I wasn't sure what to expect with The Nature of Witches when I picked it up, but I knew this was Rachel's debut novel, and from what I'd seen of her online, that alone made me excited to read it. I don't always enjoy "witch books," and I'm sensitive to dark magic, but this story doesn't have the dark, creepy feel that often accompanies witchcraft. For that, I was grateful, and happy to read it.

I absolutely got swept up in Clara's story, and couldn't wait to keep reading it. It has a great balance of emotion, interesting world building, and characters that you want to stay with. Clara has a solid growth arc, and I found it so unique to have the witches' magic tied to the sun, nature, and weather. The romance plot line was sweet and emotional without being graphic, and felt true to the characters.

I'm not surprised at all that The Nature of Witches is an instant bestseller. Rachel Griffin's debut is delightful. Looking forward to her next project.

Clara is an Everwitch, the first in almost 200 years. She can do magic throughout all four seasons of the year, while every other witch is tied to one specific season. Clara should love her magic, but because her magic seems to kill everyone she loves, she is afraid of having strong relationships. She believes her magic caused the death of her parents, her best friend, and soon after the book begins, her mentor. She won't let her magic hurt anybody else. Except witches are dying in droves because the climate changes are making seasonal magic almost impossible. Clara is the only one with the power to save these witches, except that she just doesn't want it. She has an impossible choice ahead of her, and not much time to make it.

I wish I could put into words how much I loved this book. It was wonderful. Rachel Griffin did an incredible job with the world building and the magic systems. I loved how the witches were tied to a season, and how Clara as an everwitch (a witch who can do magic in all seasons), was isolated from everyone else at school. The characters were really well-rounded and fleshed out, and Clara herself grew so much throughout the course of the novel. This one was unputdownable for me. It was fantastic. Sang was remarkable, and I loved Clara's complex relationship with Paige. Often I just wanted to hug Clara and tell her it would all be okay. This will be an awesome book for our collection and I know my teens will love it.

CW: There is some fade-to-black sexual content, kissing, etc. There is death of a friend and teacher.

Clara is an Everwitch - the first one in 100 years. This means that she contains the magic of all 4 seasons, and it is a powerful, yet dangerous magic. Clara has lost loved ones due to her magic and now distances herself from everyone, afraid of what could happen if she gets emotionally attached. When a tragedy strikes at the Eastern School of Solar Magic, Clara is ready to leave her magic behind forever. Then she is paired to train with a witch from the Western school, named Sang. As she learns more about her magic, she realizes that she has to make a choice: keep her magic and stay far from others, or lose her magic forever. However, with the world erupting into environmental chaos, she is the only one who can save it.

The Nature of Witches was a fantastic debut novel! I loved the strong female protagonist, Clara, along with her classmates Paige and Sang. I would recommend this book to children.12+
Thank you to #NetGalley and #SourcebooksFire for an ARC copy of #TheNatureOfWitches by #RachelGriffin. 4.5 stars

This book was so cute and heartwarming, I love it! At first, I thought the number of pages wouldn’t be enough, but it was. It was perfect, the length, the story, the character development and the romance was all I could ask for!
Another thing I love about this book is the description of the seasons, I felt like I was there seeing the world changing and the feeling that comes with each season, it was magical!
Thank you Rachel Griffin, you got a new fan now, can’t wait for your next work, I’ll be on the lookout! Also, thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I wanted so much to love this book. I just couldn't care about the main character. The set up of the magical world was also a little sparse. I feel like I would try reading this again but I just couldn't get past the first "season". I just didn't care enough.

Nature of Witches is a lovely book about magic, balance, and the environment. Think Alice Hoffman for YA. Such a fun read!

BOOK REVIEW: The Nature Of Witches by Rachel Griffin

Witches using their magic to fight climate change… And a sweet clean romance too… ✨😎✨

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All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Books, Lifestyle & Home Ideas for Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com

You can see my complete book feature on The Nature Of Witches at https://www.thisismyeverybody.com/books/2021-books-new-books-coming-out-in-2021-june-books-tbr-books

* A big thank you to Rachel Griffin, Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in my reviews and content are my own… ✨😎✨

A beautifully whimsical story about nature, weather and finding your potential. Trusting in yourself and others around you.

I enjoyed Clara and Sang’s relationship, definitely a slowish burn, friends to lovers. It was sweet, gentle and I loved the one part where they communicated through flowers.

I wish we had a little more world building outside of the school and even inside the school. I understand Claras interaction with her classmates is strained because she’s afraid of developing a connection and her magic hurting anyone but I don’t know, I wanted more I guess.

Actual rating 4.5

I seriously loved reading this book.
I loved that the witches from the different seasons actually have different powers and even different temperaments. I really liked that own main character of Clara might have been an Everwitch, but she was not all-powerful. She was still human. And definitely still a teenager.

I was not expecting this to be as heartwrenching as it was. I really loved all the emotions that it brought to the surface. And I loved that we had some very relevant talk about climate change and how it affects the weather.

There were a couple of spots that felt off for me. But now that I have finished the book and it's been a couple of days, I don't even think I can tell you exactly what they were. I definitely need to get a copy for my collection because I can see myself rereading this in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#thenatureofwitches #netgalley

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I'll have to try again at another time.

Thanks to NetGalley & SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows a witch who has all the powers of the seasons, whereas ordinary witches get one season (similar concept to Avatar: The Last Airbender). She has arrived at a time when humankind needs her the most, non-magical humans have messed with the planet's atmosphere and as a result, the seasons are off. Clara is the only one who can bring the world back to the way it was before.

I really tried to enjoy this book but the writing style was NOT for me. The protagonist being self-centered and obnoxious didn't help either. I wanted to fight her...her ex-girlfriend was actually the most reasonable character in the book. The protagonist kept repeating OVER and OVER again "everyone dies and it's my fault" which is fair because it's true but it also got really irritating super quickly.

Not to mention, the insta-love was annoying. I wanted a witch book dangit, and it turned out to be 80% romance...at least the romance interest was sweet, but I really wasn't in the mood for it.

It's disappointing because I really enjoy the concept of seasonal witches, but the writing style really bogged down the good ideas.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a copy of this book!

I went into this book not knowing much about it, just having seen the cover and a brief description on social media. At first, I put the book down after the first 10% because it just wasn't what I had fully expected at all. However, when I picked the book back up, I ended up really getting sucked into the storyline and into Clara's pain and journey, and I wound up really enjoying this book!

The story revolves around Clara, an Everwitch, the only witch of her kind who can experience a magical draw to all four seasons at the appropriate times (normal witches only experience an affinity for one season). Witches are responsible for maintaining the climate and monitoring large storms, but as the climate becomes more erratic, witches are dying or losing their powers, creating a cyclical effect. The correlations to our own crisis are obvious, but the book doesn't feel like its pandering. Most of the story revolves around Clara's journey to learning to understand herself, her past traumas and pain, and tapping into her power.

First and foremost, I love the way that Griffin dives into Clara's trauma and presents her difficulty with relationships honestly. I found her character and her relationships with others to be deeply moving and also realistic. She feels fully realized, and I enjoyed each of her relationships.

The biggest thing for me was that I had to adjust to what this book was and what it was trying to do. While it undoubtedly is tackling a huge, world-changing issue, this is actually a very quiet, personal story. Once I realized that and got wrapped up in it, I really enjoyed the book. I loved the focus on each season, and how they brought different things out in Clara, without things becoming stereotypical.

My biggest gripe was actually just the final ending and "resolution" felt a bit rushed and unearned, and a bit messy. But I enjoyed the book a lot despite that.

Also this book features a prickly winter witch best friend (etc....?) and a sweet spring witch best friend (etc....?) soooo what's not to love?

I would definitely recommend this to my students and use in my classroom library!

What a fantastic idea! Sang was such a great character, just a cinnamon roll of a lad who loved plants! And Paige was just an awesome friend. I've never really seen environmentalism and climate change mixed in with witchcraft. This was a great debut, I'd like to see what Rachel Griffin does next!

It has been common for fans of the Harry Potter series to speculate as to which of the four Houses they would be in if they lived within the world of the famous ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy’. But in Rachel Griffin’s debut novel THE NATURE OF WITCHES, it instead asks if you were a witch but your magic, personality, and power lay within and was determined by a season, would you be a Spring or Summer Witch? Or perhaps you are more suited for life as a Winter or Autumn Witch? In Griffin’s novel, the witches go to the ‘Eastern School of Solar Magic’ instead to train, learn, and hone in on their seasonal magic and abilities. Many times their training classrooms were actually outside in the fields and woods of their farm acreage in the Poconos where they could manipulate the weather, the atmosphere, and the seasonal storms or natural disasters. For in Griffin’s created world, it has reached a breaking point similar to our reality. The atmosphere with its weather and climate are out of control at an unforeseen level. The author is able to cleverly layer the reality of today’s climate change with the fantasy world she built around witches and “shaders” (humans).

However, Rachel’s successful symbolism of overlapping themes and messages for today wrapped in her magical witches doesn’t end there. The ultimate of witches in the book is the Everwitch, who possesses her magic in every season rather than just one season. She can do things no other witch can possess, but their numbers are very very limited. There may only be one Everwitch in a generation, but can even skip generations as well. With environmental issues as well as the Earth’s breaking point mentioned previously, the pressures placed on this generation’s Everwitch, Clara, are at an all time high to harness her strength to establish order in again. Witches are passing away at an alarming rate, depleting all their powers to correct the atmospheric imbalance the shaders have caused. Despite many traumatic errors and harm at times to others as Clara tries to learn to control and direct her abilities with various training exercises and projects, it is revealed the answer lies in working together with the other witches. Isolation for protection and pulling the magic of a particular season’s witch isn’t enough. Through these events in the book, Griffin is able to champion and illustrate another reality of today - our success against today’s world challenges is improved by and paramount to us all working together. Only by using the joint strengths of all of us and not one person isolating or taking over can we truly triumph and save the Earth.

Finally, Griffin keeps the novel fresh and current with Clara’s present and past romances, the former being a male Spring witch Sang and the latter being a female Winter witch Paige. If a reader is still hesitant on if this is the next novel to add to their TBR stack, you may enjoy it if you also enjoyed: the X-men comics/movies, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children book series/movie, The Hunger Games book series/movies, and books by Adrienne Young like Fable. Although you don’t have to take my word for it— this debut novel already made the NYT bestseller list within 2 weeks of its release!!

P.S. For enquiring minds who would like to know more about the author and her heart, Rachel categorizes herself as a Spring witch. On another interesting note, she is now a certified NWS weather spotter. But perhaps the most revealing fact is that for every reader who preordered the book, there was one tree planted by OneTreePlanted in celebration of what Griffin believes for: “At its heart, THE NATURE OF WITCHES is a love letter to the Earth...” Knowing these fun tidbits only further enhances the reader’s immersion into the story’s experience and understanding of its author.

To view the book trailer, clink on below link:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/COQei6TgUiY/?utm_medium=copy_link

This debut novel will stay with you long after reading the final word. So much important facts are packed into the words written by @timesnewrachel - like believing in yourself, accepting and forgiving yourself, global warming and its effects... I cannot wait for my physical copy to arrive later this month!

When was the last time you read a book slowly because you loved the characters, the plot, and the writing so much that you didn't want the story to end.

I didn't read the synopsis, just the book title and cover drew me in. So, I'm not going to say much about the plot, except that I'm sure we all feel like Clara at least once in our lives - lost, hopeless, weak, scared. But the beauty of this story is that Rachel gave her hope, love, patience, and courage, even when she didn't have it.

I really liked this book! I loved Clara's journey to self discovery and the development of her relationship with Sang. It took a while to read as my tablet kept getting "borrowed" but I also wasn't driven to finish it. I recomend it!

I have been looking forward to this book for a while! I loved both The Flatshare and the Switch. I also really enjoyed reading this one, though it wasn't quite as good as the Flatshare for me. Overall though I still really enjoyed the read. I loved the quirky cast of characters and I loved how humorous the book was. The way the story was told, with THEN and NOW chapters was really well done. This story was a sweet heartwarming read with a lot of laughs and I definitely recommend it!

I'm conflicted about this book.

On the one hand, the premise was fascinating, and the magic system unique. And while it took quite a few chapters to get invested in this story, once it had my attention, it certainly kept it. This is a fun, easy read, and for a debut novel, Rachel Griffin has done an excellent job.

But I wasn’t fully satisfied with the main characters. I felt that the way Clara in particular makes her decisions and forms her thoughts throughout the novel was almost startlingly one-dimensional and simplistic.

And keeping this vague so that I don’t spoil anything, I felt that her love interest, the other main character, was too much of a “perfect guy”. Not in terms of being all powerful or any of the usual pitfalls, but the fact that he didn’t really have any flaws felt unnatural to me.

The one character who felt fully fleshed out to me was Paige, a side character. I hope to see more from her in the future!

I think, perhaps, that I was the incorrect audience for a book like this. This book description grabbed my attention by boasting a fantasy novel themed around seasonal magic. And while it was, in fact, a fantasy novel themed around seasonal magic, it felt less like a fantasy/adventure novel to me and more like a romance with fantastical elements. And I do enjoy fantasy novels that have elements of romance in them, but this was a bit too deeply focused on romance at the exclusion of other elements for me.

3.5 stars from me. I think that from someone who enjoys romance novels more than I do, this book would get at least a 4.

(Posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4093773407)

The writing of this really wasn't working for me. I didn't end up getting very far because the style of prose made an otherwise fun sounding story, uninteresting.

3.5 stars.

This was a comfortable read with a unique premise and a lot of room for a series continuation should the author be interested. It had a very interesting magic system that manages the earth's weather and other natural characteristics. There was an environmental undertone that wasn't totally overbearing, but did definitely come through as an allegory and something of an opinion piece. Some may be turned off by this approach, but I found it interesting.

The primary characters are fairly well constructed and their interactions feel mostly genuine, though there is a bit of instalove. The supporting characters could definitely be fledged out more and are a good portion of the reason that a series possibility exists. There is a lot in this world that could be explored and there is a lot more of the magic school that could be utilized as well. It's a bit of a treasure trove of imagination.

My primary issues with this book that prevented it from being rated higher were pacing and plot development. The pacing was a little bit slow due to some repetitious events in the plot that made things sometimes feel as if we were spinning in circles. There was a bit of monotony there that felt like the author was trying a bit too hard to get some points across rather than trusting the reader to fill in the blanks. The plot itself was overall good, but seemed a bit too restrained. There was so much more that could have been done with this premise that it felt like the story just didn't go far enough. Again, this is a reason why I think a series is a possibility.

Overall, a quick and comfortable read. Definitely not a bad debut and I think that Griffin is one to watch. She has a creative flare that is outside the norm and I think her writing could go in some fun directions.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *