I unfortunately DNF at 56% of this book. I wanted to love it and I tried to give it a chance but it was so slow. I understand trying to set the scenery but I started to get bored.

The Honey Witch is a dreamy, ethereal escape that is an amazing read start to finish. This story is much like how one feels when one goes to the book's main setting of the isle of Innisfree, everything you could want and more with its magical and heartwarming story. It has the perfect blend of cozy and captivating ingredients to make a perfect spell of a book. The feeling this book gives you is that of your favorite comfort movie or TV show. Marigold, the main character, is as fierce as she is extremely kind. Going on her journey to become the Honey Witch has its ups and downs, but all the while she is a determined woman. This book leans into the themes of acceptance, love, hope, friendship, and many, many more wonderful ones as well. Having a book set in a time and place where LGBTQ+ members of society are not treated as any different and with no hate, shame, or prejudice around is such a refreshing thing to read. It makes the central plot of the story the true main focus, without having to have the characters worry about if who they are or who they love will get in the way of what is happening around them. Some might believe that the beginning of the book is too "drawn out", but I believe that the introduction of Marigold and the people who are important to her help to portray that they become her main source of strength as a new Honey Witch. The plot itself is very well written and the concepts of the magic in this universe are easy and fun to understand. The sensual parts of this book were not only captivating but captured the burning desire and tension perfectly that you see between the main characters of this book. Overall, Sydney Shields did a fantastic job of weaving a detailed and beautiful tale that has become one of my favorite reads ever. I did not want to leave Innisfree and Marigold when I finished this book and I hope that one day I will get to read another amazing and delightful story that takes place back in this world.

My first book of the year was a huge win and led me to finding an instabuy author.⁣
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Marigold has always known that she was different but didn’t know exactly how, until her grandmother shows up at her doorstep and tells her that she is the next Honey Witch. She is cursed to never find true love, which has never been a problem before until she moves to Innisfree and meets someone who changes everything for her.⁣
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You might love this if you enjoy:⁣
🐝 cozy fantasy like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches⁣
🐝 Studio Ghibli films⁣
🐝 Anne of Green Gables⁣
🐝 Sapphic Regency romance⁣
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I couldn’t get enough of this book’s earthy magic system, immersing myself into potion crafting or adventures with the landvættir. The romance scenes with Marigold and her true love (who I will keep a surprise) echoed in my mind to the song “Linger” by The Cranberries. And both the song and The Honey Witch have stayed with me this first week of the year. ⁣
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Some of my favorite moments included Marigold and her grandmother, Althea. One that stood out to me is when Marigold was being particularly judgmental of another young woman excited at the possibility of getting married. Althea reminds her that it’s not her life and every person has a right to choose what they want out of their life. Being a strong woman was never about choosing magic and rejecting the traditional life of a woman at that time. It is about choosing and respecting a person’s right to choose. This is seen through other characters and moments as well. ⁣
This was truly a lovely book to begin the year with. Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review

In my honest opinion, sapphics are severely lacking in comforting romantasies, and I would have to say that this fits the bill for one pretty well. The characters were fun to read about, and and the magic system is cool, and I enjoyed the book overall. I’m not the biggest fan of worlds that expect everyone to have a soulmate, and even though the world is technically queernormative, the expectation that everyone will have exactly one person that they are meant to be with annoyed me a bit, especially because of the queernormativity otherwise in the book. Completely unrelatedly, it is very weird to read about straight women characters with my name as someone who is neither of those things.

Thank you to the NetGalley for allowing me to read this early!
This book felt like I was sitting in a field with the sun warming my skin. I loved the romance and the magic. The setting and atmosphere won my heart over. I’m so grateful that I got to read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook books for the eARC in exchange for a review!

Marigold Clause doesn’t want to get married and settle down, but that future was becoming her only prospect as Marigold got older. When Marigold is presented with her true family history, one that shows her that the magic she has always believed in is real, she has hope for the first time since getting her heart broken four years earlier. She is set to inherit the title of Honey Witch from her grandmother, a role Marigold’s own mother turned down because of the curse that comes along with it - no one can fall in love with the Honey Witch. This doesn’t deter Marigold, though, and she takes up the mantle of protecting her grandmother’s homeland with her head high.

It is not easy being the Honey Witch, and the book doesn’t shy away from its depictions of loneliness, and all the ways it affects people at different points in their lives. More than once I had to pause in my reading because I resonated so much with everything that Marigold was feeling. Considering that I am not a newly minted witch self-isolating on a magical island, it’s the best testament to the author’s writing that I can offer.

I loved all of the characters we got to meet in this story, but especially Lottie, whose refusal to believe in magic for deeply personal and heartbreaking reasons made Marigold’s determination to prove her wrong all the stronger. No character felt one dimensional, even if they had very little on-page action, and I was deeply invested in the resolution of the main conflict - I finished the last 60% of the novel in about 4 hours, just sitting on my couch consuming it.

My one real qualm with the story hardly counts even to me; the epilogue was too perfect. I am not usually one to enjoy an ambiguous ending, but I also don’t need everything to be tied off with a pretty bow. I would have preferred something a little less flowery, but I was still enormously touched by the way Marigold’s story wrapped up, so I can’t be too mad.

I loved this book so much I plan to purchase a copy to loan out to friends. If you’re looking for a captivating, sapphic fantasy to read, this is it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I will say this book was not what I was expecting. Based on the synopsis I had assumed that Marigold, our titular “Honey Witch,” had already left her debutante life behind and was well established in her witch life, and we were going to pick up her story from there— with her already being a witch and this lovely nonbeliever coming into her life. But, you know what they say about assuming.

I think I would have preferred my version. The beginning was… rough. A lot of establishing family relationships and how Marigold never felt like she truly belonged with them, etc. etc. It was quite a ways in before Marigold’s grandmother even showed up to tell her about magic and whisk her away. The whisking her away part was a fight with Marigold’s mother of course for ~plot reasons~ but it ended up being a nothing argument because like two pages later Marigold is a witch anyway. I mean, she has to be, that’s the point of the book.

The pacing is just weird, as well. Things drag that feel like they shouldn’t, and things are shortened that feel like they should drag. I don’t know, it was just strange and I was kind of on the back foot throughout the whole thing.

Lastly, okay, this is a minor thing, I will recognize this now and be upfront, but one of the characters is a tattoo artist. The year is 1831 and she is self taught, because women are forbidden from having tattoos in “polite society,” it’s against the law. My partner is a tattoo artist, so I’ve learned quite a bit about tattoos through osmosis over the years. The character’s very first tattoo that she ever did on herself was on her STERNUM and a PERFECTLY STRAIGHT ARROW. Please try looking down at your sternum right now for an extended period of time. It hurts your neck, right? Yeah, picture doing that for upwards of an hour, or more, while also using both your arms. Also, no one, and I mean NO ONE’S first tattoo is ever perfect, much less perfectly straight. This probably shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but I’ve been taught “write what you know” for years now— and this is just so clearly not that.

So, in conclusion, the book is… fine. I don’t feel like I totally wasted my time but I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone I know. If you’re looking for a cozy lesbian romance, there are better choices.

Not a day has gone by since I finished this book that I haven’t thought about it. In The Honey Witch author Sydney J. Shields pulls you into a magical world that feels like you can step right into with her delicious writing. At no point was I disappointed in the plot, I found myself hopeful for the trio at the heart of this romance and enjoying the foreshadowing as peril loomed. As a reader who’s comfort book in girlhood was Alcott’s Little Women who’s turned into a member of the LGBT+ community, this a was 5/5 Witchy romance read.

Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Honey Witch has a beautiful cover and a really fascinating magic system, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. It took me a month to get through the first 60%, which largely serves to build the world and set up the story, while the last 40% where the story finally picked up moved too fast through too many plotlines. It was hard to appreciate the romance and the friendships that developed when they happened so quickly and were moved on from just as quickly. The dialogue oftentimes felt stilted and awkward, and I wasn't a fan of the third person present tense.

I'd love to see more of this world and the characters (show me more of August, Frankie, and Aster!), and I think that Shields is likely going to go on to write some books I'll really enjoy, but I just didn't enjoy this the way I'd hoped to.

A cozy story full of soulmates and found family and nature witches. I liked this book overall but found that the major conflict came to its highest rather late in the book and therefore lost some of its momentum. Though I loved the foreshadowing moments of Lottie's powers and her overall arc in the novel. Will for sure read more books in this universe if the author decides to write more because the island is so charming and whimsical.

This book was so cute. I requested it because the cover piqued my interest and I liked how the synopsis sounded, but I wasn't prepared for how much I would truly enjoy this book. Marigold was such a relatable character to me and I loved reading about her relationship with both Lottie and her grandmother Althea. It's been too long since I've read a sapphic romance and the one in this book did not disappoint. This book felt like a warm comforting hug and I can't wait for it to come out so I can make all my friends read it too.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

I don’t normally find myself drawn towards cozy fantasy - I tend to like my stakes high and my world-building complex - but this book swept me off my feet and never put me down.

I adore the whimsy and sugary sweet feel of this story. Every time I picked it up I could easily get lost in Marigold’s journey to find herself and fall in love. It’s a little tropey and a little predictable, but honestly queer people deserve a sweet, tropey romance once in a while! I didn’t have particularly high expectations for a book that I knew had a cozy plot, so I wasn’t bothered by the fairly predictable resolution or the quick wrapping up of the ending. I came for a cozy time and I got a cozy time! No complaints from me.

I’d love to see more stories in this universe, either as a sequel or a new stand alone. And I can’t wait to have a physical copy on my shelf 😍

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

This was an enjoyable read, but I wish it delved deeper into the lore of the Honey Witch as a character and mystical being. I had a hard time understanding the protagonist's motives throughout aside from the fact that she took over the post from her absent grandmother. In all, an enjoyable read, but left me wanting more.

This cozy sapphic fantasy is so lush and whimsical. The magic system, the familial relationships, the small town feel of Innisfree, and the twists and turns were just so beautiful. I found myself crying at several points in the novel, especially as someone who lost a beloved grandparent. I can't wait for more from this author!

The Honey Witch is a cute, cottage-core vibes, romantic fantasy that was fun to read. Full of nature magic, enemies to lovers and forbidden love, this book was intriguing and easy to finish. The beautiful prose and stunning descriptions were really the reasons why I enjoyed the book so much. Sydney definitely has a way of transporting you to another world.
The main character Marigold has just discovered that she, like all the eldest daughters in her family, is a Honey Witch. She must leave her life behind to travel to a magic isle called Innisfree and learn from her grandmother how to collect honey for spells, care for the magical creatures of the isle and master her magic. She learns that her gift comes with a price…that she will never be in love. But when a woman named Lottie unexpectedly enters her life, she must face her feelings and navigate her curse to find her true destiny.
There are a couple of reasons I gave this book three stars - I hope there is a trigger warning page as there is a sensitive topic early in the book that I felt was unnecessary for the plot. Another issue for me was that there were only queer couplings in the story. The story was still romantic, but that aspect made it less relatable for me. This is just personal preference and doesn’t take away from the love story! The last reason is the predictability. I guessed almost all of the plot twists early on. Overall, if you’re looking for a quick and cozy read about witches, honey magic and love, definitely check out The Honey Witch.

The Honey Witch
by Sydney J. Shields
Pub Date: 14 May 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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 price: 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.

A 4.5 from me.
Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for giving me an e-arc to read this before release.


This book destroyed me. It’s like Sydney knew all my weaknesses and threw them at me all at once but in the best way possible. Like I knew it was coming she clearly spelled it out for me but it still hurt so bad. It was beautiful though, the writing the story everything was just magic. In my fantasy totally unrealistic world… this is my dream I want to also have a little island with magical creatures and tend to plants and animals it’s just heavenly and bewitching. The romance was perfect and I’m so happy to see more queer fantasy that is just super wholesome. There are some very small parts of this book that had me a little confused, like maybe I read too fast and missed details? Or they just weren’t there but it was nothing that took away from the story. I also love the edition of equivalent exchange within this book. This was so cozy and I plan on keeping my preorder so I can have this on my shelf. Thank you again to the publisher! I signed up for NetGalley just to read this book and am forever grateful to be accepted.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me access to the E-arc.

4.5*

I really enjoyed this arc. It gave me all the vibes that I was hoping for cottage core, magical, cozy, and witchy romance. Even better it has queer romance in it as well! I mean what more could you ask for? I thought the side characters were also amazing. Marigold's family was entertaining and realistic.

I highly recommend this if you love witchy romance books!

I was fortunate enough to read this, as an ARC.
This is an amazing book that I could not put down! It gave me all the feelings. Enemies lovers, single bed, and starcrossed lovers, it has all the tropes. In addition to that it's magical and cozy. If I had one complaint it would be, that I saw one of the major plot twists coming long before the main character had any idea. It is officially on my must reads list.

The Honey Witch is a poorly-paced novel with dull characters, an obvious plot "twist," and a disappointing insta-love romance.

While the writing is quite lyrical at points, it often lacks depth. There isn't enough worldbuilding to craft a solid fantasy setting, and the magic system doesn't have clear rules. The story unfolds at such a slow pace that I had to read over 50% of the book before any real plot points emerged. Simultaneously, other parts of the story are rushed, making the scenes feel shallow and underdeveloped.

When any conflict—major or minor—arises, it is often so easily resolved that it doesn't feel like a true struggle or character-building moment for the MC. Anytime she faces something difficult, there is someone to swoop in and quickly resolve the situation for her.

The MC is incredibly immature for her age, often saying or doing things that range from obnoxious to nonsensical. The other characters are so one-dimensional that they inspire very little interest; they are flat and serve as mere props to characterize the MC.

Perhaps the worst part about the novel is the romance. The characters have zero chemistry and go from unfriendly to irresistibly attracted to one another essentially overnight.

Overall, it's a disappointing read. The writing never reaches the depth and development needed to be truly compelling. The core of the story is promising, however, and the novel would greatly benefit from several more rounds of rewriting and editing.