I had super high hopes for this one, which might’ve been its downfall. I was expecting an action-filled witchy fantasy, and instead, I just got a long journey. I ended up skimming most of the middle of this, as not much was happening.

My favorite part of this was definitely the beginning. As soon as I opened the first page, I was in love with Tamsin. She was the perfect morally grey character! And her curse was so unique, and I really wanted to see how it played out. Sadly, her witchiness disappears pretty quickly.

I think a lot of my problem with this kightve been Wren. She just irritated me for some reason. She was too optimistic, too talkative, too extroverted. Normally I can deal with characters like this, but she got on my nerves.

I did really love the romance in this. It wasn't as enemies-to-lovers as I was expecting, but I loved how it was slow burn. Insta-love is something I hate in books, so I loved how the romance was developed in this.

A Court of Silver Flames was the last book I read, so my expectations for fantasy are super high right now. This didn't meet those expectations, but this was a very promising debut!

Thanks to Adrienne Tooley and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Recieved an ARC from NetGalley**

If you’re looking for a fresh, fantasy standalone full of cursed witches, mysterious magic, and a wonderful sapphic romance, this is THE BOOK TO READ. Intricate world-building, beautiful writing, a fascinating magic system, and two very complex main characters who I had so much fun getting to know! This was a very unique take on witches and magic that I have yet to see, so I was hooked from the very beginning.

What surprised me about this book was that it's not action-heavy. Instead of grand, tension-inducing magical battles, the story focuses heavily on each character's grief and healing and honestly it was a really nice change of pace. The character's were written in a way that I could genuinely connect with their thoughts and feelings. They are relatable and flawed and I loved every second of it. I really loved getting to read through Wren's and Tamsin’s perspectives, especially since their romance is SPECTACULAR!

It's a pleasant slow burn with no frustration that you can sometimes feel with this style of romance. I mean, you have a character who is cursed with the inability to love! That's just asking for a good slow burn romance! Oh, and might I add this book contains many favorite tropes [only one bed to sleep in], that just adds to the softness and 'magic' of the romance. However, the romance didn't overshadow any other elements in the story which I really appreciated, The elements in this book are all very well balanced. This book was magic. I inhaled it. I don't want it to be over. Definitely gonna grab a physical copy once this comes out! A MUST READ.

3.5 / 5 stars!

A beautiful sapphic, whimsical witchy read! These characters were relatable, funny, and the storyline was fantastic!

Well done, Adrienne! Can't wait to read more from you!

Thank you for the ARC read, NetGalley!

I went into this book skeptical because witches are not really my thing, but it completely pulled me in and I fell in love with these characters and the writing. The setting and atmosphere created by the writing style immediately pulled me in because it is written like a new fairy tale. Our two main characters are a banished witch living on the outskirts of a village trading magic & healing for love, and a seemingly "normal" girl who is really a magic source in hiding trying to take care of her ailing father instead of living her own life. When a plague caused by dark magic sweeps over the queendom, the two team up to hunt the dark witch, which means returning to the Coven who banished one and doesn't know about the other. Their journey together was an awesome, almost episodic at times, adventure. The banter between the two is hilarious, full of sparks and romantic tension.

Both show very real vulnerabilities in believing they are powerless or failures, and the self doubt they show and work through is extremely relatable. Nothing is instantly "fixed" by magic but it takes talking about their doubts, opening up to support from each other, and coming to trust themselves again that "saves" them, though the ending is authentic because there is still more growth to happen. I appreciated that it wasn't a "chosen one" or "fallen hero" story that wrapped up with a bow. these characters feel so real and personal because they have faults and missteps along the way, in lots of ways I could relate to as a reader. The romance between the two was also fantastic. It similarly drew from real insecurities and miscommunication into something founded on trust and understanding.

I highly recommend this for lovers of fantasy, magic, journey adventures, romance, and those struggling to find their own place in the world.

Sapphic fantasy is the mood I want for 2021. Sweet & Bitter Magic is a dual POV which examines our responsibilities. Wren is just the sweetest. She's caring and compassionate, selfless, and reminds me a bit of Snow White. But at the same time, she has this growing ambition, this desire to be truly free, to explore which felt so relatable. Whereas Tamsin is this ball of anger which hides an extremely hurt and vulnerable soft side. Can you tell I'm hooked??

Sweet & Bitter Magic has such a strong romance story line. It's one of my favorite elements, even though I've recently bee in a fantasy romance rut! But it also asks questions about the balance and ethics of magic. When we are fixated on power and we allow ourselves to disrupt the balance, what kind of future does that hold? Connected to this struggle, is Tamsin's relationship, and the guilt, connected to her sister. Sister stories are a sweet spot for me, and while it's only a side story here, I loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been anticipating this book since I first heard about it. A sapphic slowburn hate-to-love romance between an exiled witch cursed to be unable to feel and a magic source who hid her magic away, this book sounded right up my alley. I have to say, it did not disappoint.

Tamsin is a witch who has been banished from the witchlands of Within to live among the ordinary folk after an incident when she was younger. She has been cursed to be unable to feel and has been doing favors for the townsfolk in exchange for the love they feel. Wren is a girl who has been caring for her father since her mother died and has had to put all her own desires aside to be able to help him, including hiding the fact that she is a source for magic. When a plague cast by a dark witch begins affecting the ordinary folk, including Wren’s father, she and Tamsin must work together to journey back to Within and discover the source of the dark magic.

This was such a fun ride. I really enjoyed the magic world, but especially the witches and the coven. Wren and Tamsin’s journey to the witchlands was also really interesting. There are also journal snippets from a side character that I found really interesting to read, and I loved piecing together the backstory. Most of all though, I loved Tamsin and Wren. I love a cynical, snarky character, and because of Tamsin’s curse, she definitely is one of these characters. But she’s also dealing with a large amount of guilt over an event from her past, which makes her very sympathetic. Wren was also a great character. She has been taking care of her father for years and has never prioritized herself or her abilities, and I loved seeing her explore the world and learn about her power and finally stand up for what she wants. And the two are great together. I love seeing them slowly becoming closer to one another, and the romance developed in just the right way. The two are so different and distinct, but they compliment each other so well and are able to help each other grow and move on from their pasts.

This was a really fun, cute book that I am sure many will love. Any one interested in sapphic stories, witchy worlds, or standalone fantasy romances, especially those who like to see their characters butt heads before they fall in love, will enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed reading this one and thought it was a great debut.

Tamsin is a witch who was banished and cursed to never feel love again. She can't enjoy anything like colors and pleasant scents. To get a tiny moment of feeling, Tamsin bargains with the people in her town. In order to perform magic to help someone, Tamsin requires love as a payment. It doesn't last long, but she can enjoy something small.

Wren is a source which she's kept from her father. Ever since her mom died, Wren has been taking care of her father. He's been sick from the loss and makes sure Wren knows that he would probably die without her. Wren didn't go learn how to use her magic because of her father. She took care of him every day and just tried to make others around her happy.

When talk of a plague starts, Wren is worried for her father. The plague first takes memories from a person and then they are not themselves anymore. It also destroys the land. Wren's dad gets infected and she goes to Tamsin for help. They make an agreement. Wren will help Tamsin hunt for the witch using dark magic and stop the plague. Wren will give Tamsin the love for her father. They make the deal, but there's a lot that Tamsin has kept secret. While they travel, Tamsin and Wren become close. Even though Tamsin can't feel love, she starts to feel something when she's around Wren. There are some twists and the hunt becomes much harder.

I really loved both Tamsin and Wren. They were such opposites and it just worked. I thought that pacing was pretty good throughout the book, too.

I gave this book 4 stars. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.

Ever since I saw the cover for this book, I’ve been so excited to read it! I’m also happy to see more YA fantasy standalones, especially one that’s sapphic. Sweet & Bitter Magic was a story of magic and love, which is a magic in and of itself.

After being exiled for using dark magic, Tamsin is now a village witch who takes people’s love as payment. When a mysterious plague sweeps the land, people grow more and more suspicious of her and her magic, including Wren. Wren is a source, who’s kept her magic secret so she can stay and take care of her father. When her father is struck by the plague, she decides to team up with Tamsin to find the dark witch responsible for it. They must journey to the land Within.

I really liked the writing! This is Tooley’s debut, and I’m excited to see what she does in the future. The concept of witches and sources was also really interesting; I liked seeing how a story was built upon that.

Both Tamsin’s and Wren’s character arcs are so good. Tamsin is exiled cursed not to love because she once went too far in the name of love. She’s grown jaded over the years, taking other people’s love, but after meeting Wren, she realizes that love itself can be its own magic. Meanwhile, Wren has always wanted to go to the Witchlands, where she was supposed to report when she learned she was a source. However, she’s always felt beholden to her father, who despises magic, and didn’t want to leave him out of love.

The fact that love is so central to the plot made the story so heartwarming. The plot itself is a bit simple, but that was fine because I think it highlights the protagonists’ character arcs more than anything. Also, this is a standalone, so it wrapped up neatly and nicely!

Sweet & Bitter Magic was a sweet sapphic love story that you won’t be able to put down. I loved the character arcs and the writing. I think you’ll really enjoy Sweet & Bitter Magic if you’re a fan of Margaret Rogerson’s books!

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. Able to cast spells with a mere flick of her wrist. But when she's banished from the witch's realm for using dark magic in desperation and cursed by taking away her ability to love, she finds herself living a meager existence in the human world. Wren is a source, able to see magic and boost the power of witches. She's hidden this fact from everyone, determined to be taken to the witch's realm and forced to leave her sick father. But when a dark plague sweeps the land, Wren and Tamsin find themselves on a journey to find and stop it before it destroys the world.

I really love the concept of this book. It's a sapphic love story with one of our leading ladies unable to love. Tamsin can't even do simple things like enjoy the warmth of a fire or taste something delicious, that's how deep her curse goes. It's definitely a grumpy/sunshine pairing, and I enjoyed their back-and-forth banter. The 'Within' - the witch's realm - was cool to see and learn about, and I was excited to see a school for witches in this environment.

That said, I didn't love this book like I really wanted to. I didn't feel connected to the characters, and I was confused about Tamsin's curse. It's explained somewhat right at the end, but it kept throwing me throughout the book. The plot itself was an interesting story, but I wanted more world-building. I would've really loved to see more of the school and the council that made the decisions. Even Arwyn, who seemed like she would be a really good bad guy, I didn't get enough of. Everything was built up for the end, but it just seemed a bit anticlimactic.

It's a quick and fun read, and I'd still recommend it for anyone who wants some witchy, sapphic goodness. I don't think it'll be a re-read for me, though.

3.8/5 - Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a sweet story! Tamsin and Wren are both such likable characters and the setting was so charming! I didn’t find myself furiously flipping pages, but I enjoyed every minute of the two women’s journey to save their world from Dark forces. Read this book for magic, for LGBTQIA+ representation, and for a little joy in a crazy world.

This is 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 here. Adrienne Tooley shows a lot of promise with this debut. She takes a few well-used tropes and uses them uniquely. She has a lot of important things to say about love and power that I think are going to be really significant to a YA audience. I *especially* love the commentary she has about how true love doesn't have to be guaranteed forever to still be love. The slow-burn romance between Tamsin and Wren was slooooowwww-burn, but it fit the story overall. Important lessons about how you should be treated, how your family should be treating you, and how you react to the world with sapphic love thrown in are honestly my favorite.

What I wasn't the biggest fan of is I felt there was too much world for a standalone novel without enough explanation. Tooley would throw in a lot of offhand comments and descriptions that created a huge picture but I felt it was incomplete. This might be okay for some readers that don't need a really comprehensive experience and are okay with having some questions, but I just wanted the answers. I would feel more content with the status of this amount of world-building if there was a sequel, but Tooley says it's standalone. That's my only true complaint though. Just gimme more of the magic and the magic school lol. Truly a fun read!

Words cannot describe how much I loved this book. Going into it all I knew was that it was sapphic and had witches, so what more could you really want? I was absolutely amazed by how gorgeous the writing was and I could not put the book down while reading. All of the characters were so fantastic and the relationship was so sweet and cute. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves a great fantasy and romance.

***ARC Review***

Sweet & Bitter Magic has a title that suits it well. It’s like reading a smile and a laugh through a veil of tears; perfectly bittersweet.
I think, at its heart, this story is a romance and one I absolutely adored. Tamsin and Wren are both wonderful characters with amazing personalities and intricate backstories that set the stage for incredible character development. The main themes in the story are love and redemption and watching these two girls help each other to grow and gain these things was truly beautiful.
Not only are the protagonists great characters, but the villains are interesting and complicated and, without spoiling anything, the main villain-protagonist relationship follows one of my absolute favorite tropes.
The magic system in this book is unique and fun and the form that Tamsin’s curse takes is something I’ve rarely ever seen before so I loved that element of the story as well. The fairytale-esque aspect of the story and parts of the main conflict seemed a bit juvenile to me which I didn’t enjoy as much but as the plot advanced, the story grew darker and more interesting. Also, there were plot twists galore.
I really liked the descriptions the author has written in regards to people and places and scents, it added so much color and fun to the book.
Honestly, I wasn’t hooked on the story until 50% through due to the juvenility of it all and just a general lack of intrigue but once the plot did pick up, I fell in love with the story. It is an emotional and alluring book.
Somewhere between The Princess Bride and Kingdom of the Wicked, Sweet & Bitter Magic is a great book I recommend to anyone looking for an adorable and creative sapphic story!

Disclaimer: I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The story follows a witch who is cursed to never love. The witch meets a girl who is hiding her own magical abilities. The two of them have to work together to save their kingdom. If you're into books with life or death scenarios, then this is for you!!

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a very solid YA fantasy story. There's magic, witches, family strife, curses, evil to stop, and journeys to take.

The family strife falls a little flat and that is because the relationships aren't as developed as they could be. I'm here for curses but, again, everything going on in this world could have been explained more deeply and the story would have packed a bigger punch.

Sweet cover.

Sweet & Bitter Magic a stunning standalone fantasy about two witches. Tamsin is an exiled witch who is cursed with the inability to love. In order to experience fleeting moments of this, she trades her magic for her customer’s love. Wren is a source, a person who is made of magic, with the inability to use it herself. When a plague sweeps through their kingdom, Wren’s father ends up with the plague. Wren makes a deal with Tamsin to hand over her love of her father in exchange for Tamsin’s help to catch the dark witch who caused the plague.

The story is told from both Wren and Tamsin’s perspective, and I love how full of life these characters are. I am a major fan of books with witches, magic, and curses, and I fell in love with this story instantly. The romance is wholesome and adorable. It’s not a major plot point and I appreciated the balance.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a digital review ARC of this book via NetGalley!!

I wanted to love this book, but it had a handful of issues that made it end up being just an okay read for me. It started out slow, and then at the end it felt like it sort of wrapped up suddenly and I didn't feel as satisfied as I hoped. It has a slow-burn romance that was enjoyable, and I enjoyed the two points of view, but at times it was confusing and difficult to remember whose point of view we were on.

There was a very intriguing, menacing, powerful character introduced that felt like it was going to really enhance the story, but then the character randomly just disappeared and was only mentioned again once in passing, which thoroughly annoyed me, it felt like such a missed opportunity. In fact there were several characters who seemed like they would have had a lot to offer the story but instead they appeared for a short time, just long enough for me to feel like I wanted to know more about them, and then they disappeared again.

The magic system was mostly nice, but occasionally there were bits that didn't quite make sense. The wording of the novel was also lovely at times, but other times I had to re-read sentences several times to figure out what it was trying to say.

Also it had one of those moments that always drive me crazy where two people were in the middle of what would have been a terrifying, run for your lives, situation but they stopped to notice how much they wanted to kiss.

Overall it's probably about a 2.5 star read for me, the premise was intriguing but it didn't end up working for me.

This is one of those books I was really excited for. Witches, great summary, queer and a beautiful cover. There was a lot of excitement for me when I started this book because as a bi woman I love a good f/f novel. And I was very excited for this one. As I said, there were a lot of things going for it that I thought I would like. Witches are some of my favorite paranormal books to read, and I love a good queer fantasy book. There were some aspects of this book that didn’t wow me, but honestly, overall, the book was a good one.

First off, Tooley is a good writer. The writing style in this book was lovely and I think it suited them theme/idea of the book all the way through. It all felt very melded together. It worked well and kept me reading through the entire book. This was a dual POV book of Tamsin and Wren, alternating chapters between them as we learn both their stories. The POVs were different enough that it wasn’t hard to tell the differences between the two characters. They were both individualistic enough that they stood out distinctly. This was a huge benefit for the book.

The pacing of the book is what is going to be a bit of a problem for some people, and to an extent was a bit of a problem for me. I really like slow paced books. There is something about them, about the meandering journey that can be really pleasurable to experience for a reader. And this book was that. It was a slow journey, very drawn out especially the first 50% of the book. And for me, the beginning was slow but interesting. It was a lot of investment. There's a part where they’re traveling that was slow for me in the wrong way.

The plot of the book is interesting, and I think there is something to be said for the idea of dark vs light that this book has, as well as curses. There are interesting parts to it. We are told one thing at the very beginning of the book, and at about 50% a “plot twist” happens. Honestly, the plot twist wasn’t very surprising to me. I'd figured it out a while back. But while it wasn’t surprising it didn’t make it a bad book. Just different. Would I have liked the plot twist to be a little different? Maybe? But it tied in really well with the thematic element of family. Which is part of Tamsin’s story.

Tamsin’s story is a little darker than Wren’s in some aspects. And you have the two opposites attract, enemies to lovers thing going on with them. Their romance is very, very, very slow burn. Like there isn’t a trace of insta-love in this book. So if you don’t like insta-love you don’t have to worry about that in this one. This is one of the things the book does really well, it has great relationships in it. I think the relationships were some of the best parts of the book.

Because at times it feels like the characters sometimes felt a little flat. Not overwhelmingly slow, but every so often and I can’t tell if that was intentional or not because of Wren and Tamsin’s pasts.
This book wasn’t that heavy on info-dumping but I actually might have liked a little more in the book itself. Just because magic was often really talked about, but we don’t really see all that much of it. We get hints of what this world is like, but I felt it wasn’t terribly well established. But as a standalone it doesn’t necessarily need to be.

Overall, this was a slow paced, sweet queer love book. It was enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book. While it wasn't a new favorite or anything groundbreaking, it was a fun time with two characters that I enjoyed.

I really liked the idea of being cursed to not feel, but I think it was a difficult undertaking as there were inconsistent moments throughout the book.

I enjoyed the magic, especially since I am a sucker for when magic has consequences!

The "big bad" was an easy guess for me right from the beginning, but there was 1 moment that did surprise me, I enjoyed that for sure.

The writing was well done and straight forward, it was a pretty fast pace, and the romance was good as well!

All in all, a good book and I would read a sequel.

Sweet & Bitter Magic is important for libraries and classrooms to have. I'm starting with that as an introductory sentence because it does a lot for YA literature today. I'm sure there are many who won't agree, viewing the novel as a simplistic, slightly dry fantasy novel, but they're missing the core of what this book does and how it does it so well. Today's YA fantasy novels are heavy: introducing massive worlds, insane magic systems, complex names, and everything typically fantasy and difficult for a first time fantasy reader. In a world where we're aiming for diverse accessible reads, what better way to bring someone. especially a queer reader, into the fantasy world than with a novel like this. In no way does the novel dumb down the fantasy genre for the reader. It introduces it and adds to it, creating a type of witch we don't often see, but one that wholeheartedly makes sense. We're also introduced to two main characters who are raw, both in their abundance of feelings and lack of feelings, respectively. Each has their own motive for their actions and, in this world, neither is in the wrong. All actions, even negative ones, are justified. It addresses the morals of what we do well, all while, again, in a fantasy world that is highly accessible and easy to understand.

We get to the climax, which is raw and emotional, coming through the other side begging to be healed. Adrienne Tooley does something I found absolutely brilliant: she gives us that time to heal. The characters are able to process what has happened to them, what scars were left behind, and how to move on, hopefully together. It tugs heavily at your heartstrings and is the moment authors usually leave behind, substituting it for the touching fade to black sort of ending where everything seems happy, but the reader never knows for sure that it truly is. I've told everyone I know that it's one of the sweetest endings I've ever read. The type of romance that's plausible and that we, as humans, dream of. I hope everyone sees this book for the perfection it is. I'm looking forward to reading more from Adrienne Tooley in the future, as this was such a wonderful debut!