Review by: Samantha M. Siciliano
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Quick Summary:
The Honey Witch follows Marigold Claude, a twenty-one-year-old woman who has always enjoyed the company of meadow creatures over the company of suitors. She has never truly had an interest in marrying and raising children, so when her elderly grandmother makes the long journey from Innisfree and explains to her that she is a Honey Witch, she jumps at the chance to become her successor. But it comes at a cost: a curse where no one will be able to fall in love with her.
It’s not a hard choice for Mari. She doesn’t really care to raise a family, and she knows she must help her grandmother protect the family cottage and land called home. That is, until she arrives in a neighboring town to Innisfree and she meets Lottie, a beautiful redheaded skeptic of magic who is extremely grumpy. However, dark magic is at work. A curse flows through Marigold’s veins, and an Ash witch is determined to destroy the Honey Witch bloodline in pursuit of immortality. Marigold soon struggles to balance her healing abilities, her love for Lottie, and protecting the land of the Honey Witches. But the rest is for you to figure out.
If you are searching for a cozy sapphic cottagecore fantasy and enjoy Bridgerton or Hocus Pocus, this book may be for you. However, please read the rest of the review, because this book has quite a few flaws.
The Review:
To be completely upfront, this is my first romantasy book review, so some of my thoughts could be off base. Regardless, strong characterization, world-building, and thematic development matter across all genres.
Let’s start with the positives. One of the things I appreciated most about this novel was its queer norm world. It seemed that the overarching theme was finding a soulmate, but it didn’t matter who you wanted to spend your life with. I felt like there was ample representation of various sexualities, and all were accepted. This was a nice escape from reality.
The other thing I enjoyed about The Honey Witch was Marigold Claude’s relationships with her family, particularly Lord Claude, Frankie, and Althea. I adored these three. Lord Claude was so compassionate and understanding, accepting that Marigold was different and preferred nature to finding her soulmate. I also found it wholesome when Lord Claude, a renowned artist, treated Lottie as an expert and took time to learn about her charcoal techniques when she tagged along for Aster’s wedding. How cool?
Frankie was a character I simply wanted more of. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much background on him beyond being a scoundrel—please give me all of the shenanigans. As a result, he felt more like an interesting idea than a fully developed character.
Then there was Althea. In some ways, she reminded me of my grandmother. She was kind, wise, and a wonderful mentor to Marigold. Because I enjoyed their relationship so much, I was not a fan of how quickly her story ended and would have liked to see more of Mari learning from her grandmother. Also, it doesn’t make sense to me that Marigold would see something odd in the distance and that her grandmother would simply brush it off. Innisfree was in danger, Althea was dying, and Marigold needed much more mentorship. Why weren’t things taught to her to help her survive an Ash witch’s attack? Why didn’t she teach her that non-romantic love is not lesser than romantic love and can be fulfilling in other ways? After all, Mari’s entire sacrifice was supposed to be giving up romantic love, so I expected the story to spend more time showing why the life she was choosing mattered in the first place.
The Audible narration was another bright spot and played a significant role in keeping me engaged. Mia Hutchinson Shaw has a lovely voice that drew me in and made me feel as though I had stepped into another world. It is clear that she not only has talent, but also a gift for bringing characters on the page to life. Honestly, I would devour just about any audiobook she narrated.
Lamentably, my praise for the narration does not entirely extend to the novel itself. Whether it was the romance, the themes, or the world-building, I often felt as if Shields was not only holding my hand through the book, but also telling me what to think rather than allowing me to reach my own conclusions. It wasn’t a true dealbreaker for me since I had just finished Dark Age by Pierce Brown—an emotionally heavy and thought-provoking read. I was looking for something cozy that did not require the same level of dedication. Even so, I did not expect this book to be such a surface-level read. The pacing never dragged for me, but it often felt like the book breezed past its most interesting ideas before really digging into them.
While Shields was clearly aiming for an enemies-to-lovers story, there was not enough character development between Marigold and Lottie for that dynamic to feel convincing. This was where a dual POV would have benefited the story. It would have helped us understand how Lottie felt and explore her backstory. Without that perspective, many of the relationship’s emotional beats felt one-sided because we only ever understood how Mari was feeling. Instead, Lottie felt one-dimensional, focused almost solely on Marigold, and their relationship was stop-and-go, off-again, on-again. The relationship didn’t build the will-they/won’t-they tension Shields was aiming for. Ultimately, it was lackluster. Considering Marigold didn’t seem particularly interested in romance at the beginning of the story, I thought the book might spend more time exploring the value of family, mentorship, and community. Ironically, I think developing those relationships further would have made the romance even stronger because it would have given Marigold something meaningful to compare it against. That said, my issues with The Honey Witch extended beyond the romance and into the broader world-building, where many of the same depth problems started to appear.
The book was advertised as a historical cottage fantasy. Most of the historical elements seemed confined to clothing descriptions, hobbies, and courtship mannerisms rather than shaping the story itself. I wonder if Shields chose a historical timeframe because she didn’t want to deal with technology like cell phones, which would have disrupted the distance between family and friends, undermined Mari’s loneliness, and altered the slower pace of life in Innisfree. Even so, I never felt that the historical setting contributed much beyond aesthetics. As for the cottage portion of the setting, the book’s cover is beautiful and made me think I was in for a cozy, slice-of-life adventure.
And the book started off that way. A girl who doesn’t feel like she is where she needs to be in the world and just wants to spend time in a meadow with wonderful animals. Shit, I think I described my life. ANYWAY, while the setup sold me on the cozy atmosphere, the world-building started to lose me once the magic system came into focus.
A Honey Witch’s magic requires ingredients to heal others. This included honey whose properties were affected by the different flowers the bees pollinated, mixed with plants/special water, and good intentions. Okay cool. But I want extensive lore.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the different plants mentioned, what they help heal, and their inclusion in the recipes. But the outcomes of the magic system and their strengths were vague. To what extent can they heal? How does Ash magic differ from Honey magic? Are certain witches more powerful than others, and do some spells have greater strengths than others? I found myself wondering if the magic system was just about giving people hope since part of the recipes were the good intentions one put forth. Without clear limitations, it became difficult to understand what the magic could and could not solve, and where its boundaries actually existed. It seemed like the magic was Flex-Seal for the plot. Whoops, there is a hole in the plot, or I don’t feel like diving deeply into this topic; Flex-Seal for the fix.
A prime example of the magic system’s inconsistency comes when Marigold decides to get a tattoo because she likes Lottie’s rune tattoos. After the tattoo session, Lottie applies a salve she has made to the irritated skin. By this point, I had figured out she was a member of the Ash witch lineage, so her salve would have magical properties. But that left more questions than answers. Can Ash magic be used for good? What happens if the magics entwine?
The more I thought about the magic system, the less consistent it felt. Some people believed in the magic, while others, like Lottie, thought it was a bunch of hooey. Lottie’s skepticism would have made more sense if she didn’t like magic and maybe had flashbacks of magic harming her. Again, a dual POV would have come in brilliantly here.
***
As a general rule of thumb, I am always impressed by anyone who is able to write a book. It takes skill, dedication, imagination, research, and patience. It is also very hard to be published, especially as a debut author. Many of the issues I encountered felt less like fatal flaws and more like the growing pains of a debut novel. Even so, I was surprised to see a book with these weaknesses published by Redhook.
If you aren’t familiar with this publisher, they are an imprint of Hatchette Book Group. I would have understood if this book was self-published, but a big 5 publisher? That’s crazy for this kind of quality of work. I feel like they may have fast-tracked this one to be released near season three of the hit television show, Bridgerton. It seems like people can’t get enough of Regency romance and period dramas in romantasy right now.
***
If you are looking for a book to relax with and not think too deeply about anything, this is the book for you. It is not challenging in the least, which, after Dark Age, was welcome. But I am also someone who really appreciates strong world-building and character development, and both were lacking here. For that reason, The Honey Witch receives a 3/5 honeybees.
That being said, if you are looking for a read that will help you unwind at the end of the day, this may be your book. So MAYBE READ THE FRACKING BOOK.
Up Next: Lightbringer by Pierce Brown
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