The cover piqued my interest. Then once I started reading it I couldn't stop, loved everything about this book.

I found this engaging from the very beginning. Loved the character introductions, without giving too much away at once.
The romance is polite and subtle which I feel carries a lot of weight very well - we all know what it was like at 18 years old!
I also really enjoyed how dark this got, and even hinted at themes even darker. Again this happens from the start and then manifests in different ways with twists and turns which are very enjoyable, The writing is very accessible and I found myself racing through it at times.

It uses the common YA tropes well without over labouring a moment and without repetitiveness. I do read quite a lot of YA and this felt like midway between YA and adult which I think many younger readers (who are a bit older in that bracket) will appreciate. It is almost academic, and poetic, in its approach to some themes.

There's a wonderful moment when Jasmin's group of newly met 'friends' invite her to try out her own magical intuition. It's a really short scene but it sets up what happens throughout incredibly well. I loved it.

The exploration of family and sibling relations is compassionate and appreciates the limits imposed on a young person's development when something traumatic happens during childhood. The work that the person then needs to do, to shake the burden, the ingrained memories, to find the joy, and to trust. I thought this was played out really well, and again with a really nice light touch.

My one reservation and I'm not sure how important this is in the scheme of things as I do something similar as a writer - the sense of place isn't very clear. I got a good sense of the houses, the rooms, the university but I did not clock it was set in Ireland! I initially thought it was set in the US - somewhere Southern or on the line. This was obviously a clear choice by the writer for the overall setting to be vague but occasionally a name would be dropped and I'd remember this was set across the water close by.

I would certainly like to read more from this author.

I will be sharing this book on my Bluesky account shortly.

Strange Nature by Mary Watson is a great, loving story. Loved this storyline and the characters were immaculate. So so good! 5 stars from me.