Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Book Review: The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields

Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who've tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.

When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn't believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can't resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home--at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.


I was able to read this ebook by borrowing it from my public library via Libby, and read it in the Kindle app since that's how Libby works. I'm always here for queer cozy romantasy, and was excited to read this. Overall, I'd describe this book as Chalice by Robin McKinley meets Bridgerton, but gayer. I'd recommend Chalice to people who enjoyed the honey magic and cottagecore stuff of this book, although its romance is heterosexual. 

The good: Shields writes beautifully most of the time, and I really enjoyed the Claudes' slice of life stuff, the cottagecore vibes, the lovely setting with the plants and bees, the magic, and the fact that it's gay. The yearning and chemistry between Marigold and Lottie is good, even if both are really slow to cotton on as to why they feel the way they do about the other girl. I liked the relationships between Marigold and her family (apart from her mother) and the friendships as well.

We're told this book is set in the 1830s, and the Isle of Innisfree is a real place (though uninhabited if Wikipedia is correct), but since the early Victorian norms are only vaguely held, and the fashion and hairstyles don't seem to add up (we're told Marigold's ballgown is huge and poofy, which would not have been the case in our 1830s, and that her hair was pulled back super tightly from her face, which ditto), then I don't see the point in giving the book a time setting if you're going to ignore the conventions and just go off vibes. This just confused me, especially since sometimes the language used is jarringly modern. People say "okay" and stuff. We're also told a lot, rather than being shown. Marigold has a lot of beliefs and sayings that she holds and says without telling us why or how she knows/believes them. 

I also got annoyed at the repetitiveness throughout the book. Marigold laments that she'll never be able to fall in love and have a partner because of the curse her family is under what felt like thousands of times, which, we get it. It's especially annoying because you just know what's going to happen. 

Stuff I want to complain about that is spoilery (highlight to read): the thing with tattoos that kind of goes nowhere. Like sure, having Lottie tattoo Mari with her clothes off is super sexual tension-y, but if there's such a huge taboo against tattoos then why would Mari get tattoos and let Lottie get into a situation where someone would see her tattoos and blackmail her for them? Marigold was able to resolve that by magically erasing the blackmailer's memory, but like. What was the point.
re: the anachronisms that were jarringly modern to me: I cannot believe that people in the Victorian era went around saying "good girl" to each other in bed. I just refuse to believe it, and it took me out of the book to read that. 
Also the whole "cursed to never fall in love" thing, but Marigold still falls in love with Lottie, and it's obvious that Lottie falls in love with her too. Although supposedly Lottie couldn't feel it until the curse was broken, but their connection felt like more than lust to me, so then what was the difference? My denseness and borderline-aromanticism rear their heads again. The girls screaming in pain for each other during the third-act breakup also seemed really dramatic to me. Per usual in these things, Marigold's reason for breaking up with Lottie made no sense. 
It was super obvious to me who Lottie was going to turn out to be: the evil ash witch's granddaughter. Not to be constantly comparing Chalice to The Honey Witch, but the romance in that book is also between a honey-magic-user and a fire-magic-user.  Once Marigold saw that something (obviously her good magic's evil counterpart) was turning the isle's magical guardians evil, the first thing she should have thought to do was check the magical honey wards around the island and see if any of them had been removed, but she didn't think to do that! Hello??? What a stupid way to lose against an evil enemy. I was really sad that the cottage and its library burned down, and that so many bees died. :( Overall the magical battle was too uneven and catastrophic for my liking. The first 3/4ths of the book is so cozy and sweet and slow-paced, so the violent heartbreaking climax is jarring to read after that, rather atonal. We're told (telling again) that Marigold is a powerful honey witch, yet she's no match for the immortal ash witch. It made no sense to me that the evil ash witch was destroyed by fire. Hello, she's an ash witch??? It would have made more sense to draw her out of the house then drown her in the river. But whatever, we get a happy ending for the girls.
Quick last complaint: Marigold's best friend and her little brother are soulmates, but they're 22? and 18 so I felt a bit uncomfy at the age gap. 

Overall, I guess I did mostly like this book despite everything I've complained about above, and would recommend it to anyone interested in sapphic cottagecore cozy romantasy with spice and dramatic stakes. Check it out from the library though. 

Score: ★★★.5 out of 5 stars (Blogger, return to me the half star special character! 😠)
Spice score: ðŸŒ¶
🌶/🌶 
Read in: June 11
From: my public library - borrowed via Libby, read in Kindle app

Spoilers past this point

Tropes: forbidden romance, star-crossed lovers, "we can never be together" stuff, grumpy x sunshine, character who can never fall in love does so anyway, character with a family x orphan, only one bed, third act breakup, a character has mysterious origins that turn out to be very important to the plot, characters don't recognize that they're into each other leading to this song from Wicked, enemies to lovers in a way, that Romeo & Juliet thing where their families are historical enemies but the kids from those families fall in love

Representation: bisexual/pansexual fmc and lesbian (I think) fmc in sapphic relationship, side mlm/achillean couple (one of which is also bi I think), queernorm society, I don't remember if everyone is white (British isles) or if it's also a race-blind society

Trigger warnings: murder, death, a child is burned severely all over her body (past), gore, magical degloving injury leading to lots of blood, violence, kidnapping, a character is imprisoned and starved, manipulation, memory loss (both magical and trauma-related), orphaned character with trauma, bees death, controlling parent who withholds information (out of fear rather than just sucking)