Witches, pregnant queens, and murderous intentions? What's not to love?! This was a fun read that I truly enjoyed reading. The historical pieces felt fairly accurate. The characters were realistic and engaging.

I enjoyed this teenish historical fiction. I found the story I interesting though I wasn't very fond of the authors writing style

This book is a good one, and I am partial to anything in the eighteenth-century as well as in the early nineteenth- and seventeenth centuries. I would have preferred to give this 4.5 stars. Definitely better than four but not quite five. I might be too picky. I found the opening of the book as well as the writing overall (specifically descriptions) to be fabulous...absolutely put me in time and place. The only main issue I had with the book and style is that the writing is a bit scattered and choppy. I felt like the transitions from scene to scene and chapter to chapter were lacking. But the premise is intriguing, and I hope that people are as interested in this book as I have been.

Goes through some years of Isabel in the 1600s as a witch and some history weaved in this teen historical fiction. Looks at her relationships including the one she has with the queen. Does jump from a few months to a few years later, but does make sense. First in a series, which I may continue. Close to 300 pages - so pretty typical teen read.

I love books with settings like this one has, so I think it has much promise. The writing was not how I hoped it would be though, and I recommend the writer to hire an editor to help with this. The Witches of Helcombe could become so much better, and a book many will like to read!

I was given this ARC by the author, Harry Bradford and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The story is written as the 17th century. Broken down simply, it is the story of a pregnant French Queen who is in England running from her husbands' enemies. She is valuable for the ransom money her kidnapping would bring.
Along the way, she has a hard and dangerous time delivering her baby and 2 "witches" are called as a last resort to savblem for all.
This book was ok but could have been better. The characters and multiple plots could have been flushed out better. The author uses quite choppy writing skills. He needs an editor to help him. That said, I did like some of the booe mother and baby. They do. There are also interesting parts where the church enters the story and becomes a prok but it was a chore to finish.

When a child is sick her mother takes her chances on a woman the village think a witch. The child is saved but a price has to be paid, the witches powers are passed on.

A few years later Queen Henrietta is struggling in labour and her lady in waiting requests permission to send for a healer from Helcombe. Isabella arrives and using her powers along with the advice from the long since burned witch, Isabella manages to save mother and daughter.

Henrietta begins to think of Isabella as a friend but cannot stay in England due to civil war so flees to France with a helping hand from Isabella.

The presence of power in Helcombe also attracts evil and soon Isabella is fighting for her friends and family.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this but gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. There are some great characters including Isabella, Henrietta, Emily and Steven. The characters are very well developed through the book but I do wish there was more about their surroundings and clothing as I like to picture the characters.

This offers a very different take on the civil war with Oliver Cromwell.
I'm pleased to know there will be a further instalment which I am looking forward to.

I was so looking forward to reading this book after reading the synopsis, but it didn't quite reach my expectations. I can only say that it was an ok read and i did finish the whole book.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, which i have voluntarily given.

An infant, Isabel, is revived by an old woman who passes on, or awakens, her 'powers' although it took her growing up for them to become apparent. She marries and is living "happily ever after" in her village with husband and child. Her daughter likewise has the powers but they come early and have a dark side. Rapidly jump to when King Charles I is on the run, his wife pregnant and the baby not presenting correctly. Isabel is brought to the Queen to help during the birth much to the annoyance of some grim physicians. Baby Henrietta arrives safely. Wet nurse is found and there's then a lot of to-ing and fro-ing across the country as Queen and baby, separately, head to the south west to sail to France after Charles; another thread to the story is the witchcraft and the religious zealots trying to wipe it, and especially Isabel, out. Lots of bits of threads and I feel that several could have had more meat to them. This would have made the book longer but better. The mostly single sentence paragraphs annoyed me as they broke up text needlessly and the text could have been longer in any case. An ok read overall, good ideas (although not convinced about Isabel's powers to make herself invisible!) and reasonably well-crafted characters. Thanks to NetGalley and Kobo Writing Life for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

All in all I liked this book even if the plot would have required some more development and some editing would be required.
I think there's a potential for a great story but some more work is needed.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The first book in a series and my first book by this author.

This book had all the elements I enjoy. It is historical and had a bit of magic, but sadly for me the book didn’t work for me. It had great promise and I loved the start of the book, but after Isabel helps the Queen the story just went all over the place. There were to many storylines and characters added and the main storyline got lost.

Will Isabella save the Queen of France, Henrietta's child?
The author did a great job with this book. It was very interesting and the characters I adored!
Set in the 17th Century during English Civil War. Henrietta, Oueen of France and her lady in waiting, along with others are fleeing Cromwell and his Parliamentarians. Her husband has already left to war. She is pregnant and something is very wrong. She is told of a healer in another village not far who is known very well. Henrietta sends her men to the village to bring Isabella to her.
This story kept me on the edge of my seat, with everything happening. Great read! I will be reading more from this author.

Thank you publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

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As an infant, Isabel nearly died from a life-threatening illness. The only thing that saved her was the intervention of an old woman who lived on the outskirts of the village. But in curing Isabel, the woman also gave her a gift: magic.

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The first third or so of the book details Isabel’s life as she gets married, has a child, and raises that child with her husband. It’s not until the second third that we’re introduced to Henrietta and her chunk of the story.

While I did find this book interesting, and it’s a very quick read, due to the fact that most of the paragraphs only consist of a sentence or two, it definitely has its flaws. I would have to say that it’s almost too quick of a read. Large passages of time happen with no warning, so we only get to see tiny glimpses of Isabel’s life. I would have liked to read and know more about her; her life in the village, raising her daughter, the extent of her powers, and how she made a living. Unfortunately, all of these things are glossed over very rapidly.

More than once, Isabel is nearly raped, which I found to be very distasteful. Not just because of the subject matter, but because there didn’t seem to be very much point to it actually being added to the story. It was written in, then written out just as quickly.

Once we get to Henrietta, the issue of her unborn baby is resolved just as quickly, with very little fuss. I also found her two physicians to be almost cartoonish in their villainous ways. All they really needed was a handlebar mustache to twirl while plotting their devious schemes.

This book really feels like an outline to a story, rather than the story itself. It’s very minimal and bare-bones. I also believe that the version I read was unedited, as it was filled with punctuation errors.

I’m afraid to say that what could have been a very interesting story was poorly executed, and not worth the time I spent reading it.