The story was fine. Nothing new that blew me out of the water. The premise was interesting and the cover is gorgeous.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I really loved this cover, it is so beautiful, and I cannot stop looking at it, and the plot couldn't be better, I love everything about it.

When reading the excerpt for this book I expected something very different from what I actually read. I could see the direction that the author was attempting to go for (an Alice in Wonderland type logic based around a magic world) but it came off very confusing and hard to track. The storyline was very difficult to follow and near the end, I felt as if there were several different novels chopped up and randomly inserted into the ending Near the middle there was a nice flow of storytelling in the form of a quest and the characters were getting more depth, but it was torn down by the last 20%. This is the main reason for the little amount of stars given to this title.
On the good side;
The author included very good representation of the LGBTQ+ community. For fantasy novels, many times, the representation feels forced or not genuine and it can be very surface level. This however was not. With the author themselves being nonbinary this is also an own voices story. So overall the representation was very good.
The author also used very beautiful descriptors and metaphors throughout this book. These helped give the book an ethereal magical quality.
This was not a bad book, in fact, it would have been quite good if the plot had been easier to follow. Personally, I believe when a plot is extremely difficult to follow, the book itself falls apart.

I actually ordered a finished copy of this one and I was so on board with it. I dived in and was hooked on the story. I finished it in a day and although the start of this story I was fully enjoying it, as the story progressed I started losing interest. I wished that the story would have been cut by at least 50 pages towards the end. As it just started to drag and I just started not caring about what was going on.

I really liked what the author was going for and the inclusivity and LGBTQIA+ rep. Fabulous. But I felt like the story was kind of confusing and all over the place. There was a lot of witchy politics and they called all the "worlds" different names and the magic was all over the place. Had some really good things going for it but didn't quite pull it *all* off. I would read more of Jerreat-Poole.

I tried to like this book because I really liked the idea and the main elements, but it was so confusing at times, and the author tried too hard to make their style interesting, that I couldn't handle it anymore after 35%. I couldn't find any interested and couldn't relate to Eli at any point, and the characters she met just happened to be there for the sake of it. They didn't feel real, no matter how different they seemed to be. On top of that, everything seemed to happen too fast, Eli questioning all her life in no time and wanting to break the rules, but the pace was slow nonetheless.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was a bit disappointed by this one. I was expecting so much more.

I wanted to like this book... I really did. However, there was so much going on and thrown in with a lack of world building and character development that I just ended up very confused and struggling to follow the story line.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass had SO much potential! Armed with a gorgeous cover and a unique, interesting synopsis, I knew I wanted to read this title, despite it not being my usual genre.

But that's about where the positives end. I really wanted to like this book... but I found myself bored and skipping through to see if it would pick up. I enjoyed the characters, but I felt there was a lack in world building. I found it difficult to understand aspects of the book, which took me out of the story.

I wanted to like this one I really did. The blurb made it sound super interesting. A story about a girl created by witches to be an assassin how cool does that sound. Sadly I just couldn't get into it. I was bored and not really bothered about what was going on. I think it needed a bit more world building and development and it might have held my attention

I'm super disappointed in this one. I was intrigued by the premise, but that fascination didn't last very long once I started reading. It just fell so flat, and didn't really captivate me and make me want to keep reading it to the end.

Eli is a thing made of hawthorn and glass created to be an assassin for the witch council. I enjoyed Elis complicated relationship with the witch who made her and her friendship with the group of humans she decides to help. The diverse cast of queer characters made me so happy. Elis thought process were authentic to way she was created and raised which made for an immersive story that had me invested in the characters journey. With that said I did feel like she agreed to help strangers who wanted to destroy the only life shes ever known way too quickly.

The mystery surrounding her curent mission and the disaster with her previous assassination target made for a gripping plot. The fast pace made this a quick read but I feel like more time should have been spent on character development, especially more time convincing Eli to side with the humans. Elis main objective is to track down ghosts the coven assigns her and kill them but when her target group changes Eli starts questioning the covens motives and her purpose. The threat of being unmade were she caught rebelling added a compelling level of danger.

I liked the concept of the witch island floating above the Earth where everything from the library to the alley walls have sentience. The explanation for the ghosts presence down on Earth and why the coven is so determined to get rid of them was fascinating. I also liked discovering where the witches came from and why they lived separately from humans. I would have liked a bit more information on the magic system and just the world in general. I really enjoyed all the reveals at the end so the sequel is definitely on my TBR, but Im not sure when I'll be able to get to it.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Actual Rating: 1.5 stars

This was one of my most anticipated reads. I wanted so badly to love this one, especially with what a brilliant first impression it gave me—the cover is gorgeous, the synopsis is intriguing and the genre tags are all the ones I adore. Unfortunately, the execution of the story wasn't done as well as I hoped for. I put the book down so many times, even forgot about it at one point, and only recently just recalled I didn't finish this and well...I'm just disappointed.

The story was all over the place. The worldbuilding is poor, the characters aren't as solid as I had hope they'd be, and the plot is too loose. The author's imagination is brilliant, evidenced by the fantastical elements introduced in the book, but the overall worldbuilding was too weak. Fantasy books need strong worldbuilding to bring them to life. So, this weakness brought the book down.

Moreover, the characters are flat. I didn't care for them and I had neither sympathy nor empathy for the things they're going through. Though, I do agree with other reviewers that the LGBTQ+ representation was done well.

All in all, this book is one with much potential but ultimately, sadly did not fulfill it.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Dundurn for proving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I enjoyed this story a lot. The plot and world were very interesting and the story has amazing diversity throughout.

I did find the world building a little weak and I was left a little bit confused as to exactly how things worked and what was going on at times. I also found the romance itself to be a little underdeveloped.

If you're looking for a different YA fantasy with great diversity then this is worth checking out.

I expected a lot from this book, and i was really let down. the premise is super intriguing, and i was looking forward to seeing how it was going to be executed-but, with a combination of poor worldbuilding, weak characters, and a loose plot, i don't really see myself continuing this series. the only upside was the lgbtq representation, which i thought was done well!

hanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this review copy. The below opinions are my own.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass follows Eli, an assassin who kills ghosts. Something goes wrong during a mission and Eli fears that she'd be unmade. I was excited to reading this after seeing the blurb and the pretty cover got my attention too. The premise of an assassin capturing ghosts in the human world was pretty exciting.

The storyline felt very stagnant and at times it got me wondering what was going on. I dropped reading this book several times and picked it up again. It was hard to connect with any of the characters and some major backstories and motivations were missing from the plot. The story would have gone a long way if it was a bit more descriptive. I am unable to picture the world the story is set in due to lack of descriptions.

This book had a unique plotline but the word building and slow pace let it down which made it feel all over the place.

Eli is a girl made of hawthorn and glass created by a witch to eliminate ghosts. There are other substances to her body but she was created to be the perfect assassine, who with time will devolve back into what she was made of in the beginning, beetle shells and cranberries and of course a secret spice, a witch’s greed.
When a job goes downhill Eli is afraid of being unmade.

This book had so so much potential. It had all the elements to add up to be a great YA fantasy read, yet unlike Eli, the stiching here did not hold. All the ingredients and parts were there, but the overall image is crooked with holes and lacks substenance.

The writing style was easy to follow but I was missing the complexity and the details that would've kept me completely enthralled.

I believe that with a revision this books has enormous potential in the YA genre.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and Dundurn Press for a chance to read this book.

I felt that The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass had so much potential to it. The synopsis immediately reeled me in and had me requesting a chance to read the full novel. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the reading experience. Eli did not really seem consistent throughout the story and was very hard to connect with as a reader. Additionally, the level of violence in this story felt unnecessary and only used as a means of increasing the impactful events within the story rather than being true to the plot and as a means for progressing the story realistically. I did not enjoy this book but hope others might have found it easier to connect with Eli than I did.

I loved a lot of things about this book. I love that it’s a lgbtq+ romance. I love that it makes me think of Pinocchio. I love how lyrically Jerreat-Poole writes. I love that I can suggest a half dozen companion novels to read and compare alongside it. Nevertheless, I don’t love the story itself. When you think of a girl assassin created by witches who rides a motorcycle and falls in love with another badass chick instead of some knight-in-shining-armor type, it’s hard not to imagine a great read.

Unfortunately, there is no synthesis. The Girl of Hawthorne and Glass is a story of pieces and parts. Everything needed for a great story is there, but it lacks the glue necessary for a story to solidify. It’s terribly frustrating throughout and disappointing in the end. However, it’s clear Jerreat-Poole has a top notch imagination and a true talent for writing. Practical skills are easily acquired with hard work and persistence, I wouldn’t be surprised if her next book has everything this one lacks.

I was given this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.