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ronelia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book felt like it was written for me. The writing just hit differently. It's equally cozy and dark. The descriptions of honey and overgrown cottages and flower gardens and magic honey potions were delicious.
The romance was really sweet with just the right amount of smut without being cringe. I love that they kept calling each other impossible girl.
The magic was a very loose magic system which worked perfectly because the whole book felt whimsical and charming instead of rigid.
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and in so glad I got around to it this month. It's the kind of book that you read slowly with intention.
This is the second five star book I've read which heavily relies on honey and bees (the other being The Starless Sea).
It's not a perfect book but I adored it. I found it strange that this queer normative and art positive world still has sexism in the form of criminalising tattoos on women because surely the same patriarchal purist values is the root of homophobia and sexism, but that's just me being nit picky... I loved this.
The romance was really sweet with just the right amount of smut without being cringe. I love that they kept calling each other impossible girl.
The magic was a very loose magic system which worked perfectly because the whole book felt whimsical and charming instead of rigid.
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and in so glad I got around to it this month. It's the kind of book that you read slowly with intention.
This is the second five star book I've read which heavily relies on honey and bees (the other being The Starless Sea).
It's not a perfect book but I adored it. I found it strange that this queer normative and art positive world still has sexism in the form of criminalising tattoos on women because surely the same patriarchal purist values is the root of homophobia and sexism, but that's just me being nit picky... I loved this.
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
whitnik's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
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 stingstobyw's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
2.5
Very disappointingly un-good. I was suckered in by the cute premise and pretty cover; I'm not really a huge fantasy or "cosy fantasy" person, but I have no genres that I inherently dislike. I think books are just well-written, or they aren't. In this case, the book was not well-written (nor was it well-edited).
The voice: Someone needs to start teaching writers how perspectives work, again. This book was neither omniscient nor limited third, nor free indirect discourse. It was floating and inconsistent, particularly when it came to vocabulary and tone. The narration flipped between attempts at humour in Marigold's own internal narration and more distantly recounting events. Everything was over-explained to death. There is a huge amount of redundancy in the narration. The same idea is stated over and over again. Anything that happens gets repeated so that the audience gets the idea. Are you getting the idea? This is where I take issue with the editor. A phrase like "warm yellow heat" making it into the final novel should immediately result in a pink slip. WHAT OTHER KIND OF HEAT IS THERE? COLD HEAT?
Pacing & structure: This seemed like a first draft. The author was just brimming with Marigold's backstory and couldn't resist telling us information so irrelevant that I will not bother writing it down here. The entire sequence with Marigold's family at the beginning should have been cut, and it occupies the first 25% of the book. The ending needed much more time than it got.Lottie's fake out death was skipped past so easily that it made everything that followed very confusing, stakes-wise.
Characters & romance: Marigold was fine. Althea did not get enough time on-page to build her relationship with Marigold. August was fine. Lottie... Oh, Lottie. She exists only as the word "Grumpy" in the "grumpy/sunshine" ao3 tag until she and Marigold admit their feelings for one another, at which point her character trait is erased and replaced with "in love." Marigold is similarly wiped clean and substituted with generic lover juice. Their dialogue could have been swapped in many of their scenes together without any noticeable difference. I was not compelled by their romance for that reason; it didn't feel like two different people fitting together as a couple, it felt like two mirrors pointed at each other.
Magic & worldbuilding: I don't have much to say about the magic. I've seen others complain about it in their reviews, but I felt like the tone of the story fitted the rather loose approach to any kind of magic system. The worldbuilding is the real problem. What is it with these kinds of novels and their obsession with erasing homophobia and racism, but not misogyny? (Obviously transgender people don't exist). Homophobia and misogyny (and racism) are deeply intertwined, but I seem to encounter so many novels where they are cleanly separated, and homophobia is dusted away while misogyny is applied only to mothers and Evil Men so that the protagonist can have her Not Like Other Girlbosses moment. The complaint with magic that I do have is the soulmate stuff. I just think it's very odd and absurd--too fanfiction-esque to be shoehorned into the novel like that without further justification.
Writing style: Where art thou, editor. This needed a much, much harsher editor to put their foot down and liberally cross out some of Shields's more unforgivably self-indulgent passages. The authorial voice is so oppressive and all-consuming that the dialogue of every character is inevitably swallowed up in it at some point. Marigold can hardly mention her dead grandmother without some side character piping up to wax lyrical about how grief is like a creature made of teacups and windowsills who smothers pancakes with cotton sheets. The editor also should have caught her heavy reliance on the passive voice. Also,the praise kink tattoo scene is ripped straight from a Tumblr post, but I suppose every editor can't be expected to know that.
Plot holes & twists: This was not a very tightly plotted book. Plenty of things did not make sense with the established stakes/circumstances/worldbuilding. A few particularly egregious ones-- first, when Marigold has been repeatedly having visions of Innisfree on fire, and her grandmother has already warned her that Versa the ash witch will eventually return to try to claim Innisfree for herself.... Marigold receives a letter from her sister, who is getting married, and decides to drop everything for a little vacation. She doesn't even consider the possibility that her visions of the fiery future might occur when she is away from home. Second, Lottie forgets the nursery rhymes that she takes with her everywhere, but incomprehensibly elects to bring a full kit of tattooing supplies on a trip to someone else's sister's wedding. It was so ridiculous I almost laughed out of sheer irritation. As for the plot twists, well...Obviously Lottie was an ash witch. It was evident from the moment her red hair was mentioned. I would have enjoyed Marigold more as a character if she'd managed to piece that together.
Problematic content: There isn't any. Because the book keeps turning to you, the reader, and promising that nothing problematic is happening. Every time any magic involving love is mentioned, Althea or Marigold immediately and unprompted declares that magic cannot force anyone into love, and that it only leads them to their soulmate. When Marigold is briefly scornful of a society woman seeking help in attracting her suitor, Althea lectures her about Women's Right to Make Choices, absolving Marigold of her not-like-other-girls tendencies, which tidily never reappear. The stakes generally remain extremely low and no character confronts major flaws or grows from them; Marigold's mother is depicted as awful and controlling early on, as is typical with books like these, and then does a 180 later for no reason that we are privvy to, other than that Marigold leaving made her realize that she couldn't protect her forever (?) (except even after Marigold was gone, she still wouldn't write to her, so ... no, we don't know how her change of heart occurred). Marigold's father is obviously a saint and must do no learning or growing as a parent. Even with this shying away from conflict, the book still has a misogynistic streak. Marigold on-paper supports other women, but Shields can't resist turning incidental female characters into scheming bitches for no real reason.
As much as I've criticized it, there were things to like about it. In the hands of a much better editor, this could have been a wonderful whimsical book. It's a pity the author got away with so much, because the book suffers heavily for it.
All in all, it's like someone half-remembered Circe, watched one series of Bridgerton (complete with a modiste named Genevieve, which is too bizarrely specific to be an accident), and scrolled through some Pinterest cottagecore moodboards. Somehow, the Taylor Swift and WB Yeats references didn't save it.
The voice: Someone needs to start teaching writers how perspectives work, again. This book was neither omniscient nor limited third, nor free indirect discourse. It was floating and inconsistent, particularly when it came to vocabulary and tone. The narration flipped between attempts at humour in Marigold's own internal narration and more distantly recounting events. Everything was over-explained to death. There is a huge amount of redundancy in the narration. The same idea is stated over and over again. Anything that happens gets repeated so that the audience gets the idea. Are you getting the idea? This is where I take issue with the editor. A phrase like "warm yellow heat" making it into the final novel should immediately result in a pink slip. WHAT OTHER KIND OF HEAT IS THERE? COLD HEAT?
Pacing & structure: This seemed like a first draft. The author was just brimming with Marigold's backstory and couldn't resist telling us information so irrelevant that I will not bother writing it down here. The entire sequence with Marigold's family at the beginning should have been cut, and it occupies the first 25% of the book. The ending needed much more time than it got.
Characters & romance: Marigold was fine. Althea did not get enough time on-page to build her relationship with Marigold. August was fine. Lottie... Oh, Lottie. She exists only as the word "Grumpy" in the "grumpy/sunshine" ao3 tag until she and Marigold admit their feelings for one another, at which point her character trait is erased and replaced with "in love." Marigold is similarly wiped clean and substituted with generic lover juice. Their dialogue could have been swapped in many of their scenes together without any noticeable difference. I was not compelled by their romance for that reason; it didn't feel like two different people fitting together as a couple, it felt like two mirrors pointed at each other.
Magic & worldbuilding: I don't have much to say about the magic. I've seen others complain about it in their reviews, but I felt like the tone of the story fitted the rather loose approach to any kind of magic system. The worldbuilding is the real problem. What is it with these kinds of novels and their obsession with erasing homophobia and racism, but not misogyny? (Obviously transgender people don't exist). Homophobia and misogyny (and racism) are deeply intertwined, but I seem to encounter so many novels where they are cleanly separated, and homophobia is dusted away while misogyny is applied only to mothers and Evil Men so that the protagonist can have her Not Like Other Girlbosses moment. The complaint with magic that I do have is the soulmate stuff. I just think it's very odd and absurd--too fanfiction-esque to be shoehorned into the novel like that without further justification.
Writing style: Where art thou, editor. This needed a much, much harsher editor to put their foot down and liberally cross out some of Shields's more unforgivably self-indulgent passages. The authorial voice is so oppressive and all-consuming that the dialogue of every character is inevitably swallowed up in it at some point. Marigold can hardly mention her dead grandmother without some side character piping up to wax lyrical about how grief is like a creature made of teacups and windowsills who smothers pancakes with cotton sheets. The editor also should have caught her heavy reliance on the passive voice. Also,
Plot holes & twists: This was not a very tightly plotted book. Plenty of things did not make sense with the established stakes/circumstances/worldbuilding. A few particularly egregious ones-- first, when Marigold has been repeatedly having visions of Innisfree on fire, and her grandmother has already warned her that Versa the ash witch will eventually return to try to claim Innisfree for herself.... Marigold receives a letter from her sister, who is getting married, and decides to drop everything for a little vacation. She doesn't even consider the possibility that her visions of the fiery future might occur when she is away from home. Second, Lottie forgets the nursery rhymes that she takes with her everywhere, but incomprehensibly elects to bring a full kit of tattooing supplies on a trip to someone else's sister's wedding. It was so ridiculous I almost laughed out of sheer irritation. As for the plot twists, well...
Problematic content: There isn't any. Because the book keeps turning to you, the reader, and promising that nothing problematic is happening. Every time any magic involving love is mentioned, Althea or Marigold immediately and unprompted declares that magic cannot force anyone into love, and that it only leads them to their soulmate. When Marigold is briefly scornful of a society woman seeking help in attracting her suitor, Althea lectures her about Women's Right to Make Choices, absolving Marigold of her not-like-other-girls tendencies, which tidily never reappear. The stakes generally remain extremely low and no character confronts major flaws or grows from them; Marigold's mother is depicted as awful and controlling early on, as is typical with books like these, and then does a 180 later for no reason that we are privvy to, other than that Marigold leaving made her realize that she couldn't protect her forever (?) (except even after Marigold was gone, she still wouldn't write to her, so ... no, we don't know how her change of heart occurred). Marigold's father is obviously a saint and must do no learning or growing as a parent. Even with this shying away from conflict, the book still has a misogynistic streak. Marigold on-paper supports other women, but Shields can't resist turning incidental female characters into scheming bitches for no real reason.
As much as I've criticized it, there were things to like about it. In the hands of a much better editor, this could have been a wonderful whimsical book. It's a pity the author got away with so much, because the book suffers heavily for it.
All in all, it's like someone half-remembered Circe, watched one series of Bridgerton (complete with a modiste named Genevieve, which is too bizarrely specific to be an accident), and scrolled through some Pinterest cottagecore moodboards. Somehow, the Taylor Swift and WB Yeats references didn't save it.
hobbithopeful's review against another edition
The best thing about this book is the cover. The stilted and at times cringey dialogue, repetitive words, and quite frankly poor writing made it an immediate bore to read.
Where to even begin? The Honey Witch is being marketed as a cozy sapphic fantasy, but I have never had more trouble trying to get through a book. And I bought a copy, so it is RARE for me to just waste money like this.
The book opens up and right away we are treated to the main character being not like other girls. Dear read, I adore strong badass fmc, especially if they hate men and society. (The Invocations for instances, angry sapphic witches and feminism)
"She waves goodbye and then takes off in a run, knowing that she will not allow herself to be tamed."
It's easy to see the character that the author wants to depict, wild, and different. But just the way it is written just made me kind of want to chuckle in a way, it felt difficult to take seriously.
Things quickly went downhill, and I realized I had no desire to finish this book.
There were so many repeated words and sentence structures, I wanted to bang my head against a wall, and ask where the editor had gone. I was subjected to such sentences such as these:
"Marigold gasps louder then she meant to." And not a few paragraphs later: "'Mother,' Marigold gasps." WHY IS SO MUCH GASPING HAPPENING? Mayhap the air be difficult to breathe?
We continue. With lots of yelling. This all takes place within the same opened pages.
"'She is not like you, Mother,' her mother yells." and then we get: "'Spared me?' She yells as she stands."
Lots of interrupting now:
"'If this is true,' her mother interrupts..." and then close after: "Desperate for answers, Marigold interrupts and says..." Perhaps it is a family affliction.
We get such gems such as these:
"'Oh please,' her mother says as she rolls her eyes and regards Althea with disgust."
Oh, and there is a problem with Marigold's jaw, sucks they don't have a dentist I guess.
"Marigold's jaw drops as she..."
"Marigold's jaw falls to the floor."
Also there is the mention of Marigold "stiffening" several different times over the chapter. Like we get it. She's stiff. The condition is then passed to Althea who starts stiffening as well.
I could go on. But I won't. Because I do not wish me to subject myself further to such a book. Bless anyone who actually made it through this.
I did a deep dive into this book and reviews after giving up, and came to the conclusion that apparently what is a large plot point of the book doesn't even make sense or is necessary. So I am truly glad I gave up.
I feel lied to in a way. It seems everyone and their mother is reading this right now and liking it. And I just can't help but feel like I read a different book then everyone else. Just because it is
sapphic, does not give it a pass for being an utter slog to read. I didn't want to savor or devour this book, it just gave me a stomach ache and nearly sent me into a book slump.
I do NOT recommend this book whatsoever, no matter your tastes. And that, dear reader, is rare for me to say.
Where to even begin? The Honey Witch is being marketed as a cozy sapphic fantasy, but I have never had more trouble trying to get through a book. And I bought a copy, so it is RARE for me to just waste money like this.
The book opens up and right away we are treated to the main character being not like other girls. Dear read, I adore strong badass fmc, especially if they hate men and society. (The Invocations for instances, angry sapphic witches and feminism)
"She waves goodbye and then takes off in a run, knowing that she will not allow herself to be tamed."
It's easy to see the character that the author wants to depict, wild, and different. But just the way it is written just made me kind of want to chuckle in a way, it felt difficult to take seriously.
Things quickly went downhill, and I realized I had no desire to finish this book.
There were so many repeated words and sentence structures, I wanted to bang my head against a wall, and ask where the editor had gone. I was subjected to such sentences such as these:
"Marigold gasps louder then she meant to." And not a few paragraphs later: "'Mother,' Marigold gasps." WHY IS SO MUCH GASPING HAPPENING? Mayhap the air be difficult to breathe?
We continue. With lots of yelling. This all takes place within the same opened pages.
"'She is not like you, Mother,' her mother yells." and then we get: "'Spared me?' She yells as she stands."
Lots of interrupting now:
"'If this is true,' her mother interrupts..." and then close after: "Desperate for answers, Marigold interrupts and says..." Perhaps it is a family affliction.
We get such gems such as these:
"'Oh please,' her mother says as she rolls her eyes and regards Althea with disgust."
Oh, and there is a problem with Marigold's jaw, sucks they don't have a dentist I guess.
"Marigold's jaw drops as she..."
"Marigold's jaw falls to the floor."
Also there is the mention of Marigold "stiffening" several different times over the chapter. Like we get it. She's stiff. The condition is then passed to Althea who starts stiffening as well.
I could go on. But I won't. Because I do not wish me to subject myself further to such a book. Bless anyone who actually made it through this.
I did a deep dive into this book and reviews after giving up, and came to the conclusion that apparently what is a large plot point of the book doesn't even make sense or is necessary. So I am truly glad I gave up.
I feel lied to in a way. It seems everyone and their mother is reading this right now and liking it. And I just can't help but feel like I read a different book then everyone else. Just because it is
sapphic, does not give it a pass for being an utter slog to read. I didn't want to savor or devour this book, it just gave me a stomach ache and nearly sent me into a book slump.
I do NOT recommend this book whatsoever, no matter your tastes. And that, dear reader, is rare for me to say.
sydnec'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
morganfiona's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The entire plot was pretty clear by the end of the second chapter, but the details and writing were so delightful that I didn't mind the predictability. The scene on the boat where Lottie gives Mari a tattoo was the most romantic tension I've ever felt in a book, I was giggling, blushing, kicking my feet.
kristinshires's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
i could not put this book down!!!! the drama & magic of it all!!!!
not 4 stars simply because it was SO OBVIOUS that lottie was an ash witch
thenewreadingnook's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
4.0
Cutesy little witchy romance