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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
The story is great, the reading time is not too long and the writer did a great job on telling the story.
A copy of the book was provided to Sapphic Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
This story follows Rose, a life coach who ends up finding out she is a witch after attending a retreat with her sister. Rose gets thrown into the deep end of the world of magic and witch craft, and has a steep learning curve.
This is my first book by Ryan and I enjoyed it. It's been a while since I have read an urban fantasy book, let alone one involving witches. The small glimpse into this world was fascinating and I am excited to explore more of the world in the sequel. I liked Rose and what little I got with the other witches in the coven. With how quick everything went down in this book, there wasn't much time to get to know the other characters.
The one aspect that keeps it from a 5 star for me, is that there was one aspect of the world that was completely glossed over or ignored anytime it came up. I have a feeling that it was being saved for the sequel but the avoidance of this one world building aspect came at the determent of getting to better know the characters. In one particular instance, Rose and another character (no spoilers), desperately needed to have a sit down conversation, and they do, off page. This discussion provides some important character development for both characters, and we didn't even get to experience it.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and look forward to the sequel. I hope there is more world building and more time getting to know the characters. I would recommend this for fans of urban fantasy and witches.
This story follows Rose, a life coach who ends up finding out she is a witch after attending a retreat with her sister. Rose gets thrown into the deep end of the world of magic and witch craft, and has a steep learning curve.
This is my first book by Ryan and I enjoyed it. It's been a while since I have read an urban fantasy book, let alone one involving witches. The small glimpse into this world was fascinating and I am excited to explore more of the world in the sequel. I liked Rose and what little I got with the other witches in the coven. With how quick everything went down in this book, there wasn't much time to get to know the other characters.
The one aspect that keeps it from a 5 star for me, is that there was one aspect of the world that was completely glossed over or ignored anytime it came up. I have a feeling that it was being saved for the sequel but the avoidance of this one world building aspect came at the determent of getting to better know the characters. In one particular instance, Rose and another character (no spoilers), desperately needed to have a sit down conversation, and they do, off page. This discussion provides some important character development for both characters, and we didn't even get to experience it.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and look forward to the sequel. I hope there is more world building and more time getting to know the characters. I would recommend this for fans of urban fantasy and witches.
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A copy of the book was provided to Sapphic Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
Caitlin Ryan's lighthearted urban fantasy is the first in a new series focusing on the witches of Honeydrop House. This is also the first of Ryan's works I've read, and focuses on Rose, a down-to-earth life coach who's bemused to find herself in possession of magical powers following a yoga retreat endured under duress for her sister's sake.
I appreciated the author afterword explaining that the numerous Harry Potter references that frame the magical system are a reflection of the formative impact Rowling's books had on Ryan, and are not intended as an endorsement of her transphobic views, but they made the experience of reading the book much less engaging for me. Unfortunately, every time I hit one I spent several minutes staring into space feeling sad and angry, which really killed the mood of the book for me. For readers who don't have that problem, this has the potential to be much more fun, but I'm not entirely convinced it was necessary: the relationship between witch and familiar, and other aspects of the magical system, have other precedents and could have been developed in other ways.
The ensemble cast were well-drawn, with several offering intriguing details for development in later books in the series, including a potential future romance for Rose. The established relationship within this book would have benefitted from some fuller development: because there was relatively little interaction between the couple within the book, I didn't feel like I got a sense of why Rose cared so much about Billie, and this would have added to the weight of the plotline developed here.
Honeydrop House itself is a delightful location: I'm a total sucker for magical house tropes, and love the idea of the house changing itself to welcome the coven's new members. As the initial book in a series, it does a lot of heavy lifting in the world building, leaving room for future instalments to run with the premise.
I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy urban fantasy and don't mind Potter references, for whom I think it will be an enjoyable new series.
Caitlin Ryan's lighthearted urban fantasy is the first in a new series focusing on the witches of Honeydrop House. This is also the first of Ryan's works I've read, and focuses on Rose, a down-to-earth life coach who's bemused to find herself in possession of magical powers following a yoga retreat endured under duress for her sister's sake.
I appreciated the author afterword explaining that the numerous Harry Potter references that frame the magical system are a reflection of the formative impact Rowling's books had on Ryan, and are not intended as an endorsement of her transphobic views, but they made the experience of reading the book much less engaging for me. Unfortunately, every time I hit one I spent several minutes staring into space feeling sad and angry, which really killed the mood of the book for me. For readers who don't have that problem, this has the potential to be much more fun, but I'm not entirely convinced it was necessary: the relationship between witch and familiar, and other aspects of the magical system, have other precedents and could have been developed in other ways.
The ensemble cast were well-drawn, with several offering intriguing details for development in later books in the series, including a potential future romance for Rose. The established relationship within this book would have benefitted from some fuller development: because there was relatively little interaction between the couple within the book, I didn't feel like I got a sense of why Rose cared so much about Billie, and this would have added to the weight of the plotline developed here.
Honeydrop House itself is a delightful location: I'm a total sucker for magical house tropes, and love the idea of the house changing itself to welcome the coven's new members. As the initial book in a series, it does a lot of heavy lifting in the world building, leaving room for future instalments to run with the premise.
I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy urban fantasy and don't mind Potter references, for whom I think it will be an enjoyable new series.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
There’s no right way, I guess, to find out you’re a witch and your new coven needs your help to fight demons and warlocks and whatnot before you learn to do more than light a couple of candles.
I really like the gallery of characters and the never-ending twists and who wouldn’t want a sweet sausage-stealing goat as their familiar? One minute I want to say it’s a cosy witch story, the next it ups the ante and it’s not so cosy anymore. Rose, the main character, is a life coach who absolutely definitely doesn’t believe in anything magic. Rude awakening doesn’t even begin to cover what she feels when her whole life falls into the paranormal. She goes from judgy and disbelieving to determined and steadfast as she realises how little control she has over what’s happening. I liked the older witches, Alice and Lottie, a lot but the two younger ones, animal-lover Hayley and wonderfully sarcastic Serena, stole my heart.
However, there were too many editing issues for the reading to go as smoothly as I would have liked and way too many mentions of JKR’s wizards’ universe for me to enjoy fully. The author explains in a note at the end of the book that “the inclusion of these references is not intended as a support of the author”, which feels a bit naive to me. I will, nevertheless, keep an eye on these witches and hope they grow into themselves. There were witches before HP, there will be witches after, and this particular coven has a lot of potential. Also, did I mention the goat?