Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: May 14, 2024

~3.25 stars
I love the cozy cottage-core vibes and world but the writing style just didn't do it for me. I almost DNF'ed but it started to pick up a little/I got used to it around 34%. I think if I read this in junior high/early high school it would have been more my speed. The start of the book just went so fast and so many things happened without taking the time to let things settle or explore anything. It felt like a lot of telling instead of showing too. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This was beautifully written but very slow. Not a lot happens in the first 50% of the book, in fact things don't really get interested until nearly 60% of the way in.

The story follows Marigold (Mari) a young woman who just doesn't fit in with her artistically talented family. Mari would rather be running wild with the magial spirits in the forest. When Mari's grandmother shows up to perform the ritual to help Mari become the next Honey Witch, Mari is thrilled but Mari's mother is devastated because this means Mari will inherit the Honey Witch curse. As time progresses, Mari lives a rather lonely life as a Honey Witch but this becomes more bearable when she meets an old childhood friend and makes a new acquaintance as well. Then something dark threatens Mari's magical island of Innisfree and it will take all of Mari's skills (with help from friends) to turn it away.

This book is beautifully written with a sort of cozy and peaceful quality to it, but so little happens in the beginning that I struggled to stay engaged. The pacing on this is just sooo bad. For the first 70% of the book or so we watch Mari leave her family, train as a witch, and then live alone as a witch. It isn't until towards the end when she starts to admit her feelings for Lottie and poke at the curse she is under that things start to get interesting.

The ending feels incredibly rushed and, when contrasted to the very deliberate and slow beginning, it just doesn't match the rest of the book. At the end we are suddenly beset by evil witches and multiple romances. It all just felt very ill-paced.

I wanted to love this and I think Shields has some excellent writing ability but this book really needed to be tightened up in the beginning and expanded in the last 25%.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. The writing is beautiful and magical but it moves oh so slowly. There is just nothing much that happens until very late in the book. At that point too much happens and is over too quickly feeling very rushed. The pacing for this story is awful. Shields has some nice ideas and beautiful writing, so I will keep an eye on her future books. However, this one had some serious pacing issues. ( )

There are so many promising things about this book -- I love that there is no social taboo about same sex partnerships, I love that it's set in a vaguely Regency/Victorian background, I love that there is a magical system. It's all set to be a delicious cozy fantasy. Unfortunately, I found most of the characters insipid or irritating. I didn't believe the plotline or the vague threats that were just never expanded upon. I got really tired of the drama, and I would like this author to put more faith in pronouns -- continually referring to the love interest as "that woman" or "the woman" instead of she got old. Granted, as love interests go, there is nothing to recommend her, so I kind of get it. I suspect there was some grand reconciliation/reveal/final show-down, but I just couldn't make myself care enough to finish it. Good job on publishing a book, and I wish the author well. I hope the ardent fans get a lot of joy from it. Just not my cup of tea.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )