Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️

by Sydney Shields – A fun Pride month reading selection for my in-person romance book club which this month was a collaboration between @purplecouchbookshop and @readmylipsboston

At twenty-one, Marigold Claude is more interested in connecting with nature than finding a husband. She’s always felt a tug toward something she couldn’t understand. So when her long-absent grandmother shows up unexpectedly and tells Mari she is a honey witch, imbued with a magical connection to nature, her life finally makes sense. But she will have to choose – magic or love, because a honey witch is cursed and cannot have both. It isn’t a choice since she’s found no suitor that strikes her fancy. As such, she returns with her grandmother to a secluded island where she learns the ways of the honey witch and the dangers that threaten their land. But then grumpy non-believer Lottie Burke and, for the first time, Mari wants love. As their connection deepens and danger intensifies, Mari may need to choose between love and duty – and she may have to sacrifice herself regardless. This emotional journey of Marigold, her struggles, and her choices will surely resonate with you.

This book is both achingly tender and full of female power. I loved Mari’s relationship with her grandmother, best friend (August), and siblings. It was great to see her reconnect with her past while evolving her relationships with her siblings. The way Shields lovingly describes the island, bees, lake, meadow, and grandmother’s home at once makes it seem idyllic and pulsing with danger just beneath the surface. I was left wanting a little more from Lottie’s backstory, and much of the book is about finding true love/soulmates, which to me was, in one case in the book, dramatically oversimplified. But that’s a personal preference, as “instant-love” has never been a trope I’ve connected with. Overall, it was a great story, and I wouldn’t let my minor critiques dissuade you from this tender, sapphic love story.

The audiobook is narrated by Mia Hutchinson Shaw, who does absolutely stellar narration, with a captivating, almost hypnotic delivery.