Book Review: The Honey Witch by Sydney Shields
April 2, 2025
I am going to be honest with you, I did not like this book at first. I was kind of confused as to why there is so much hype around it there for the entire first part. There was a moment that this book was almost not finished, but I pressed on because, if nothing else, this book was an easy read. By the time the ending rolled around, I was a true believer. I loved this book. I laughed, I cried, I mourned with the characters and was excited for their victories. I will say, my last complaint is that I want to know more about what happened after the book ended and Shields did give us a little glimpse, but not a lot. I would have loved more.
We follow the story of a young girl named Marigold who feels like she is on the outside of her own family. Her younger sister has the voice of an angel, her younger brother is an expert violinist, her father is a well known artist and composer, and she cannot even dance. She dreads the balls because they are a reminder how much she does not fit into the world that she was born into, and how much she fears the suffocation of marriage and motherhood with one of these noblepeople. There was once that she was engaged, and was honestly so excited to put herself into that box, but just as quick as he fell in love with her, he fell out, and ended their engagement. Now, she is considered an old maid and feels like she lost her chance, but she is really not that upset about it. At the beginning of the book, Marigold is to attend a ball with her siblings and their father, and she finds someone to dance with just long enough for her to be forgiven for running off to her meadow. She cannot help it, she is so drawn to this space, especially in the moonlight. When her grandmother, who she has not seen in years, shows up out of the blue telling her that she needs her to come with her to save the land that she lives on, things start clicking into place. Her mother has been keeping things from her about who she truly is, which is a powerful Honey Witch, and she is truly heartbroken that she wasn’t told this sooner. Maybe she would have been saved from the heartbreak and embarrassment of a broken engagement, maybe she would have been a little kinder to herself, maybe her life could have been so much different. Her grandmother warns her, though, that choosing to be a Honey Witch would leave her with a curse: no one can ever fall in love with Marigold. Marigold can fall in love over and over, but no one will ever be able to truly love her back.
This book was sweet and saucy and romanic and so full of friendship and love in every form. It touches on loneliness, betrayal, grief, joy in finding ones self, the art of learning, and how important it is to stand up for what you love and what you believe in. I ended up really loving this book, in spite of how very “I’m not like other girls” Marigold is in the beginning of the book. It did make sense in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a period piece with a splash of magic and romance.
