Spice Rating: 3/5

This was such a comfort read. Even though it has some high stakes and so much emotional pain, the predictability of the plot let me enjoy the characters and really relax into the magic. I am left wanting more, and hope that there is potentially a book two with how the end shapes the practice and the contrasting types of magic. Yes that's vague but honestly giving anymore gives it away.

Witches are basically an accepted part of the world build which is lovely. You've got Marigold, the girl who marches by the beat of her own drum, with talent running through her family. The classic parent trying their best to protect while getting in the way of fate. All great troupes that really shine with this authors elegant way of writing.

Viewing the world through Marigolds eyes is a treat. Her excitement about her new found life, while also being sad for the life she left is bittersweet. She's determined, caring and hard headed. The spine on magic is so unique, I loved each detail we get as Marigold learns more about herself and the world.

The various characters and plot come together in a way that while predictable is very enchanting. It's classic, but with a new breath of sweetness. These star crossed lovers have to overcome so much to find their happy ending and it's an enjoyable ride. Every character gets a true ending, as they are all fully developed no matter how small a role they play in Marigold's plot.

Lottie is Marigold opposite in personality and how she handled the troubles of her youth. These characters play off each other so well. Sparking anger and frustrations, while also easing into vulnerabilities and personal growth they both desperately need. It's just lovely. I cried, laughed, and cursed along with both of them.

You'll love this book if you enjoy cottage core, cozy fantasy, and Sapphic witches.

The Honey Witch is an incredible love story - that follows Marigold on her journey from misunderstood to powerful.

Marigold never met society’s standards, and she was known around town as the misfit, the one who didn’t belong. So when she finally finds her place on her grandmother’s isle as the new Honey Witch, the curse bestowed upon her seems no big deal. She has never found love before, so being cursed to be unable to won’t be that bad…right? But when Marigold meets Lottie, it’s clear feelings are there that once seemed impossible. And as dark magic lurks and threatens the isle and everyone’s safety, Marigold has to believe in love and magic if she’s going to survive.

I really loved this story. It was just the right amount of witchy spell casting, but it incorporated the beauty and power of nature to blend a perfect mix. I loved the characters - each having a range of emotions and traits that make them unique to the story. I felt like every character we experienced brought something to the plot, bringing us forward.

I adored Lottie and Marigold as a couple - both characters are incredibly strong, passionate, and their insecurities and short comings are relatable and real to the reader. I wish we had seen more of them together - the ending especially felt a little rushed but overall they’re great.

I would definitely check out another book by this author - I loved the beauty of the text and the world she created for these characters.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to review Honey Witch! Overall while I found the book difficult to get into, the reward paid off with a very beautiful story with well developed characters and an especially wonderful setting I would love to visit.

4.5 stars rounded up. Sapphic witchy fun!

Marigold is having a miserable time in Society, but luckily, she has a witch for a grandmother! She comes to save Marigold from her unsatisfying life and train her up as a Honey Witch. This role is essential to keep the Island of Innisfree healthy and thriving, and Mari has little time to learn it before her grandmother passes... One catch to this magical life: Mari will never find true love! But she doesn't care about that pah! Oh until she meets her old friend and his beautiful, grumpy bestie Lottie.

Cozy fantasy vibes to the max, and the nature of magic in this story is so delightful!

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC.

The Honey Witch is an absolutely gorgeous story following Marigold, a self proclaimed wild woman, who doesn't feel she fits in. Rather than going to balls and wearing fancy gowns, Marigold wants to runt through fields under the full moon. Everything changes when her grandmother shows up with news about her family history.

This was a beautifully written story that did many things including exploring grief, finding found family, queer love, and asking "why love" when people may not stay in our lives forever.

As you may be able to tell, while the setting and vibe of this story is very cottagecore and cozy, the plot is uncozy in ways similar to Can't Spell Treason Without Tea. So prepare yourself for some tough stuff - the author listed CWs/triggers on Goodreads if you want to check that out.

Ultimately - THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK OF 2024 so far, and I've read nearly 90 books since January. I'm so deeply grateful for NetGalley and Redhook Books for the eARC. As a person who doesn't buy a ton of books, I think I'm going to need to save up for a physical copy because I know I'll want to read this again and again. Forever a Sydney J. Shields fan now!

A literary feast of love and enchantment, with prose as sweet as honey cake.

"The Honey Witch" transports readers to a whimsical world where sapphic romance blooms amidst the poetic ambiance of a cottagecore magical apothecary nestled on a serene island.

The prose is as enchanting as the setting itself, inviting readers to delve beyond the storyline and into introspective realms. Each character, even those initially challenging to embrace, gradually reveals layers that evoke empathy and understanding. I found myself eagerly anticipating moments to highlight and savor upon receiving my physical copy. The dynamic between sunshine and grumpiness, though not my usual preference, was expertly portrayed and surprisingly endearing.

Experiencing "The Honey Witch" in both early reading and audio formats proved equally delightful. While initially uncertain about the audio narration, I soon found it complemented the narrative beautifully, enhancing my immersion in the magical tale.

The Honey Witch of Innisfree uses her magic and her bees to help anyone who may need some assistance. Be it to find their soulmate, to heal an injury, to bring plants back to life, and she may even use it when she's lonely and just wants some friends.

I rated this book 3/5 stars. I did like the book but I feel like it was very predictable as to what was going to happen, especially between the love interests in the book as well as the plot. I also felt like the MFC was a little whiny in the beginning and wanted everyone around her to help her without communicating that to them, so it was hard for me to feel attached to this character right from the beginning.

I did enjoy the romance and I really enjoyed the unique magic system that is used in the book, although I wish it there was a little more explaining of how the honey magic works exactly. There were times I felt as if nothing was happening and that did not make me want to continue reading, but I liked the plot enough that I had to figure out how it ends. The way it is written also seems like it's just a list of things that are happening rather than telling a story that I can picture.

Another big thing that felt unexplained was how the curse made the love interest sick every time she tried to kiss her/get near her/ etc, but yet other witches were able to have babies just fine it seems.

This book just didn't stand up to the exciting premise unfortunately. I am thankful to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Honey Witch is a sweet, buzzy sapphic cottagecore fantasy dream. It feels like one of those YouTube videos where you’re following a woman in a floaty white dress through a field of wildflowers.

Marigold is the new honey witch, cursed to never have anyone fall in love with her. Her island home of Innisfree is idyllic and beautiful, granting long life to its inhabitants due to the honey magic Mari bestows on it. When she reconnects with an old friend August, Mari meets his adopted sister Lottie and her feelings grow, despite Lottie’s skepticism of magic.

Until Mari’s island is attacked and she learns that there’s more to Lottie than expected, and maybe they can break the curse together.

As I said above, this is a cottagecore fantasy, so it has the relatively slow/easy pacing and coziness of that sort of vibe. Which is sort of the purpose of the genre, IMO. (The final few chapters do NOT hold to that, so be aware. I won’t spoil anything, but it’s pretty tense in comparison to the rest of the book.)

This was a delightful fantasy read! I received an advanced copy for review. Thanks to NetGalley and Redhook books for the ARC!!

The Honey Witch was one of my most anticipated 2024 reads and thankfully it didn’t disappoint.
It was such a magical and witchy romance that I fell in love with. I loved these characters so much.
I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!
Wow. Just wow. This book was absolutely enthralling! It has been a while since I’ve stayed up late just to keep reading, and this book definitely had me. I could not put it down! The magic system was so much fun and getting to know Marigold as she comes into her power was like getting to know a friend! I did predict the plot pretty early on, but predictability isn’t always a bad thing! It was comforting in a way that the story played out exactly how I thought it would. I can absolutely see this book becoming a comfort read! I would highly recommend The Honey Witch to anyone looking for a magical story filled with LGBTQ+ representation and found family!

DNF at 38%

I was so disappointed by this outcome because this book was one of my most anticipated debuts of this year. I think that the premise of this book was excellent and very promising. However, the execution just didn't work for me. I was not a fan of the writing style. For me, I felt that it was more a bunch of ideas strung together and nothing was fully fleshed out. The characters didn't really feel like real people with feelings but rather that I was just being told about people who had feelings.

I decided to DNF it because at this point, I've been reading it for weeks, and I am extremely unmotivated to return to it. We also haven't even gotten into the real plot yet, and I just feel frustrated with it. I know that if I continue, even if it gets drastically better, I wouldn't rate it higher than a 3 star.

Thank you to Orbit Books and Netgalley for an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The Honey Witch releases on 5/14/2024.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Redhook for this ARC for review!

After seeing The Honey Witch all over my social media, I could not resist applying for the ARC when I came across it. A cozy, witchy, sapphic romance filled with honey and curses and yearning? I’m SAT! I think anyone looking for any cozy fantasy, especially with queer representation/queer main characters will love this book!

In the beginning of the story, I was really enjoying it! I found the prose gorgeous and enticing, there were many easily highlightable lines that struck a chord with me and I was excited to dive further into the lore and learn everything. However, when it came down to it, I just felt a bit disconnected from what was happening. A lot of the scenes where I wished that I would be totally captivated I felt more like I was just being told what happened and exactly how to feel. Like, and then this happened, which was bad. And then this happened, and it was good. The dialogue between characters, especially Marigold and Althea was very hit or miss for me as well. I just didn’t feel the connections and I wished I could’ve been drowning in atmosphere! The setup is so perfect! The execution just didn’t pay off for me.

Perhaps this is just me as well, but all of the “plot twists” or anything that set itself up in anyway for an explanation were just glaringly obvious. I don’t want to go too far into the spoilers of it but I just felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen the entire time I was reading and it sadly gave the book very much put-down-ability for me.

Once again, I really love the idea of this book. I love the lesbian representation, I love the found family, I love the idea of going out to a gorgeous island covered in ethereal flora and fauna including supernatural creatures that protect the land, I would do anything to join Marigold and Lottie on their witchy adventures. It’s a great cozy, quick, easy read when you need some sweet sapphic fantasy romance that defies all odds. I will be looking forward to seeing Sydney J. Shields grow as an author and I will certainly check out what she writes next!

This was SUCH a sweet book. This was my first official read with a sapphic romance and I truly enjoyed it! I felt really seen and the romance was written so beautifully. The plot was wonderful but something about the end/climax fell a bit flat! The writing was awesome, but the only reason it lost stars was because
I wanted a longer battle, fight, and interaction with the antagonist! There was a lot of lead up and hints to the twists and turns of the storyline, but just a little missing with the conclusion of the story.

I was obsessed with the gorgeous prose. The author is a tremendous writer and I felt like I was getting a warm hug throughout the first 200 pages of the main characters lead up as a witch. I wanted to grab a cup of tea and wrap in a cozy blanket. I hope to read more by her soon!

This book is so beautiful. It's quiet, and queer, and full of love that made my heart sing, and grief that's beautiful in its own way. I have very few words, because anything I else I could say isn't good enough.

Ultimately my rating lies between a 2.5-3.00. I really enjoyed the characters and themes presented in this book. However I found the story unfortunately slow and the payoff was not as satisfying as I wanted it to be. I found myself at a standstill a lot, wondering why the progression felt as though it had been halted.

With that being said, this book is the most coziest fantasy I have ever read. So if you’re looking for a cozy, queer slow read, I’d recommend giving this book a go.

I will still be on the lookout for whatever the author release next.

*I toggled between a NetGalley earc from the publishers and an ALC off of Libro.Fm, this in no way influences my opinions*

I will say that I mostly enjoyed myself while reading this, and if you’re looking for some sapphic cottagecore fantasy with no thoughts just vibes, this does nicely. However there were numerous flaws that took me out of a story that otherwise provided good atmosphere and some pretty prose.

Firstly, the world-building. Mostly I found inconsistencies in the world and magic to be distracting. While I love a queernormative historical, there were some historical inaccuracies that took me out of that era. I was hoping the magic would be more consistent and well-developed. My personal taste tends to lead toward technically described magic systems, but even so I found this one lacked structure entirely. There were also inconsistencies in the natural world which could have been explained through magic, but weren’t— taking for granted the reader would assume *~magic*~ as the answer for certain things (honey bees flying at night, etc).

The pacing also threw me off quite a bit: slow, atmospheric prose is interrupted by rushed action scenes that build no tension and end up falling flat. The use of tropes felt perfunctory and unsatisfying. The plot was painfully predictable to the point that the characters seemed exceedingly foolish for not realizing certain things (Marigold in particular.)

The character development for Marigold was particularly disappointing. When we meet her she’s immature and quite mercurial, which would have been totally fine if we saw any growth from her. Instead we see a “love conquers all” solution, which felt underwhelming. For example, Marigold harshly judges one of her grandmother’s customers for being frivolous for wanting love, for which her grandmother reproaches her. Marigold proceeds for the rest of the book to be completely fixated on romantic love and her curse, with no reflection or correction of her former critique.

There were some issues with style, but I’m guessing that the issues came from editing, while the style positives came from the author. Many of the contractions seemed to be edited out, which felt clunky, especially in dialogue. There was also some head hopping with the POV.

Otherwise, I found the prose to be quite pretty and very quotable. The author exceeded in creating atmosphere: through seasonal references, landscape descriptions, and use of all five senses to bring the readers into the word. While the style lacked subtlety, it had a lot of good moments which lended to the overall enjoyably.

I found this book transportative and beautifully descriptive. The story was incredibly sweet and reminiscent (in my eyes) of howls moving castle.

So I wanted to adore this book. I admit, I read some reviews before diving in. And they compared to Bridgerton and I loved Bridgerton. And I probably shouldn’t have because it colored my view of this book probably unfairly. This was not Bridgerton, there were some balls, but that does not a Bridgerton make. This was its own world, And I feel like some of the comparisons put some unrealistic expectations in my head.
Getting that out of the way when I look at The Honey Witch standing on its own. It is a solid read. I thoroughly enjoyed the world obviously, But this wasn’t the this was the country of the Regency era. I really enjoyed the lore and the world building of this alternate Regency era. I liked the characters, although the “twist” of Lottie, I knew from the very first meeting. But I still wanted to see how it would play out.
The reason this got a three star for me is because the ending felt rushed, and I felt like the buildup to August finding his soulmate fell flat. There was so much buildup and then it felt like it just was a blip. As a fantasy Reader, I feel like the final confrontation between Marigold and the Ash witch was not fleshed out enough either.
But I want to say I enjoyed this read, And I’m hopeful Shields will write more.

* I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*

The Honey Witch was on my radar ever since Sydney J. Shields was posting about it on her TikTok. I’ve been so excited for its release and when it came up on NetGalley I immediately requested it. Even with all that hype it still managed to live up to my expectations, and then some!

This is a wonderfully sapphic Bridgerton meets Halloweentown. Marigold is suffering in polite society, feeling the need to escape the crushing pressure of the marriage market filled with insufferable men. She prefers to galavant in the meadows on the eve of a full moon, communing with the glowing forest spirits. When she returns from her late night excursion she over hears her mother and grandmother arguing about Marigold's future and ability to decide whether or not she should embrace her magic. This is revelatory for her, because although she suspected she had magic in her veins, or at least was different from others, she never knew this for a fact. Though this unveiling is an incredible relief, there is a less than savory effect of embracing her magic. If she does, she will never find true love because a curse was placed on the Honey Witches ages ago by their natural enemies- the Ash Witches.

This is a cottagecore, sapphic romance, that teeters on cozy fantasy, but there are some darker elements such as grief and death so it doesn’t fit neatly in the cozy genre. I felt so surprised with some of the mini plot twists, and really enjoyed the imagery and setting, and loved the character development, and explosive ending. This is a PERFECT read for spring and summer because of the beautiful gardens, bees, sunshine, and green magic.

I tried several times to read this book and I found myself breaking uninterested each time. The beginning was so strong and then the book could not keep me engaged. Nothing was happening and I didn't feel that they plot was pushed along at all. If was too slow paced for me and didn't provide enough activity in the plot to have me continue reading. Others might like it but I just could not push through the book any longer after pushing through to a third of the book.