This was such a fantastic story! It is the story of a teenage girl who finds out she is a witch! She is taken on this wild adventure and discovers that things are not as they seem in her cute little town. It is up to her and her friends to solve the mystery of Willow Cove and save themselves before it's too late!

So, I want to start this off by saying the story was very well written and a super fun, exciting adventure! I loved every minute of it. Even though its middle grade, it did not lack substance and overall the action and mystery was really gripping. I found myself feeling a little nervous at times and some part were even spooky!

I loved all of the characters! Abby is so sweet. She is the MC of this story and I just loved her. She was smart and showed so much bravery and maturity. Robby, her best friend, was also fabulous! A really sweet boy who wanted nothing but the best for his friends. The relationship between the two of them was so "middle school" and I really liked that!

I was surprised by all the twists and turns! I found that many times I didn't know what was going to happen next! I enjoyed how all of the characters started to become intertwined in the mystery! I also liked that some of the topics and problems in this story were very real. The author fit them in perfectly! The topics touched on include divorce, death, bullying, and relationships! The way the topics were brought up and the way characters reacted to them seemed very normal and that is so important for the younger readers.

Overall, I really liked this book! You cannot go wrong with witches and magic. The friendships in this story were so sweet and heartwarming! I loved that I was taken on this adventure that really consumed me. I would recommend this to anyone who likes light magical adventures! Such a fun read!

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

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers for sending me an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really liked how this middle grade didn't almost talk down to it's demographic or feel childish. That also could be just my experience since I haven't read many modern middle grade books, but compared to the ones I had I felt that this was rather adult and serious in the tone. There were some fantastical elements, because yeah, witches, but it really allowed the reader to think and decide things on their own.

While the characters were great I do think that some of them could have been fleshed out a little more, but that does leave room for more exploration in a possible sequel. Still it was a quick fun read that I think would be great to read around Halloween because that is the perfect time for any witchy books.

The Witches of Willow Cove is the perfect middle grade read for fantasy lovers. From the first chapter, readers will find themselves lost in the tale as main character Abby turns thirteen and discovers she isn't ordinary. Even as an adult reader I found myself itching to get to the next chapter to see what other crazy things Abby and her friends would encounter.

The Witches of Willow Cove is darker than the first few pages might suggest but for the most part Roberts is able to strike a balance between the lighthearted tone of the narrative and the dark events that take place. At times, however, the lack of character depth detracted from the overall story.

This book is a must-read for all middle-grade fantasy lovers.

Firstly, thanks to Netgalley, Owl Hollow Press, and Josh Roberts for the eARC of this book!

Please take this review with a grain of salt, because I don’t actively read a lot middle grade fiction, so the measuring point that I put this book at was alongside the other middle grade books I’ve read recently—Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Animorphs, Warrior Cats… all extremely popular and well-received. I’m not very familiar with your average joe middle grade fiction, so maybe this book does deserve a five-star review compared to those. It’s entirely possible that my star rating is lower because my standards were too high.

I do think there were some really awesome parts of this book. For one thing, we have a large cast of characters, all of whom are important to the plot regardless of their magical abilities or lack thereof. I think that’s a great thing to emphasize to the target audience, and it definitely moves away from the Chosen One trope (although we do get a little taste of that). For another thing, I really liked the healthy relationship between Robby and his stepmother. Most times I see a stepparent in fiction it falls under the evil stepmother trope, and we didn’t get that at all here, even though it would have been completely understandable for Robby to be resentful of Tina due to the uncertainty around his mother’s disappearance and assumed death.

My main issue with this book is the pacing and development of character. It’s definitely a plot-driven book—a lot of the time I have a little trouble differentiating between plot-driven and character-driven books, but this is for sure plot-driven. There wasn’t a lot of character development at all, even with our two narrators, and the book bounced from one event to the next without a lot of space in between. The mystery around Miss Winters drove the story, to the detriment of the reader’s connection with the characters.

One huge example of this is how a lot of Abby’s internal conflict came from her uncertainty of whether or not she could trust Miss Winters. In this instance, there was a lot of telling and not showing. The book said that Abby felt like she could trust Miss Winters, even though she had seen proof of Miss Winters being dangerous and trying to kill her. But it never showed us. I would have really preferred some more scenes with Miss Winters interacting with the students in lessons. There were lesson scenes, but they included a lot of Miss Winters sending them off to do something, and featured Abby and Olivia’s scenes instead. There just wasn’t a lot of quality time between Miss Winters and Abby, so there wasn’t a lot of quality time between Miss Winters and the reader. She didn’t build up any trust with the reader, so the reader never felt the same internal conflict as Abby.

Beyond that, all of the action was just rushed. Roberts really dilutes the narrative and only gives us the most important parts, but I think that takes away a lot of the pacing that is necessary for this kind of book. The magic wasn’t really explained in depth, and didn’t feel magical. For the most part, it felt rushed and sloppy, I think because the only point where it was explained in any kind of detail was with two 13-year-olds in an attic with no training. I hate to compare any book to Harry Potter, but if you think about the first Harry Potter book, there was a lot of breathing room, because you got really mundane introductions to the world that they lived in, with boring things like mealtimes and class periods depicted. These kind of breathing breaks really give you an insight to the characters and how they interact, and I think they’re hugely important to the story. This book feels like it was rushed and compressed to fit within a page count, and it really took away something for me.

I think this book, if it were to be the beginning of a series, has great potential, but I just don’t think it was executed very well. I would be interested to see more from this series, because a lot of the puzzle pieces are there, just the actual writing and pacing could improve a lot.

What I think this story did excellently was its sense of place and the setting as a whole. Roberts has said that he was aiming to create a spooky novel for young teens, and I think he definitely succeeded at that. The vibe of the small town is really strong and I think the spooky factor is definitely there, with the gargoyles and Miss Winter’s house and the caves beneath the town. I think the setting was the strongest aspect of this book and Roberts was right to lean on that.

To sum up, I think that the setting and the plot was great, but in future books I’d like to see a lot more character development. I think it will be very challenging since there’s such a large cast of characters (with nine important teens, as well as several sets of parents!), but with this kind of friendship-based set of characters, I think the character interactions are of utmost importance and were way too lacking in this book. It was an enjoyable read but there were a lot of drawbacks in this regard.

The dramatic opening chapter of The Witches of Willow Cove by debut novelist Josh Roberts plunges the reader directly into a world of magic, mystery, and secrets.

Chased off a clifftop one Halloween night, thirteen-year-old Abby Shepherd discovers she can fly. She’s not alone: five of her classmates also evolve witchy powers. The fledgling coven learn magic under the guidance of their mysterious history teacher Miss Winters, but as teenagers they must also navigate first crushes, petty jealousies, hard-fisted bullies, mobile phone photographs, rocky friendships, and the decisions of their parents.

When two local women disappear, Abby and her friends Robby O’Reilly and Amethyst Jones investigate.

The chapters alternate in points of view, and while I had little interest in the Robbie-Becca love story, it was easy to get swept away with Abby and Amethyst’s magical adventure. There is an interesting link between the Pleiades star cluster and the young witches, and I enjoyed the knitting vocabulary used for spell-casting, and the spooky gothic setting. Several open plot threads suggest a sequel.

The Witches of Willow Cove brews together contemporary realism, gothic landscape, and witchcraft, and makes an enjoyable magical mystery for middle-grade readers. It’s more likely to appeal to girls and will be published in May 2020.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this book.

I absolutely loved it. The characters were great and I enjoyed that boys were involved in it. Though I wish we could have seen a little bit more of Daisy and Delphi, they were quirky and fun but not as present as the others. Piper could also have used more space in the story. Other than that I feel like the book was well-balanced, well paced. I'll have to admit I was never bored ! It was filled with magic and friendship : a perfect middle grader novel.

I have been fighting with myself to find the right word to describe how the book makes me feel and after two reads I believe "Wholesome" is the right word. I have read so many genres and sometimes its nice when a book is sweet and innocent. In the Whispering Hills we see the bonds of friendship being forged and changed, families struggling to cope as memories resurface and the reminder that purity and naivety aren't so bad. It really is almost a "coming of age" moment where all our characters are heading into their teen years and getting a sharp taste of reality. As our band of misfits (6 girls) navigate their way into a new and frightening world with the help of their somewhat mentor they learn sometimes being ordinary maybe isn't so bad.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Owl Hollow Press for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of “The Witches of Willow Cove” by Josh Roberts.

This was such a fun story to read! It is the perfect middle grade novel (that can even pass off as YA) if you are in the mood to read a good Halloween like story about witches. All the characters are distinctive, funny and interesting in their own manner. Amethyst turned out to be my favorite character even though I didn’t like her in the beginning. The villain, Miss Winters is also very intriguing and you don’t really know what she has up her sleeve.

In fact, I loved everyone in the entire group, whether it be Abby or Amethyst or Piper. The author has also paced the story very well, where we are thrown into the action right from the first chapter. I also liked how he included the history of the Salem witch trials into the plot with his own twist.

However, there are some minor things which I felt could have been written better. While Daisy and Delphi were quirky and interesting with their Shakespearean qualities, I felt we did not see much of them. I would have liked to see more of Piper in the book as well because she was so interesting! Moreover, the book tended to focus mainly on Abby and Amethyst, along with Becca, Robby and Zeus. Also, while I enjoyed the story immensely, I really didn’t like the instant romance between Robby and Becca. It appeared out of nowhere, and it took me a while to get used to them. I’m not really a fan of insta love, and considering that this is more of a middle grade book, it was difficult picturing the two in that manner.

But apart from that, I absolutely loved reading this tale and would definitely recommend if you are in the mood for a spooky read.

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.

This is about young witches who have recently discovered their powers, their friends, and a teacher who is also a witch with a secret. It's a super cute middle grade that will also appeal to YA readers as well. It has a little of everything and I really enjoyed it!

I love how all the characters hold their own and have relatable issues while dealing with supernatural ones. They also explore a centuries old mystery connected to the Salem witch trials and I appreciate how it was woven into the story.

The Witches of Willow Cove is a very fast paced read with good world building that's not too redundant or overly descriptive. This was such a good debut and I'm looking forward to more from Josh Roberts!

This book surprised me. Perfect for if you're looking for a middle-grade mystery with a fun group of friends and magic! It was funny, lighthearted, and definitely creative! The adventure is fun and the characters are diverse, lovable and distinct from one another.

Josh Roberts give us a book that has interesting characters and its own world. As a former middle school teacher, I would have gladly shared this book with my students. I love the creativity and fantasy elements, so infused in a story that works well.