In The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields, Marigold is fed up with high society and trying to find love. So when her grandmother unexpectedly visits and asks her to come back to the island of Innisfree with her, to become a witch, Marigold agrees. There’s a catch, though—no witch in their family can be fallen in love with. That aside, though, Marigold loves the island and the magic she’s learning to harness. Then, when she meets Lottie, a disagreeable woman who’s skeptical that magic even exists, Marigold is determined to prove her wrong. Soon, they grow closer, but a dark magic is also encroaching on the island, and Marigold has to find ways to fight for her new home, even if it costs her own heart.

This was fairly cute! I liked the Regency-esque setting, mixed with cozy fantasy elements. The island of Innisfree is a fantastic setting, full of life and detail. I would live there, among the bees and flowers and trees.

The first act of the book mostly focuses on Marigold learning about her newly discovered magical abilities, and it’s very sweet to see her get to bond with her grandmother Althea, and learn about her own strength. It does, however, take perhaps too long for the main plot to start. By the time Marigold reconnects with her old friend August, who introduces her to Lottie, over a third of the book has passed. Then later, the final act of the story seems to happen really quickly, with not quite enough build-up.

That said, I did like the section in the middle quite a bit too, where Marigold spends time with August and Lottie. They make for a fun main trio, with August playing something like cheery middle ground for the slightly fractious two women. Also, independently of them, August is totally delightful; I’d befriend him if he were real.

As for Lottie, she was a decent character. It’s so predictable where the plot is going, though, and while I may not have known exactly how Marigold was going to break the curse, I knew they were going to fall in love. I also found it really obvious about Lottie’s identity as it relates to Marigold’s own as a witch (I’m trying to be spoiler-free, so sorry if this doesn’t make sense). Basically, there were things specifically related to Lottie that I didn’t understand why Marigold didn’t pick up on, and it just serves to make the protagonist seem a little dense.

On another note, I feel that this book has a very narrow definition of love. Marigold’s family curse stipulates that no one can fall in love with a honey witch (as in, feel romantic love), but the way this is treated and spoken of in the narrative, it’s dismissive of other forms of love. We see how grandmother Althea had a deep, affectionate, but not romantic bond with her lifelong friend Benny, yet it’s viewed as a terrible tragedy that they could never love each other. To me, they did love each other, just in a different (not romantic way), and I wish that it hadn’t been treated as a lesser thing. Had there been more nuance to the conversation of what it means to love someone, I think I would have cared more about the curse.

So clearly, I have kind of mixed feelings about The Honey Witch. On one hand, it’s got such a lovely atmosphere and quietly magical tone that it’s easy to get swept away by. It also explores themes such as self-confidence, friendship, and navigating grief. The audiobook, narrated by Mia Hutchinson Shaw, is a good production. But on the other hand, some elements were incredibly predictable, the pacing wasn’t ideal, and the romance wasn’t presented in a way that made me believe in it. They were saying they were in love without, to me, enough of a foundation of a relationship. I will say that I think it’s more a good book than bad, and I’d be interested in reading more from this author in the future, but it’s certainly not the greatest story I’ve ever read.