This book sounded right up my street, witches, Necromancers , a magical fantasy world and I was so hyped for this. Unfortunately it didn’t meet my excitement , the characters I struggled to connect with and were not very relatable, I found the plot all over the place as well as the pacing. The world building was good, but unfortunately let down from what seemed so promising

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was pretty excited to get a chance to read this book before it's release. Witches and magic and a magical fantasy world? It sounds amazing. However, I ended up DNFing this book at less than 20%. I couldn't get into it, as hard as I tried. The world building seemed interesting, with the magic systems, but that's the only plus I came away with. I found the characters to all be extremely annoying and I just couldn't sit through it. Maybe it just wasn't for me? It might even get better farther in the book, sadly, I didn't make it that far.

So, did anyone else get weird poorly executed Chronicles of Narnia vibes? No, the two stories are not similar but the fact that there are four characters traveling in the midst of a fantasy world...oh and it just happens to be two male characters and two females. I also saw similarities in the way the main character struggles with forbidden magic and the way Edmund was seduced by evil in Narnia. Let's just say my mind kept making connections.

That being said, I was neither overly impressed nor unimpressed with the story. I just kept finding things similar to other fantasies.

I'd like to revisit this book in a few months to see if I can regain my interest in the story. The description captured need more than the story itself.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel. I'd like more by this author.

This was a book that grew on me. It initially appealed to me because of the fairytale-like description and the magical elements. However, the start felt like I was dropped into a world I should have been familiar with - but I wasn't, and I would have appreciated a bit more world building (particularly where Hazel and Holly's mother was involved.)

In honesty, this is one I had to push myself to stick with, as the beginning was a bit slow. The tale did pick up pace midway and had a satisfying ending.

Most of the time, I enjoyed the interactions between the two sets of siblings, both between siblings sets as well as between each others.. They each had such different personalities which seemed to play well and against each other. The characters showed growth (although I would have liked to see Holly's character a little more developed, as she came off as very childish for her age.) I loved the golems and the cheeky house elf and all the creepy creatures that showed up in this very quirky tale. The plot did feel choppy at times, but the story tied up neatly in the end.

I was given this ARC by the publisher via netgalley for an honest review.

I am drawn to books that can transport you to a far off place. I liked the fairy tale aspect of it and loved that it centered on sisters. And SISTER WITCHES! I wasn't feeling the necromancy stuff and that some of the adventures didn't need to be so drawn out.

Awesome sister duos always hold a very special place inside my heart, so I'm super glad I got to add this one to the bunch! Hazel & Holly by Sara C. Snider was a lighthearted and entrancing read. With all the talk about about witches & warlocks, necromancers & dangerous magic, I was expecting and was even a little excited for a dark read...but that's not what I got. Instead, this book brought out the quirky angles of fantasy, which I absolutely loved! I so look forward to more of this author's work and recommend this book to friends.

The premise of this book was promising but I found itquiet lacking. Necromancy, witches, enchanted forests and crazy family dynamics could have taken this book to great places but it was just disturbing and dull.

Wow, I actually cannot believe I managed to finish this book. I am so proud of myself for not digging my eyeballs out because this was torture for my mind and soul. I've been delaying this read for a while now because some inner part of me that actually sees sense refused to read it. Well, that's what I get for ignoring the smartass.

Hazel and Holy are two sisters living alone after their mother died – but, their father trapped her soul in a geas. One day, Hazel decides to chase her necromancer father and make him free her mother’s spirit so she can leave this world in peace. Two sisters travel alongside two warlocks Hemlock and Hawthorn to the town Sardnum, known for necromancers who live there. They think Hazel’s father might be there and follow clues until they find the Shrine – place where warlocks go to become necromancers. Hazel has to make a lot of difficult decisions and sacrifices in order to find her father, but will she be able to preserve her old self and resist the call of dark powers and arts.

At the very beginning, I felt pretty optimistic and even expected a mediocre fantasy novel. Plot started with a peculiar note and has been getting interesting up to some point where it all went downhill. I don't know when it happened, just that I suddenly realized how boring this book was. It's basically 500 pages of going around in circles - visiting 8393930 wizards with wannabe-funny names and listening to Holly whine about Hazel actually doing something. After half of the book it was all brought down to repeating two same problematics and plot got watered down to basically nothing. As I got close to an end I swear I could feel my soul slowly leaving my body.

Attempts of humor were lowkey desperate and the entire novel radiated with infantility. All their problems were banal and childish, and schemes - oh my god - even more so. Look! that's the third guy we asked to show us where magic necromancers' secret meeting spot is, but he won't help us so WELL HAVE TO THREAT HIM WITH INHABITATION OF A CELLAR GNOME. It turned out, the gnome is capable of solving all of their problems :')

There appears to be a tiny light spot in this book, in the form of the world building. I liked Snider's magic system, which consists of four elemental types of magic - Wyr, Weaving, Hearth, and Wild. There's a fifth practice, dark one that combines all other and is called necromancy. There's a big dilemma through Hazel's journey about whether it's bad and should Hazel use it as a means to an end. I even got interested in the problematics and Hazel's inner fight, but it got boring after a while... like everything else.
The plot twist at the end was unexpected and fun in a way, but at that point, I completely stopped caring what happened to any of the characters so it didn’t leave the impression it was supposed to.

I really enjoyed this story! I absolutely love children's fantasy, and this is one that I'm excited to come back to with my little one some day. I loved the illustrations throughout, and I thought that the author was a talented writer and story teller. I'm excited to purchase this one when it hits the shelves in May! Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy!

Hazel and Holly is a interesting fantasy adventure for Young Adults to read. Witches, warlocks, and a necromancer oh my. The writing is simple and there is humour throughout.

I tried to like this one, and I really wanted to - the premise sounded interesting and creative and I was eager for Fantasy after a recent spate of rather dark Thrillers and Mysteries. But I could just not fall into this one... Holly is supposed to be 17 but acts like she's seven. Hazel acts more like her mother than her sister, and her nagging wore on me very quickly. The rest of the characters never did anything for me either - the warlock brothers felt like pastiche, the other witches were flat, and I couldn't even generate enough interest to read long enough to meet or learn more about the mysterious missing father... This one just wasn't for me.

This is a fantasy adventure book featuring witch sisters Hazel and Holly. Hazel was supposed to be 23 and Holly 17, but I felt their characters were a lot younger. The names became a little confusing especially when the two warlock brothers Hawthorn and Hemlock were introduced and then there were also two dogs called Shirley and Sheila.

I loved the introduction to this book and the first chapter drew me in. Hazel meets with her dead mother and we find out that her mother has been cursed. I loved this and was excited to read the rest of the book but found that it didn't really catch my attention after this. It felt childish to me, especially with the gnome Tum.

The author does a great job of describing the Grove I enjoyed the fun aspect of this book, but I did feel it was a little young for me. The plot moves along and there are twists and turns. This is a light read and a rather simple story that I think many readers will enjoy. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

A lovely tale following two witches and warlocks. This book kept me gripped and I enjoyed watching all the characters grow and how they dealt with difficult decisions and situations. I love the character of Tum too! Whimsical, witty, and a bit witchy. If you like books with a Brothers Grimm fairytale feel paired with sibling adventure then you’ll love this one.

I requested based on the cover, which is beautiful. It doesn't stand out and the pacing was far too slow. I feel like the author was too afraid to touch on anything queer or go beyond the norms of fantasy, but that's my opinion. The soul thing was...interesting.

This book is charming, dark, witty and funny in all the right places. I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did but I flew through it. I am begging for a sequel before the first even releases! Sara did such a fantastic job with creating this magical world with so many different elements to them and It was exciting to learn about the sister’s world. I will forever read anything Snider comes out with!

I loved the cover of this book.
I loved the title.
I loved the description and what it could offer.
I did not like the book too much because the storyline was slow for me and flat.
This book had a potential, but it did not fulfilled my expectations at all..
sorry....

Hazel and Holly and their father and their mother's soul and some sort of story that didn't really get under way and I just couldn't bother with it.

DNF @20%

The characters I dislike to read about the most are ones with zero self-awareness, appear to act intentionally against their own interests, and just generally behave stupidly. Unfortunately, Hazel and Holly was full of those characters. 

Hazel and Holly follows two witch sisters, Hazel and Holly, as older sister Hazel attempts to hunt down her missing father in order to restore her mother's soul and younger sister Holly ...exists. Mostly, my problem with this book was with Holly and her utter lack of any self-awareness. The first several conflicts Hazel gets into (or anything before the 20% mark) are pretty much all due to Holly insisting Hazel do something potentially life-threatening, probably illegal, and definitely rude task for her. There's stealing buttons and other trinkets from another witch's house because Holly doesn't think her own supplies are good enough and hiding a (cellar?) gnome from guards after he and Holly go on a looting trip in a warlock's mansion just because. It was borderline painful to read about a 17-year-old who has such little maturity and an older sister who, admittedly, raised her this way.

Overall, I rate this a 1/5. I very very rarely DNF books, but I found myself counting down to the 20% so I could put it down. The author appeared to correlate whimsical behaviour with nonsensical behavior and I simply couldn't stand the characters.

Review to be posted on blog 26 April 2019

I was immediately drawn to the cover - it is beautiful. The book, however, fell flat for me and I found myself skimming the last half just to see how it all wrapped up. It moved really slow and I never attached to the characters enough.

Ohh I wanted to love this book so badly!
I had no expectations of this book, It has such a stunning cover, that it draws you to it instantly.
The premise of witches, magic, trapped souls and the woods sounded incredible.
This book is written so lyrically, the entire book flows like a babbling brook...

It is the language used that made it hard for me to really get into, I was constantly having to re-read sentences to fully understand them, to work out all of the words that had been melded together.

I can see this being popular once it is released. However it just wasn't for me.