I really wanted to love this book, it had everything I enjoy in a book. Witches and magic, friendship, love, and heroism. It started out really strong I immediately was drawn to Lily and Alice and their friendship. And their quaint life in their quiet village. When Alice disappears I was fully invested in Lily’s quest to save her friend. That’s about where it ended for me though. The pace of this books really didn’t flow well for me. There were times when it dragged through seeming inconsequential sequences, and then the story would take off at a blazing speed before bogging back down. Unfortunately most of the characters were confusing and underdeveloped. I realize that this is going to have a sequel or be part of a series but there were things that I believe were crucial to the story line that were never explained even at a minimum which I found extremely frustrating. Over all I will probably read the next book just because I don’t like loose ends and have an obsessive need to know what happens to the characters of books but I’m not sure I would recommend this book to many.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hot freaking damn guys. Sisters of Shadow was so good! Beyond addicting. I honestly couldn't put the book or my phone down until I reached the very last page. In it, you will meet Lily and Alice. They are best friends (sort of). I saw sort of because the whole town things Alice is a witch and Lily just sees a girl that is lonely and needs a friend.

So when Alice goes missing, Lily and her uncle decide it's high time for her to go on a mission: save Alice. Now her journey isn't easy because it's a whole lot of new things for Lily. The only thing she knew of his medicine and wanting to touch the grass with her bare feet. Which for some reason is frowned upon in their little town? Doesn't really make sense to me but I went with it all.

There's hints of romances, betrayals and so much more jam packed into this book. It definitely took me a while to ship certain people together and I honestly found that refreshing. Nothing seemed insta-y to me and while the crushes were developing so was I with them. Not sure if that makes sense but go with it people.

Other than that, I just completely devoured this book. The ending leaves me with so many questions and I have no idea what is going to come by way, or theirs, in the sequel. I am very eager to get my hands on that when ever it's available because I just need to know what is going to happen next. It's slightly killing me not knowing what's up the villain's sleeve right now but I have a feeling it's going to be very good. Or evil.

Either way - I'm down.

I usually like fantasy books but this sadly wasn’t for me. I found the descriptions overlong and irritating. I’m sure it will find its audience but it really wasn’t for me.

I think hate is a strong word, so I’m gonna say that I heavily disliked this book. This is for fans of Rosalyn Eve (which I am NOT) because the pacing and plots of her books align with this one.

I was pretty sold on the concept of a YA fantasy with sapphic representation and cottage core vibes. An apothecary befriending a witch - yes please! Lily Alice were adorable.

The pace was slow to start, but picks up by the end. There’s a sweet plot around friendship and first love. The world building was immersive and created a beautiful aesthetic. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I’ll be interested to see how the story develops.

I have to say that the writing style / monologues felt more middle grade than YA. Most of the scenes as well. I also understand that it’s the first in what (I believe) will be a duology or trilogy, but it felt lacking in a sufficient conclusion. Of course initial books are expected to maybe have a cliffhanger or leave you with questions in anticipation for the next book, but this just left me wanting more somehow.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

I started reading this book as soon as I received the ARC because I was super excited about the premise. I loved the idea of a cottagecore sapphic romance, but unfortunately, the book did not fully grab my attention. I found the initial monologues boring, and they often distracted me from the main plot. I was able to get through maybe 45% of this book before I had to stop reading because I had no idea what was happening anymore.

This book started off very slowly but by the end, I was interested. If you like fantasy, work through the first quarter of the book and it gets far more interesting. After the first quarter, more characters are introduced which helps the book massively as having just two characters (who aren't even together) made the book slow. Overall, it's a good book.

The novel as a whole was good, it followed Lily's journey as she gained bravery and Alice as she discovered her true self, however, I did find it difficult to fully connect with the characters. I knew the two girls were best friends from the beginning but I never truly understood their bond as the book barely touched on those part. Which made it difficult to really connect to these characters and why they did what they did throughout the book especially towards the end.

I also found the book to be paced fairly slowly, as it focused more on the journey taken to get to the ending rather than the ending itself, I also would've loved to have more of an insight into the backstories and folklore within the novel. Although some of this may well have been left for the sequel.

Sisters of Shadow would be great for younger readers, unfortunately, as I am older (not the target audience) I can't fully appreciate this novel.
I loved the sapphic representation and the cottagecore vibes though.

A fun slow fantasy. I loved the friendship between Lily and Alice. I found that in correlation to all the build up to the scene of action was so short. The young adults in this book are so fierce and full of action, love to read that.

A fairly average book that felt much more middle grade overall than YA.

The overall story was okay, and it was a quick read, but there are far too many elements introduced within the story that aren't properly integrated. Whilst I now understand that this is the first book in the series, there are too many unanswered questions from the first book to feel like there was a satisfactory conclusion.

A nice, atmospheric queer romance (and a straight romance), but filled with monologuing, a lot of tired language and descriptions, and not a lot of actual character development. The Kindle edition has some serious formatting errors, with material shifted from one line to the middle of the line below and vice versa.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly sending me this eArc! It was a very pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t exactly for me, the pacing was a bit odd and I wish there was a cohesive ending. However there are some good things I need to highlight!
-sapphic/lgbt rep!
-a scarred MC
-cottage core vibes!

This is a promising start though for a new author and I do have high hopes for future works!

4/10, 3 stars

Lily is sunshine and sweetness, an apprentice apothecary, living in the village of Alder Vale, while Alice is moonlight—living alone in the forest, shunned by the villagers because of rumours that she is a witch. And yet Alice and Lily are best friends in the vein of Anne Shirley and her ‘bosom friend’ Diana. When Alice is lured away from her home and taken captive by a fearsome group of witches, Lily sets off to rescue her friend.

This book was selected for publication in a competition aimed at promoting underrepresented voices, and this is one of the best aspects of the book—it beautifully embraces a range of platonic and romantic relationships.

Personally, I felt the pacing was a little slow and it wasn’t very clear what age the book was aimed at: the main characters are in their late teens, the story feels aimed at preteens, and yet the younger children in the book speak like adults.

But we definitely do need a lot more LGBTQ+ representation in fantasy fiction and I suspect this book will have a certain Tik-Tok generation appeal: ‘sapphic witches’ and ‘cottagecore’ are great keywords. (I’d never heard the word ‘cottagecore’ before—it apparently refers to the slightly nostalgic rural aesthetic that has become popular in recent years.)

‘Sisters of Shadow’ is a gentle, whimsical fantasy story of best friends, first love and witches!

Unfortunately, this didn’t really click with me! I found I had some issues with the pacing of this novel and I wasn’t really invested in the narrative or any of the characters. I still think it was enjoyable and easy to read but it did leave me wanting. Giving this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sisters of Shadow is a whimsical, coming of age fantasy following Alice and Lily, two friends torn apart as Alice is targeted by the magical Shadow Sect and Lily must journey across the Shadow Lands to find her.

I enjoyed the opening of the story, but the first 50% or so became fairly slow-paced, especially in comparison to the fast developments of the latter half. I found that this made me slightly less invested in our two protagonists than I expected, though it makes more sense considering that the novel is aimed at the younger end of YA readers. The cottagecore vibes were one of the highlights of this book for me, and when paired with the sapphic romance, it made for an overall enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK for the e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found it really hard to write a review and rate this book because I had such mixed feelings about it.

I think the biggest issue and the root of my dislike is the way this book was marketed az a YA fantasy, yet feels like something that should be targeting a younger audience. The characters age is around 18 while the way they talk, their naiveté and their actions suggest someone years younger. In contradiction to this some of the scenes are definitely YA.

Alice and Lily are very adorable characters and I adored the bond they shared. I quite liked the worldbuilding but at parts it did fell apart a bit. The writing is beautiful, but it lacks the balance between the descriptive and action parts. It felt as if the story was alternating between slow motion and timelapse mode and I just couldn't get immersed in it.

I also felt that everything just happened, sometimes without a reason and sometimes just for the happy ending vibe. Every obsticle in this book was overcome with minimal effort and with constant luck/coincidence.

I actually skipped parts of this book to make it until the end and I am unsure if I am interested enough to continue with the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The world the author created was brilliant and so immersive and very asthetic it was so cottagecore. I loved the 4 main characters and am heavily invested in their journey and the romances. It deals with some heavy topics such as grief, anxiety and lqbtq realisations and it's done brilliantly. It was so refreshing to read a fantasy book where the main character isn't sure of themselves and is scared in situations it made lily very lovable and extremely likeable. The only downfall for me is this book of obviously the first in a series so it ended on a cliff hanger and I didn't get near as much information as I'd have liked to in the end. The ending felt a bit rushed and abrupt to me.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't like it at all, despite the fact that there were all the things I usually like in a fantasy.
The main problem I really can't overlook is the pacing of the narrative. Very long descriptions combined with very fast developments. The ending in particular I found was a bit simplistic, full of lucky coincidences and with problems instantly solved. (ex. Lily FINALLY arrives at the castle and who is the first person she meets? Of course Grace ... how convenient)

The development of the characters has been quite non-existent, perhaps Lily is the only one who really starts a journey (metaphorical and physical) and it reflects on her personality, the other characters fell rather flat.

The love story between Alice and Grace was not very engaging and the idea of the "magical bond" appeared as another very convenient narrative device to justify why the two developed feelings for each other.

Overall it definitely would be more suited for a younger audience rather than YA

An interesting story of two girls - Alice, taken by a coven of dark magic and her best friend Lily who musters up the courage to follow her. It's a good story, but sometimes the dialogue is stilted and overly formal, and doesn't seem very natural.. I do look forward to reading part 2 though as there are lots of good ideas and interesting characters.