(3.5 rounded up to 4.0.)

I enjoyed this cozy(-ish) storyline very much and it held my attention most of the time. Just turn your brain off and let the words, descriptions and feelings - from the author's pure imagination - flow slowly over you as you read. There is unbearable sadness, short-lived joy, and the wonderful, yet overwhelming, warmth, passion and love of a deep relationship.

There are different types of relationships in here, and the one I loved the most was our main character Marigold's with her grandmother. Marigold has never felt at peace with her surroundings. She'd much rather be watching the spirits of the meadow, and dance in her bare feet by the light of the moon.

After an argument with her mum, her grandmother takes her back to her wee cottage in Innisfree where Marigold had such lovely memories as a child. Granny hopes to train her as the succeeding Honey Witch. The only downside to this calling is that no one can fall in love with a Honey Witch. Even at the age of twenty-one, Marigold doesn't believe that love will ever be for her anyway.

I loved her interactions with the bees... so beautiful, like a collective of like-minded beings. I'm still not wholly convinced about the character of Lottie, though. I must've missed the part inbetween detesting and lust somewhere along the line. Lots of comparisons here such as: light/dark, good/bad and Honey/Ash witches, and I'm still a wee bit stunned that this is a debut novel. Count me in for your next one, please, Sydney!

I chose to read an ARC of this work, which I voluntarily and honestly reviewed. All opinions are my own. My thanks to the author, the publishers and NetGalley.

Wow. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but now I can say it's safe to expect everything from it and not be disappointed.
At the heart of the tale is the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, bonded by love and also loss and grief, and their shared witchy powers. This part is very personal to the author, and so it's written with sadness but also joy, and deeply heartfelt.
There is a lot of love in this book - even though there's a curse in place that prevents love. There is Mari and Lottie - and I've rarely feared and felt for two people more. There's also August and his search - and let's not spoil but still say the love stories are delightfully queer.
The magic system with Honey Witches and Ash Witches is just great, and I've never encountered something like this before. With the two opposites representing life and death, creation and destruction, this is just right up my alley.
This is not a cozy read despite the title, and you will feel all the feels reading it, and you will cry and laugh and fear. And yet, what remains is a cozy feeling in this standalone novel.
I fully recommend it.

5/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @littlebrownbookgroup for the eARC!

#HoneyWitch #fantasy #netgalley #bookstagram

This was really good! It was such a heartwarming story

The Honey Witch is a sapphic cosy fantasy book that focuses on Marigold Claude, a young woman who has never felt like she fit in. She has always preferred the company of nature and the meadow close to her house. Her grandmother, whom she has not seen since childhood, reappears and introduces her to her birthright as the next honey witch, living on the Isle of Innisfree. There Marigold meets Lottie, a grumpy sceptic who grows on her, but who, according to the curse on the honey witches, can never fall in love with her, but can love be commanded like that?

I loved this book! The magic system was very different and interesting. I really wanted to live on the Isle of Innisfree! It was a really enchanting and cosy read. The feelings Marigold and Lottie develop for each other felt very believable and gradual. It's a slow burn (which I love) and it's so worth the wait.

Thank you so much to Orbit UK for my ARC!

*Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*

DNF at page 115. I really wanted to love this book but it just wasn't working for me.

The pacing of this book is very uneven, and a lack of change in tone means the dramatic moments lack the urgency needed to build tension, so instead they drift by in the same dreamy manner as the slow descriptions. A field of wildflowers gets the same attention as a woman dying from ectopic pregnancy, a life changing decision less time than a meadow at midnight; hell, the life changing moment barely happened on screen, so to speak. It almost feels like the opposite of books that forsake world building for plot: this book rushes through the plot to get back to the scenery. It's a strange choice.

The lack of breathing space is obvious when it comes to relationships, which are more told than shown, and when they are shown they lack depth. Marigold and her grandmother are so familiar so quickly that it is genuinely hard to believe they haven't seen each other for years. Marigold is so blasé about taking on a family curse that it's borderline farcical. She keeps casually dropping in the whole "no love" element without giving it real consideration, which would work if a realisation of having brought this on herself was coming, but it isn't. Actually taking time to consider a rushed decision and its ramifications and deal with them isn't the kind of maturity this book is interested in. It feels very YA as a consequence.

Somehow women are treated the same as the Regency setting would expect, but queer relationships are an accepted part of society. It is a strange choice and more than a little jarring. 1831 is the date given, but it is difficult to read this in the setting. There are also inconsistencies in the language, sometimes much more casual like "boyfriend", sometimes aiming for something sort of archaic sounding: "I know not what to do now" appears at a dramatic moment and is clunky enough to disrupt the flow.

Every opportunity to dwell on feelings, which would work for the slow pace the book is trying to aim for, is dodged by a chapter end or time skip. Gaining her magic, leaving her family, her entire relationship with August, the immediate aftermath of Althea's abrupt death: we skip it all in favour of being told about it at a distance, moving on to something else much more nebulous and less interesting. Mr Benny rearranges her grandmother's room without her knowledge in the immediate aftermath of the death, and she reports this without ever clarifying a single feeling about it. Was she relieved he took that responsibility from her? Resentful? Anything?

Also the romance takes a long time to even begin to emerge and when it does it is weak. Lottie is someone met in passing who wants nothing to do with Marigold, and Marigold is hot for her for some reason. It gets funnier when Lottie's very reasonable suspicion of Marigold's magic, which we barely see and have little real confirmation is working, is treated like a challenge, but then immediately becomes a non issue. She then burns herself and Lottie is the one to put together something healing for a burn, which is ridiculous in context.

Essentially this book had some interesting ideas and writing that worked well in descriptions, but the plot and structure were not strong enough to pull it all together. A third of the way in little has happened, and what has happened has little impact, and Marigold has seen no development as a person or a character. Perhaps there was more coming in the later two thirds of the book, but this was too wobbly a beginning to warrant the journey to the end.

This book started off so well. I loved the magic and the cosy fantasy setting. However, the romance and some parts later on in the story became a bit too cringey for my tastes, and I started to lose interest in the storyline.

The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. Marigold has always felt out of place until her grandmother shows up and offers to train her as the new honey witch, but the magic comes at a price.
This is a a lovely, cottagecore sapphic fantasy which made me feel like I wanted to be transported to Innisfree.
It took a while to get to the main plot and the romance so I wasn’t overly invested until near the end but I did go in expecting a nice cosy romance.
Overall I enjoyed the book and it was a nice, easy read that made me smile while I was reading it.

This is by far the best ARC I have ever read! This book made me fall in love with womanhood all over again. It made me want to run barefoot through the fields, mix potions, and channel my inner witch. The Honey Witch is a whimsical sapphic fantasy romance that makes you feel a spectrum of emotions. The book follows a young girl, Marigold, and her journey of becoming a honey witch, just like her grandmother. She moves to a remote island to reside in a small cottage with her grandmother where she discovers her honey magic and the secrets of the past. I absolutely adored the FMC and the way her character encompasses both gentleness and fierceness. She was a breath of fresh air! To add, the romance in this book was truly exhilarating and the tension between the main characters was absolutely sizzling.

The book touches upon the themes of friendship and loss, desire and heartbreak. The feeling of grief, which is something inherently negative and sad, has been described truly beautifully in this story. The plot itself is paced perfectly to keep the readers glued to the story until the very end. The author served us a true cottage core dream full of magic and I cannot wait for the rest of the bookish world to discover this masterpiece.

P.S. There are many quotes from this book that I want imprinted into my mind but this one is my favourite:

"These are the wild women who run barefoot through the meadow, who teach new songs to the birds, who howl at the moon together. Wild women are their own kind of magic."

Unfortunately, I dnf’d this at 22% as I was very bored. I expected some cozy worldbuilding and while the magic system seemed fleshed out enough from what I read, it was still lacking. I wasn’t enjoying the writing style or the main character. I found her ability to jump right in and practice her magic with such ease after not even knowing she was a witch odd and everything seemed to be moving too quickly and easily. This just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I DNF at 47%, felt like the story was progressing at such a slow speed. It was cosy, but cosy doesn’t mean boring, which this was.

A sweet witchy sapphic fantasy romance. This was a low stakes read with such a cosy feel to it. I loved the unique magic system and the growth of the characters relationship. The description was beautiful and I've never wanted a piece of honey cake more than when reading this. Marigold and Lottie's character and relationship progression was a journey. I genuinely disliked Lottie at the start but loved her by the end. I did have an inkling on the reveal for a while but I loved how it played out. The ending was slightly higher stakes albeit a tiny bit rushed and I definitely cried at a few points in the book too. Such a good read.

Marigold feels like she doesn't quite belong at home. So when her grandmother appears and offers to take her to the small island of Innisfree, where Marigold can become the next Honey witch, she immediately accepts. There is only one problem. There is a curse that comes with being the honey witch. No one can fall in love with you.

I absolutely loved this one and have not been able to put it down! It was whimsical and cosy, and I didn't want it to end. I loved both Marigold and Lottie as characters, and the grumpy X sunshine vibe was brilliant.

The world building in this one was great. The cottagey, magic feel was carried through this book amazingly. I loved the chapters where Marigold took over from her grandmother and started learning all about her magic and creating all sorts of potions with the honey.

The whole premise of this story was amazing, and I highly recommend it to fans of 'cosy' fantasy.

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to read and review many amazing arcs. This one has a stunning cover and a nice and easy story but it just wasn’t for me so I took the rare and difficult decision to DNF.

What bothered me personally was the childish behavior and thought process of the main character, the many cliches and the sudden shifts in tone which made me wonder if this maybe is an inexperienced author? Not a bad story at all and I think some readers might enjoy it but it gave me mixed feelings.

Sadly this didn't work for me. For starters, right from the beginning, the main character Marigold read much younger than her twenty years. It really felt very young adult. Considering the adult themes later in the novel it just felt a little strange and hard to connect to emotionally. The writing sadly just didn't capture me. It felt very flat and two dimensional.The plot synopsis was selling something I just don't think the writing could deliver on. The whole curse thing was also very silly. It had a very obvious plot hole and I didn't feel it made a lot of sense. The honey witches are cursed not to fall in love in order to destroy their bloodline. But they can apparently have babies without any outside help because their magic can just magic up a baby. So what is the point of the curse? I just don't think it was really thought out that well. Sadly this was a miss for me. I think the author has potential though. One last thing: in the first chapter i noticed 3 taylor swift references. This book felt like the author was trying to write a taylor swift song. It was just weird.

This is a lovely heartwarming story.

The honey witch is about marigolds who has always felt different to her siblings and she discovers that she’s a honey witch. She moves to her grandmothers cottage inis-free to learn how to become a witch and this follows her story as she learns and grows.

I adore the characters, Lottie is such a tsundere. The writing is sublime. Increadibly atmospheric and the romance although slow burn is so sweet.

I especially enjoyed the relationship between Marigolds and her grandmother Althea and the idea that all magic has a counterbalance magic. Honey having its balance be ash Magic was so interesting to me. Very unique.

Overall, it’s a wonderful cozy cottage core sapphic romance that I would recommend if you enjoy low fantasy settings with a focus on relationships and characters. I would absolutely recommend!

Thank you to littlebrown book group uk and NetGalley for the Arc. All opinions here are my own and I am sharing them voluntarily.

I will post my review on my Instagram, Waterstones and Goodreads.

This book turned out to be - predictably - more vibes than plot, which is fair, with a pitch like that; but because it's a standalone, and nothing much happened for most of the book, the ending ended up feeling anticlimactic. However this is all just a matter of the mood in which you get into the book, but for me, it felt like a miscategorized YA or NA. The source of my lacklustre experience with the book is that this doesn't read like an adult book about adult characters at all, the cast all feels much younger than the declared age and the tone less mature than I'd have expected of an adult standalone novel. And I'm not talking about sex or violence - but the maturity of characters.

"The Honey Witch" offers a cozy fantasy experience that wraps readers in the comforting embrace of its narrative. With its enchanting depiction of bees and honey, intertwined seamlessly with a captivating magic system, the book transports readers to a world brimming with warmth and intrigue. The meticulous world building, particularly the vivid portrayal of the Isle of Innisfree, evokes a sense of wonder and longing, inviting readers to immerse themselves fully in its enchanting setting.

What truly sets "The Honey Witch" apart are its characters, each one carefully crafted and imbued with depth and complexity. From the resilient Marigold to the endearing Mr. Benny, the cast of characters leaps off the pages, their journeys and relationships woven intricately into the fabric of the story. Marigold's character development, in particular, is a highlight, drawing readers into her personal growth and struggles.

However, its slow pacing and lack of significant events was disappointing. The narrative unfolds gradually, focusing more on the characters and their relationships than on plot. Additionally, I would have like even more exploration of the magical elements and a deeper dive into its themes.

Despite these points its heartfelt portrayal of queer joy, loss, and resilience was really good. The book resonates a deeply emotional level, offering a poignant exploration of love and connection in the face of adversity.

In conclusion, "The Honey Witch" may not be for everyone, but for those who appreciate its blend of regency charm, magic, and sapphic romance, it's a delightful journey worth embarking on.

The Honey Witch was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. The blurb was really promising and the cover, oh my, how beautiful! Sadly it didn't quite reach my expectations.
Let's start with the things I liked:
I could identify with the portrayal of grief and at some points the prose was really promising! I think with a little experience the author will have a quite nice writing style.
Now some things I didn't liked:
The book isn't categorized as ya/na but it surely does feel like it (except for some scenes). Every character seemed much younger than they are. What kind of contributes to this is that the author used the phrasing "impossible girl" a lot. It is used to an extend were I, tbh, rolled my eyes everytime it was used again. Also, why "girl"? Aren't they in their early/mid twenties?
The ending was too rushed and the change in the atmosphere in the last 1/4 of the book felt too harsh. It didn't quite match the rest of the book.

Then there are some parts I had more issues with (spoiler warning!)
• Why is it that true love can only be romantic? Isn't platonic love as valuable? I wished for a more nuanced exploration of love
• For what reason is it, that Lottie dies right after (or because) they (kind of) had sex???? That was so so so unnecessary and must have been SO traumatising.

The Honey Witch is a regency-inspired, sapphic, cottagecore romantasy with a magic system based on honey.

My favourite part about this book was the absolutely beautiful writing! The author is AMAZING at making the world feel so alive, with lyrical and magical depictions of the nature and scenery, and this really sucked me into Marigold’s new responsibilities in the apiary and Innisfree!

I also really enjoyed the grumpy/sunshine romance in this! Sapphic romances are always a favourite because WOMEN but Marigold’s curse made for an interesting dilemma. Think Jacks from OUABH vibes. The friendships in The Honey Witch are also so sweet!

I did have a couple issues with this book. The ending felt quite rushed in my opinion; knowing that it was a standalone and thus everything needed to be resolved in this book, I began to wonder when I had only like 30 pages left how this book was going to wrap up in such a small portion of the story. It almost felt a little anticlimactic.

I wish we got to see Marigold learning/ practicing all of the knowledge her grandmother passed on a little more. There were a lot of time jumps in this book and I think that it would’ve been nice to see some of the things she got up to in these time periods to make the magical element of the story a bit more prominent.

I also think that one of the big plot twists was really obvious from very early on in the book and maybe it could’ve been foreshadowed with a little more subtlety.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, I think the vibes were absolutely perfect and I really loved all of the characters and their relationships. I think my main issues were with the plot/pacing. I would recommend this to anyone wanting a quick, sweet but emotional, witchy read.

Rating: 3.5

This book definitely screamed cottagecore, the vibes were beautiful, but I did find it a little predictable. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but I found myself shouting at the main character for not seeing what I as the reader could see. It was also very slow and I did struggle but the vibes/writing kept me going, just. I still enjoyed this book, but I personally would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't able to guess everything that was going to happen to the characters.
This book overall is beautifully written but I just didn't feel bonded to the main characters, not necessarily the books fault, but this just took down the enjoyment for me. I would definately recommend giving this book a try for yourself, because as I say it was beautiful, just maybe not to my tastes.

Thank you to Orbit UK and Netgalley for the eARC.

✨"She does not look down. She stands tall and proud and certain that she did the right thing for herself."✨

🐝 Marigold is a free spirit who loves nature and swimming in the lake in the middle of the night and who feels stifled by the rigid rules of society.I found her to be a fresh, sunny and brave character ,because yes ,it takes courage in deciding to put yourself first and choose the right path l while leaving behind loved ones. And it is this choice that led Marigold to Innsfree , a small magical Island made of flowers,bees and magical creatures that she is destined to protect by taking her grandmother's place as Honey Witch.
Here Mari will make it her mission to make the reserved and grumpy Lottie believe in magic, and so ,slowly transforming their relationship into tender and genuine slow burn.

🐝the strength of the book more than the plot was the world building: the prose is so lyrical and vivid that rather than describing the scenes it paints them making you want to go outside and lie on the grass under the sunshine. Plus the fact that the entire magic system is based on Honey and Ash magic ,two opposing but both necessary magics to keep things in balance, helps make the story even more interesting and cozy.

✨In essence for me is the Honey Witch was the right book at the right time! I found it simply sweet ,relaxing ,with the ability to make me feel the sun on my skin and the scent of honey! So if you are a fan of Legends and Lattes this and want an enveloping read, this is the perfect book for you !