I received this title in exchange for an honest review, so here goes!

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but unfortunately it’s just not for me.

Pros:
The premise was engaging.
The cover was absolutely beautiful.
The overall world the author created was unique and vivid.
This story featured non-binary characters, which I found to be incredibly well executed.

Cons:
The storyline becomes quite chaotic.
The overall timeline of events is at times hard to follow.
I did not enjoy the ending, and will unfortunately not be continuing this series.

I truly don’t want to be too critical, especially because I believe that if this sounds right up your alley, it may very well be! And we’re already given the title for the second book with a tentative early 2021 release!


Overall I rated this title 2.3678 ⭐️’s out of 5.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

The book is all over the place. It often meanders off and pauses the plot for flashbacks and scenes that add nothing to characterization or world-building. The plot is the basic steal-the-object quest, but it gets side-tracked a lot with obstacles that come out of nowhere and it just feels like padding. The stakes were high, but I wasn’t invested in it in the first place.
The magic in this world thrives on chaos. That makes for a really cool setting, but it also means the author can add random stuff for plot reasons and it shows. It’s a very strange world, but not as whimsical as it tries to be. It would’ve worked better if it didn’t seem like it was designed around the plot, instead of both mutually influencing each other.
To me, the most important thing in a book is compelling characters. That’s why I keep reading. But these characters were mostly meh.
Eli is an assassin created by a witch, and she lives in terror of being unmade. She’s part monster, made to kill, and part human, so she can travel to their world. She grows a lot by being around the humans, but besides liking coffee, she doesn’t have much of personality and I didn’t connect with her at all.
Like all the witches, Kite has a sort of Orange and Blue Morality, and she’s easily the most interesting character of the lot. She’s a bit of a wild card and it’s never clear which side she’s on. I loved that about her.
Tav is clearly the creator’s pet. Eli is immediately attracted to them upon meeting them and they mysteriously have powers no one else has. Perhaps because of that, I found them underwhelming.
Cam is one of my favorites. An average human in a magic world and way out of his depth, he’s both the comic relief and the not-powered character we can relate and root for. His sense of humor is amazing and he’s the most human and real character of them all.
This book had so much going for it, but it fell flat. The premise sounds awesome but the execution doesn’t deliver.

The queer rep here is really cool: Tav is non-binary, Cam is gay, and I think Eli and Kite are sort of exes.

I was anxious to read this and a bit nervous due to the reviews, but I liked it more than I thought I would! I think that in reality this is a 3.75/5 when it comes to stars. I liked the world building and the story itself but the pacing of this one really threw me for a loop. I also wanted more from the relationships between the characters (the LGBTQ rep was well done and I wanted more!). The magic system was really neat. Honestly I feel like I'm down for anything with witches no matter what! The background for this story was really intriguing for me, but I can see where, in places, the overall story struggled.

So yes. A 3.75/5 for me.

This felt like someone trying to write a book based on a really long detailed movie and just skipped over a lot of the good stuff, leaving only the skeleton of the story and characters.

Eli, an assassin, was created by a witch. Her job was to go into the human world and kill ghosts The Coven told her needed to be killed. Eli didn't ask questions and did her job well. That is, until she kills her latest ghost and finds out it isn't a ghost at all. Eli starts to question everything she has been told. Eli makes some friends in the human world and with those friends goes on an adventure of a lifetime to stop The Coven and of course, save the world.

I really wanted to like this book. The idea of it is great! Witches, ghosts, assassins, warlords, and magic... what isn't there to like?? Well, for me this story fell short and honestly was not well written. I felt that the character development was poorly done. There was little to no background information on the characters and I just couldn't connect to them. Eli has a best friend, Kite, who by the time the book was done I still knew nothing about. The setting was awesome and I loved it but again, there was really no detail so I feel I missed out a lot there.

Maybe an unpopular opinion - one of the characters is trans (which is totally fine) - but I found it difficult to read because of the "they, their, them" pronouns used. There wasn't enough detail in the story so these pronouns often were confusing and I didn't know who the author was talking about. This just threw me off throughout and ruined the overall flow of the story for me.

I just feel disappointed after reading this. I feel that the story had so much potential and just didn't follow through. All the characters had aspects I enjoyed but because of the lack of detail and background I couldn't get into them.

⭐⭐/5

** Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this book while I was reading it but upon finishing it, I feel like it was just okay. If this was a book I rated on just enjoyment I’d give it 4 stars but based on the actual content itself I have to give it a 3. I will probably continue on in the series and see how these characters grow and the world progresses.

“Even teenage assassins have dreams.

Eli isn’t just a teenage girl — she’s a made-thing the witches created to hunt down ghosts in the human world. Trained to kill with her seven living blades, Eli is a flawless machine, a deadly assassin. But when an assignment goes wrong, Eli starts to question everything she was taught about both worlds, the Coven, and her tyrannical witch-mother.

Terrified that she’ll be unmade for her mistake, Eli seeks refuge with a group of human and witch renegades. With the help of two humans, one motorcycle, and a girl who smells like the sea, Eli is going to get answers — and earn her freedom.”

The premise of this book is incredibly interesting and it had a lot of potential, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to that potential and I found myself disappointed to a devastating degree. What originally seemed to be a fast-paced and enticing story ended up being an incredibly slow burn that I wasn’t all that eager to continue.

While I enjoyed the uniqueness of the plot, the writing style often felt chaotic and I found myself struggling to clearly grasp what exactly was going on. It felt over and underdeveloped at the same time, and there were several times where I had to go back and reread entire chapters because I was extremely confused.

If there’s anything positive I have to say, it’s that the character development and the diversity and representation within the characters was wonderful. Had the rest of the plot been as well-written, this would have easily been a five-star read.

I wish I had more to say about this book (it’s not often I find myself lost for words), but I honestly just felt no connection towards this book. I think much of my speechlessness has to do with the fact that even after finishing the book, I still don’t understand it.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!*

What a shame, I really wanted to enjoy this story, but if anyone asked me what this was about I would have nothing to say! The story was chaotic and I could not get into it at all. The only thing I liked was the fact there were non-binary characters within the story, which was a first for me. The premise was quite exciting, and the reason why I picked it up in the first place.
However, at some point I found myself confused to the point that I did not know if I was reading about something from the past or present, it seemed to intertwine, and which characters were actually there and which were a memory, or in the main character's mind. Just a chaotic mess overall I'm afraid. Unfortunately, I will not continue with this series.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review

I loved, loved, loved this book! The story is absolutely fantastic and I couldn't put It Down, I needed to know what would happen! Eli is an Amazing main character and I loved the plot and the writing style!

I really enjoyed this intriguing fantasy. The world the author created is unique and exciting.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I absolutely loved this!! This was such an interesting book with a great premise; kind of like Frankenstein meets The Hazel Wood. My heart was racing and throbbing and I was left breathless. There were some parts that were shocking but it just added excitement to the story plus relevant to the plot! Just so beautiful and that cover 😍

dnf-ed at 79%.
I wanted DESPERATELY to like this book but I just.... didn’t, at all. I wanted to stop reading at 30% but decided to keep giving it a chance. It let me down.
Good things: pretty much all of the characters are LGBT+ and it WAS a fairly unique fantasy idea. That’s basically (unfortunately) it.
I had zero feelings about the characters, I was not invested in the plot, the plot/conflict was murky AT BEST, the characters had no clear personalities, everything that happened was just like “okay....” or “that’s really weird” but that’s it. No excitement. Nothing. Just blah.
I tried and tried and tried to like it because of the LGBT rep but then, at 75% of the way through the book, the main character gets hit with amnesia and that is probably my most HATED trope to ever curse the literary-verse. It’s so boring. It’s pointless. It stops the plot. It’s just frustrating and not enjoyable to read. I already wasn’t enjoying the book to begin with and at that point I threw up my hands and called it a night.
Maybe in the last 20% of the book I didn’t read it will get better but I can’t do it anymore. Good luck to anyone who tries to read the whole thing.

I was drawn by the beautiful cover but was let down by the story. It's a relatively short book but still., it took me almost two weeks to finish. There was nothing really to keep me interested - and I only finished it because I was kindly given an ARC of the book and I like to finish books I get via Netgalley - but i couldn't tell you what this book was about, the characters or anything really. I remember myself being very confused about what was going on, especially since I thought the beginning was pretty promising - something about the main character being an assassin/ghost hunter (?) - but, like stated, I can't really remember much about it. (hence the one star rating)

I’m already excited for the sequel of this book!

In this book you enter a darkly whimsical world of witches. Our made character, Eli, was made by a witch from Hawthorne, glass, and many other things. Eli was created to be an assassin that moves between the witch world and the human world. The story takes place when Eli is sent on a mission in the human world, and meets a group that wants Eli to help them enter the witches world.

The story discusses how angry individuals can feel in their role that society forces upon them. Plus, how individuals can break free of those roles.

The story contains representation of POC, non-binary, and LGBTQ individuals (there isn’t a cis white person in the story).

The way witches were described in this story was unique. They’re elemental aliens?

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is really amazing! I really like it buuuuut... that end it feels like just ok.
Eli is a pet witch who was created to be a ghost assasin, she can't think, talk without permisson or even think in a independent life, she is only an "object". But one day everything change when she failed in one of her missions and then she can't return, or she is going to be dissarmed.

The first 50% of the book was awesome! I really love Eli and how she grew up in all the story, she met new people who help her very much in her mental issues beause for the first time she´s be treaten like a person, a real person with feelings and ideas and that it's a huge impact for her.

I think all the characters are important in some way buuuuuuut... ok, her chilhood friend in my opinion is the worst friend in the life!!! it's like... really?? are you sure she is you best friend?? I really doubt that.

Some situations were really strange.. I mean, is that really necessary? Sadly I can't say anything because SPOILERS and I want the people to read this book

But ok, I'm really interested about the second book because.. OMG what is happening next?

I was immediately captivated by the title of this book. It reminded me of Girls Made of Snow and Glass, and I honestly thought it was another book by the author, until I saw otherwise. Still not deterred, I read the synopsis and was instantly hooked!

Eli, the MC of the novel, was made by Circinae, who she calls mother, though there is no mother / daughter bond between them. Circinae made Eli using her own blood to create a deadly assassin for the witches coven. Her sole purpose was to go to earth and kill the ghosts she's assigned to kill. Initially, Eli follows her orders without question, until something goes wrong and her latest mission has her killing a human rather than a ghost.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

Oh, and there is a Non-Binary character that goes by Tav who uses the pronoun they. Tav's roommate is a gay man named Cam, both equally important to the storyline, but what is the best part is that their plot line does not revolve around them being LGBTQ characters! I say this as a good thing because I feel like this book normalizes these characters instead of placing their importances solely on being a queer character.

So all of this should add up to a really good story, right?

Unfortunately, despite these elements, I just could not get into the storyline or connect with Eli. I love strong female characters in roles of leadership. But what I cannot stand is when said characters think they are so strong and competent that they refuse help from anyone willing to give it because they "work alone." This trope is used constantly in YA literature and I don't think it provides the reader's with anything but irritation. Clearly something bad will happen that the MC should have had helped with only to realize that they should have agreed to the help. All the while the reader is rolling their eyes because it was clearly evident that help was needed in this dire situation.

Yet, Eli did get better as the story progressed, but I often found myself bored with the storyline. Too many things were going on at once and nothing, in my opinion, was ever developed fully. All the elements in the novel could have made really cool storylines if they were developed further and less of them were present.

Lastly, Eli, Cam, and Tav feared the Coven and mentioned the Coven numerous times. So...like...where were they? I felt like they needed to play a bigger role or at lhe very least provided more of an obstacle for the MCs. I get that this book is probably the first one in a series, so the author left many things unfinished (at least I'm assuming) but I hoped I would have had more answers and an ending that didn't leave me feeling meh.

Thank you Netgalley and Edelweiss for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This story is about Eli, who is a witches assassin/ghost hunter, and she is sent to Earth to hunt and kill ghosts. The first chapter had me hooked. It was written so well and I thought the story would be about Eli hunting these ghosts. Here’s what went wrong, the start of the second chapter was completely different and the whole book after that. I wish the author focused a little more on that. The story seemed unfinished and there wasn’t much of a plot. Everything fell a bit flat for me. The setting was really underdeveloped along with some of the characters, although I did LOVE Tav (non-binary characters for the WIN).

I love the cover art on this book, it’s beautiful, I wish it was more fast paced for me so I am looking forward to the next book in the series, and I definitely think this is an author to watch for in the future. Since this is a debut, I won’t judge this book too harshly, it definitely has promise so I will be picking up the next one in the series.

This book seemed unfinished. The setting was extremely underdeveloped which doesn't work in fantasy. I had a hard time imagining the world that the author was trying to create. The premise was promising, but there was no follow through.

Much of the plot seemed choppy and disconnected. I was lost often in what time period we were in currently - turns out there's a reason authors use a timestamp at the beginnings of chapters sometimes as overt setting. It works and this was lacking that clarity.

Some details also seemed to be tossed in randomly and the ending felt a little Scooby Doo with plot twists and reveals.

I wouldn't recommend reading this book. I made sure to finish it so that I could provide honest feedback through Net Galley, but as a YA fantasy novel that I expected to be fast paced, it was by agonizingly slow because I just did not enjoy it.

Nope. Sorry. The fantasy book I was hoping to read cannot be found at this moment. Please try again later. Bippp!

I pushed myself too hard to like this book but it was exhausting and tormenting experience. I was so hopeful after seeing the fantastic artsy, beautiful cover and promising plot about teenage assassin chasing the ghosts in the human world. But… yes… I try to be soft grader when it comes to debut novels. I tried to be patient that at some part, the story will turn into something meaningful and riveting journey. But I’m so sorry even though writing style is different and interesting, there is no moving storyline. I couldn’t resonate with any of the characters but the development, their motives and their background stories were missing. You cannot root any of them because you don’t believe in their mission, conflicts or struggles.

Eli is being set up during her mission and now she cannot handle her failure so well and she finds herself aligned with a group, after without questioning further she joins them. I didn’t actually care Eli’s confused mind about real world and the Coven or her reasoning to join renegades and the other characters we’re introduced didn’t get my interest.

And the world building is also weak. So I couldn’t find anything concrete to enjoy. I got lost about the witches’ hierarchy dynamics and political orders.

So overall: I tried. I really did. I even thought to give 2.5 stars. But instead of cover and original story telling, there is nothing intriguing about this book so unfortunately I stick with 2 solid stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley and DunDurn for sharing this ARC in exchange my honest review. I wish I could love this one but unfortunately it didn’t work with me.

Wow! I was a loss for words in the best way possible when I finished this book. This book has it all. Really eccentrically cool characters, high power drama, and a conflicting dilemma that will put you on the edge of your seat. I totally loved Eli and her unique persona she brought to the story and from reading their letter to the reader, they said that it was OK to be angry and from that line I knew I was in for quite the ride.

THE GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS is about an assassin named Eli who was created to kill on behalf of a witches' coven. But when she is sent on an assignment that goes against what she's been taught her entire life, she begins to question both her purpose and the authority that runs her life.

I'm torn about this book in many aspects, and rather than trying to craft a review that ties it all together, it may be easier just to list these out.

The writing is beautiful. Jerreat-Poole has a lovely way with words, and this seems like a modern-day fairy tale with how the story is spun....but, at times, the prose almost grew *too* fanciful, and it was hard to follow the actual narrative. Some parts of the story were straight-forward and made perfect sense, but then other parts felt confusing with how they were described - and eventually my brain just had to fill in "Okay, magicky stuff happened" in order to continue.

This is one of the first books I've read that features a non-binary central character, which seems great for both representation and education. After the initial introductions, the "otherness" of the characters self-identification becomes less vital, and they just become people. I think that's something that's done very well....many times minority or LBGT characters only have that part of themselves as their personality, but Jerreat-Poole created well-rounded, fleshed-out people who don't just have one dimension. ....but because I (and I think other readers) don't have a lot of insight into non-binary individuals, I found myself wondering more about how Eli knew instantly what pronouns to use for Tav, and why Eli called Tav "boi" sometimes, and what a deadname was. Part of this is my own ignorance, I'm aware, but there may be value in including a brief introduction or explanation of these terms in the book's intro. (I'm aware this is just a personal preference and it opens a potentially interesting dialogue about an author's responsibility to educate while they entertain... and I don't know the answer to that.)

The story itself had several layers to unwrap - Eli's journey to self-discovery, Eli + the Human's adventure, Eli + Kite, Eli + Tav, Eli, Tav's secret backstory, the child witches, the battle to save the world, the set up for the next book.... it's an ambitious novel. But I think so many subplots gives it a sense of disjointedness, and rather than firmly establish and make the reader care about one thing, they have to race along quickly to the next event in order to fit it all in. I guess I can see the use in this if all these subplots are being set up to pay off in future books, but just having the one book to look at, it feels like too much is happening at times.

My favorite subplot was the relationship between Kite and Eli - and I was disappointed with how it turned out. (SPOILERS AHEAD, STOP READING HERE) The first betrayal made sense. The second betrayal.... it felt too quickly forgiven. Even if the compulsion had forced her (and this seems to have a strong counter-point made against it).... she freaking stabbed someone in the heart with intent to kill them. And then it was just glossed over and the plot moved on. It felt too neat for me - like Kite was required to move the plot along so forgiveness was required. And then the third betrayal - again, there was this hint of "well maybe she didn't mean it" from Eli with the slight hint about the heart, but it felt like it was a betrayal required by the plot in order to make the love triangle choice easier for Eli and Tav. Love triangles are one of the most difficult things to pull off well - they rarely are done right in YA/NA books because authors subconsciously don't want their MC to seem like a bad person for hurting one of the options who did nothing wrong. It easier to have one of the options do something unforgivable (like in this case, betray her three times) rather than it just be a case of "I'm sorry, you're not the one for me" and the MC breaks a heart to go with someone else. This may be just a personal preference in my case, but it's something to consider.

Thanks so much for letting me read and review!