This is a sweet cozy witchy romance. It’s got maybe 1/2 peppers of spice. There is queer representation, breaking gender norms, and grief and loss addressed. This sweet story will give you all the feels so enjoy the ride.

# The Honey Witch
# 5/28/2024 ~ 6/2/2024
# 4.5 / 5.0

The Honey Witch was one of my most anticipated releases of this year. Thinks sapphic witchy cottage-core but add in forbidden love. I loved it so much I can't even remember what it was about. It was like I blacked out reading it but I do remember feelings like I was floating on a cloud. I will re-read to make sure I remember the amazing story of these two ladies.

🐝Grumpy/Sunshine
🐝Unique magic system based on honey
🐝One Bed
🐝 enemies to lovers
🐝 sapphic witchy romance
🐝 “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” vibes

Arc received from the publisher; all thoughts and opinions are my own. I have purchased my own copy.

This was one of my most anticipated releases and it did not disappoint. I love cozy fantasy and this is exactly that! It gives me practical magic, and house on the cerulean sea vibes.

Sydney J. Shields is a new author for me and I enjoyed her writing. This book is filled with magic and reminded me of a fairy tale somewhat.

Description:
The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.

Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.

When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.

My Thoughts:
Marigold is a naive character at the beginning and has a lot to learn from her wise grandmother, the honey witch. Once Marigold finds herself and becomes more confident she is ready to protect the island. I was suspicious of Lottie when she was introduced and her story was surprising. There is a fight between good and evil and you can guess kind of how that will end, as it always does in stories. The curse certainly brings a certain sadness to Marigold's life even though she knew about it before she accepted her charge. I loved the magic in the book and the story is a good one. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys magic, witches, or fairy tales.

Thanks to Redhook Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

Unfortunately, despite loving the premise of the book, it was a disappointment. This Practical Magic meets Bridgerton seemed to have everything I wanted in a romance/fantasy book, but it fell short.

The pace of the book was inconsistent and I felt like it lacked some crucial world building. Everything happened so fast in the beginning that I failed to get attached to the characters the way I should have and the plot twist was painfully predictable.

The final confrontation didn't make me fear for any of the character's lives and it was way too short, crammed into the last pages of the book. I would've liked for this tension to appear before, for Marigold to struggle more and for the enemies to lovers romance to have been more complicated.

Perhaps this book would have been better as a two-part series.

That being said, I will keep an eye open for this author's next book as I am sure she can still surprise me ! 🐝

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

This very much gave me bridgerton vibes (at least from what I seen of the series thus far) but add a little bit of magic!
I genuinely enjoyed the concept of generational curses, I will say I guessed that twist very early on and I did find myself wondering when our FMC was going to figure it out. BUT also I get it girlie was going through a lot.

If you can't stand the insta love trope this might not be a good fit for you. A common theme I found in this book was that the people around our FMC were looking for their soulmates and immediately swooning over each other. The characters are very eccentric. There is one couple that really upset me for reasons I cannot say without spoiling the story, but let's just say people easily changing the course of their life for love with hardly a thought for friends/family drives me crazy.

The spice, oh my goodness. When we hit the spice I was literally blushing. The scene was so intense.

The magic system was also pretty cool with honey witches and ash witches. I thought the explanation on it the early stages of the book made a lot of sense.

Anyway if you want a book that'll make you laugh, blush, cry. This is a good one.

I DNF’d this book at the 25% mark. Let me start off by saying the cover is gorgeous, and most likely the reason for the high expectations that came with this read. It started off strong, the first few chapters proving a charming insight to the main character and setting. I especially loved the spunk and independence of the MC. That being said, this all fell off for me after the initial introduction. I started getting bored, for lack of a better term, with the storyline once the MC left with her grandmother, and I could not for the life of me make myself continue to pick this book up to read. It took me several weeks to get from 10 to 25% and with so many books on my TBR right now I just have to put this one aside. Sometimes books just don’t jive with readers at certain times in their lives, and this was that for me. I am going to add this to my list of possible re-visits, however, because I so badly want to love this. It’s a no for me at the moment, but a strong maybe for later once I’ve regrouped.

Do you like cozy fantasies? If so, I think you're really going to like The Honey Witch.

When Marigold is taken under her grandmother's wing on the magical island of Innisfree, she discovers that in exchange for her newfound power, she can never find true love. When a red-headed skeptic named Lottie visits the island, and a darker magic threatens her new home, Marigold's heart and magic are put to the test.

For the most part, this is a low stakes story focused on friendship, self-discovery, and a deliciously sweet sapphic romance. We do get some external conflict at the end of the book, but this mostly explores the internal conflict Marigold experiences in her new Witch role and her mixed feelings over her love curse (and the fiesty Lottie).

The world felt like a mix of Practical Magic and regency romance, and was described in such beautiful, lyrical language. I loved just sitting in this world and watching Marigold tend to her bees, make her potions, and go to pretty balls.

The ending/villain felt a bit rushed/high stakes for the slower pace of the rest of the story, but the plot wasn't what I was there for anyway.

I adored the grumpy-sunshine romance and the angst the curse brought, the adorable side characters, and the overall cozy vibes.

Read if you like:
🦋 Nature magic
✨️ Lush writing
🔮 Love spells & curses
🐝 Found family
🔥 Passionate and protective leading ladies

Thank you so much to @netgalley & @orbitbooks_us for the e-ARC!

This was such a cozy breath of fresh air and I was left positively giddy! I was also left desperately seeking a cottage in the woods to craft some potions in so if you need me I’ll be scouring Airbnb.

You’ll love this too if you’re into:
✨ Immaculate cottagecore vibes
✨ Swoony sapphic romances
✨ Lovely friendships
✨ Breaking curses
✨ Unique magic systems

Thank you so much to Redhook and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

What a delightful lesbian witch book! I did not know it was sapphic when I requested it but boy it just added to its charm. It was whimsical, cosy, heartwarming and heartbreaking all in one. Well done!

What a unique and fun take on witches and magic. I really enjoyed this one. I loved Marigold and Lottie. They are both such well done characters and are a perfect grumpy sunshine romance. I loved the plot and felt like the pacing was well done. There is some time for Marigold to get to know herself as a witch before the plot ramps up, which I really enjoyed. After reading this book I want to raise my own bees on an island. I also really enjoyed the descriptions, I felt like I could taste the honey cakes and see the various settings in my head. This was such a well done debut and I can’t wait to see what else this author does

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book at the beginning…. But the further I got into it the more amazing it was. This was such a unique witchy book…. Probably my favorite witchy world I have ever read. Everything about this book is absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to read whatever she decides to write next 🥰

What a wonderful cozy fantasy! This book combined historical fiction with nature magic of both honey and ash. It has such rich descriptions of nature and food that you really felt like you could see, taste, and smell it. Multiple love stories with the main couple being a take on the grumpy sunshine trope. The author seamlessly included LGBTQIA representation in a historical setting. Even though I loved the cozy vibes of this book there were high stakes for the characters and I sometimes wanted them to care more about the impending danger. The climax of the book could have used more fleshing out as it felt a bit rushed. Overall I will think back to this book with fondness and would read more about this world. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Love witch stories of healing and helping. Marigold who we meet in a ballroom though she's a bit wild compared to the other young ladies. Luckily she is called away to help and learn from her grandmother. So many things her mother didn't tell her.
Her friend from her youth she reconnects with but he has other friends that don't believe in magic. Lottie is a pretty big skeptic. But over time and a wager she starts to believe. And they both start to catch feelings, even though Marigold is cursed to never love.
I wasn't expecting that ending. Love the soulmate spell and how it worked. Love that marigold tended the land and had to maintain her runes to protect herself and the spirits of the land.
There was some friskiness but not too much.
The magic in this book was so natural and I don't think I've heard of Honey and Ash witches.
Def cozy, cottage core, island living, queer, natural remedies, curses, one bed, and soulmates.

Thank you redhookbooks for the gifted book

3 Stars

The idea of this story was a good one however it was just too long and drawn out. I found the characters very likeable and the setting seemed beautiful. I just got really bored reading it. It took so long to get to anything after the first half of the book. I had to start skimming the second half to find out what happens and finish the book. It would of been great if it wouldn't of drawn out so much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook books for the opportunity to read this book.

One of the most unique stories I have ever read! In the most real way, The Honey Witch is wholesome, magical, and whimsical. If you are a lover of romance, magic, and fantasy, you MUST read this novel by Sydney J. Shields. They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but The Honey Witch is as comforting and delicate as the beautiful cover designs. A true story of female empowerment, slowburn romance, and familial bonds. As a bonus, I loved the Taylor Swift easter eggs!! Cozy perfection all around.

I have ended up purchasing this book because Sydney Shields is a bee keeping angel queen.i don’t even know if it will be good but the amount of research I know went into this belonging to the bees.

Okay, I’m going to say it…was this 5 stars because it was a good story that I had a rather fun time reading? Yes. Were there still plot points and twists that I saw come about 100 pages before they were revealed? Also, yes. But it still didn’t make the reading experience less enjoyable.

I think The Honey Witch is the perfect late spring/early summer read. Much like spring showers giving way to summer storms, this book has its light and cute moments balanced with those looming dark clouds that then just rush in and unleash their chaos over everything.

The characters were interesting, and I enjoyed getting to know them. I feel like we could have gotten a little more about the magic system. Now, this could be because I read a whole lot of fantasy and I’m used to rich, deep, intricate magic systems, but this one was only given a basic structure and the rest was more vague, so it’s definitely more of a soft magic system than a hard one. Which is fine, but I’m a greedy fantasy fan and I want to fully immerse myself in the magical world and learn how it all works. I’m not going to punish a book for not giving me all that information though, because I still really enjoyed it.

Also, honestly, I would have liked to get more with Marigold’s family (maybe a companion novel in the future?). I especially enjoyed her brother and wanted more about that. And, I would enjoy a prequel type story that goes more into her parents’ story, and even her grandmother’s tale.

I read this book very quickly, and though I could predict quite a few of the twists long before their reveal, I still was enveloped by the story and disappeared into it easily, flipping the digital pages rapidly, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and to see if my predictions would be correct. It was a fun reading time, and finishing it was a sad time, because it meant the story was over and I had to leave the world of honey witches and ash witches behind.

Honey Witch is such a lovely story. From the very beginning there is a cozy, and warm cottagecore vibe that carries through the whole book. The magic system was unique and so deeply rooted in nature that it complimented the feel of the book.

It’s a story about love, loss, magic, and holding on to those we love. I adored this book.

Highly recommend if you are looking for a cozy and whimsical witchy book.

I really enjoyed this. This was sweet, whimsical, atmospheric and written very well. I am very impressed with this debut, and how vibrant and lush the imagery in this book was. This book, while having dark dramatic moments, felt like a warm spring breeze on a summer day, and I always looked forward to picking it up and reading more. Overall, this was one of the best debuts I've read in a while and I will definitely be picking up her next book.