Going off the vibe, the cover and some booktokkers comparing this to “The very secret society of irregular witches “ and thats all the convincing I needed.

This book is light hearted, It doesn’t have overly complicated world building and is an all round easy read.

There are secrets revealed, soulmates found , tattoos shared, magic used and in the end honey proves to be sweeter that ash🍯

If you are looking for a sweet, whimsical read with witchy Brigerton vibes , then this is the one for you.

I read this as an arc, it comes out in May 2024!

I absolutely loved The Honey Witch!
This makes me really happy as it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year!
I've recently been loving cozy fantasy reads and and this was no exception. I think it's becoming a favourite genre.

This book was beautifully written and I adored both Marigold and Lottie.
Their romance was so sweet!
The only negative i have is the pacing could be a little slow at times but that didn't really bother me much.

I definitely highly recommend this book as it was amazing! Any fans of Sapphic cozy witchy fantasy with cottage core vibes will love this book!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

DNF at 40-ish %. I have many issues with this, which I will talk about more in depth in a review on Instagram, The Storygraph, and Goodreads. Per publisher's request I will do this two weeks before release.

To summarise:

- I feel like the marketing of this book is misleading and doesn't fit the execution. The comparative marketing to other known titles is off and to me only conveys someone Googling the terms "regency" and "witches" without having read said compared titles.

- Talking about regency, nothing in this book screams regency apart from the first sentence of the book which states the era. This feels like an afterthought someone added to check off a trending subtrope.

- Marigold as a main character is insufferable to me. She feels like a cardboard without any personality trait apart from being judgmental and looking down on others for having different dreams than her. (which for a book that attempts to be feminist and empowering, doesn't work) She vibes "not like other girls" and that's a dealbreaker for me. The other characters are forgettable and equally made out of cardboard. Also, the fact that the love interest only had three lines by 40% is really forgettable as well. It screams instalove at a later stage.

- This book leans on telling and not showing, through chunky and forced expositional dialogue. This chosen technique is the base of whatever issues I have with this book. Also a dealbreaker for me. You can even state the book takes place in chapter two, when the grandmother explains basically every plot point. It makes it so every chance at character development, guessing, surprise or foreshadowing disappears.

- I have a lot of issues with the lore in this book, including its curse. It's explained that ash and honey witches are natural enemies because they're supposed to be elemental opposites, which makes no sense. (And this immediately gave away the plot twist.) The curse also makes little sense because because the grandmother gives out two solutions for it in chapter two. It should also an explanation as to why Marigold never had any suitors, but she wasn't interested in them anyway. It all feels very flimsy.

Generally, I feel like the concept of the book is there. The author knows what she wants but I feel like the script is off and chooses a wrong timeline. It's like the book would be better if the story just immediately starts out with Marigold already being a witch and living with her grandmother. The overproportionate dramatic fallout with her mother at the start when finding out she's a witch was also not necessary and did nothing for the plot.

I feel like the book can use more rounds of editing focused on character development or plot tension, because at this point, I read none of that and I feel like this was rushed to meet a deadline. Thank you for the opportunity to read this pre-release and give out a review.

I actually really loved this, most of it was really cosy and sweet and adorable but part of it was dark and a little bit creepy at times! I loved the world building and the magic system, the idea of each thing having it's equal counterpart made complete sense. It was well thought out and an excellent debut.

This was so good, I have no words for how much I felt for Marigold and Lottie. A satisfying ending with the perfect amount of suspense and anguish, I truly felt immersed in the environment and the characters. The characters were fleshed out to perfection, and I felt truly innamoured by the witchiness this story encapsulated. The love as described is tragic but lovely and you really felt for marigold as she struggles to come to terms with freedom to love and her obligations as a honey witch. The only thing I felt drew this story back was the pacing, such as a chapter dedicated to the aftermath of lottie and marigold (trying not to spoil too much here), or more suspense with lottie and marigold prior to the final battle as it felt a bit rushed. However, that is my only criticism as everything else was amazing, and I did, in fact, cry many times in the final couple of chapters. As a debut, this was fantastic and I cannot wait to read more from Sydney J. Shields. I could not recommend this sapphire witch fantasy enough, it is a perfect read with a cup of tea (sweetened with honey).

The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields

Published by Little, Brown Book Group UK

4/5 stars!

The Honey Witch is a cozy enchanting read

Marigold is training to be the next Honey Witch after her grandmother whisked her away to the family cottage. However with the magic she learns, Marigold pays the price which is that no one can fall in love with her! Until she meets Lottie!
I expected a cozy easy read book and I got exactly that! It was easy to fall in love with the characters and countryside, this book pulls on your heartstrings in the best ways!

Thank you to the published, author and NetGalley for this arc!

My review will be published on Goodreads in the next couple of weeks.

A sweet sapphic love story with themes of found family and grief. The pacing is quite slow and the dialogue a bit cheesy but overall it's a good book

This book gives beautiful imagery and sensations of warmth, nature, and love. It definitely gives off cottage-core vibes.
The setting, the magic, and the characters were all enjoyable. Sydney captures loss and trauma beautifully, serving as a powerful reminder of feminism in its entirety. In particular, it emphasises the significance of choice and how it varies among individuals. The story main flaw, in my opinion, was that the pacing was too quick, and it was moving too fast, leaping ahead when it might have developed more gradually, while other parts felt like they should have been given more depth. The writing itself was quite lovely.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Little, Brown Book Group Uk for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was given access to an advance review copy on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 40%

A cozy fantasy I was looking forward to but in the end it simply did not catch my attention.
I found myself bored a few times and other times there was simply not enough things happening to push me to keep reading. The plot is very interesting but I simply could not connect with the MC and I felt like the romance lacked chemistry.

I had to stop reading when I felt the reading slump coming... This book was unfortunately not for me.

I went in to this book without any expectations or prior knowledge and what I got was such a sapphic cozy witchy fantasy.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the world, the cottage and countryside were just pure magic it was absolutely a place I wish I could visit even better if I could live there, it's so colourful and bright filled with bees and flowers and it made my heart sing. There were definite Bridgerton vibes with the rules of society and the balls and I could also see similarities with the Olivia Atwater books with that whimsical feel- the writing is poetic and flows so beautifully.

I loved seeing the story and romance bloom but I did feel that I was looking for something more, I would have loved to have seen more of the magic system it was so interesting and I just wanted it to develop but felt that once the romance took off the magic was secondary.

I enjoyed the characters- Marigold with their intense sunshine and Lottie a grumpy cynic- both are dealing with changes and overcoming trauma and sadness and I thought they were a delight (for the most.) I loved the queer aspects of this book but found that some of the dialogue was unnatural and awkward and the language used while predominantly quaint and of a regency style there were sometimes words used that really threw me.

Overall I enjoyed this and would recommend if you want a cozy fantasy read with a really interesting magic system packed with cottage core vibes and a sapphic romance- this is definitely not one for the plot lovers.

This was 3.75 stars for me so rounded up to 4

A lovely and cosy fantasy enemies to lovers story. I really enjoyed this one.
I didn't know much going into this, and expecting something a little darker, but pleasantly surprises none the less.
would love to read more from this author in the future!

I saw a post by the author on tiktok about how her book is basically sapphic Howl’s Moving Castle and so I ran to NetGalley to read it, but I have to admit I don’t think this description fits it.
One really good thing about it was the depiction of grief. I thought that part was amazingly well done, and I feel for the author wanting to give her grandmother a better passing.
The description of magic was rather limited and sometimes nonsensical while the actual love story didn’t seem to develop very naturally. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it but it wasn’t quite as fun as I was expecting.
I still think it could be worth the read, just don’t expect a fast-paced, lighthearted read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC.

This was the book the cosy book with a enemies to lover story line I needed.

I follow this author on social media and so was so excited when I saw I had been selected for a E-Arc.

I connected with Mari with her feeling like been the outsider of her family and friends, seeing the happiness others seem to get but not herself. The magic system is everything my kitchen witch heart needed and was so well researched. The love story happens naturally and I love how you see the slow change between the two characters.

The only down fall of this book is that it wasn't longer! Would love to read more from this world!

This book is an absolute gem – beautifully written, warmly inviting, and infused with just the right balance of humor and spice. I savored every page, reluctant to reach the end, as the heartwarming tale of a grandmother and granddaughter resonated deeply, evoking memories of my own close bond with a grandmother. The inclusion of LGBTQA+ characters, with the main characters being lesbian and bi/pan, was seamlessly woven into the narrative, avoiding the common pitfall of feeling like an afterthought. I wholeheartedly enjoyed the book, with my only lament being the absence of a sequel – eagerly hoping for Honey Witch II.

I just could not get into this- DNF at 20%.

I couldn’t get into the story, I found the language difficult to get into a flow with and didn’t really care.

I liked the premise but it didn’t feel well executed.

A sweet 3.5 read that I found cosy. I really enjoyed the authors descriptions of the country side - it almost felt like I was in a Studio Ghibli movie when the cottage was being described and the magic within it.
I did however really enjoy some of the side characters such as Althea and Mr Benny and found that their complex relationship was overall described well (if a bit rushed towards the end).

I've seen some describe it as being similar to Bridgerton - it is in the way it is set at a similar time scale and has a ball or two but otherwise most of the story is spent of the island of Inisfree. It is an interesting concept that I think for the most part came together well but there were some inconsistencies in the characterisation e.g. at the start of the novel there is a big emphasis put on not taking away free will that the main character agrees with magic then the main character does it for a rather petty reason.

3.75 stars

I liked this book, it had the whimsical cosy vibes that I was looking for. But unfortunately I didn't love it! The premise had a lot of promise and I was hoping it would be a new favourite maybe I hyped it up in my head a bit too much!

I liked the regency setting and the ballrooms we see at the start of the book. As cliche as it sounds it did feel like I was reading Bridgerton but with magic at the beginning. I feel like the protagonist of marigold suited a story such as this, she's very much set that she won't conform to societies rules and expectations of her and we see that clearly evolve throughout the novel where she is able to live out her own version of happiness and the life she wants. the side characters were interesting enough to support the story and i enjoyed the cute little magical animals that help keep the island alive.

i think parts of this story fell a little flat and i WISHED they were fleshed out more. the magic system was an intriguing part of the story but i felt it started to become a little overshadowed when the romance element came into the story. the romance was very insta-lovey, and the character of lottie just didn't feel 3D enough for me? yes she had a tragic past but that was as much as we knew about her which was disappointing. the story was predictable in some parts and i knew how the plot would pan out by the 50% mark, the ending was just equally very disappointing and ended quite abruptly in my opinion.

Described as a mixture of Bridgerton and The Secret Life of Bees, The Honey Witch didn’t disappoint for me and hit all the romance and fantasy vibes with cosy mystery thrown in. I loved the sunshine of Marigold and she definitely was balanced out by Lottie!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC!

Magic, Witches, Cozy Cottage, Sapphic Love — what more could you want!


This is a journey of self-discovery, bravery, and magic. The writing is so poetic and enchanting. I felt like there were fireworks in my brain while reading! It was that good.

What an absolutely perfect book.
The Honey Witch is beautifully written, warm & inviting. It gives you such a warm and cosy feeling with just the perfect amount of humour & spice throughout. I really dragged this book on as I didn’t want it to end.
The story of grandmother & granddaughter genuinely brought a tear to my eye. It felt so familiar as I was very close to my other grandmother.
This book is LGBTQA+ friendly, with the FMC’s being lesbian and bi/pan and it was written perfectly. Sometimes I find same sex relationships written into books feel like an after thought, but this was intertwined throughout the entire book and was so natural.
I throughly enjoyed this book. My only complaint is that I don’t have Honey Witch II (I hope there will be another book)