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kyoko2a's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Abandonment
chanlo1994's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-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
4.25
A very cozy read. i appreciated the opposite forces being honey and ash, which is an incredibly refreshing pairing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Infertility and Miscarriage
Additional content warnings: tattooing/needles, bee stingssydnec's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief
Minor: Death
cozywithraven's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.75
This book was a lot more than I was expecting. I was a little hesitant at the first chapter, but after I got deeper into it, I couldn't put it down. I wanted to stay in the book as long as possible, I wish I could just go into the world and stay there đ
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Violence, Miscarriage, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
curlykristenk's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
âshe is a grown woman, and is that not magical in itself? To have survived this long, despite the worldâs penchant for beautiful dead girls?â
âThese are the wild women who run barefoot through the meadow, who teach new songs to the birds, who howl at the moon together. Wild women are their own kind of magic.â
Such a cute read, I loved the cottagecore witchy vibes and the bridgerton-like period that incorporates diversity and dance-cards, just so fun. The sapphic yearning?!?! My god yes. Dipping fingers in honey?!?! Absolutely. Hot, cute, fun, wholesome, all of the above. It was a little easily predictable but I also didnât mind that because it was just a fun, wholesome (until it wasnât so wholesome) read, I was just enjoying the ride.
đ¨minor spoilers: I will say that the ending felt really rushed which was disappointing, and the final battle didnât really hit but it was still so so good overall. I just wish it was a little longer so it wasnât as rushed and couldâve had a bit more to the end than there was.đ¨
âThese are the wild women who run barefoot through the meadow, who teach new songs to the birds, who howl at the moon together. Wild women are their own kind of magic.â
Such a cute read, I loved the cottagecore witchy vibes and the bridgerton-like period that incorporates diversity and dance-cards, just so fun. The sapphic yearning?!?! My god yes. Dipping fingers in honey?!?! Absolutely. Hot, cute, fun, wholesome, all of the above. It was a little easily predictable but I also didnât mind that because it was just a fun, wholesome (until it wasnât so wholesome) read, I was just enjoying the ride.
đ¨minor spoilers: I will say that the ending felt really rushed which was disappointing, and the final battle didnât really hit but it was still so so good overall. I just wish it was a little longer so it wasnât as rushed and couldâve had a bit more to the end than there was.đ¨
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Minor: Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and Vomit
juliaureads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This was cozy and sweet just like a cup of honey tea. The magic system was so unique and easy to understand. I billed this as âBridgerton but with magicâ and stand by it. There is a bit of Regency-era gossiping, Mari finding her way in the world, and a lot of sapphic love. The romance was a little rushed, but you know I love some pining, of which there was none.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Blood, Death, and Abandonment
Minor: Death of parent
caseythereader's review
emotional
lighthearted
sad
fast-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? It's complicated
2.75
Thanks to Orbit Books for the free copy of this book.
- I both loved and was frustrated with THE HONEY WITCH. I adored the isle of Innisfree, with its beautiful cottage and friendly spirits and bees. Truly, the beauty of nature is on display in this book.
- I also loved the romance element of the story. The concept of bringing a skeptic around to believing in magic and falling in love along the way was so sweet.
- However, the world building of this book left a lot to be desired for me. Unrelated magical powers popped up when they needed to, the rules of society were never quite clear, and the plot reveal at the end was so obvious so early on that it actually became frustrating waiting for the characters to figure it out.
- This book also kind of confused romantic love and physical intimacy in a way I didnât like. I donât want to go into it here due to spoilers, but Iâd love to talk about it if youâve read this book.
- I both loved and was frustrated with THE HONEY WITCH. I adored the isle of Innisfree, with its beautiful cottage and friendly spirits and bees. Truly, the beauty of nature is on display in this book.
- I also loved the romance element of the story. The concept of bringing a skeptic around to believing in magic and falling in love along the way was so sweet.
- However, the world building of this book left a lot to be desired for me. Unrelated magical powers popped up when they needed to, the rules of society were never quite clear, and the plot reveal at the end was so obvious so early on that it actually became frustrating waiting for the characters to figure it out.
- This book also kind of confused romantic love and physical intimacy in a way I didnât like. I donât want to go into it here due to spoilers, but Iâd love to talk about it if youâve read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death, and Miscarriage
mrlister's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
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? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
kylosten's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really wanted to love this book because the premise of cozy sapphic witches was such a cool idea to me but the execution of this just fell flat in a lot of ways.
It's clear this was a debut novel.
A majority of the first half was written in vignettes where it peeked in on Marigold's life around the full moon but about a third of those didn't really add anything to the story they just felt like flavor text to add vibes and give details that didn't really matter/were slice of life type scenes. It just made everything feel drawn out and added to the slow pacing. I'm surprised a lot of those didn't get edited out to make this more or a novella length book.
The romance aspect of this didn't really start until almost halfway through and it didn't really feel natural at all.
None of the characters had any real dimension and there wasn't any real motivations to any of what they were doing.
The worldbuilding was pretty non existent and the magic system wasn't really fleshed out. Mari was a honey witch but also randomly had other powers that didn't seem connected to the honey magic and she seemed to somehow just innately know what to do sometimes and other times have to research it.
There's an aspect about tattoos on women being an offense that could lead to a fine but never really explained why. Given that the L.I. is a heavily tattooed woman and there is a scene where that matters, I think it should have been explained.
The conclusion of the story was very heavily foreshadowed pretty early on once the interactions with the L.I. started happening so I think that added to this feeling like it was way too long.
This basically felt like the author had a handful of scenes and dialogue and they wanted to put into a book and then added the rest around it but didn't execute it well. The pacing was weird and a lot of details given didn't really add anything.
If I hadn't been listening to the audiobook I may have just DNF'd it. The narrator was great!
I will say that since queerness seems accepted in this world it seemed like magic was used as kind of a euphemism for how queerness is viewed in the real world. Some people didn't accept it as real/an innate part of people, it caused Mari to feel unaccepted and "othered" at times, and some characters needed time to come around to the idea that it was part of her and who she was. I do think that aspect was done well.
It's clear this was a debut novel.
A majority of the first half was written in vignettes where it peeked in on Marigold's life around the full moon but about a third of those didn't really add anything to the story they just felt like flavor text to add vibes and give details that didn't really matter/were slice of life type scenes. It just made everything feel drawn out and added to the slow pacing. I'm surprised a lot of those didn't get edited out to make this more or a novella length book.
The romance aspect of this didn't really start until almost halfway through and it didn't really feel natural at all.
None of the characters had any real dimension and there wasn't any real motivations to any of what they were doing.
The worldbuilding was pretty non existent and the magic system wasn't really fleshed out. Mari was a honey witch but also randomly had other powers that didn't seem connected to the honey magic and she seemed to somehow just innately know what to do sometimes and other times have to research it.
There's an aspect about tattoos on women being an offense that could lead to a fine but never really explained why. Given that the L.I. is a heavily tattooed woman and there is a scene where that matters, I think it should have been explained.
The conclusion of the story was very heavily foreshadowed pretty early on once the interactions with the L.I. started happening so I think that added to this feeling like it was way too long.
This basically felt like the author had a handful of scenes and dialogue and they wanted to put into a book and then added the rest around it but didn't execute it well. The pacing was weird and a lot of details given didn't really add anything.
If I hadn't been listening to the audiobook I may have just DNF'd it. The narrator was great!
I will say that since queerness seems accepted in this world it seemed like magic was used as kind of a euphemism for how queerness is viewed in the real world. Some people didn't accept it as real/an innate part of people, it caused Mari to feel unaccepted and "othered" at times, and some characters needed time to come around to the idea that it was part of her and who she was. I do think that aspect was done well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Miscarriage
ana_the_frog's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Moderate: Blood, Miscarriage, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Sexual content