I am so aggressively in love with this book! 10/10 would recommend you read this if you like witchy, queer cottagecore vibes. This book follows Marigold Claude as her grandmother trains her to become the next Honey Witch, a title that is passed on to each eldest daughter, along with its curse: no one can fall in love with a Honey Witch. As Marigold explores her powers, she also learns to deal with the challenges that come with taking care of the tiny isle of Innisfree and its people. When Lottie Burke, who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold takes up the challenge to prove that magic is, in fact, real. As Lottie and Marigold spend more time together, Marigold begins to care for her in an unexpected way. But when dark magic threatens to destroy her home, she has to fight to protect her home and potentially lose her heart along the way.
I’ll be honest, the book started off a bit slow for me, but it was definitely worth it. Sydney Shields’ writing was refreshing, and it contains many wonderful descriptions of characters, places and moments. I really fell in love with the vibes and writing of this book. The way Sydney wrote certain scenes was completely beautiful. I loved every moment of this book. I couldn’t put it down, and yet I never wanted it to end!
While there are many things I love about this book, one of my favorite things is that the book is set in a place where queer people are part of the norm, and no one bats an eye. I really enjoyed diving into a book where the characters were secure in their sexuality, and they didn't have to hide their relationships. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with books that focus on the struggle LGBTQ+ people face, but it was refreshing to find a book where that wasn’t the focus.
I also love the characters! We see the relationships between Marigold and her family as well as friendships blooming between many characters. The depth and growth of both Marigold and Lottie was enchanting to see throughout the book. I love these characters with all my heart!
If you enjoy reading fantasy books that are sapphic and have witches, this book is for you! I would say that this isn’t a really high fantasy book, so it’s perfect for anyone looking to dive into the fantasy genre.
Thank you Sydney Shields and Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
TW: themes of grief and some violence

I really really liked this super cozy and romantic fantasy. The main character Marigold gets introduced to us as in a bit of a Bennett sisters situation -- she is feeling pressured by her family and society to find a spouse and start a family. Only problem is, she doesn't feel lucky in love or special in any way. It's the night of a blue moon, though, and Marigold finds out that she is, in fact, special -- she is next in line to fill the role of Honey Witch on the magical isle of Innisfree. Even better, an existing curse that the Honey Witch can never fall in love means that Marigold will never have to worry about finding a love match after all! But even surrounded by bees, magical creatures, and her childhood best friend, Marigold feels like someone is missing...

A must read for fans of Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Bridgerton, or Freya Marske's historical fantasy queer romances. Make yourself a cup of breakfast tea with honey and lavender and enjoy!

The love story felt forced as I couldn’t see what caused them to fall in love at all. I was also not a big fan of the dialogue, it felt a bit immature at points.

The author is very good at descriptions though and I enjoyed the magic system

I knew from the moment I heard about this novel I would love it. Call it an intuitive feeling. A (honey) magic prediction. This sapphic, witchy, honeyed story had my heart from start to finish. The writing is everything I love — metaphoric but hypnotizing. Subtly entrancing. I love it almost as much as I loved the wild, impossible women at its heart. I smiled, I swooned, and I sobbed. I felt the grief and shared it. While this book will certainly be a favorite of the year, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it will also become a favorite read, period. If you are looking for a magical tale (which also happens to be set in a loving, queer normative regency period) this will be the book to grab when it comes out in May of 2024.

Loving Winnie the Pooh the way I do, the title was intriguing and in that, it lived up to the title. Honey is very powerful and holds many healing properties. Bee keepers are amazing at how they handle their hives. The idea of being able to have several hives in one place that each ho?d a.different variety of honey would be amazing. And power needing to be balanced makes complete sense, and so ash to smother is a perfect foil. The story proceeds very slowly, very, very, slowly, so reader be warned. The love scenes are sweet and very clean and simple, nothing outrageous or extreme. The curse of the Honey Witch seems clumsy, so the story doesn't flow as well as it could although it is a necessary thing. Not a bad read, just rather plodding.

I think if this was either in 3rd person or 1st person it would have been an asker read for me. Regardless this was absolutely beautiful! I found myself drawn in to Marigold’s pain and hurt as she longed for her love. Such a wonderful story of love, life and death!

Fans of “Practical Magic” and “Pride and Prejudice” will enjoy this romantic debut from Sydney J. Shields. Follow along as a young woman chooses to reject societal expectations and leave her home behind to follow in her grandmothers footsteps as the Honey Witch of Innisfree. Featuring a sweltering enemies to lover romance, a family curse, and the impending threat of a dark and evil magic, this cozy queer fantasy is sure to delight its readers!

Thank you to Redhook, & Sydney J. Shields for the ARC so that I may provide an honest review.
This review is spoiler free.

MAGIC BEES

My Rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

Reading Time: 5 hours

This title was already on my radar due to being a massive fan of the Howl's Moving Castle film & the Bridgerton show. I have not read the book adaptations for these yet, however I believe using the adaptations for these as comparable titles certainly fits! I think another comparable title is Belladonna by Adalyn Grace for both setting and writing style.

Sydney J Shields does a wonderful job portraying the whimsical world they have created, with delightful characters. I appreciated the small cast, as it felt like I could get to know the characters fairly well.

I was a big fan of the magic system! It felt unique to me, and also felt like there were opportunities for more in the same world. I think this could have benefited with even deeper exploration, just because I enjoyed learning about it.
I also think there could be some clean up done in earlier chapters, as I found it really dragged for me from about 15% to 30%. I also found the ending a bit rushed, even if the foundation was there.

I would definitely look out for this one when it releases in 2024!

This book was a DNF for me at around 35% (just as the love interest character reappears on the scene with August).

The writer does remarkably well with writing atmosphere and setting, creating a rich and cinematic world that's easy to picture. I also really liked the idea of honey witches and the magic of the world she created. From the description, I hadn't realised we'd be in a Victorian kind of setting, but that was an additional point of interest in the initial pages. I thought our main character, Marigold, had a likeable voice and an interesting journey ahead of her.

Where the book lost me was in the dialogue and the thin characters (outside of Althea). The love interest, Lottie, is supposed to be the "grumpy" to Mari's "sunshine" (a trope which, on a personal note, exhausts me at this point), but really she just seems unkind and acerbic and I can't understand why anyone would want to spend time with her. I have seen many characters who may seem standoffish or who may be misunderstood as rude in first meetings without seeming downright mean-spirited. I wasn't generous enough to wait for the inevitable turnaround in her character, and I doubt I would've believed in it when it came.

The dialogue also read as awkward and stilted to me and I had a hard time believing in the friendship between Marigold and August, who acted like strangers who never knew what to say. Too many of the characters and relationships felt one-dimensional, even though there was something so close to being interesting about their backstories and personalities. The author would describe them and my interest would be piqued, but then when they spoke or acted it didn't seem to illustrated what we had just been told of them, and my interested quickly flagged.

A very interesting concept for a story, and a beautiful setting I wanted to stay in and sink into, but unfortunately there were a few weaknesses I couldn't get past. Thanks to the publishers all the same for offering me the chance to read.

From the first chapter, The Honey Witch pulls you right in! I did enjoy the writing in this one, it was so cozy and i loved the cottage core aesthetic. It fell a bit flat for me and I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two main characters which lost my interest a bit. I loved the message about family and love, and grief!

I picked up and put down this an incredible amount of times while reading - either from rolling my eyes or just outright flinching.

The premise and the world that is set up in this story is really incredible- and the characters had fantastic potential.

The problem lies in the dialogue and exposition- it’s really poorly done. The writing is all at once trying to be flowy and beautiful and is instead choppy and pretentious in a way that skips prose like and jumps right into tumblr poetry. There’s so much to love about this book if you can get past the writing but I unfortunately could not.

Thank you to Redhook Publishing, Sydney Shields, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marigold dreams of a life beyond marriage and standing in the shadows of her talented siblings. When her grandmother re-enters her life, she is formally introduced to magic and her destiny to become a honey witch and the protector of the island of Innisfree. But everything comes with a cost - for Marigold - it is a curse. No one will ever fall in love with her.

The Honey Witch is a sweet and heartwarming story of love, loss, and cottagecore bliss. For fans of Taylor Swift’s Folklore, V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, the found family trope, sapphic grumpy + sunshine, and fated mates…look no further!

All in all, I enjoyed this debut novel from Sydney Shields and I’m excited to read more!

This was just... fine. I really wanted to love it a lot more than I did, unfortunately. This book is strongest, imo, when Marigold's grandmother was teaching her how to be a Honey Witch. Truth be told, I almost wish the stuff with Mari's mother and siblings was cut out in favor of focusing more on the island and the magic. It's not that I didn't appreciate Mari and her family, but it felt like the way the plot was structured didn't let her family become fully fleshed out characters. If this book weren't a romance and were instead an exploration on family and the bonds between them, I think it'd have been a much stronger story.

Unfortunately, this book is a romance and I don't think the romance was entirely strong enough to carry the weight of the novel. Lottie isn't... as much of a character as I wanted. I actually really liked Mari and Lottie's relationship when they were at odds with one another. The problem is that the transition between antagonism to friendship to lovers wasn't quite smooth. When they were navigating their relationship, it didn't feel entirely genuine to me. I really wanted more time spent between Lottie and Mari building up their friendship to tentative lovers.

Then, there's the Ash Witch plot. In theory, it's interesting. I don't know, though, if the author was aiming for mystery behind the Ash Witch plot, but it was very, very plainly telegraphed. So plainly so that it made Marigold look really dumb for not figuring it out sooner. Like, the writing was on the wall and the girl just couldn't find it until the last 10% of the book. I just feel like it could have been done in a way that didn't leave the reader wanting to shake Marigold for being so utterly stupid. That, and the ending was just... cartoonishly evil? I think it needed just more background into the Ash Witch trying to destroy the island. There was some, but it was also just kind of vague and hand-wavy.

While I do have a lot of criticisms, that's not to say that I don't see the promise here. I thought the honey magic in particular was really fun. The moments with Marigold on the island with her grandmother were so cozy and wholesome. I almost wish the whole book was just that.

Overall, I think there was too much trying to be accomplished so, in the end, nothing really satisfied. There are definitely going to be readers who love this though and I think the author shows a lot of promise. This just wasn't something I ultimately loved.

I really wanted to love this book, the premise was so whimsical and bright, but unfortunately it was just not for me. The main character, Marigold, is very naive and the maturity of her voice feels more like a 12 or 13 year old talking than an 18-19 year old (that I believe she is supposed to be or at least above 17 because that was when she dated the artist who broke her heart).

The conversations between the characters does not meet the maturity level for their ages and the book seems to be better suited for someone who is in middle school or young teenager based on what of the book I completed. However, one of the first scenes on the island has Marigold helping her grandmother with a patient with an ectopic pregnancy that is beyond the maturity of the rest of the book. It feels like the themes in the book and the way it is written are at war against each other for two separate audiences.

Again, the premise and the cozy writing style were intriguing but the book itself is not for me, personally. I couldn't get into it and ended up stopping about 20% in. I don't make a habit of star reviewing books I DNF unless they are awful and in this case I believe it is just a personal preference incompatibility but since this isn't allowing me to move forward without it, I will rate it 2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early eARC of this book!

⭐4.25 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book! From the moment I first stumbled across Sydney on social media, I have been excited about this book!

Overall, I really enjoyed this reading experience. The pacing of the book is rather slow in my opinion, BUT, slow does not equate to bad at all in this case. There was something magical about the experience in itself, because I enjoyed the fact it was slow. It felt like I had a longer time with these characters and in this world because I wasn't just devouring the book in one sitting. Instead I got to keep returning to it and feeling transported so thoroughly into this story. Towards the end, the pacing kind of would speed up and slow down a little, which was an interesting experience.

The writing was beautiful in many spots. The idea of this story was also beautiful. I love the way Sydney pulled in part of her real life with the bees, into this story. 🐝💛 The exploration of love and grief was beautiful too.

There were some moments where I wish there was more time spent on other storylines (i.e. August's, her Mom's, Lottie and Mr. Claude) and I say this mostly because I know Sydney said on social media that this was written as a standalone. So this is my formal vote to make it a small series, for more books that get to explore these things and life after that ending!

I also love the queer representation and how natural it was, and not made a focal point of the story!

Overall this book was cozy. It was beautiful. It gave me Halloweentown vibes at the beginning.

It was one that I definitely plan to get a physical copy of when it releases next year. I'm so grateful to have read this early.

The cover art as well was STUNNING. 😍

I definitely recommend this book and I think many people will deeply love it. ♥️

This novel follows Marigold on her new journey on Isnnisfree. She gets to spend some of the lost time she missed with her Grandma, Althea, who teaches her as much as she can about Honey Magic. But it all comes at a cost. Or should I say curse?

After losing her grandmother she finds herself lonely and looking for companionship. As she searches for friendship she finds what defies the odds. She also finds that the isle is in need of a lot of magic and something horrible is going to happen.

This is another strong female character book with lots of lore and just enough spice. Full of stereotype breaking characters and queer love. A supportive father is the icing on the cake for this one!

Be sure to check this book out next summer :)

Thank you for allowing me to read this book . I had an amazing time & loved every second of it
Here is my good reads review.

🐝ARC REVIEW🐝

This was everything I had hoped it would be!! Sydney’s debut novel is charming, alluring and deeply sentimental. She exhibits wisdom and craftsmanship as she weaves this witchy cottage-core wlw tale. I was struck by her powerful statements on women and our roles and duty to society. She shamelessly throws off convention in pursuit of a different duty: one of the heart. I highlighted so much of this novel because of how strongly it resonated with me. I loved the regency-reimagined world and the wonderful characters. The prose is well thought out and engaging. I cannot recommend this highly enough!
🐝
Thank you so much @netgalley and @sydneyjshields for this advance copy I DEVOURED it and I am soooo looking forward to posting some more quotes from this and seeing more people read it. I know it will be a huge success!!!

Happy reading (and sipping!) 📖🍷

#bookstagram #books #read #wine #winepairing #advancecopy #bookish #newrelease

This WILL be your favorite book of the year. I know for certain it was mine. Sydney will very quickly become an insta buy author for you.

This is a heartwarming, cozy, magical, cottagecore story that tackles love, curses, and loss. This book was there for me when I needed it most and I will forever be grateful.

The magic system alone is to die for. Marigold is a honey witch cursed to never fall in love. You heard me, a HONEY WITCH. I really don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll end with this. It’s truly amazing that within this book, every character manages to be my favorite.

I really wanted to love this book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. The overall storyline was lovely - I loved the exploration of grief, found family, loneliness, and love. However, the dialogue and writing style fell a bit flat for me, and I think this kept me from fully connecting with the story. The characters felt one-dimensional - we were told about their attributes by other characters, rather than getting to observe for ourselves as readers.

I found myself wishing that we would have gotten more time with certain subplots - parts of the book felt rushed to me. But just because this book wasn't for me doesn't mean it isn't for you. If you're into ethereal cottagecore sapphic romances, you should definitely check this book out!

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.