I went into this book completely blind and I'm glad for it. Going off just the title I felt like it was going to be an interesting read. Starting with the growth of Ava and Kaye. It felt very fluid for both characters. Ava's attempt to get out from under her mother's thumb felt very much like real life. It was relatable in Ava loved her mom, but still wanted to be her own person. Kaye's growth took a lot. She frustrated me, but in a way that everyone has been in her situation at some point in time. Her struggle in seeing that not everything is as it seems was a big part of her growth journey.

The LGBT+ representation was something innocent and felt youthful in a positive way. It was that innocence of discovering you feelings towards your best friend and being very much conflicted, especially on Kaye's side. I loved that it wasn't the main focus, but it was organically part of Ava and Kaye's story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, Wednesday Books, Francesca Flores, Bailey Carr (narrator), and Mary Helen Gallucci (narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of The Witch and the Vampire in exchange for an honest review.

Ava and Kaye are witches and the best of friends. That is, until a vampire attack leads to the death of Kaye's mother and Ava being turned. Two years later, Kaye only ever sees Ava in her window, and she suspects her former friend is the one responsible for her mother's death.

Ava retains her abilities as a witch, but Eugenia, her mother, needs to acquire said powers to conceal her own identity as a vampire. In a bid to evade her captivity and thwart her mother's scheme to ruin the town, Ava needs to flee, abscond to the woods, and request aid from the resident vampires and their leader. When yet another attack happens, she seizes the chance and breaks free from her Rapunzel-like tower.

As Kaye nears the completion of her Flame witch apprenticeship, her obligation to eliminate any vampires that pose a danger to the town, including Ava, becomes imminent. When Ava manages to escape, Kaye tracks her down and proposes that they venture into the forest together, with a hidden agenda of surrendering her to the authorities. Ava accepts the offer, aiming to reignite their previous friendship and the romantic attachment that had blossomed between them before their relationship went awry.

Kaye questions her teachings and everything she knows about vampires as she travels with her former friend. The instincts of the vampire and the witch will shine through, and loyalties will be shown through their very natures.

A testament to friendship, family, romance, and loyalty to one's teachings play leading roles in the lives of Ava and Kaye. With alternating first-person perspective chapters, ( with two brilliant narrators for the audiobook version) this book makes for a great paranormal novel for a  young adult audience and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

A wonderful read. There was so much action I couldn’t believe the story kept on going, there wasn’t a dull moment. We follow the story of Ava, a root witch who was turned into a vampire against her will, and Kaye, a flame witch who has been taught to hate and kill vampires her entire life. Ava and Kaye were best friends before Ava was turned. Ava escapes from her mother a realizes she wasn’t the only one her mother wanted to harm. At this realization Ava and Kaye are forced to work together in order to save themselves as well as those around them. Along the way Ava and Kaye face many trials and tribulations that call into question their thoughts and beliefs, no only of one another, but of themselves. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of witches, vampires, forced proximity, friends to enemies to lovers, and fantasy. The audiobook was very well done and had two narrators who did a lovely job bringing Ava and Kaye to life.

Ugh this cover is so cute but that’s the only good thing about this book. The pacing is off and I was pretty bored for most of the time. I was ready for cute romance but I didn’t really buy it. Both characters were not really likable. By the time it started picking up, it just felt too late for me.

So sad as I wanted to love this but thank you so much to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

This cover - gasp! The plot - creative and queer. Witches and Vampires? Unfortunately this awesome combination did not inspire my enjoyment of this book.
Ava - forced to become a vampire to save her mother
Kaye - trained to kill vampires to avenge her mother's death
Two long time friends - and maybe something more.
It was a struggle to finish - plot was all over the place.

i know we aren’t supposed to judge them by it, but the first thing that struck me about this book was the gorgeous cover and i think it would be amiss not to at least mention how beautiful it is.

i didn’t really enjoy the first half of this book, but it grew on me. the romance between the two main characters that at first felt clunky, became natural and the characters themselves became gradually more likeable. the worldbuilding was weak in some aspects but incredibly well thought out in others, leaving me unsure of what to think about it.

overall, i think this had its flaws and dull patches but was a powerful tale of overcoming abuse, embracing your own inner power, and love.

2.5/3 stars

I was so excited to started this book because it was one of my most anticipated reads and a queer rapunzel retelling?!?! Yes please but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations; and I think that was part of the problem because i had such high expectations I tricked myself.
Now, the story is more Tangled than Rapunzel and still its very surface level.
The world building and magic systems were fine but it definitely needed more improvement, especially in the showing rather than telling part. The characters told us things that happened or were to happen but we didn't see/read it and I really wanted to.
Also the romance (aside only a few scenes) felt very juvenile and I get its YA but still I wanted more romantic things between our main characters.
Now... our mcs I wish we knew more about them for living the experiences they went through with them rather than they telling us about it I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't connect with either of them and that made me sad.
Still I enjoyed the story for what it was and I feel this was a good book overall.

Narrators were fantastic and the audiobook felt very atmospheric.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This is a YA/middle grade-leaning sapphic fantasy romance retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale. Just add vampires and witches. It has the friends to enemies to lovers trope, found family, and is largely a coming of age tale about finding yourself. I think if I were in my early teens, I would've eaten this up and been completely obsessed with it. So if you need a tween-friendly queer fantasy romance option - this is great book for that. There's some info-dumping and the villains are laughable caricatures, but ultimately the story isn't about them. The audiobook was fairly enjoyable minus the villain exposition.

rep: sapphic mcs
Rating: 3.25 stars

I really loved the concept of this book and that a witch could also be a vampire. I never really see these two being combined, so I really enjoyed that aspect. It’s also a Rapunzel retelling. I love fantasy books with vampires, magic and all kinds of mythical creatures, so I was very excited for this queer book. Especially after seeing that beautiful cover.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The characters felt very young. I think this book is more for younger teens, so maybe I just wasn't the demographic for it. Although I am 24 and do read a lot of YA. I guess I just expected it to be more upper YA, but maybe it’s just on me for not looking more into it. I’m sure a lot of teenagers would resonate with the characters. I did to a certain degree, but some stuff was just painful to read.

I have seen multiple Jewish reviewers talk about theharmful antisemitic tropes (blood libel)in this book. I am not Jewish, so please go read those reviews for a better explanation than I can give. Be aware of this going in.

Ava’s mom and stepfather were terrible people. I hated them so much. They actively manipulative, kidnapped and abused her for their own personal gain. I just wanted Ava to finally stand up to her mom and tell her off, but every time she was about to, she didn’t. I just wanted to yell at her.

The two main characters were pretty similar to me. I liked that they each had a different narrator, but it still wasn’t enough for me to differentiate them sometimes. More than once I forgot which POV I was in.

The cover is gorgeous and the narrators did a good job.

Overall, it was okay but nothing outstanding. If you enjoy middle grade/lower YA books, then give this a try, as I think that’s more the intended audience.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook ARC. I was SO excited to jump right into Ava and Kaye's story based on the book description. First things first, the narrators are lovely. Great delivery and pleasant voices that draw you into the scene while you listen and visualize. I do think that if I had been reading versus listening, I may have struggled to get through the beginning of the story. There was too much info dumping and showing versus telling. The narration helped me connect with some of the more character-driven aspects of the plot . I am a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope, so I enjoyed the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers dynamic (and a huge YES for strong female heroines and LGBTQ+ representation) between the love interests. The supporting characters and antagonists didn't feel as fully fleshed as I would have liked, especially Ava's mother and stepfather. It made me feel more or less that they existed as more or less a one-dimensional plot mechanism, All in all, a decent story with a ton of potential that could perhaps benefit from more editing for structure and nuance.

I received an ALC (advanced listener copy) of this audiobook from Netgalley.

I am a huge fan of Vampires in general so I was excited to give this book a chance and I will say I really enjoyed it. Some of the world building was lacking but the character development makes up for it in a big way.

I truly felt the friendship and deep connection between Ava and Kaye.
Friends who are both witches then Ava vanishes only she is held captive for 2 years and when she escapes she runs to the forest to the Vampire Queen only in doing so she comes across Kaye who is very much her enemy now because Kaye believes Ava is a blood sucking vampire that killed her mother.

I love the fact that Ava thought she has been through it, and keeps a level head. She doesn’t want to be evil or hurt anyone. So she is just herself and in being herself Kaye kind of comes around to seeing that Ava is still the Ava she knew just different.

Their connection gets stronger as the book progresses and it’s a sweet journey. The book is pretty fast paced and I enjoyed that, we don’t have to wait long to get answers or for the action to happen.

I would completely recommend this book if you like witches or vampires. It's an interesting take on the Rapunzel retelling as well.

I found the narration to be pretty great, they both gave emotion and depth to their characters. It was easy to get lost in this world.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this AudioBook in exchange for an honest review.

🎧 Narration: Dual narration and POV. Both narrators did a good job portraying each character. 🎧🎧🎧🎧

🕮 The Story: I love the cover and overall ideal for this book. I was really excited to read this Sapphic Rapunzel retelling – Tangled, actually – with a witch and a vampire. Unfortunately, the execution of this concept fell short.

My main issue with this story is the constant info-dump, the pacing and often being told things are happening but not being shown. The characters felt one-dimensional, and a lot of the motivations and choices didn’t make much sense. I didn’t find any of the characters likeable. Not one.

Though I tried to understand Ava’s initial naiveté, it quickly wore off after learning she was only isolated for two years after leaving amongst vampires and witches for most of her life. She should not have been so naïve.

Then there is Kaye, who understandably wanted revenge for the death of her mother, but that lasted all of two minutes after reuniting with Ava. As they reminisce, we are told what great friends they were, but we never see it. Shortly after, we learn who the true villains are, their goals and machinations, and the plot makes even less sense.

Lastly, the magic system, relationship between vampires and witches, and worldbuilding were severely underdeveloped. Witches can be turned into vampires and somehow retain their magic if done at a specific time in their lives, but they still require blood as sustenance. Vampires who were witches can siphon powers from other vampire-witches. We never really learn about the witches’ powers and humans only exist for sacrificial purposes.

Overall, I did not find this book enjoyable. ⭐ ⭐

TW: Abuse, mutilation/torture, experimentation, parental death

I had mixed feelings on The Witch and the Vampire. I was really excited to read a Rapunzel retelling because I've never read any before. Ava and Kaye are both really strong female characters that showed amazing development throughout the story. But the world building was very minimal. I can't even picture the world in my head. The magic system wasn't defined well. The plot, while fast paced, wasn't quite as attention grabbing as I wanted it to be. So while this wasn't a favorite of mine it was still okay.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

NOTE: Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing an Audiobook ARC of the Witch and the Vampire in exchange for an honest review.

Rapunzel is one of my favourite fairy-tales - from the original story, to Disney, to Barbie, I have eaten up any retelling I come across. And with the prevalence of Beauty and the Beast re-tellings, I was BEYOND excited to see a YA Fantasy retelling of our favourite captive princesses.

This dual-POV story is everything that you need in a sapphic friends-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story between a vampire and a vampire-hunting witch.

I love the inclusion of magic-wielding vampires, and the history and lore about how they came to be in this particular world.

Absolutely beautiful and wonderful.

2.5 Stars

What if Repunzel was a witch and her mother turned her into a vampire? Repunzel's best friend is also a witch and lives in the town that Repunzel looks down at from her tower. Her best friend has seen Repunzel in the window of the tower and knows shes a vampire, she also believes that Repunzel killed her mother.

The first half of this was great, I was really enjoying it and I think it is written perfectly for a YA audience (14-16). I was interested in the story line and wanted to keep reading. Once I hit the 60% mark though and explinations/reveals started happening the book lost my attention. The explinations/reveals weren't explained well so it got a bit confusing and felt like there was a shift in the book. Like two different people had written each half and had different ideas on how the story should go. I would be interested in reading more by this author in the future because I think they have some really good ideas and concepts for stories.

This was a fun, quick read! And I mean witches, vampires and Rapunzel vibes plus it’s sapphic…yes please! I think the story and the writing were pretty on par for a standalone YA fantasy. More world building and character development would have been nice and taken the story to the next level, but there’s just not really enough time in a single book to get much deeper. And that was fine, it’s still an entertaining story and I enjoyed reading it.

There was a lot of back and forth with Ava and Kaye’s friends to enemies to lovers arc but I thought they were sweet and I liked them together. I appreciated that there was no spice and that it actually felt like a YA romance - unlike a lot of YA books lately that feel more mature/adult and probably shouldn’t be marketed to younger teens. Sometimes it would jump around a bit from a lot of explanation/telling to some things happening really suddenly without much explanation. And the ending felt a little bit rushed and slightly unexpected…but I did actually really like how everything was wrapped up.

I enjoyed the audiobook narration. Not the most standout performance I’ve listened to but perfectly enjoyable and nothing about it distracted me from the story.

Overall an enjoyable story that probably won’t absolutely suck you in and make you obsessed but will be a fun little break from reality.

The Witch and The Vampire by Francesca Flores is a young adult, queer Rapunzel retelling. A witch and a vampire who were friends, then became enemies, must work together to travel through a dangerous forest, both with their own motives.

I enjoyed this book, but there were some aspects that fell a little flat for me. The entire plot of this book was based around a friendship that was completely destroyed over a sort of tragic miscommunication. Both Kaye and Ava were strong-willed and determined to be independent and reach their final goal. What I wasn't a fan of was their character development. It felt a little rushed for me, and there were some aspects that fell short. I really enjoyed the magic, especially Ava's, and it being one of the reasons her mom kept her locked away.

Some of the twists were great. It had action and world building. I overall enjoyed it, but I wish there was more focus on the character development.

The audio book was good but I felt like both the female main characters sounded similar.

Tw murder, animal death, abuse

Trigger Warnings: Blood, death of a parent, murder, fire, violence, imprisonment, abuse

Representation: Queer, Lesbian

The Witch and the Vampire is a queer retelling of Rapunzel. This fantasy tells the story of used to be best friends, Kaye and Ava, a witch and vampire respectively. Witches and vampires are mortal enemies because vampires kill in order to survive.

Two years ago, the town believes Ava was killed. In reality, her mother has had her locked away to avoid them from learning that she is now a vampire and protect her. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother's plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.

Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.

This book is so beautiful! I want a hard copy just for the artwork! The story itself is a great fantasy world which you can get lost in for the entire day. The book is well written and the audiobook was fun to listen to! I liked the two narrators and thought they both did an excellent job bringing these girls to life.

I don’t know if I would necessarily label this story as a rapunzel retelling but it was still a great read. The story felt more like a queer spin off Twilight, but instead of vampires and werewolves, it’s vampires and witches. I can see why this is marketed as rapunzel but other than Ava being locked away by her mother, it doesn’t read like the fairytale. Overall, this is still a great fantasy read and I’m excited to read the next one!

Thank you NetGalley Dreamscape media the publisher and the author for the #gifted ALC in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this narration and story moved at a great pace and held my attention. Definetly a unique story and cant wait to add this book to my forever shelf.

3.5/5☆

the cover: THIS COVER IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH
FMC: Ava- a Root Witch who was turned into a vampire by her mother as a teen. Her mother and stepfather keep her locked away and keep her witch and vampire powers low by only feeding her small vials of blood and siphoning her witch powers as they grow. After plotting for years, she finally finds the perfect day to escape but vampires attacking the town she grew up in makes her pause to check her old best friend Kaye stays safe.
FMC: Kaye- a Flame Witch who needs to keep herself at the top of her class ever since her mother (a vampire sympathizer) was murdered. Desperate to prove her worth and show whose side she’s on, she tricks her old best friend and childhood crush Ava to follow her to a neighboring town pretending she is leading her to safety… she is only pretending to save her right? Lines get blurred as new sides of Ava come to light and Kaye starts to reevaluate her priorities.
POV: 1st person, dual POV
HEA: yes
spice: no spice, barely-there steam with a couple shared kisses but nothing graphic
TWs: physical abuse of child, mental abuse of child, torture, negligent mother, murder, death of parent, death of animal, kidnapping, bullying, magical speciesism (is that a word? Initial hatred due to species)
standalone: yes
final thoughts: this sapphic friends-to-enemies-to-lovers Rapunzel retelling featuring witches and vampires had me immediately hooked from the title, had me fall in love with the cover, and kept me interested with the storyline! I found the storyline and worldbuilding to be very interesting and easy to follow but there are definitely some “holes” that I feel leave enough movement and clarification for possible future books. I loved the internal push and pull from both girls of wanting what they feel is right for them vs what their families/towns want from them and the character growth was so great to watch.
The audio book was easy to follow with the dual POV and both actors brough plenty of emotion to their role to keep it interesting

read this book if you love
🌈 LGBT+ representation
🤜 rivals-to-lovers
🔮 supernatural creatures- vampires and witches
🪄 magic
💖 paranormal romance
🌍 world building
😳 forbidden lovers (rival species)