell which part of their story, and switching between at the exact right times.

I wish there was more to this story!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, and Vomit

Too much love can be dangerous, but too little love can be a curse.

I'd like to start by saying this book has a great map! If you know how I feel about maps then you know how important this is imo.

Tamsin is a witch and will cast spells for the citizens of her village for a very particular price: love. More specifically, the love that person feels for another. She does this because of a curse that took her ability to love, and Tamsin needs and desires to simply FEEL again.

Wren is the opposite of Tamsin in so many ways. She is vibrant and full of feelings and possibly a little naive. She is also a Source which means she is full of magic that can supplement a witch's own power.

When a plague comes, a sickness that can steal a soul and make the whole world volatile and vicious, everything starts changing for Tamsin and Wren. They begin to work together and start on a journey to the Witchlands to help stop this black magic.

This story is exciting, twisty and turny, and even full of not just magic but references to classic fairytales that make this book even more fun. I adored the light romance and the interesting conversations between Wren and Tamsin that included some funny comments. Overall, an enjoyable read that I would definitely recommend!

Sweet & Bitter Magic explores the relationship between Wren and Tamsin as they form a pact to help relieve their world of a plague beget by dark magic. Both girls aren’t forthcoming with secrets they both keep which causes a bit of tension between them.

With the story moving between both Wren and Tamsin’s points of view, we get to know both of them intimately as they get to know each other.

I enjoyed this novel and hope there will be another one as I’m sure there is more to explore in this magic system and world set up by Tooley.