This was such a short, rushed story and not at all what I expected. This was just not my kind of story, but I appreciate the opportunity to read it.

This book sounded interesting and the cover caught my attention. But that was where my interest ended. The story fell flat to me and I DNF'd it.

Pros: I liked this book, the characters and stories. Cons: a very rushed conclusion, shorter length left many characters and plot issues unexplored, and the main plot points seemed a bit obvious. I wish more time had been given to building the world and side characters developed more. All in all it felt rushed and more YA than adult fiction. I believe a novel length might have helped with these issues if done well and brought this up to at least a 4 star book. I'd like to read more by this author and see if some time and polishing could make them truly something special, because I do think they have a unique voice that should be developed.

The magic system and world building is fantastic. I loved Cal so much and the discussions on how magic works and the culture around it. I look forward to the next book in the series. This was a short and sweet novella that left me craving more of its world

I did not enjoy this book - I didn't think the plot or characters were fully developed enough. It was extremely short and I couldn't get a grasp on what it was supposed to be.

Book – The Witch Stone
Series – Court of Ash and Thorn, Book 1
Author – Jasmine Hong
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
No. of Pages – 103
Cover – Gorgeous!
POV – 1st person, one character
Would I read it again – No
Genre – LGBT, Paranormal, Contemporary, Magic


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **



DNF'd at 18%

I'm sorry to say that, however intriguing it was to make me want to read it, I just haven't got the patience to keep going with it. And I know that if I pushed it, I'd only end up angry and frustrated, which is no good to me or the author.

The simple matter is that I don't like the writing style. The actual writing ability isn't the problem, it's the execution of the storytelling. The story is littered with massive info dumps, explanations of related incidents that don't add anything to the story, and lots of history stories told just when things are getting even vaguely interesting. The writing itself is a little flowery and flashy, all about descriptive telling instead of showing.
The 1st person narrative doesn't help either, as the author fell into the trap that makes it my least favourite POV: not providing context. In 1st person, it's almost impossible to know anything about the MC unless they spell it out or someone else mentions it. In this case, it took until Chapter 3 (10% of the story) before we found out that our MC was a male, called Calvin. Until that point, there was no indicator of gender, or a first name other than “Cal” (which could be anything from Callie to Callum). Just because it's an MM book doesn't automatically mean that the POV is from a male and I found that it was hard to get a feel for either of the characters, due to the lack of characterisation and attention to detail.
I was just starting to get used to the idea of going further when Barney appeared, only for his introduction to be followed by two pages of info dump about Cal's mother.

Overall, I didn't gel well with the writing style, I thought it needed a few beta-readers to point out what was missing, and I couldn't feel any sort of attachment to the characters or their journey.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39002720-the-witch-stone

*arc received in exchange for a fair review*.

I feel like there has to be a sequel with the ending.
The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fact we were thrown into the world with no backstory. I quite like backstory.
But we have majority minority characters and everyone is gay and happily gay and we have trans rep and it makes me really like this book.
I'm looking forward to the sequel. As there has to be. And for the flirting between Calvin and every cute guy to continue.

Fast paced plot which made for a quick read. Really enjoyed this book, hoping there's a sequel really soon so I can find out what happens next, what a cliffhanger!

A fun, quick read book that could have been great it if were a bit longer.
I liked it but there are some part of the plot that are left open and could answered in a next instalment.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher

I definitely think this book could have benefited from being longer, but it was still a fun quick read and I'm hoping a lot of the questions I have will be answered in the sequel. Honestly I've been reading so many full-length high-fantasy books lately that it was nice to just relax with a really light short urban-fantasy read.

So, the things I liked: it had a very nice relaxed writing style, snarky main character, an interesting magic system although we didn't get into the details much, and a lot of diversity. There were several gay [or possibly bi] characters, a trans character, and I think like one white character in the whole thing so it was nice to see that. The thing I didn't like was basically that it felt very rushed overall. I have a lot of questions about the world this is set in that didn't get answered, but like I said before, I am hoping that get answered in the sequel.

Also I saw some complaints that this is not actually an lgbtia 'romance' book, and those people would be correct. The main character's ex-boyfriend is in this series with him but they aren't together anymore, and it looks like it will remain that way in the future. This didn't bother me since I generally like stories that aren't romance-focused, and I think it's important to have lgbtia books where the characters are explicitly stated as being queer but it doesn't necessarily take up the entire plot with just that one aspect of their personality. However, if you are specifically LOOKING for a romance book, you probably would want to give this book a skip.

Honestly, I am not a fan of LGBTQ kind of books. But I am willing to try it as long as the story and plot are interesting enough to caught my attention. Sadly, this book lacks the excitement and did not throw me off. The world building, the pace of the story seems messed up for me. I feel like I am reading the wrong sequel of the book. So much is going on, and the author did not give enough information to let the readers understand the story.

Overall, I feel like the book could have been good if it was edited properly. The language and the flow of the story seems out of order. Writing style could have saved this book from bad impression.

This time last year, I associated the genre of fantasy with boring white dudes acting far more heroic about standing up for marginalised groups than I have ever seen in real life! 🤔

Thankfully I relied on diverse fantasy reads from marginalised authors for escapism over the last year, so I recommend this winning debut, which I devoured in a matter of hours, as Jasmine Hong brings us matriarchal magical power, a queer Muslim protagonist, awkward romantic tension, Asian trans representation, an underworld filled with temptation, animal trickster deities, creepy persuasion abilities, and epic snarky humour alongside social and political consciousness I can respect! ❤

For readers of diverse fantasy, it gives off vibes of Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, Jade City by Fonda Lee, Starswept by Mary Fan, The Keeper series by Madhuri Pavamani, The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Lee, The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi, Strangers by David Alexander Robertson, Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw, and Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee! 📚

This book left me with complicated emotions. I'm rating it this high mostly for the promise and potential than what the book is in itself at the moment. There's also not much romance in this book besides some flirting, but I can't wait to see how the hints we got in this one progress in the next book(s?)

I feel like the book would've worked much better if it was longer. The pace moved at breakneck speed and there was absolutely no breathing space. The characters and the plot moved from one place to another without anything in between. The worldbuilding was fascinating and really well done. The story is intriguing and given how this is apparently the first book in a series, I'll forgive dangling threads or plot holes. Well, some of them. I can't believe nobody even thought to properly wonder 'who killed the Court' right up until the villain announced it themselves? It was so weird. Nobody was curious about who wiped out the ruling class of the city? And there were several times something important, plot related was discussed and I kept confusedly going 'wait did I miss something or was this not explained?'. It kept me frustrated.

Thankfully Cal, the protagonist, was wonderful. A brave, sweet, helpful man who didn't deserve any of the bullshit around him. He was great. Tony the lawyer charmed me immediately and I can't wait to see more of the mysteries behind his smooth facade. I'm not exactly thrilled that Salim, the one muslim and the only non-asian poc in the story (as far as I can remember) was described as angry, constantly snarling, rude and emotionally manipulative, abusive and toxic person to not just Cal, but everyone else. I tend do be sensitive to portrayal of arabs in media so this caught my attention, and not in the good way.
I loved Cal's cousin Chuck, and was delighted to know that the author actually did ask themselves the question of "if the society I'm writing is so binary about gender and gender roles, then where do the trans people fit in?, which usually gets overlooked. Chuck was a great, funny character and I hope to see more of her.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



This didn’t entirely work for me and I think unfortunately it was mostly the writing. It felt like it needed another round of edits – tautologies, grammatical errors etc I expect a few in any book but this just kept jolting me out of the story. It’s fast paced – almost frantic – and those who like to be dropped in in media reas in the second paragraph may well enjoy it more than I did. It is compulsive but it’s a bit like popcorn – not a meal in and of itself. Shout out for the diversity though – that was done really well and never made exploitative or used as a USP. Ultimately I liked it but it was missing something for me.

What an odd little story.

I love urban fantasy/paranormal books, so I was interested in The Witch Stone by newbie author Jasmine Hong. However, this book wasn't quite what I was expecting.

First of all, I wouldn't call this a romance at all, so if you are expecting a romance you are reading the wrong book.

The Witch Stone reminded me of an underdeveloped, rushed version of an Ilona Andrews story. It had a similar magic family, magic world-vibe, but it was so sloppy and confusing that it lost much of the positives.

The writing had a frenetic pace that kept me reading but also left me scratching my head. I felt like I was missing a prequel story or something. There was too much going on and not enough information.

The actual language also felt messy at times, and I think it needed a few more rounds with an editor. There were sentences that I needed to read multiple times for meaning, and characters that seemed erratically conceptualized.

The good news is that there is a whole cast of queer people representing a chunk of the QUILTBAG spectrum with a strong showing from queer POC, which is sorely needed in literature. There were also some strong concepts that could have really been something special with more time and energy spent on developing the story. The book needed to be novel-length, with more world-building, more explaining of basics in order not to confuse readers.

I hope to see more from Jasmine Hong in the future, and I hope she really pushes herself because I could see her coming up with something special. Unfortunately, The Witch Stone wasn't it.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

Fast paced plot which made for a quick read. Look forward to the next book in the series.

I'm so conflicted about this book.

On one hand I like the plot and the characters, and there's definitely a lot of potential.

On the other hand it feel like a sequel or companion although as far as I'm aware it's the first book in this world. There's very little worldbuilding, little to no explanation of the magic system, no meaninful character background, and its just so short.

Overall it reads like it was written for someone already aware of all the little important details of this world. I was just so confused the entire time even as the story propelled me through.

Okay, let’s talk about the good stuff first & then really get into it. So. Calvin, the main character & the narrator, explicitly states that he’s gay. Which is great seeing as it doesn’t always happen! Another big plus is that I’m pretty sure there’s like maybe one white character in the whole story? Calvin is Chinese, his ex-boyfriend is Malay, and there are Filipino and Mexican side characters. It’s definitely refreshing to read something diverse like that.

But, sadly, those are all the parts of this very short novella that I enjoyed.

This is an urban fantasy novella about the city of Longshore which is protected by the Court made up of the most powerful magicians from the magic families. I assume. I don’t know for sure because it was never properly explained. Just like nothing else, really. The whole story seems to be about how Bad things are since the Court got murdered but it’s never said what the Court actually does - apart from “holds things together” and “protects the city”. Please try to be more vague…

Another part of the problem™ is that the magic stone - the one from the title - got attached to Calvin? I think? Again, I’m not sure. I mean, they talk about this stone all the time and how it will show (?) new members of the Court (how are they chosen?) & how it has the power to stabilize the city for now (but still, they had to fetch some magic seals to help the city?) yet the stone itself doesn’t actually do anything but clings to Calvin and occasionally to his ex-boyfriend. They used it once in the beginning to fight a demon but never again (though, to be fair, demons didn’t show much later and, again, why?).

For every thing that gets explained, three more questions immediately spring into life that get totally ignored.

Like I said, this is an urban fantasy story & we have magical families but suddenly it turns out there’s a whole other magic dimension and there are gods there. We’re introduced to two gods (God of Mischief and Cat God, which only makes it more confusing because what are there & aren’t gods of?) but then at the very end of the story there’s a line saying there’s also a Fae Queen? Which may be the God of Mischief but frankly…. I’m not sure! But okay, you introduce new gods, cool. Tell us how are we supposed to react to them, though. Because they are described as scary before/when they first show up & then they just do random, sometimes downright silly things. So what’s the deal? Do I fear them or do I drink coffee with them?

When I say things aren’t explained properly… There’s a scene where they gather the magic seals I mentioned before (of course we have no idea what they are & no one bothers to tell us) and they have to place them in specific locations but that’s as far as the description goes. The scene literally cuts off there! We don’t even get some vague line about a magic ritual, nothing. There’s a build-up, there’s all this anticipation of “will they save the city or won’t they” and then it all dies a natural death. Nothing happens for us to see but we are told later on that the city is safer. (But then we weren’t even told why exactly & from what the city is in danger… Like, yes, the Court is dead but what does that actually mean!!)

This isn’t even the only time where we get all this escalation only to be left with absolutely nothing in the end. Another example would be the constant mentions of how bad Salim looks - and it’s made clear that he started looking worse at some point during this unfortunate adventure. Calvin comments and comments on it & we’re waiting to see what’s behind this, is Salim okay, is it a symptom of what’s happening in the city, will something even worse happen to him? And all that only for Calvin to never mention it again. He really goes from detailed descriptions of how thin & exhausted Salim looks to nothing at all for the rest of the story! What’s the point! Why did you waste your time and my time!

We know the worldbuilding basically failed but what about the characters, you ask? Well, like I said, Calvin is gay & ten years ago he dated Salim. That’s uhh… that’s as far as his characterization went. I suppose he’s a good person who helps people, since that’s the premise of the story. He was flirted with by two different men (I know we gays flock together but how are all four characters who got the most screentime gay & how are three of them apparently into Calvin to some degree or making it look as if they were?) and literally every time had a different reaction. It went from rumbling nonsense to just blushing to stammering to god knows what else. And those weren’t the only kinds of situations where this happened. I understand he could have been in a different mood at all those times but is that really an explanation? How does one gets flattered that someone flirts with them & then gets angry about the same thing just a few hours later? Basically what this feels like is as if the author made a list of ways people can react to stuff (more specifically: ways people react in books) and just tried to fit as many as possible into this novella. The question is, why was Calvin the one going through the personality changes every three pages? I mean, you have more than one character, you can take all those incredibly original actions and distribute them between all of said characters.

It’s just so fake! Come on! Arching eyebrows and blushing isn’t actually a characterization! Especially when it’s not even consistent.

A quote from Calvin, because it’s not enough he doesn’t really have a personality, he also can’t talk like a regular human being: “Don’t talk to me like that. I won’t tolerate any disrespect from you. I’ve done nothing but help you. I don’t deserve your derision”. Now, it would be cool if he talked like this all the time, I mean we all have our quirks, right? But this is the only moment he did it! You can’t just randomly make your characters use difficult words for no reason at all & with no explanation! Who does that!

This was a reply to Salim & Calvin talks a lot about how Salim treated him badly when they were still dating & how he’s generally a shitty person. I’m pretty sure like 10% of the novella is just him complaining about it but at the same time we get Salim making sure at every turn that Calvin is okay and not hurt. To be fair we also see him jealous of Calvin (ten years later!), sulking for no reason at all (that doesn’t get explained at any point), trying to save the city despite being the one to witness the massacre of the Court, ready to fight every person who speaks to him… Is too much characterisation a thing or is it just another facet of the lack of it?

Anyway, thanks a lot for this portrayal of gay man as toxic! Especially when there is not a single one healthy gay relationship (or at least, a promise of one) here. Like, nothing major happened, I don’t need to tw this for some gross stuff but at the same time? Nothing good happens either? You call this a good gay rep? There's even talk of cheating on someone you were in a long term relationship with & painting it as okay because “you knew we were already in a bad place!”. I mean, sure, gay people can also be shitty, we are just people after all, but trying so hard to fit that into such a short story? Like it was really just a single line that didn't change anything since we were already told that Salim was a bad boyfriend. So why bother at all?

And yes, I bolded “told” in that sentence because that's exactly how this novella works. We are never showed anything, only ever told things. And the worst part? The author tells us one thing about the characters & then they go and do something that's the polar opposite of that. You could argue that this is all because the story is told from Calvin's perspective & he's just a bad judge of character but no, this applies to him as well. It's simply that the author doesn't have a clear idea of the characters so they are really all over the place & just do random stuff to move the plot forward. Without us knowing what's actually happening and why is it happening…

The writing itself isn't that great either so I can't even use that as an excuse. Frankly it's hard to say the author has a style, it's more like just a word after a word after a word… And every third is actually a repetition! I realise this is an ARC but has no one really edit this at all? The one line I still remember is: “given all the givens”. I mean! Why are you making me read this if it's so clearly not finished! Because the whole thing really feels like the very first draft. A clumsy one at that. I could forgive the single word repetitions (though I’ve been taught all my life by every teacher I had to avoid them but okay) but they weren’t the only kind! A lot of the time there would be a line about something and then a paragraph or two later - a line describing the same exact thing only in different words. Sometimes you get authors who very much want their readers to understand everything so they would do this - that’s not the case here. In every instance of this kind of Repetition™ it was clear that the author simply doesn’t remember the explanation is already here. It was like Jasmine Hong was writing parts of it on different days, with no memory of the lines already written. Which, obviously, no one expects an author to write a book in one day but maybe read over at least the last page of your manuscript before you add to it? Or edit the thing at the end.

God, this really needs to be rewritten from the ground up and maybe even more than once. So many mistakes could have been dealt with thanks to a proper revision, the biggest of them being the plot. As it is written now, it makes no sense at all; it’s just a few events connected by the characters and some things Calvin tells us about. And all of it is just plain boring.

Cal is chilling out at home when the wards around his property start going off. Enter Salim his ex boyfriend with a demon in his ass. Salim is injured and cal takes care of the demon and then takes care of Salim. The court has been killed by someone and Salim is the only survivor. He holds the lodestone which now needs to be given to the next lord of the city but first they have to find her.
I really enjoyed this story. It was fast paced and I felt like I really had to keep up with the story. I look forward to reading the next in this series.
would recommend