Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I’m newer to cozy fantasy in general, but this was a lovely little read in that vein. The concept was unique to me and the story was very heartwarming and nice. The authors writing style was also enjoyable to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Redhook for this ARC.

Full disclosure I had the pleasure of beta reading this book back before the author queried it. I loved it then and I love it now. It was so interesting to see how many things changed in the story from that point to the finished version.

This book is cozy, warm, and delightful. The whole thing feels like a warm hug. Lottie has my entire heart with her prickly exterior and soft insides. And Marigold shines as our leading lady.

Her growth in accepting love and the celebration of ALL women no matter their choices in this book is just perfection. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a heartwarming sapphic romance or who enjoys historical fantasy.

I love the story and the idea of a woman needing freedom to be wild. The message is fantastic but I must admit it was hard for me to get into at first. The writing feels a little bland, and though I did wind up enjoying it it felt like it could have used more meat to the bones of the writing, you know what I mean? It's definitely a great book it just feels like it needed to be workshopped a little more. Perhaps it's just my taste, but I felt like it wasn't as great as the idea of the story itself. That being said, I loved the characters and the story behind the honey witches. It was incredibly interesting and fun to read from that aspect but a deeper dive into the writing made me get taken out of the story a little bit. Otherwise I really enjoyed it!

I looked forward to reading this book because I loved the vibes it gave off. I struggled with the text at times because it either felt as if it were dragging or it was going too fast. I felt like too much was happening that wasn't necessary. Other than that, it was a cute and fun quick read.

Practical Magic meets.... Halloween Town? (yes seriously, her grandma whisks her away to a magical land where she's a witch, and there's even a carriage driver named Benny)

I was immediately drawn into the Honey Witch. The opening scene does an excellent job of setting up the world and Marigold as a character.

Beyond that though, I had a lot of trouble staying engaged.

Marigold shines the most when the story allows her to exercise her agency. Unfortunately most of the time the plot is happening to her as opposed to her driving the plot forward.

The author has an excellent use of language. Flowery, without getting too bogged down in it. You will have have a picture painted for you. Descriptions focus primarily on sight and sound though, and I do wish it had more often delved into other senses. Folk magic is very physical. I think to do it proper justice it needs to be felt with your whole body.

I get the impression that this story is trying to evoke cozy fantasy vibes. The one aspect that keeps it from knocking it out of the park is a lack of quiet moments. There's constant movement, either in the form of plot or exposition. I would have liked it to slow down and spend some time with the characters just being people.

Despite my criticisms, I think the author is one to keep an eye on. A lot of my issues with the writing can be chalked up to inexperience, and you can see that there are some great instincts in character and world building.

ARC provided by Net Galley.

I am completely obsessed with this book!! I found out about this book back in January on 2023 and I’ve been thinking about it almost daily ever since! This was my most anticipated read of the entire year!!! I would have done awful things to be able to read this book so many times this year! So as soon as this ARC was approved, I was SOOOO freaking excited !

So first off, THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME READ THIS EARLY! This made me so happy, you have no idea!

Anyways, as far as my feedback, I LOVED this book. I completely adored the world and the magic system. I’m so in love with the idea of a honey witch and an ash witch. I’m an avid witchy book reader, I read witchy books all year round. And so many of them feel exactly the same. This concept was unique and felt very special.

I loved the entire atmosphere on the isle where the main character moved, I loved the bees, the yellow flowers, the honey, the grimoire, her home library, her meadow, the spirits, literally everything about it. I also completely adored the sapphic romance. And the city where her family lives also reminds me of Bridgerton, and I found that super interesting too!

I feel like this book was written for me. It’s so perfect and lovely and comforting.

I don’t have a single bad thing to say about it. It’s a lovely, beautiful, flawless witchy book. I will definitely be recommending this book all the time now!

Maybe my expectations were too high for this book, but I unfortunately eye rolled more than I’d like to admit at the characters, magic, and storyline. The love story had no chemistry between the characters and the magic and world building felt way too light to make me care. Even so, it was a cozy read and I loved the bond between Marigold and her grandmother.

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my thoughts and opinions.

This is easily going to be one of my new comfort reads. I was hooked from the first line and found myself trying to read this every single spare moment that I had. It's beautiful! The stunning picture the book paints had me both laughing and crying along with the characters. I am going to re-read this so many more times in the future. It's so cozy, but action packed. LOVED IT SO MUCH

Thanks to Redhook books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
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The Honey Witch follows Marigold a young witch who is embarking on her own coming of age quest full of mystics and ire. Marigold has a strong connection to nature around her and her grandmother urges her to develop these special abilities further.
I enjoyed the descriptions in this novel, the writing is lyrical and almost poetic it has a certain flair of whimsy. The main character is easy to love and even more so as her worldview tilts and she has to recognize her own faults. I would describe this book as cozy and a nice new addition into that theme.
By the second chapter we have a lot of lore, a very rushed explanation for what is going on, it felt like a huge information dump. This could have maybe been sprinkled throughout a few chapters but it felt weird having it all at once.
We love a positive father in a young witches life! I absolutely adored Marigold father and I beg for more scenes between the two of them together.
Lottie as a character grates on my nerves, she was mean and judgemental. Marigold was so kind and understanding and the relationship felt unbalanced.
The ending portion of the book was a tad cliched but overall it was a nice story.

Loved reading this book so much. It was whimsical and so cosy. Highly recommend it. Everything about it was magical and I can't wait to see more from this author. Absolute perfection and cosy vibes all the way. A new favorite for sure.

Thank you to NetGally, Redhook Books, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Honey Witch was an easy, whimsical read that seriously makes me want to become a beekeeper. I really enjoyed the connection between the bees and honey witches, and how important they are to their power. I also loved just the overall concept of the honey and ash witches, how their abilities oppose each other but still create a sense of balance. And props to the author for not writing the ash witches as inherently evil, as so often seen in a light/dark type powerset dichotomy.

I will say I wished there had been more description of Marigold's training and learning of spells, as the story sort of glosses over it all to dive into her growing friendship with August and Lottie. Which, while delightful, also often come across as melodramatic and overly saccharine. The vibe of everything kept shifting - I could never remember Marigold's age as characters felt juvenile one minute, explicitly mature the next.

The dialogue and storyline were simplistic, but even with that and my previous points, the Honey Witch is still a cozy, sweet tale of love and magic that would go perfectly with some summer rain and a cup of lavendar tea.

Thank you to Redhook Books, Redhook, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

. . . . It's not you, it's me, and it refused to click. I found myself laughing at a scene that was supposed to be tragic and full of angst (not out of shock, just it was kind of funny? I was waiting for it to happen), and the world felt quite. . . shallow to me. Honey is Good and Ash is Bad (because they are opposites), but it's definitely charming.

Absolutely a few scenes that seemed to be inspired from popular text posts, and I can see them hitting many of my friends very well. Three stars, I guess? But more for my friends than for me (and that's okay!)

This book was so lovely and cozy! It came across as the perfect blend of Practical Magic and Fried Green Tomatoes...so basically amazing.

This was a rare book where I loved all of the characters. Usually I find myself annoyed by most of the characters. But these characters charmed me and by the end of the story I was so engrossed in their lives and relationships. Marigold and Lottie in particular stood out to me and I loved seeing them overcome their differences and embrace each other.

I loved the natural approach to magic in the book and how Marigold and Innisfree depended on each other to function. Marigold had to care for the island and its inhabitants and in return they took care of her and kept her safe. The bees, their honey and all of the plants felt similar to magic in other stories but still lovely.

Would you trade love for magic or magic for love? A lineage of Honey Witches are expected to choose one or face traumatic outcomes.

Marigold didn’t know that she was a witch. She was uncannily drawn to her local meadows and the landvættir. She struggled to blend in the community. One day, she found out she is a witch. She needs to awaken her magic but it comes with a price - love. Marigold has no confident in love and believes it to be rubbish.

Everything changes when she meets an individual. They fell in love and the outcomes were negative.

Worth the read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Readability : 4
The first two chapters had me hooked. The writing was so beautiful and lyrical it was almost reminiscent of Addie LaRue. The pacing however, was a bit of a rollercoaster. There were chapters early on where it felt like it was really dragging, and other points that felt very rushed, and then moments of perfection.
Story: 3
This had a little bit of everything. By the end it felt like it was trying to do/include too much, and some of it fell flat. You have this mix of Bridgerton, cottagecore, elemental magic, soul mates, curses, wicked witches, tattooed lesbians, and BEES. Also, several chapter felt eerily reminiscent of playing the game Wylde Flowers.
Enjoyment: 3.75
I found chapters 3-9 to drag significantly. Overall an enjoyable read.
Received as an ARC via Netgalley.

I am happy I got the chance to read this book. I was excited at the prospect going in, and really the story was cute. I appreciated the fact that it has lgbt representation, I also adore the witch stories, and idea behind them. At times the story was too slow, or took me out of the story by a weird finished sentence that rushed to the next chapter, or writing that seemed to be unpolished. Overall it was a 3 star read for me.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really have a lot to say about this book, except that it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me a lot of the times, but somehow I still liked it.

The magic, the world building, and even the logic of the story in general are not the most well defined. However, I don't think this is book where you are supposed to think too hard about those things. It's a fairly a simple story about choosing love and family. It's told like a fairy tale and has an entertaining romance as well as some really likable characters.

Those elements make for an overall enjoyable experience while reading The Honey Witch. If a somewhat cozy, witchy story with a heartwarming sapphic romance at its center seems like something you'd be into, I'd recommend picking this up.

Although sweet as the honey that gives the book its name, the story lacked substance and didn't really provide anything I haven't seen before. A nice beach read for Bridgerton fans, but not quite my cup of tea. I did love the cozy vibes of the country cottage and picturesque island where the story takes place, but didn't feel that the writing lived up to the atmosphere the author was trying to build.

I received this e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really liked the vibes of The Honey Witch, but the dialogue felt a little simplistic at times. In some places the pacing felt slow, and the ending felt a little rushed to me. The sapphic romance however is delightful, and I am still very glad for the opportunity to read it.

I’m sad because I really couldn’t get into this one. I DNF’d at 16% as I just found the writing to be very basic, the story is nothing new or special and the adult character felt very juvenile. This was an anticipated read for me but unfortunately fell flat