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kassidyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Death, and Child death
journeythroughthechapters's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I liked how this started off with a bang. It was pretty dark pretty quick but I feel the rest of the book fell flat. I understand the journey we went on with the characters but I feel like everything happened so quickly and then we get to the battle scene which dragged on too long.
The book is short for fantasy so this isn't surprising that the balance of the plot was off. I think I just wanted a bit more. At the end of the day this is a debut and I think the author has potential. It was a quick enjoyable read. Thumbs up.
Representation
Queer, Non Binary
Content Warning
Violence, Attempted Sexual Assult, Grief, Amnesia, Anxiety, Depression
The book is short for fantasy so this isn't surprising that the balance of the plot was off. I think I just wanted a bit more. At the end of the day this is a debut and I think the author has potential. It was a quick enjoyable read. Thumbs up.
Representation
Queer, Non Binary
Content Warning
Violence, Attempted Sexual Assult, Grief, Amnesia, Anxiety, Depression
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Mental illness
booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Tamsin is cursed witch. For years her curse has caused her not to feel love, so she takes it. When the people of her village come to her for help their payment is their love for someone in their life. Her village lives in constant fear of her.
A plague has befallen the country, one of magical origin. As it infects people they forget their loved ones. Sadly one such infected is Wren’s father. But Wren also has a secret. She is a source of magic, which are so rare and coveted that they are rarely found out side the witch lands. Yet Wren has managed to hide herself all these years. Until her father comes down with the plague.
Seeing no other choice Wren strikes a deal with Tamsin to help save her father. In return for his life, she will pay for her love for him. The two team up to track down the source of the dark magic causing the plague, but as they work together Tamsin’s secrets start to come back from the dead, and wren, well she just might start having feelings for the witch who can’t love.
I really enjoyed Sweet and bitter magic. Especially the magic system in it. It wasn’t very complex, but I did love that it was a system where you had a magic bar( like in a video game) and could only use x amount at a time with out loosing power.
On top of that there the love and relationship wren has with her father is very touching.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and thought this was a fun wlw witchy quest that had me gasping and yelling at the book half the time.
Cw
Death
Violence
Death of a parent
Murder
A plague has befallen the country, one of magical origin. As it infects people they forget their loved ones. Sadly one such infected is Wren’s father. But Wren also has a secret. She is a source of magic, which are so rare and coveted that they are rarely found out side the witch lands. Yet Wren has managed to hide herself all these years. Until her father comes down with the plague.
Seeing no other choice Wren strikes a deal with Tamsin to help save her father. In return for his life, she will pay for her love for him. The two team up to track down the source of the dark magic causing the plague, but as they work together Tamsin’s secrets start to come back from the dead, and wren, well she just might start having feelings for the witch who can’t love.
I really enjoyed Sweet and bitter magic. Especially the magic system in it. It wasn’t very complex, but I did love that it was a system where you had a magic bar( like in a video game) and could only use x amount at a time with out loosing power.
On top of that there the love and relationship wren has with her father is very touching.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and thought this was a fun wlw witchy quest that had me gasping and yelling at the book half the time.
Cw
Death
Violence
Death of a parent
Murder
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Violence
bot's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Violence and Death
Minor: Death of parent
lucy_shanners's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
Moderate: Blood, Vomit, and Violence
violet_pages's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Violence, and Dementia
Moderate: Chronic illness, Vomit, Murder, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture
Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts
lunagirl_alice's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I absolutely adored this book. The world building was really great and I love the magic system that is in place, the idea of there being direct consequences to the witches themselves for using magic in terms of the physical toll it took was something I found really interesting. I also loved the characters, both the main characters were loveable even Tamsin who has a very cold exterior, her quips and taunts were very funny at times. Even the smaller characters whom we did not get to see a lot of in the book were well written and I really liked them. I would love another book on the school itself and maybe Tamsin's life at the school prior to her banishment, that's something I did want to know about in more detail, however obviously I understand why that would not have really fitted into the book. I would have also liked to see more of Wren's childhood and maybe how her father became to be the man he was when we were first introduced to him, and seen how his relationship with wren was affected. I loved the author's writing style so I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future books, I believe there's one coming out this year. I highly recommend this book as an adventurous Sapphic fantasy and especially as this was a debut novel I was highly impressed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
elwirax's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Sweet & Bitter Magic" was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and for a debut it was a great book. It had the enemies to lovers, the cute sapphic romance, a morally grey protagonist and the perfect atmosphere to top it all off.
I think the exploration of love- how it shapes you as a person, and the commitments and sacrifices that come with it- was such a well done aspect of this book. While you have the cute wee romance between Tamsin and Wren there is also a focus on familial love. This was significant as the way Tamsin and Wren looked at love fuelled their actions throughout the book and helped build a set of great characters. The diary entries were also a great way of establishing the relationship between Tamsin and her twin sister.
Additionally, there was a total lack of homophobia, it was just a normal aspect in this world which is something I always love to see especially in fantasy.
My only issues with the book was that the enemies to lovers aspect didn't last as long as I'd hoped. However, this was quite a short book and slow burns are a personal preference in romance so I can't fault the book too much. I found the major plot points to be quite predictable (I wasn't a big fan of the "sister showdown" either) which slightly took away from the reading experience.
Overall, I think this was a very entertaining book. It was more character driven rather than action which is not something I typically prefer yet it worked well in this book. The writing was really well done and the author built an interesting world. I'm always hunting for sapphic, enemies to lovers and this was definitely a good book for that.
I think the exploration of love- how it shapes you as a person, and the commitments and sacrifices that come with it- was such a well done aspect of this book. While you have the cute wee romance between Tamsin and Wren there is also a focus on familial love. This was significant as the way Tamsin and Wren looked at love fuelled their actions throughout the book and helped build a set of great characters. The diary entries were also a great way of establishing the relationship between Tamsin and her twin sister.
Additionally, there was a total lack of homophobia, it was just a normal aspect in this world which is something I always love to see especially in fantasy.
My only issues with the book was that the enemies to lovers aspect didn't last as long as I'd hoped. However, this was quite a short book and slow burns are a personal preference in romance so I can't fault the book too much. I found the major plot points to be quite predictable (I wasn't a big fan of the "sister showdown" either) which slightly took away from the reading experience.
Overall, I think this was a very entertaining book. It was more character driven rather than action which is not something I typically prefer yet it worked well in this book. The writing was really well done and the author built an interesting world. I'm always hunting for sapphic, enemies to lovers and this was definitely a good book for that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Violence
thecourtofreading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
"there was a difference between existing and living. that was something tamsin knew well."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Animal death and Child death