Rachel Greenlaw, why would you hurt me like this???

Immediately, I was hooked from the synopsis alone. The tension and mystery started Carrie's return to the Woodsmoke Mountains and her Aunt Cora's reservations about her homecoming. The perspectives of all three women were wholly unreliable, leading me to think that I wasn't very attached to any of the characters, but boy was I wrong! I cried multiple times while reading, and I wish I couls have stayed in Woodsmoke longer!

This was such a lovely, witchy novel‐ the perfect addition to my October reading list! Thank you to Rachel Greenlaw and William Morrow/Avon Books for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5⭐️ this was a fun cozy realism magical seeet story. The low magic, but high emotions, give off vibes that are cozy and healing.

Tales of the Morgan women, and their mystical affinity with the mountains, have always run rampant through the town of Woodsmoke. After leaving ten years prior, Carrie Morgan is summoned back to Woodsmoke after her grandmother dies to fix up her old cottage. With Carrie’s return, old wounds will reopen, new love will spark, and the looming mountains will continue to claim their due.

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells is atmospheric and lyrical, akin to old folktales. At its core, it’s a story of sisterhood and friendship, the bonds of which waver between taut and limp. You’ll often find yourself questioning what is real and what can only be described as magical intervention. The mountains themselves act as a sentient presence as they careen each character down their intended paths.

While told in three separate POVs, this novel belongs to Carrie. Accentuated by the fact that her chapters are the only ones written in first person, Carrie’s story is one of uneven footing. She is unmoored, desperate to find her place and lay down roots.
She struggles to maintain familial, platonic, and romantic bonds and her journey of self discovery was both haunting and revitalizing.

Carrie’s great aunt Cora and her childhood friend Jess make up the other two POVs. I would have liked to see a little bit more from both of them especially after discovering their culpability in what drove Carrie from Woodsmoke. I also wanted to see more of Carrie and Jess’ reconciliation, as their bond held similar parallels to Cora and Ivy’s.

Perfect for fans of Practical Magic and Adrienne Young’s adult novels, The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells is an enchanting tale that leaves a last impression.

What You’ll Find:
Practical Magic vibes
Atmospheric prose
Mysterious mountains
Small town gossip
Magic requires balance
Complex family & friend dynamics

Thank you Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book didn’t sadly enchant me like I was hoping. Carrie was an okay character, but she didn’t shine how I wanted her to. The real star of the book was truly her great aunt Cora. Who with how the story plays out is a very important character. Between Cora, Carrie, and the legends that seem to follow their family historically it makes sense that Cora was so concerned about Matthieu. I just feel like I was expecting more magic, or higher-grade magic. This family is very much what I would call green witch. More using the earth around them to help stop bad things from happening. Overall, there was just something I didn’t connect with like I wanted to. That being said. This book is not bad, it is just not the right book for me.
Thank you so much to Avon and Harper Voyager and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw is a gripping, fast-paced adventure that masterfully blends rich world-building with complex characters. Greenlaw's vivid storytelling and amazing plot twists keep readers on the edge of their seats, making it a must-read for fantasy lovers
The writing is gorgeous and the world’s Greenlaw created is captivating.
The characters were very well rounded and the plot moved throughout the story well.
A truly enjoyable story that I very much enjoyed.

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This was a cozy, witchy read. The premise sounded really intriguing, but the execution fell slightly flat for me. I would have enjoyed more magic. The story’s flow felt somewhat choppy due to multiple points of view and timelines. However, this was still an atmospheric and interesting book, especially nice for this time of year.

Thanks to Avon for the gifted copy of this book!

A witch my story in the veins of Adrienne Young, WOODSMOKE WOMEN is an atmospheric and lyrical read with small town drama, mysterious woods, and magic. This was definitely on the slower side, and I had a hard time really connecting with cheering for the main characters. I was also hoping that the magic would interweave with a story in a more powerful way. Definitely a good recommendation if you enjoy small town reads or Practical Magic.

A beautiful story of loss, friendship, belief in magic, and the pull of home. The characters all struggle with past mistakes and the serious course they took for each one. Their belief in the power of mountain magic and lore deeply shadowed the truth of mistakes, failure, regret. A simply wonderful novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Praised for its atmospheric writing similar to Adrienne Young, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀𝗺𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻’𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 combines magical realism with a small mountain town’s folktale about a mysterious stranger who appears with the first frost and disappears after the last. Her grandma’s death forces Carrie to return home and finally come to terms with her past. What she also finds is Matthieu.

Each chapter started off with a small insert from her family’s Book of Spells, which I loved and hoped that Carrie would learn from. The problem was the amount of girl drama, especially between the sisters, that made up the book. Many eyeroll moments from me when they need to communicate better.

However, never before have I questioned the existence of a character as much as I did with Mattieu. Part of me wanted him to be the mountain’s magic, and part of me wanted him to be real. Between that and buddy read with Emily, it kept me turning pages.

Details: Rachel Greenlaw • 320 pages • October 22, 2024 • Gifted: @avonbooks @netgalley

I enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of this one! The romance plays more of a secondary role in the book, with the main focus exploring the friendship and familial bonds between women through the relationships between Carrie and her great aunt, Cora, and ex-best friend, Jess. I enjoyed how it was slowly revealed why Carrie left Woodsmoke. I like how the book kept you guessing on if Matthieu was real or a figment of the mountain. The magical realism was great for reading in October!

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells was a unique and fascinating read of magic, romance, and the ripple effect that decisions have on the future. I loved the themes surrounding reconnecting and rekindling past friendships as well as finding love. I also found Greenlaw’s writing to be beautiful and descriptive. It really felt like we as readers were in the scene at times because the writing was that vivid. The story as a whole was fairly cozy, though, I did find it to be missing some of the magic I was hoping for. I also found Greenlaw’s way of presenting the plot to be engaging between different character POVs and different timelines. This book also hit at just the right time. It’s well worth the read, but if you’re a mood reader, I recommend reading it during the fall/winter timeframe for peak coziness and atmosphere.

I don't know what to think of the book but it felt like something was missing, or maybe my expectations were misaligned. I was expecting a cozy mystery with a bit of romance and bit of magic/fantasy/supernatural element sprinkled in. But this read completely different to me and I don't know how to describe it...other than to say the storyline felt passive and a bit disjointed. Perhaps it's because there are 3 POVs and multiple timelines, and I'm not always the biggest of that but in many novels it works. And I don't think it entirely worked in this novel or for me and that all made this book very slow moving, especially in the first half. What I did like was the concept of the Morgan women having a book of spells, and certain 'powers' that go with it. The power of the mountains and the concept of paying something to receive your wish. It's the execution that didn't work for me but I'm sure another reader would better appreciate. 2.5 stars for me.

This book was like a warm blanket on a cool day.

With a non-linear timeline and different POV's, this is usually not the kind of book I would give a good rating. I feel like going from one POV to another and bouncing around in different time periods is confusing...but...this one drew me in and I fell in love with the story.

A love story, a cautionary tale, living life, coming home, all surrounded by the inherited familial magic of Cora and Carrie. Find a quiet afternoon to immerse yourself in this story.

Well written with a compelling storyline and characters you won’t soon forget, Rachel Greenlaw weaves this story masterfully.

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw is the perfect cozy read for witchy season. Greenlaw combines magical realism with folklore in this enchanting tale of finding one’s path and place of belonging. I found myself drawn to the mountains right along with Carrie Morgan and not wanting to leave. All of the relationships Carrie must navigate in order to find her own roots in a small town were thoughtfully crafted. From spells to curses and lost loves to new romances, this book kept me guessing and wondering what relationships would thaw and grow stronger after the winter frosts.
Thank you, NetGalley, Rachel Greenlaw, Avon and Harper Voyager for sharing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! This was the perfect read for getting cozy by a fire (and maybe motivate me to do some home projects).

⋆⋆½ — lovely prose, reminiscent of maggie stiefvater and adrienne young. an atmosphere that resembles that of zella day's song hypnotic. the angsty, nostalgic small-town magical realism would usually be right up my alley, but i couldn't connect to the characters this time. a problem because this was definitely a character study and had no semblance of anything close to a plot. the story was mainly about carrie's homecoming, and her slowly learning to love her hometown again. she wasn't a particularly interesting character, but jess and cora were even more irritating, and being forced to read from their povs every other chapter very much lowered whatever enjoyment i had in the earlier chapters. jess especially. i do not care about her tradwife marital problems. for a book where all three povs are female, it's odd that the book seems to be 60% about men? i wouldn't classify this as a romance, and yet. so. many. men. i'm sure even straight women have other topics to consider?

thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy.

This book was not at all what I expected. It was more magical realism than cozy fantasy. I thought it was going to be more witchy as well. I liked the 3 main characters in the book however I did not need all 3 of their POVs and think the book would have flowed better if there were only 1 or 2 narrators. I wish that the romance was more than a subplot and was better developed. However, I really enjoyed how the female relationships developed. It was well written and a good concept, but I thought it could have been executed better.

Told from three women’s points of view, The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells crafts a tale filled with romance, self-discovery, second chances, and a bit of folklore and magic.

Overall, I adored the theme of the book at its core—a story about finding yourself, closure, and your way back home. With the small-town setting, seasonal changes, mysterious mountains, and tall tales, the atmosphere of the novel was also really intriguing and kept luring me back in. I also am a sucker for a sweet romance, and I loved this one!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

“The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells” is an enticing tale of magic, friendship, and facing the past. This one is for fans of Adrienne Young’s adult novels. Carrie returns to her mystical hometown, after 10 years of absence, to fix up her grandmother’s cottage. She left her fiancé, her best friend and her family many years ago and now she must face them. I was immediately drawn into the mysteries of this story. It was intriguing to place the events of the past and understand the characters and their intertwining relationships. This book also has some magical elements and curses that unfold throughout the story. I really enjoyed this one! It’s perfect for the autumn and winter seasons!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Morgan women are deeply connected to the mountains of Woodsmoke, with the ability to share the power of the town with townspeople who need their help. Carrie left the small town years ago, only to return when her grandmother dies and stipulates that Carrie must stay in her cottage and restore it over one winter. Carrie left behind her great aunt and her ex best friend, and coming home brings multiple complications to her life.

This beautifully written story is incredibly atmospheric and evocative, with the mist rolling in off the mountains and the lyrical descriptions. Greenlaw's writing sets an enchanting mood, putting the reader in the right spirit for magic.

At its core, it is a story about family, obligations, and finding our own path. Carrie is reluctant to come home and be seen as one of the Morgan women again, with all of the rumors and responsibilities that go along with her last name. She finds a distraction in a beautiful man who comes down from the mountains one morning, pouring connection and romance into this read.

This book had me completely captivated, and I finished it in a single day simply because I couldn't put it down. It would be a fantastic one to add to your fall reads if you enjoy family stories, tales of finding yourself, and a little bit of magic