Marigold abhors the fact that her lot in life is solely to marry. For a long time she has felt as if something is missing from her life, and the idea of being nothing more than a wife to someone fills her with revulsion.
When her grandmother who she hasn’t seen since she was a child comes for a visit, she is presented with the opportunity she didn’t know she was missing. To take up the family mantle of being the Honey Witch and protecting and caring for the people of Innisfree. She immediately feels it is her calling and heads off with her grandmother to learn how to be a witch. The only problem? It comes with a curse.
Marigold’s growth was such an essential and fitting part of this story. It is first and foremost, a story of Marigold coming into herself and figuring out who she is and what she wants. She starts out not knowing what she wants or really who she is meant to be, besides knowing she does not want to just be someone’s wife. She proves herself ignorant on the topic of love and even holds it against others when they actually do want to find love. As she gets to experience more of the world she becomes more of a sympathetic, relatable character and she becomes so much more than the girl she was at the start of the book.
And the magic. I absolutely adored the magic. It was in the essence taking magic back to what is typically known as witchcraft, using herbs, flowers, essentially things of nature and compiling these into a mixture and weaving a spell through it. But added into this, of course, is the titular honey, which is a necessary ingredient for the Honey Witches to put together all of their spells. On the opposing side are the Ash Witches, one in particular, Versa, who Marigold’s grandmother has been protecting the people of Innisfree from her entire life as a witch. Though much of the book is spent getting to know the characters, as well as Marigold’s particular brand of magic, hence the cozy feel of the book, the threat of the Ash Witches is briefly touched upon occasionally throughout the book. Until much closer to the end when the threat becomes more real.
It was such a cute, quick read and I really enjoyed the unique world and most especially the unique magic. The characters were so real and impossible not to like and I can’t wait to read more from this author. I hope we’ll see more from this world as well.
