So the reason I wanted to read this book is honestly because this has been on my TBR for over a year due to me loving all of the marketing towards it when it initially come out. When I saw that it was an ARC I was surprised because as far as I knew this book was already out but I didn't hesitate to apply for it. Friends this book was all I wanted it to be and more. I cannot tell you how much pure joy this book filled me with to see so much queer love portrayed the way that it was. I am not lying when I tell you this book made me sob both happy and sad tears at multiple points. I loved that we learned how the magic system worked along with Marigold and how it genuinely felt like we were on the Isle of Innisfree with everyone. I loved how we got to know so much more about not only Marigold but also the side characters because it made me fall in love with them all so much more and made it easier to emphasize with all of them. It was also so cool to see how strong and important Marigold's relationships were with all of the women in her life and I loved seeing the strong bonds between them. Hell, even the men in Marigold's life seemed to be perfect in every way. All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who wants a cute, mostly cozy queer romantasy to fall in love with and I will definitely be picking up the physical copy of this book as soon as I can.

Thank you so much for granting me access to this earc.
I felt so ready for the cottagecore witchy cosy fantasy vibe that this book was giving and my goodness it delivered. I absolutely loved this book.
Marigold and Lottie, August and Frankie. Omg. I just love the characters so so much. My heart ached for them most of the way through but I was so glad for the ending.
I loved the slowly drawn out plot that helped you to engage yourself with the characters and immerse yourself with the world and just enjoy being apart of it. I can’t count the amount of times I got lost within the pages of this book and had to be brought back to reality by my partner.
I immediately bought myself a copy of this book when I had finished reading! I can’t wait to read more by Sydney!

so much to like about this book. the magic. the not magic. the magical characters. the not magical character. the grandmother, oh the grandmother. she had my whole heart. and soul mates. but curses. and true love. and friendships. but decisions. and the beating of evil to follow your heart. oh and did i mention the magic. for it held its place both in its most basic form but also in what we "see" and "believe" to be magic and this doesnt always need to be spells, fairies and witches brew.
the cover swept me in to this book and im so glad it did. the world Sydney creates is magical in itself. from that first sight of the front cover those tones seep into the rest of the book. the light, the glimpses, the golds and shimmers. it was a perfect description for the book and what the characters were going through.
Marigold is a bold one. shes a little tyke and i love her for it. when he grandmother offers to teach her to be the best witch she can be she is all for it. she doesnt want what most people want so this from her grandmother feels like a freedom in itself. there is one issue. the witch she wants to become has a curse handed to her which means she cant have love. but she doesnt mind that does she. pft...
that is until she meets Lottie. who doesnt believe in all this air fairy nonsense. but they start to believe in each other. except the thing that keeps them frightened. the ash witches curse. so Marigold knows she must and will fight for her future. and for those futures of her kingdom. the Ash witch wants power over her little community and she wont take it anymore!
a fab book. totally unique from anything ive read previously.

if there were witches in Bridgerton you would get The Honey Witch. Magical, friendship, enemies to lovers? If she can thaw her skeptical heart.
However as the Honey Witch Marigold is cursed to never have love, ( cursed by the Ash Witch) this honestly kept me on the edge of my seat reading their adventure and obstacles of whether she can break the curse. It broke my heart and made me question whether I liked girls 🤔 and convinced me that soul mates exist! ( I did skip chapter 6 on the advice of a friend, due to a personal trigger)
Confession time, I’m now vegan, but even before then I hated honey 😂and there’s a lot of honey in this book.

The Honey Witch is as sweet as substance it’s named after. While it starts of a little slow and saccharine for my taste, the plot builds and you can’t help but root for the characters. If you’re in the mood for something cozy and sweet this will tickle you taste buds!

Feeling torn over The Honey Witch. On one hand I do think it's generally well-written; a magical story that covers some themes well - like grief, and the importance of both independence/self-confidence & friendship.
On the other, some of the elements of story did feel somewhat predictable and the pacing was kind of all over the place. This is always a shame when there is so much potential there. Of course I was drawn in by that gorgeous, cottagecore, cover - who wouldn't be?

Sapphic books plus cozy fantasy setting. A great read, that I flew through! There wasn't anything that I didn't like about it! The only thing I would like, would there to be more!

I binged this and was so happy I did! Sapphic romances are just so feel good and this with the added cosy fantasy elements made it a perfect read for a rainy day!

I really am sorry for giving it a 3 stars.

I initially thought this would be a cozy fantasy that would be light and heartfelt, but I didn't expect it to have an adult theme.

But as to the cozy fantasy side of this book, I definitely enjoyed it. But it felt like it was not connecting with me. What only connected with me, I guess was the loss of a grandparent, but mine is my grandfather.

I'm glad to be given a chance to read this book in advance, but I really am sorry for not being able to enjoy it.

Such a cosy, easy read. I read this book in one sitting! I was hooked straight away and I really enjoyed it.

This book was the perfect spring book 4.5 stars. Reading it again I loved it just as much and I can't wait to recommend it to anyone that needs a cosy springtime read. (It really does feel like you are sitting in a wild flower meadow the whole time you are reading it <3

- Soulmates
- Magic
- Regency
- Found family
- Queer normative world
- Bees

The romance

The main romance in this book was cute and I really enjoyed it. It was a hate to lovers. There were side romances in this book I won't say much about them so you can see but although I was able to predict them I still enjoyed it.

The magic

The magic system in this was really fun. It is more potions than spells which i really liked as a lot of books with witches have mainly spells or elemental magics the change for potions was a lot of fun and really interesting. The spirits that guard the land and look after it are really cool and I would love to meet one.

The world

There isn't a tonne of world building so if you love that then maybe this isn't for you but I was happy with a less high fantasy book and wasn't left with too many questions. This book is a fun easy read and I had a great time with the world and felt immersed.

The Characters

The characters were loveable, the main character may have been a bit annoying looking down on people who thought different to her to start with, but you watch her grow and learn. Also handles loss and grief in a great way and the feelings on loneliness. Overall I really liked the characters in this book.

Overall this book made me feel like I was sat in a field of wildflowers wearing a regency gown. Fairly low stakes(for most of it) and was a lovely read. If you like cosy fantasy, romantasy, witches this might just be for you. This was a mostly happy read and calming.

Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown for this arc in exchange for an honest review

The Honey Witch is a heartwarming and cozy sapphic-themed romance featuring witches that is delightfully sweet. 🍯✨🐝


It was a poignant tale of love, loss, and solitude, imbued themes of self-acceptance the belief in being destined for life beyond what is initially bestowed.

It is a cozy fantasy, perhaps the first I have ever read, and I must say that the impression was positive! At the beginning the story took a while to get going and I also to immerse myself in it, but when it started I appreciated the slowness and the everyday nature of certain scenes, as I appreciated the fact that not everything was dramatic but there were relaxed, familiar moments but not for this reason without drama and tension. The style is interesting, the book is well written and well structured, perhaps I found the ending a little too fast, the most dramatic part of the book where the stakes are revealed to be high - cozy but not too much - but still well managed and with small twists that keep the attention high; the LGBT+ rep is very high and in general the poetics of acceptance and self-determination. Shields' pen is interesting and tokeep an eye on for future publications.

Not quite as cosy as marketing made out, but a solid enough debut with a queer-normative world which is always nice. Some odd linguistic choices given the faux-Regency setting ("updo" catapulted me out of immersion with such force I nearly didn't make it back in) which I hope will smooth out in future works from this author as she gains more experience and more ruthless editing. Some very interesting ideas not quite explored to their fullest. An enjoyable, unsurprising story in general.

Thank you to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review. This book was beautifully written, so atmospheric. It was as if I was right there with the characters, I connected with all the characters and enjoyed every moment of reading this book. This will definitely be being reread in the future and recommended to everyone who asks for a romantasy with regency vibes.

This book was pure magic ✨🍯🔥
Emotional, romantic, and beautifully written—I couldn’t stop reading. The setting was atmospheric 🌲, the characters felt so real 🥺, and the slow-burn romance stole my heart 💘. It gave me all the cozy, witchy, powerful feels 🐝🌕
4.75/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free ARC copy to read!

“𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒔,” 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔. “𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕.”

The Honey Witch is a heartwarming and cosy sapphic witchy romance with a sickly sweet prose 🍯✨🐝

We follow 21 year old Marigold ‘Mari’ Claude as she joins her grandmother Althea on the Isle of Innisfree, who would like to train her to be the next Honey Witch. But to be a Honey Witch is much more than it seems, and it comes with a cost - nobody can ever fall in love with one. And then, in walks Lottie Burke.

This was a beautiful story of love, loss, and loneliness, with a sprinkling of self-acceptance and to believe that you are destined for more than the life you are given.

I love witchy/paranormal romances, and I love historical romances, particularly Regency romances, so paranormal Regency romances are like my holy grail. Therefore it's no surprise that I loved the Regency-esque setting of The Honey Witch, with its balls and betrothals. The magic really grew on me as well, and I really loved the detail about Mari's magic.

The book has beautiful, descriptive prose but combined with the third person, present tense it was a bit hard for me to get into the flow of it initially until the pace picked up. At that point, everything just clicked for me. I found myself crying multiple times through the story, and if a book makes me cry then it's an automatic 5 stars. I did guess where the plot was going to go, but I found it so emotional that that didn't matter in the end!

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley, but this is my voluntary and honest review.

The Honey Witch by Sydney J Shields was described as a cosy Sapphic romantasy and in some ways it does live up to that description but unfortunately it did not work for me quite as well as I hoped.
The premise, which is pretty charming, is that Marigold, a young witch embraces her heritage and trains to take over from her ailing grandmother as the Honey Witch of Inisfree island despite the curse that comes with the role - if she becomes the Honey Witch no one will ever fall in love with her. Once on the island she reunites with her childhood friend August and his sceptical new friend Lottie, who does not believe in magic or Marigold's healing abilities. A challenge to prove her powers results in Lottie and Marigold becoming closer than either of them expected, with consequences that neither of them could have foreseen.
I have to say that in some ways this reads like a YA fantasy, the characters seem much younger than their stated ages and the plot is certainly very predictable but then there were moments that were much darker than I would have expected in a cosy fantasy, as well as a bedroom scene that just seemed out of place in terms of the rest of the book. I don't mind enemies to lovers as a trope but here it felt rushed, especially given the slower pacing of the book in general. This is a book that has potential and some good writing and I am sure it will find its audience.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This was a cute cozy fairy tale like story. The plot was a bit predictable, and the hints were somewhat obvious in that way that makes sure you don't miss it and makes you feel like the main characters are dense for missing what is right in front of them. The world building is well done, and unfolds beautifully through the story arc. Some of the society norms and taboos seem random (tattoo is bad, but gay wedding is okay?), although it builds a world that is different from ours so the reader feels like they are discovering these nuances along the journey.
I wish there was a bit more twist and turn and that maybe the villian wasn't quite so black and white, but overall it was an entertaining story.