This is the book I wish I had read when I was younger. It tackles every aspect the younger me loved: strong friendships, fierce girls and, of course, witches.
Luckily, the older me also love it. It's really well developed, with a nice blend of classic witchcraft and plot twists. I don't know if a sequel is planned, but I would love to read more about this coven of very realistic girls.

I love YA witch stories thanks to Shea Ernshaw so I knew I had to read this one! Definitely recommend if you are into this genre. I would love to see this turned into a tv show. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was appealing and magically addictive. The story pace moved along there were no point that felt like too much detail was described. The author wove together witch history along with modern day. This title would be a good purchase for a current library collection.

This book blends elements of mystery, fantasy, humor and historical fiction to create quite an entertaining and interesting read. There were definitely parts of the story that I got very wrapped up in and could not put the book down. It was also a little darker than I expected, but not in a bad way. I especially loved the theme of friendship that ran throughout this book. But probably my favorite aspect of the book was the setting. I loved the twists and turns of the caves, the spooky lighthouse, and the creepy house on the hill with the strange chimera statues. It was very atmospheric and would be a great story to read around Halloween or whenever you are in the mood for a spooky story. There were a few parts of the book that felt rushed and I wish there had been a bit more character development as there is plenty of potential for these characters. At times, I felt like some actions or thoughts of the characters didn't make much sense, which I think comes back to the pacing and character development. However, I would be interested to see more of these characters and Willow Cove, so I look forward to additional adventures if this is to become a series.

I asked for this book since it looked like the kind that might be good for my nephew and niece. And I'm certainly recommending it to them (9 and 14).

The story has a great start, with a really nice scene at the high school gym with the giant snake, reminding a bit of Harry Potter, but ending the reminiscence here. From then on, we also find a mistery to solve, a disappearance and deceptive appearances in which the relations among the characters and their mutual trust will be put to test, both on the side of the witch apprentices and them and their regular friends.

There are some other great moments, like the fireligths at the swamp or when Abby went into the big house with her broom. And it was a nice scientific touch having a human condenser helping at the end :)

For an adult tick tock reading the book, it might fell short on the issue of power transmission [Spoiler](there might be other witches besides Joanna's descendants to be a Council, and unless the came from England, she should have known who they are due to her following her bloodline)[/Spoiler] or having the Council supervising Willow Cove, but not discovering what Becky discovered in a few hours browsing the internet..

By the way, in the beginning I thought the bad one might be [Spoiler]Becky's mother :lol: [/Spoiler]

I want to thank Net Galley for a advanced copy!
I have to say when I first started this book I was struggling with the bully and the mean girl's. I then remembered middle school and it all can flooding back. I love the idea of Willow Cove and the witches. This was a really fun adventure. I love the friendship of the characters I really loved the step mom Tina. The group of strong girls was a added plus. This is a great middle school read! Looking forward to more!

This is a really endearing book and, whilst it’s not particularly original, it’s one I would definitely want on the shelves for readers not quite ready to cross over into teen books but who are looking for a bit of romance. It’s very sweet and reminded me of Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, which is a compliment.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Woah. I LOVED this book sooo much! By page two I was HOOKED and I knew that I was preordering this book because reading it was not enough, I NEEDED to own it. The characters of this book were amazing. AND a debut novel?! WHAT?! Josh Roberts did such a fantastic job of introducing lots of characters to the reader while making sure each and everyone of them felt genuine, unique, and had their own personalities/goals. The plot was everything I love in a book, secrets, twists, friendships, humor, vivid settings, but it was also totally spooky! Seriously, I loved everything about this book, this is definitely a new favorite book of all time!! I will be reading anything else Josh Roberts writes... MORE PLEASE.

If you love witches, spookiness, and friendship then this is the book for you. Hands down, AMAZING.

Thank you to Josh Roberts for sending #BookAllies an eARC of his book in exchange for an honest review!

I've never picked up a book about witches before. Honestly, I've never been drawn to them. That has definitely changed. The way Josh Roberts crafted this novel, it seems like it took him years of planning. His development of the characters, the word choice, it all seems too good to be true. I was honestly blown away by this fantasy novel.

For one, I never classified myself as a fantasy lover because it's hard for me to get "in" with magic and things that cannot happen in real life. The blend of the magical elements in this book worked for me. This was done with absolute mindfulness to the figurative word choice and imagery Josh portrayed.

What I loved about this book was truly the characters themselves. The personalities of Abby, Miss Winters, Robby, Zeus, Amethyst, Olivia, Piper, Daisy, and Delphi were fun to keep up with, especially since they were so distinctly different from another. I adored the quirkiness of the twins, the need for an inhaler from Piper, and the snarky, yet playful remarks from Amethyst.

It was a suspenseful page-turner that I know my fantasy lovers with thoroughly enjoy!

I had a great time reading this novel and would highly recommend it if you like middle grade.

*Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for approving my request*

Thanks to Netgalley and Owl Hollow Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Witches of Willow Cove is perfect to read during Halloween. It's mysterious, historical and has to do with withes. We meet your main character who one night learns how to fly a broom, and it entitled in an entire new chapter of her life.

I did enjoy the most of this book, but at the middle I found it a little draggy. Like it was a long book, even though it isn't. I don't know if it just me that wanted a little more depth than a middle grade can give me, or if it was that the books just wasn't as action packed that I'd anticipated. Overall I find the story logical and easy to follow, and in some parts the books was impossible to put down cause' you needed to know that would happen next.

I did not understand the two perspectives from the start, but it turns out to be of interest by the end of the book. I also did not enjoy the girl-on-girl hate that in some aspects is used in this book. But I found that the main characters acted like their age, which always is a big plus for me in literature.

This book was a bit too much like the trope clones that came predictably rolling in post Harry Potter. Unless the author is really going to make an effort to bring something new to the table - something different, something original - then really, what's the point? I know this is aimed at middle grade (and read like it was) and I'm certainly not the intended audience, but to have witches waving sticks and chanting in Latin or worse, chanting in rhyming English, is so old and trite now that it's really not worth reading. Making your protagonist a female Harry Potter and doing the same thing with your villain isn't changing it up enough to get close to an original story.

The worst thing about this novel was the Salem angle. The Salem witch nonsense has been done to death and really, does it show any respect for the poor women who were murdered back then on the blatant religious lie that they were witches? No, it does not. It's shameful to keep dragging that out of the closet. For goodness sake let those poor women rest in peace. Even if the story had been brilliant, it would have tedious to read yet another witch story that tries to set its roots in Salem, but the story wasn't that interesting.

I didn't finish this, but the idea seemed to be that of a long-standing grudge, and so the question became: why was it so long-standing? Why didn't this evil witch carry out her revenge three or four hundred years ago? Why now? There seemed to be no answer to that, unless one popped-up in the very latter part of the story, and even if it did, what was the point of this revenge? It occurred to me that unless this person intended to reincarnate those victims from centuries ago in the bodies of her juvenile witch recruits, this revenge really offered her nothing, and even if she was planning on some reincarnation routine, the question of why now - at this time rather than a few hundred years ago still lacked a good answer.

So for these and other reasons, I quickly grew tired of a story that felt like one I'd read many times already, but under different covers and by different authors, so I did not finish it. I can't commend it based on what I read. There were too may tropes and too many clichés.

This was such a cute middle grade novel about friendship, first crushes, witchcraft, disappearances, and history. Set in Willow Cove, a town near Salem, it focuses on Abby, a young girl who learns she is a witch on her 13th birthday, and Robby. A few years back, Robby's mother disappeared mysteriously and he has wanted to solve the mystery ever since. There are other characters that the story focuses on including other young girls who gain magical powers and Zeus, an old friend of Abby and Robby.

I had a great time reading this novel and would highly recommend it if you like middle grade.

trigger warning
<spoiler> disappearance of a parent, grief, memory control through magic, bullying </spoiler>

Abby and Robb sneak into an abandoned hospital on Halloween night and get attacked by a woman who sends the ornamental statues after them - and they only are able to escape because it appears the broom that belongs to Abby's costume it not a mere prop.
Next day in school, they meet their new sub and it's the woman, again.

This novel is straightforward. So much so that you'll know what'll happen the entire time.
The connection to the Salem witch trials was surprising, but that may be because I have no sense of geography in the USA.

That doesn't matter, though. I came for a story about teenage witches that's slightly spooky but not gory, and I got that. I got a tale of friendship, some cute furry sidekicks. Also, you can either read this as a standalone or an entryway into a series. ... though I don't know if it will one. There simply is potential for further plot that could be explored in the future.

I liked it. Could have done with more diversity, though. We have one latina-jewish character, which she mentions out of context and what puzzled me at the time. In retrospect it feels like the editor said "Dude, you can't write something about white cis heteros, you need to change something!". So that would be a wish for a future installment: More diversity.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cracking read from start to finish.

I’ve never been a witches fan since reading Macbeth, so i approached this book with considerable caution. I needn’t have worried, I enjoyed everything about it. Josh Roberts has created some likeable and memorable characters and their relationships are approached with a light touch. I liked the idea that entering teen years is a watershed moment. Abby is on a journey of discovery from that moment on, with new magic powers to explore.

As a former teacher, I saw much to recognise in all the kids. This was a real page-turner, with many twists and turns along the way, and hits just the right note for middle-grade readers. In fact, any teen would enjoy it, as well as those who remember being teens. I look forward to a sequel - this story is clearly just the start!

I really enjoyed this book. As a lover of books with any kind of magic, this one filled my heart with joy. This plot driven book helped the story move at a desired pace. I did not want to put the book down, I wanted to know what happened next. This book is perfect for any kid 7th grade and up. If there is a sequel I want a copy! I will surely be adding this book to my collection when the book is published.

As a part of the ARC-sharing group, #BookAllies, I received an advanced copy through in exchange for an honest review.

In this coming of age story, I appreciated the main character’s platonic friendship with the neighbor boy, the relatable struggle of balancing new and old friendships, and the way Josh Roberts depicted the setting. I loved the way Roberts described the different locations in Willow Cove, from the previously abandoned asylum to the cool, damp caves. Throughout the story, the author beautifully describes magic as a way of knitting the threads of nature’s magical elements together to make something happen. Readers who enjoy a bit of middle school drama mixed with supernatural adventure and suspense will love this book. My middle school self would be obsessed!

The Witches of Willow Cove is an eerie, suspenseful middle grade novel that explores complex questions of family and identity. It follows six very different teenage girls who discover that they are witches and that their powers are tied to a secret in the town’s history. The setting is delightfully spooky: a New England town close to Salem (home, of course, to the infamous witch trials) that features weeping hemlock trees, mist and fog that are constantly rolling in from the sea, mysterious caves, and a haunted mental institution. A thrilling and satisfying standalone work that nevertheless leaves the story wide open for a sequel, this book is an assured debut from author Josh Roberts.

The diverse characters display the complexity of identity that kids grapple with as they grow older, both in terms of their demographic makeup and the painful schism that often occurs around middle school, when kids split off into cliques and/or become pigeonholed by other people’s perceptions of them. Protagonist Abby Shepherd discovers on her thirteenth birthday that she is a witch (and that she is not the only witch in town), but she is not defined by that alone. As Abby’s new witchcraft mentor Miss Winters tells her, you are more than just one thing. But society often wants to put you in an easily defined box, making it hard to bring the disparate threads of your existence together into one whole person. My favorite example of this is Zeus, the star football player who chafes under his coach’s expectations and suffers from crushing loneliness. He desperately wants to be one of the Three Musketeers again with Abby and her best friend Robby, but lately he’s been on the outside looking in, a feeling that most people who survived middle school will surely remember.

Though Abby and Robby are best friends, they spend most of the book estranged as they deal with changes in their lives due to adolescence and the extraordinary circumstances of discovering a coven in their hometown. The book alternates between Abby and Robby’s points of view, creating a push-pull dynamic that really ratchets up the suspense. Before the reader has a chance to get exasperated with the genre trope of never discussing the weird supernatural happenings with anyone who could help you, though, new girl in town (and Robby’s girlfriend) Becca becomes the MVP with this line: “What we really need to do is put all our heads together and compare notes.” It’s a sly and satisfying way to bring the entire Scooby Gang together, and I pumped my fist when I read it.

One of the things I appreciated most about the book was its emphasis on the value of platonic friendships. The adults in their lives expect Abby, Robby, and Becca to be some kind of angsty teenage love triangle, but the kids maturely shut that down. There is no pettiness or rivalry between Abby and Becca, and both Abby and Robby make it clear that they love each other very much as “just friends.” Later in the book, though, Robby’s dad makes a profound point that there’s no such thing as “just friends”—friendship is such a deep, important part of life that to minimize it with the word “just” is to miss the point of being a friend.

Another element of the story that really resonated with me was its respect for magic, portraying it as a natural phenomenon that can peacefully coexist with science. The book suggests that the potential for magic is always all around us; you just have to be perceptive and open to believing in it. As Miss Winters says, “Magic is the act of knitting the ordinary threads of the natural world into something extraordinary.” She even uses knitting terminology (casting on and casting off) to discuss spellcasting, which particularly spoke to me as a knitter. This crafty imagery is evocative and exciting, and it’s a thrill to watch Abby and her friends explore their abilities after they discover that they are witches.

Though Miss Winters is positioned as the villain from the opening pages, there is a great deal of nuance to her character. She teaches the new witches all about their powers and takes a decidedly feminist approach to their historical studies, telling Abby that the haunted mental institution she calls home was never really about helping people with mental illnesses:

"They used to lock up women like us in this place. Maybe you didn’t know that. They called it a mental hospital, but prison is a far better word. They caged people here, mostly women…It’s what this town has always done with unusual women, no different than hanging them from trees, strapping them to posts, crushing them, stoning them, burning them—always trying to put an end to their unusualness. Or worse, to cure them of it."

Miss Winters is a complex, ambiguous villain who blurs the lines between good and evil and shows what grief and prejudice can do to a person. The Witches of Willow Cove refuses to give easy answers to its readers, allowing its rich characters to depict the complexity of life in all its joys and sorrows. I’m very hopeful for a sequel, because this novel is a fun, thrilling read that will leave you wanting to spend a lot more time in the magical world of Willow Cove.

Perfect for fans of Hocus Pocus, this dark and mystical story contains just the right mix of ingredients needed for a fantastically-spooky witches’ brew…erm, I mean…for a fantastic middle-grade novel 😉

Set in a small town in Massachusetts – Willow Cove – the book begins on Halloween, setting the scene perfectly for things to come. We meet the main protagonists, Abby and Robby, as they are about to set off ‘trick or treating’. On their way, when they bump into Zeus (who is wearing a costume that completely contradicts his name!) and mention that they are actually headed for ‘Whispering Hill’, you just know that trouble (f)lies ahead…

The reader doesn’t have to wait long to find out what form that trouble takes, as the action kicks off early in the book, towards the end of the first chapter. I was completely hooked in by the time I had read the beginning of chapter two, and things only served to get better from there on in.

With new girl Becca arriving at their school, and the purple-haired Amethyst revealing the secret she shares with Abby, the two main characters begin to go their separate ways whilst the reader follows their two paths. This was cleverly-handled by Josh Roberts. Reading along with Robby and Abby as they learned about the mysterious ‘Miss Winters’, and sharing their different experiences with them, added to the suspense, until the two paths intertwined towards the end to reach a nail-biting yet satisfying conclusion.

Add into the cauldron flourishing friendships, first crushes, a great balance of likeable (and deliberately despicable) characters who all play their own important part in the book, and cute – yet unusual – animal ‘familiars’ and you have the perfect potion!

The Witches of Willow Cove makes the reader laugh, smile, gasp, cry, wince and hold their breath. I would recommend it to older middle-grade readers (11+) and young adults due to the romantic references and some sensitive content. I think the author has definitely left room for a sequel, and I would be first in line to read it!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publishers for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The witches of Willow Cove is a fun, middle grade book about teen witches and haunting past. Up until 13th birthday Abby Shepherd thought she was a normal teenager but that all changed when she and her best friend, Robby sneaked into Whispering Hills, an abandoned place famous for ghosts haunting from the mental asylum. After their escapade goes weary, Abby learn something that stuns her. Abby is a witch and not only that, there are five of them along with her. Gradually they find out and with the arrival of Miss Winters, finally it felt like they have found someone who can teach them about witchcraft and magic.

Willow cove is a small town but it’s teeming with powerful secrets and a dark history. And now the past seems to be blurring with the present and something sinister is about to happen. Can Abby and the others truly trust Miss Winters? Why does Abby gets second thought about Miss Winters motives?

And what happens if Abby’s friends lives are in danger, will she be able to stop the wicked plans?

I loved this book. The author’s writing style was absolutely engaging. The narration was amazing because while we are following Abby’s story (present), the author also gives us glimpses of the past, its history and all. I never felt left out, all the characters including the villain were great.(my favorite was Zeus)

I also loved that this book kept a focus on friendship all while giving us a baffling mystery and a bewitching witches story.

Thank you netgalley, author and the publishers for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.