Kerry's Reviews > The Honey Witch

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

1.5!

It is 1831 and Marigold Claude is the eldest daughter of a well-to-do family, there is nothing in the world she wants less than to get married. Left heartbroken by a former suitor, she dreads the fact she’s expected to get married and be someone’s wife. She’s also a little… different from everyone else, because she really likes to run around outside under the moonlight. Except this is because she’s a Honey Witch, and she jumps at the opportunity to learn witchcraft from her grandmother, regardless of the fact that their line of Honey Witches are cursed to choose between their power or finding true love.

I did like that this was a queer normative world and I thought the relationship between Marigold and her grandmother was lovely. The imagery was very pretty and the atmosphere was cozy. The magic, while a bit handwavy, was fun and fit the overall vibe of the story very well. I think it managed to maintain a level of whimsy without being overwhelmingly so. Shields explores themes surrounding love, grief, found family, patriarchy, and loneliness and I do think that these are compelling reasons to pick it up, even if I didn’t like how some of them were handled.

Unfortunately, this book and I did not get along. The premise of this was interesting and it seemed like it would have fun vibes (especially because I love bees!!!), but the execution didn’t work for me. This is in part because I didn’t realize the vibes here would be Regency (which is an era I don’t particularly get on with) and because I didn’t realize that this world would concern itself with soulmates (which is a trope I have not yet been able to gel with in original, published fiction). I don’t particularly mind Shields’ take that everyone has a soulmate, but it was deeply grating to read the way it was approached here. The idea that everyone has a romantic soulmate, and that being in love/with your romantic soulmate is the only way to feel whole and complete or just not lonely is pretty much the direct opposite approach to life that I have. I’m unsure why no one in this world is capable of finding emotional fulfillment with friendship or why marriage and love were so aspired towards, but it just irritated me to no end. Further, I don’t really understand how the curse works—it’s clearly designed to end the line of Honey Witches, but you don’t need to be in love or be married to have children. I don’t agree with the idea that romantic love is the solution to loneliness and so some of the things in this book were doomed to bug me.

I also struggled with the prose—it’s not particularly difficult to read, but I found that the writing style and present tense made the story read young to me, and there were times where I struggled to remember Marigold was not a teenager. Some lines were lovely but others felt very overdramatic, especially the lines at the end of a chapter. The dialogue felt stitled and the pacing was wild. I struggled with Marigold as a character and found her a little childish and righteously judgemental (and, more personally, someone I wouldn’t get along with) and the overall tone was much too twee for me. I thought the climax of the novel came a little too late and was resolved too quickly, but I do feel like Shields knew what the overall arc of the story was going to be, even if it was paced very strangely. Marigold and Lottie’s relationship didn’t really do much for me and the stakes were sort of… whatever, and as a result while this was a very easy read I wasn’t ever fully gripped. The writing wasn’t particularly subtle and while sometimes I’m okay with that, it didn’t work here.

This book and I got on like oil and water, but I think it’ll have its audience that loves it. This would be especially true if you love Regency vibes and soulmates and cozy in vibes and atmosphere with slightly higher stakes than what you’d imagine from cozy fantasy.