Overall, this book didn’t do it for me, and I’m not entirely sure it was the book’s fault? I definitely was not connected to life for most of March and my reading habits have been all over the place, so my enjoyment of this book was definitely not proportionate to how good the book actually was. However, with this book, those things didn’t occur to me. I thought it was a nice touch that the magic wasn’t something they could use as freely or with as much power as the regular witch books, but it kind of annoyed me that it played such a little role. I read this during a readalong and it was literally the only reason that i persevered and got through such a horrendous mash up of words ive recently come across. Although the writing is beautiful, I felt distant from the characters. Not many of them were particularly likeable, even knowing their origin stories. Usually, I don’t mind reading from unlikeable characters pov’s if they are interesting, but with this one, they felt one-dimensional.

The book focuses more on the characters than the plot, but the plot was something interesting to behold. I loved getting to know these characters. Annie is my favorite and her precociousness, her innocence, and her strength were greatly admired while I read. The book is written in dual perspectives, but I couldn't wait to read Annie's parts. I also loved watching Annie come to terms with her sexuality and by the end, owning it like it made sense the entire time. I loved that! The magic system was really intriguing and early on had me reading on to find out more. Sadly there wasn't much pay off. Even though it's central to the plot, it was never expanded and remained vague, meaning it was hard to feel the tension and stakes. When they do meet, they have an instant connection that neither can understand. In addition to this mysterious magical bond that the two have, Emmeline and Annie find out they also have Bea in common. Bea was Annie’s friend from home who ran away and ended up on Crow Island where Emmeline befriended her and took on a great magical debt to get her married to Arthur, whether Arthur wanted to marry Bea or not. The only thing I wasn't fully on board with is the world building. It felt like the author combined a bunch of different witchy pop references (Practical Magic, The Craft, etc) and turned that into the world that these witches lived in. And there wasn't enough explanation for me. I felt like I was just along for the ride when it came to the witchy world and I wanted to understand it better and really immerse myself in this world, but most of the time I just felt lost. Magic just happened inexplicably and understandings of this magic were arrived with very little context on how, which took a bit of the luster out of my reading experience.

Francesca May

I was promised something “bloodthirsty and glittering” which wasn’t quite what I received, but it was very close and definitely enjoyable enough to make up for it. Other than that, this also dives into some harder to read topics. Like abuse, homophobia, anxiety, and assault to name a few. Each twist, turn, and graphic scene definitely pulled me further into the book. Whether it made me emotional or not, I just wanted more.

Annie specifically wasn’t my favorite protagonist. I loved that she started out as this naïve, clueless woman, because it was both realistic and something that I don’t see often, but I think a lot of the plot was devoted to what should have been her “development” that for me just wasn’t there. She was supposed to be growing and sort of waking up to the reality of how things are, and I just got a lot of indecision.The romance also was not the best. I was expecting some tension and intrigue and just…attraction? I don’t ship couples very much, but I was waiting to start rooting for Emmeline and Annie, and I never got around to doing that. For something that was so emphatically illegal and important to the plot, I understood very little of the magic and the magic system.