TW: rape, domestic abuse

Weyward follows the stories of three different women, separated by time but united not only by their courage and determination but by their blood.

1619: Altha Weyward, a local, unmarried healer with an affinity with the natural world, is on trial for witchcraft after the husband of her one-time closest friend dies in a bloody farming accident.

1942: 16 year old Violet Ayres, a girl more interested in insects and books than getting married, grows up cocooned at her Cumbrian ancestral home, Orton Hall. Her father controls every aspect of her life - that is, until a shocking event and a revealed secret change things forever.

2019 - Kate Ayres flees London and her abusive relationship. She only has one place she can go where she knows Simon won’t find her - Weyward Cottage, a dilapidated little house in Cumbria that was left to her by a great aunt she barely knew and which hides a secret that goes all the way back to the 17th century…

My thoughts:

The perfect blend of literary and historical fiction with a pinch of magical realism, Weyward is my first five star read of the year. Not only do I love anything witchy but I also love finding a novel that’s based somewhere that I know well (I lived in Lancaster/worked in Cumbria for over a decade!) so I could really picture this one. I enjoyed reading the stories of all three Weywards, though particularly Violet, and while Weyward explores some dark, painful topics the message of female resilience it portrays is brilliantly done.

Thank you to @netgalley and @boroughpress for the e-arc.

What an absolute gem of a debut novel! I have literally devoured every word of this book and not been able to put it down. Evocative, foreboding, magical, beautiful, enchanting, powerful - all words I could use to describe it.
Weyward is the story of three incredible women, linked together through a family history that they are unaware of. The story travels between the 1600s, the 1940s and the near present, following three young women each battling to survive against adversity and the cruel hands of men. Can they each discover their family secret and their own inner strength and power to overcome the terrors they face?
I loved the role of nature in the story, the beauty and the power of it, the connection between each woman and her surroundings. I thought the women were superbly portrayed and felt that I was there with each of them, so strong was the connection that the author created. I hope we’ll see more from Emilia Hart in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.

"This wildness inside gives us our name. It was men who marked us so, in the time when language was but a shoot
curling from the earth. Weyward, they called us, when we would not submit, would not bend to their will. But we learned to wear the name with pride"

Five generations of fighting against patriarchy unfolded through the stories of three Weyward women -
•Kate, who runs away from her abusive boyfriend in 2019
•Violet, who wasn't given the opportunity to follow her passion for nature and had to face assault as a child in 1942
•Altha, who was tried as a witch for no particular reason other than superstition and fear of women with power over their own lives in 1619.
Connecting the strands of these stories into one alluring picture unfurls a secret.

This is a book with a slow pace, just like the serenity of nature - that's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about 'Weyward'. The prose flows like a babbling brooke and we get sucked into the setting of Crows Beck without us noticing it. Weyward is such a beautiful book about how women have always been considered inferior to men and how women have constantly fought against the grave injustice and violence they have had to face solely because they were women.

I generally lose interest when a book has a slow pace but this one had me hooked to the story even though it moved languidly. It took me days to read it, but I genuinely loved reading the stories that were being told. What I can't help but appreciate is the bewitching style of narration.

Throughout the book, we see recurring images of nature, insects (especially damselflies & spiders) and crows (very important details, read the book to know why!). There is also the element of magical realism that makes the book such a great read. We can almost feel the call of the wild nature when we read Weyward. Special mention for the sibling bond between Garham and Violet, it melted my heart!

~ a 4.5/5 star read for me!

Mesmerising heartbreaking and fiercely feminist ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Three women bound by blood across the generations.

1619 Altha is accused of murdering a neighbouring farmer, locked in a dungeon to face trial they say she is a witch

1942 Violet is a naive girl obsessed with nature until a horrific encounter with her cousin changed her life forever

2019 Kate is on the run from an abusive partner a man who stop at nothing to possess her

Their stories are inexplicably linked to cottage in Cumbria and to the secret of being a Weyward woman.

Atmospheric almost hypnotic and pulsing with life, Weyward is a sublime tale of witchy love and loss.

The three timelines are beautifully interwoven creating a story filled with raw emotion resilience and a deeper message about the subjugation of women. And the ways we must all try to break free.

I loved Altha the most but all three MCs were strong and complex. Violet’s story was skilfully written encompassing the shocking nature of assault and the way it is always the girl’s fault.

Be strong. Be resilient. Be inspired. Be a Weyward woman.

I went into this without knowing too much. This story follows three generations of women across five centuries. Like with most books told from multi-perspective, it can be difficult to maintain interest in each perspective. If I’m honest I found Altha’s perspective the least interesting but I can appreciate why it was included. However, I was often wanting to go back to Kate and Violet’s perspectives. That being said, the writing is truly captivating and it is crazy to think this is Emilia Hart’s debut!

This is a fantastically feminist novel with sprinklings of fantasy, that brilliantly addresses gender control and male violence. Some of it I found quite harrowing and it made me quite angry that this still happens in today’s society, as this book depicts. Due to this please be aware of the trigger warnings going into this one - domestic abuse, sexual assault, incest. This was a beautifully written, thought-provoking book and I am now so intrigued by anything else Emilia Hart releases!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this ARC.

I can't believe how good this debut is, it's PHENOMENAL, one of the best debut's I have ever read. I can't wait to actually hold the Hardback in my hands tomorrow when it's delivered. I'm so excited. It's a story of three women who all have secrets and mystery attached to them, it's haunting and deliciously dark. It's definitely a MUST READ for 2023. I can't wait to see what Emilia Hart writes next because this is just so good and I didn't want it to end. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVED EVERY PAGE.

Weyward is a family drama spanning across five centuries, telling the story of three women's fight for survival and the bonds that held them together.

Altha in 1619 is on trial for witchcraft knowing she will be hanged if found guilty

Violet in 1942 is trapped by the restrictive life prescribed to her by her father who longs to live an independent life.

Kate in 2019 is fleeing a domestic abuse situation and going to her great aunt Violet's house Weyward Cottage

While all three women are deeply connected to nature, Weyward Cottage is the placr that ties them together. Each woman communes with nature in her own way and has an instinctive affinity to birds and insects but it's at Weyward Cottage that they can unravel their strengths as they uncover their linked family history. It is historical fiction embued with magic realism and natural witchy vibes and there is such descriptive language used to convey their closeness with nature.

I really liked how each of the three women had an equal footing in thr book, often with multiple POV books one person gets glossed over but Hart really balances it well and you find yourself rooting for all three women as they struggle against these brutish men in their lives trying to pin them down.

A really page turnery debut novel - I found the ending a little rushed but all tied-up well. This is definitely one for fans of Stacey Halls books like The Familiars..

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for approving me for an ARC of this book. I decided to team up with some of my witchy friends and read this one together. I loved discussing our thoughts as we went and seeing what we all made of this one.

Weyward follows the lives of Violet, Altha and Kate. Three women who have found themselves repressed by the men in their lives or society and struggling to forge their own path. As we discover more about these women we see how their stories intertwine and what it really means to be a Weyward woman.

We are first introduced to Altha in 1619 as she is put on trial for murder. It was fascinating to learn more about Altha and her mother, the lives they led and the role they played in the community. Her friendship with Grace was interesting and I enjoyed the different twists thrown our way in the part. We are then introduced to Violet, a young impressionable girl who loves to be in the outdoors. With no mother around to turn to Violet lives with her controlling father and quiet brother. Violet’s story was particularly heart breaking and whilst I could foresee what would happen to her it didn’t make her story any less emotional. Finally we meet Kate who is on the run from an abusive ex when she finds herself at Weyward cottage.

I did enjoy this read and loved how the magical elements were woven into each woman’s story. It felt very circular, where the women seemed fated to repeat each other’s history but with a twist. I found the middle section of the story a little slow, there seemed to be a lot of character building not a lot of action but it did eventually pick up and I soon found myself flipping the pages, desperate to see how it ended.

A beautiful story that spans the decades and shows the strength of female relations.

This book starts well but leads into a story with a lot of turbulence both in past and present sharing the story of domestic abuse, a desire to break free and discover hard truths.
We walk through the lives of these women hearing their stories that said I could have used some more information on the different lives these women lived.
It has good pace but ended quite abruptly I felt
Overall a good but heavy read

At last a book that lives up to the hype! I absolutely LOVED this book with its three timelines of strong 'Weywood' women woven together so artfully.that II was fully invested in each of their stories. Feminism, magic, intrigue...what more could you want?

This is going to be one of my favourite books of the year and we haven't even got out of January yet!
I was absolutely gripped by this story which is spread across three different, yet equally wonderful, characters in three different time periods yet all are suffering at the hands of men in some way.
The characters are well developed and each era is immersive and vivid, I was very fond of Violet and her story probably was my favourite of the three characters.
It is a fast paced, witchy tale of three women discovering themselves and their strengths as they learn about their family and take control of their futures ... I loved it!
Huge thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins for the early copy, I will also be sharing this review on Goodreads, Twitter and Amazon when published.

Another one of my favourite reads of 2023 so far. Such a bewitching and spellbinding story mixed in with feminism and finding your voice. Loved it!

"Witch, I heard them say. Hang the witch."

Weyward is a sublime book and ever since I finished reading it I can't stop thinking about the characters. I flew through it.

Weyward is set over multiple timelines and each ones is as good as the next, I don't think I could pick a favourite if I tried. The timelines are seamlessly interwoven and help illustrate to the reader the impact of the past on the present.

If this debut novel is an indication of things to come then Emilia Hart will become a go to author for me. Weyward had me hooked from the beginning and not just because one of the timelines centred around a young woman accused of witchcraft, a topic I always find fascinating. I rooted for each character and genuinely loved them all.

The first timeline is set in 1619 around Altha. A young woman on trial accused of killing a man using witchcraft.

Then, in 2019 we have Kate. Kate is fleeing an abusive relationship to live in a house left to her by her recently deceased great-aunt.

"The front door clicks shut. The step of his shoes on the floorboards. Wine, gurgling into a glass.

Panic flutters in her, like a bird."

The final timeline is about 16-year-old Violet living in 1942 in a great hall with her brother Graham and her difficult father.

"Violet hated Graham. She absolutely loathed him. Why did he get to study interesting things all day, like science and Latin and someone called Pythagoras, while she was supposed to be content sewing needles through a canvas?"

Violet wants to be a biologist or an eptimologist but knows this is a future that she may never be able to achieve because she is not male.

Violet knows little about her dead mother and has a difficult relationship with her father, he doesn't understand her love of nature and actively tries to discourage it.

"As a child, Violet had assumed that father's 'curios' (as he called them) were signs that he shared her love of the natural world...Father didn't care that elephants formed close-knit, matriarchal groups, that they mourned their dead, like humans. Nor did he consider that the elephant he had killed - for the mere sake of an ornament for his desk - would have been bewildered by fear and pain at the moment of its death.

For father, the tusk and everything else in the Hall, like it - was just a trophy or venerated, but conquered.

They would never understand each other."

Weyward had a Practical Magic Vibe to it but was also completely unique.

"Weyward, they called us, when we would not submit, would not bend to their will. But we learned to wear the name with pride."

Altha, Violet and Kate are separated by time, but linked by blood and by a powerful force. A force of nature. We meet Altha in 1619, awaiting trial in Lancaster Castle. We meet Violet in 1942, awaiting the arrival of a cousin to her family home. And we meet Kate in 2019, awaiting the opportunity to escape her own prison – her own home.

I really enjoyed this book. It combines my favourite fictional devices – multiple timelines and magical realism – with my favourite genre, historical fiction (two of the three timelines are set in the past, the third in the modern day). I loved how the natural world was almost like a fourth main character in this novel and how the three women used their innate connection to nature to both heal and bring forth retribution to those who deserved it!

Of the three women, I was most engaged by Violet’s story. I could have read a whole book just about Violet’s extraordinary life following the events of 1942! I also enjoyed finding out Altha’s story, although this was a little more of a slow burning timeline. Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly connect with Kate, but I appreciated how her story shared elements of the other two women’s experiences in a modern day setting.

This really was a page-turning read with some fantastic twists and reveals. The magical realism is done extremely well, in the historical timelines especially, and is further supported by the references to the actual witch trials that took place in Lancashire. A fantastic debut – I’d love to see more from Emilia Hart in future.

Thank you to the publishers, Harper Fiction and The Borough Press, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of ‘Weyward’ in return for this honest review.

TW: Controlling behaviour, sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, abortion, violent death. Also unlikely to be suitable for those with a fear of insects (entomophobia) and birds (ornithophobia).

This is a really solid book. The plot is excellent across all three timelines, the writing is superb - Emilia Hart is an author I'll be looking out for in the future.

This reminds me of The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner which I read last year however, that was based on reality and this is magical realism. The themes being explored, the multiple timelines, the characters ... just give me the same vibes and they are both really good reads.

You may ask why I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5 and that is because it didn't have a WOW factor for me. But 4 stars is still a brilliant read and actually is a book I can see myself recommending to family and friends (many of my 5 star reads I would not actually recommend to family and friends...).

I will absolutely be recommending this on my YouTube channel and purchasing a physical copy upon release.

Thank you for the opportunity to review :)

Altha, 1619, held in a prison with no food for 10 days before being tried as a witch!
Kate, 2019, trapped in a marriage with an abusive, controlling husband!
Violet, 1942, motherless and ignored by her father with an annoying brother!
Three women from the same family facing abuse across the years. Gradually their stories unfold. As a cliffhanger is reached the scene changes to another story. Well told and well described this is a definite page turner. Look forward to reading more by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Emilia Hart/Harper Collins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Weyward is three stories woven into one which spans across five centuries, with the heart of Weyward women pulsing in each thread. A multi POV can be confusing but here it is seemless. The author cleverly entwines the stories to create a novel that is something really magical.

The historical and modern parts blend really well. Each time period captures the irrepressible strength of our Weyward women as they learn about their legacy and harness the power of the natural world to overcome their adversaries.

Weyward is a debut novel by Emelia Hart and I absolutely LOVED it. This is definitely an author to watch.

Thank you to Harper Collins for the eARC of Weyward

This novel is so beautifully written the characters all bring the story to life and the magic brings the story to life.
Each of the three women are intertwined, they're all strong and the magic they yield is green magic.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it's multilayered and so richly described you feel part of the story. I loved how three timelines and three characters are all connected and the multiple povs create a layer to each character, surprisingly this does not create confusion but gives the story more depth.
I highly recommend Weyward to everyone. It's a fantastic debut!

Thank you HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Fiction and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
An interesting story of 3 women during different time periods who were all treated badly by men and who were all healers / witches.
Violet was my favourite, then Altha and then Kate. I felt the character of a Kate could have been better.
The story was well written and although not the usual type of book I read I did enjoy it. However I have one problem, the ending it was so weak compared to the rest of the book that is why I can only give it 3 stars, plus, there is too much hype about this book.
I would like to read more by Emilia.

Definitely a 5 star read. This is a brilliant mix of historical and modern fiction. It is full of beautifully descriptive writing. It has the perfect mix of real life and superstitions.. It tells the story of three generations of women from the same family all with different backgrounds but all with very similar stories connected though the ages.