A review by chloefrizzle
The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater

5.0

The more I read of this book, the more I fell in love with it.
We open with Winnie arriving at a mansion haunted by malevolent fae. She is hired on officially as a governess, and unofficially as someone to deal with the curse on the household.

I love what this book balances tonally. It's gothic and dark. It's romantic and wholesome. It's mysterious and fairytale. It's easy to follow and structured.
It certainly relishes its Victorian era setting by leaning more towards Gothic tropes, while not leaning so hard that it gets muddled in the Atmospheric Plotless Weeds that Gothic books sometimes do.

But after all of that, I think what I love most about this book is the romance. It starts so slowly. For the first half of the book, I was wondering if there was even going to be a romance. But it builds, and is built so well. They get to know each other, and learn to trust each other, and have many cute moments together.

I highly recommend this novel. It does act as a direct sequel to the Regency Fairy Tales series, but can be read without those ones.

Thanks to Netgalley and Starwatch Press for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.