See this review and more at my blog, The Scribe Owl!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

2.5/5 stars

I don't think anyone is more surprised about this rating than I am. And the thing is, it didn't have the elements of a bad book! But when I get so disinterested that I'm skim reading (which never happens!) something is wrong.

I love the synopsis! It promises so many fantastic things, all of which are included, but not executed well. Sure, there's a romance with gasp the one who can't love, but the way everything turned up in the end felt like a bit of a cop-out.

And the villain! She was so unrealistic. For the sake of not spoiling, I won't go into detail, but though she had reason to be so resentful and angry it was a little overboard. It was just a lot.

The plot was fine, the characters were fine, everything was fine! But for some reason I just don't care. If you loved this book I'm so sorry. Honestly. I understand this review was a little harsh. This kind of disconnect is rare for me, but when it crops up it's impossible for me to enjoy the book.

Rating: 3/5 spells gone wrong

Format: ebook. I’d like to thank the author and TBR and Beyond Tours for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

To sum up:
Tamsin is a witch cursed with the inability to love, and Wren is a magic source, unable to do magic herself but able to lend her magic to witches. Together they embark on a perilous journey to stop a dark magical plague that has ravaged their land and robbed the minds of its people of their memories. Wren promises Tamsin to give her the love she has for her father if she will help her find the dark witch responsible for the plague. The only problem is, the closer they get to the witch, the more Tamsin must confront her past and the limits of her own curse.

What I enjoyed:
There are a lot of reasons to dive into this book:
An F/F romance!
Enemies to lovers = maximum tension and lots of room for doubt
A unique and powerful cost for using magic
Sibling drama! Tamsin has a twin sister and her journey towards better understanding their relationship was really interesting.
“There's only one bed” trope! Followed by “I accidentally cuddled you while you slept” trope (HERE FOR IT).

Overall I liked the premise of this story, having a witch that is unable to love (romantically, platonically, filially, or even experience empathy) and therefore exacts love as the price for her magic is super interesting. I also liked that using magic has a specific cost to either the witch or the land, and we see that cost throughout the book. It makes the stakes for their journey really clear and tense. I also thought the character of Tamsin was interesting, and discovering her depth and emotional range as we progress through the story was satisfying.

What was meh:
One thing that stood out to me in the very beginning was the effects of Tamsin’s curse. I thought it was interesting that not being able to love meant she also couldn’t show compassion or experience any kind of empathy, but still had memories of those feelings and therefore knew what was now different. The issue I had though was that the author drew a connection between “love” and experiencing any positive sensation at all. Tamsin is also no longer able to really appreciate color, feel warmth, or taste good food. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with what the author might be intentionally or unintentionally saying about the importance of love in being able to enjoy one’s life. Tamsin is utterly miserable and is also wracked with guilt over events from her past. I don’t know to what extent her symptoms are caused by her curse, or by her guilt (a case may be made for the latter, which I like a lot better) but the tone of this section made me uncomfortable.
I also had some issues with Wren and Tamsin’s lack of chemistry. I didn’t quite believe Wren’s developing feelings for Tamsin, although I thought Tamsin’s feelings for Wren were a lot more interesting considering her curse.
Lastly, I thought this story really lacked setting description. Tamsin and Wren travel across a great distance, and I really struggled to picture their journey. So little is described that I sometimes felt lost as to where exactly they were or what was going on around them.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting premise, but it lacked some essential components for me and the beginning made me pretty uncomfortable. However, while overall I didn’t love Wren’s character, I thought her growth at the end was beautiful, her realization of her own self-worth pushed this story from 2.5 to 3 stars for me.

This was such a magical adventure— I was hooked from the very beginning! The story follows Tamsin, a powerful witch who was banished by the Coven and cursed with the inability to love, and Wren, an unregistered source, a person made of magic kept away from the Coven in order to care for her ill father. A magical plague descends on the queendom, afflicting Wren’s father and giving Tamsin the chance to return Within to join the hunt for the dark witch responsible. The two make a bargain: Tamsin will help find the dark witch and save her father if Wren gives Tamsin her love for her father. The journey they follow is full of great banter and a very satisfying slow burn, enemies to lovers, sapphic romance.
I really enjoyed the magic system of balance and the dynamic between sources and witches. The world building was easy to understand and well developed too. I loved Tamsin and Wren so much, they felt very distinctive and real, and I liked how we got both of their POVs. The mental health representation was also handled well. The story felt like a fairytale and while I was able to guess the plot twist I still really loved the way it unfolded. In summary, this is a lovely sapphic fantasy full of magic and romance!

Rating : ★★★★/5

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a gorgeously written debut by Adrienne Tooley.

Seventeen year old Tamsin is a banished witch living and serving the townspeople of Ladaugh. Cast out from the coven where normally she would have faced death for her misguided decision using dark magic. She is instead cursed with the inability to feel life’s joys and love. Expelled from the World Within, she only excepts payment from the ordinary folk in the form a commodity of love. Living in a perpetual gray existence, she is bitter. Only twelve years old Tamsin was once headed to greatness. When five years prior she attempted to use dark magic, and bind her power to that of her twin sister’s life. A heavy handed penance for such a young witch all because she loved her sister so much that she would risk anything.

Wren has given up so much for the sake of her sickly father. He requires constant attendance to his daily needs. On the break of continuous starvation, she dreams of escape. Saving every little bit of money she can stow away, hoping one day from the never ending burden placed on her shoulders. She harbors a dangerous secret, one that would take her away from her village and her father. Wren is an undocumented magical source.
Thirty years ago when the Dark Witch Evangeline Sickness spread throughout the lands. Bringing about changes that make sure Witches and Sources are trained far way from ordinary folk. Where they can be closely watched.

Tamisn and Wren find themselves on a harrowing journey in more ways than one.

You are thrown right into a beautiful, vivid and established world with fully fleshed out characters, and a exceptional magical system. A book was so entertaining and extremely hard for me to put down, I completely raced through this one!

Adrienne Tooley excels and precision narration with alternating chapters between the third-person POV of two protagonists. This is no ordinary Y’a Fantasy, with action adventure. This tale has substance, hands down! The characters are raw and believable. The strength of this novel handsdown is the author’s fabulous characterizations.
The love story is a slow burn sapphic one, that took just the right amount of steps.
The storyline was creative and original
Rich atmospheric details was a highlight in this YA Fantasy. I found it to be riveting and intensely entertaining.

Looking forward to reading more from this talented author. I have a feeling that Adrienne Tooley is going to be an auto buy author for me.


Thank you to Simon Teen for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.



Content Warnings:

- frequent discussions and depictions of grief regarding loss of a loved one, including: death of a sibling, death of a parent, and death of a friend
- depictions of anxiety, depression, and mental illness
- emesis (mention of vomiting on page)
- brief mention of needles (tattooing)
- amnesia

"Due to the rapidly deteriorating relations between witches and ordinary folk, the Coven cordially invites you to join the hunt for the dark witch. Return Within to register. The one who locates the witch responsible for the dark magic will be rewarded a boon without limitation. Anything your magical heart desires.
Happy hunting."

Wren has a secret. She is a source, containing magic that a witch could draw upon. Those who suspect they have power are supposed to report to the Witchlands for training, but family kept Wren at home. Years ago her parents lost a child to the dark magic wrought by a witch upon the land. So when Wren discovered that not everyone could feel and see magic, she kept it to herself, wary of her parents' reactions. Five years ago, her mother died, and ever since, she has been caring for her father, who is often bedridden.

Tamsin is the resident witch of Ladaugh. While other witches work magic in exchange for small things, the only payment Tamsin will accept is the customer's love - for a child, for a spouse. Tamsin is no longer able to feel love other than that which she takes from others. Five years ago, she was banished from Within after attempting to use dark magic to save her twin, Marlena. Dark magic is powerful, but so are its side effects, and Tamsin's mistake resulted in the death of a classmate. And then once Tamsin was discovered as the root of the dark magic, the magic tying her to her sister was broken, and Marlena too died. The usual punishment for working in dark magic is death, but Tamsin was merely disgraced - instructed not to come back to Within, and cursed to never again feel love, as the consequences of her love for her sister was so devastating.

Ordinary people haven't forgotten the effects of the dark magic wrought years ago. Now there's evidence of another dark witch. People's memories are vanishing, the earth is shaking. Enormous spiders carried off a caravan's horses in the night. Wren returns home to discover her father affected, his memories starting to slip. Upon trying to purchase a plague cure from a tinker with coin given to her by Tamsin in exchange for eggs, Wren finds that the money is enchanted, fake. She arrives at Tamsin's house to demand assistance, and finds on the door a letter to the witch, inviting her to join in the search for the witch responsible. Wren demands that Tamsin accept, and take Wren along, revealing herself as a source. Tamsin proposes a deal: They can help with the hunt, if Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father. At first, Wren refuses. Then she returns home to discover her father's condition has worsened, and realizes that if she agrees with Tamsin's terms, she'll lose her love for her father, but at least her father may live. And the search begins.

This was a fun, quick read! I thought Tamsin's curse was unique and interesting - I don't know that I've encountered a character before who's incapable of feeling love in this way. Tamsin is denied even the joy of nature's colors, the feel of a warm fire, or the taste of spices. I enjoyed how the girls changed one another on their adventure. There's an item that keeps showing up, even though no one brought it, which brought to mind something similar in one of the Old Kingdom books. Although I liked this, it wasn't really clear HOW this was happening.

I can see this one being good for fans of Sorcery of Thorns (another standalone fantasy romance) and maybe These Witches Don't Burn (dark magic and lesbians reluctantly teaming up to fight it).

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC. Sweet & Bitter Magic is out today, March 9th.

Sweet & Bitter Magic gives us exactly what the title foretold. This magical story is full of sweet moments and bitter decisions that leave you longing for more of this story and characters. Forcing Tamsin and Wren, two girls from completely different worlds, to go on a harrowing journey together is the sapphic story I didn’t know I needed. Tamsin is cold and calculating, while Wren is hopeful with a heart full of kindness. The girls couldn’t be more of a foil to one another and Tooley definitely knows how to play these two girls strengths and weaknesses against each other to make for an interesting read.

Adrienne Tooley’s worldbuilding was on point. Upon reading the first couple of chapters, Tooley gives us information about the world little by little until you have a comprehensive understanding of the world that Tamsin and Wren are living in and what is at stake with their quest that they are currently on. There are a few flashback moments in this story, but they melt perfectly into the narrative itself so that the transitions are not choppy whatsoever. Tooley expertly uses these flashbacks to show us character development as well as important facts about the girls past without it feeling info dumpy.

Overall, reading this novel truly felt like taking a breath of fresh air. The story itself was entertaining, heartbreaking, and fantastical. The pacing was phenomenal and it prevented me from putting the novel down on multiple occasions. And you truly do fall in love with Tamsin and Wren while you are reading. I wanted the two girls to win this awful adventure that they had been thrown into and I rooted for them so hard. I also really appreciate how this novel portrayed a sapphic romance. It felt very natural and it made me love the story even more than I already had. Sweet & Bitter Magic is a gift that keeps on giving throughout the whole story and I really wish I could forget it all and read it all over again.

Sadly, I DNF'd this book at 85%. I abhor not finishing a book, but I was literally forcing myself to try and read it and that's just not a good reason to finish. I was so ready to love this book but everything simply fell flat for me.

Tamsin is a witch who was cursed at the age of 12 with the inability to love after using dark magic. This sounded like a strong premise for a character, but it ended up being poorly executed. Apparently taking away her ability to love meant taking away her ability to enjoy everything. Tamsin couldn't see color, couldn't taste food, couldn't even be warmed by a fire. And from the way Tamsin spoke, she seemed to have no ability to feel at all. Except when it suited the story... then she could get annoyed, feel remorse or shock, etc. Definitely never anything GOOD, but the overall ability to feel seemed to come and go as was convenient. And what that left us with was a shell of a character. Tamsin was simply resigned to feel nothing and that's what I got from her. Nothing.

Wren is a source who has been trying to deny her magic for years. Accepting her magic would have meant reporting to the Coven and leaving her father, who hated magic. We're supposed to think Wren is just sweet and maybe too loving (to compensate for Tamsin's complete lack of love), but really she was just extremely sheltered and naive and honestly, emotionally abused by her father. Her love for her father is supposed to be what drives her to team with Tamsin to go in search of the dark magic causing the plague, but even that felt halfhearted because her father just seemed like a gaslighting tool who lost the will to live after her wife died and kept Wren trapped by constantly telling her that he'd be dead if she didn't take care of him. This really felt reinforced by the fact that when the plague took away his memory of Wren or the fact that his wife was dead, he was perfectly fine and able to care for himself. Going from loving a father who didn't seem to love her back to falling in love with a girl who literally could not love did not feel healthy to me. And with Tamsin's inability to feel or love, the connection between the girls seemed to not exist on one page and then magically exist (on Wren's side) on the next. There was nothing to reflect an actual budding relationship between the two.

I knew it was time to DNF when I got through the big fight scene between Tamsin and the dark witch with a side of Wren and still felt no connection to any of these characters or how the story would play out. There's supposed to be a lifetime of history between Tamsin and the dark witch, but with Tamsin so resigned in feeling nothing the confrontation was very one-sided and underdeveloped. It was one of many instances of the book telling us instead of showing us. It was just words, not feelings.

In the end, I’m calling this a 2.5. I’ve rounded down because I just didn’t enjoy it or connect with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Magic and dark power are plentiful in this debut novel by Adrienne Tooley. Tamsin, the most powerful witch, was banished when she did some dark magic long ago. Now a plague is sweeping through the land and her only chance at redemption is to find the dark witch who cast the magic and destroy her. Leading us to Wren, a naive and sweet Source for magic who is hunting the dark witch as well. Her father has fallen ill and she teams up with Tamsin to hopefully save their lands.

Of course nothing goes according to plan.

My favorite part about this book is Tamsin. I love love love her. I love how flawed she is, how bitter and sharp. I love how you don't want to like her but cant help feel compassion. Tooley does an amazing job with her character as she moves through the story. She begins as an outcast and as her story unfolds, the layers multiply. I love characters who aren't all good and all bad and Tamsin is just the right blend of grey. You know what they say, the road to hell is paved with good intensions.

Also, the world building is very rich and entertaining. I like how small and insignificant characters had a lot of life (townspeople), creating a very murky and tension filled atmosphere. The danger is heightened as they travel and even when they get to where they have to go, it doesn't let up. The tone of the book really pulled me in, enhancing the sickness and urgency for Tamsin and Wren to seek answers and find the dark witch.

Which leads me to the romance. I like these two characters together. Wren softens Tamsin in ways that Tamsin doesn't want to be softened, or doesn't remember how to be. To be honest though, this is Tamsin's book and Wren is a supporting character. She is maybe a little too naive for me, but along with Tamsin, she balances them out and as a couple they are fierce! The romance was very organic and lovely, unfolding as the young women got to know each other and got to know themselves and their boundaries with the dangers approaching them. I enjoyed seeing a different side to Tamsin as she thawed, and as Wren found her strength.

>Sweet &amp; Bitter Magic </em>is a solid debut that drew me in at first with magic and darkness. Lots of imagination and good writing kept me planted in the world for hours.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Everything about this book appealed to me from the beginning! The cover is stunning, and the story itself is absolutely gay :) Sweet and Bitter Magic follows two girls working together to try and stop the plague ravishing their lands. Tasmin is a witch cursed with the inability to love, forcing her to steal love from others in the form of deals. Wren is a source, someone who holds strong magic without being able to use it herself, so when her father falls sick with the plague, the two strike a deal.

I loved the concept of a witch cursed to never love. It made Tasmin such an interesting character to read. I was so fascinated with how she interacted with the world and other people, and how she was unable to see the beauty in anything. The slow shift in her world view the more time she spent with Wren was cute to watch. And Wren’s character was also great! She was strong and resilient, but she also made mistakes. She’s a bit naive, but I found that to be charming paralleled with Tasmin’s pessimism. Their bickering made me laugh, and their romance made me swoon.

My only complaint was that the world building was a bit confusing, and the pacing felt a bit rushed at the end. The beginning and middle move at a slower pace, and the struggle is much more internal for the characters. Towards the end, it seems like everything pertaining to the plot is dumped onto the reader, and it feels really fast paced compared to the rest of the story. The plot twist/villain reveal was pretty predictable, but that didn’t bother me so much.

Overall, this was such a fun book, and I will definitely be picking up anything Adrienne Tooley writes in the future!

Characters - 4/10
I wanted to like this book. The premise really sounded right up my alley but unfortunately, it just fell flat. The characters were a big part of why I didn't like this book. We have the sunshine/grumpy trope and I just hated it. Wren was so naive and kind it annoyed me to no end. I almost put the book down about three times because of her personality.

Tamsin was slightly better, but I felt like we hardly got to know her. She's unable to love due to her curse, which also makes her a really flat character. With both Wren and Tamsin we get hints of deeper character development, but it's never fully explored. At some point, Wren reacts like Tamsin is about to hit her, which could indicate Wren had previously suffered some abuse. But it's never mentioned on touched on again.

Tamsin also has some out of character moments. She trapped two men after they tried to assault her and Wren, and afterwards, she acted as if she had just committed the biggest sin in saving their lives. She didn't even kill the men. I was just very confused the entire time.

Marlena was by far my favourite. She is really well developed and I kind of wish we had her perspective as well. I love a villain with nuance.

Atmosphere - 6/10
The worldbuilding was not bad. I wish we could have seen more of the witches' homeland (Within) and the academy. The Wood was one of my favourite places and I wish the author had expanded on it more. Other than that I have no issues with the worldbuilding.

Writing - 6/10
I found this book relatively easy to read. The writing was good, but I felt that more could have been done to distinguish between Wren and Tamsin's voices.

Plot - 4/10
Here's where my gripes come in again. The plot just needed some more work. I don't know if it's an editing issue or just a writing issue, but so many things just did not work. The pacing was weird, and the whole story just needed some more work.

For example, the assault scene I mentioned earlier. It's entirely pointless. And yes, assault on women is pointless and senseless violence. But I am tired of reading about it. I know it happens. And I also know that this is just my opinion but I am tired.

I also have a bone to pick with the ending and the defeat of the dark witch. It just happens and is explained away in one sentence. While the dark witch is a compelling character, her "evil" is just explained away and blamed on dark magic. The whole thing just feels like a Disney ending and I expected something different.

Intrigue - 5/10
The conflict between Wren and Tamsin was believable to a point, but once again Wren just annoyed me too much. She felt entitled to Tamsin and her feelings, which is one thing I hate about sunshine characters. They usually want everyone else to be just as sunshine as they are. I also didn't totally buy the romance between Wren and Tamsin.

The conflict between Tamsin and Marlena was much more believable, which is why I wanted Marlena's POV.

Logic - 4/10
The magic system does not make sense. The difference between witches and sources were explained, but the book doesn't go into detail about how magic works. Sometimes Wren has to use words, other times she just waves her fingers. It's very inconsistent, and I would have loved some more rules.

Entertainment - 5/10
I really wanted to enjoy this book. It has sapphics, the "there's only one bed" trope and witches. Tooley is a really strong writer, and some more editing would have done this book good.

4,8/10 = 2.5 Stars

This was a good debut read. This book was actually on my list of most anticipated reads of 2021. Sapphic-YA-fantasy will get me just about every time. However, I do think my high expectations might have affected my enjoyment a little bit. I didn’t love this like I was hoping to, but I did really like it so I can’t complain too much.

This book had a slightly different feel than I was expecting. While the romance started out as enemies to lovers, it didn’t really last that way. And while I expected the book to be a bit more action based, it felt like a character study more than I expected. There was nothing wrong with these differences so I quickly grew to enjoy the overall feel of the book.

I loved how the setting was in a world filled of magical creatures’ right out of fairytales. Wren, a poor village girl, would often talk about people she heard of that could spin straw into gold or that put a curse on an apple. This part was really well done and I was hooked on this magical world. My one problem is that this started so well, but kind of faded as the book went on. I wanted to see more magic beings and/or have more fairytale interaction. It seemed like it was forgotten some as the book went on.

I was really happy with both main characters. Wren, who is kind and caring and wants to be adventurous and brave. And then we have Tamsin, our witch, who is definitely a morally grey character. I thought Tamsin especially was really well written. There were times that I had problems with her and flat out didn’t like her, but by the end of the book she was my favorite character. In my mind, a good morally grey character should give you mixed feelings but then absolutely win you over before the book ends. Tooley did a really good job on her main characters.

When I like the main characters of a book, chances are that I will enjoy the romance too. I’m happy to say that I thought the romance was super cute and sweet. While this is a very PG rated YA romance, I thought it was heartfelt and I believed in their connection. You could see how the potential of love changed both main characters and it was fun to watch.

This was less action and excitement and more character driven than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. The book is very readable with well written main characters that hook you into the story. While this book was a standalone and not part of a series, this world Tooley has created is fun and interesting. I would absolutely read a spin-off if she ever wanted to revisit this world again.

3.5 stars

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a lovely young adult sapphic fantasy.

Do you like those books that feature the brooding one and the happy sparkly one? You know what I'm talking about. There's the one character that everyone fears and their companion just so happens to be the caring and considerate one. Yeah this is one of those stories but make it gay.

Tamsin is our scary witch. She is void of love due to an accident she caused when she was only 12 years old. Now she's cursed to live among the regular folk as a heartless being.

On the opposite end we have Wren. She is a source of magic that witches can use to enhance their own magic. Also unlike Tamsin, she loves and cares too deeply.

The romance in this book was a sweet slowburn. I'm such a fan of slowburn romances as they feel more realistic.

This story suffered from pacing issues like many fantasy novels do. The beginning of this book was somehow both rushed and slow. A great deal of this book was just Tamsin and Wren traveling. There was a lack of action for most of this book.

OH AND ALSO THIS DOES HAVE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE, THE ONE BED TROPE.

First things first, I NEED more queer witch stories in my life. This book was the warm and fuzzy feelings that I needed amidst all of this chaos.

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a dual POV narrative that follows Tamsin and Wren.

Tamsin is a banished witch who has been cursed with the inability to care and love after getting caught using forbidden dark magic to try to save her dying twin sister. Since she can’t feel love…she deals in it. Literally. Needless to say, Tamsin literally embodies a grumpy old hag and is the antithesis to Wren.

Wren is a source…meaning that she is literally compromised of magic. She can see, taste, and smell magic, but she doesn’t wield it. Where Tamsin is all dark and miserable, Wren is loving and sees the beauty in all of nature.

Having this pair come together on an adventure to capture the dark witch responsible for a plague ravaging the humans was absolutely hysterical. I love how polarizing their personalities and outlooks were. And yet, you just knew that this was going to be the messy queer enemies to lovers romance, which I was 100% here for.

I really loved the way the world was laid out in this because it was easy to navigate and visualize. It was very reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust in that you have the humans on one side separated by the Woods that protect Coven (aka Witchlands if you’re Wren).

One thing that I wanted to scream while Tamsin and Wren were on their trek was ”Wren, watch where you are walking so you don’t keep crashing into Tamsin”. People crashing into me is a huge pet peeve, so I visibly bristled every time that Wren did it.

There were definitely some pleasant plot twists in this one that I didn’t see coming. I thought that the pacing was steady throughout, and I was thoroughly engaged.

The only real issue that I had with the book is that I wish the Academy life was a little more flushed out because I definitely didn’t grasp the hierarchy of the professors, which left me confused at a certain point.

Overall, this was a fun and original story with some pretty great queer witches. I can’t wait to see what Tooley comes up with next!

Thank you to Simon Teen for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

3.5⭐

Summary
This follows a witch, Tamsin, who is cursed with the inability to love and banished from the world of witches. For the last 5 years, she's lived alone performing simple magic to human villagers in exchange for some of their love.

But when the world is once again plagued by dark magic, Tamsin begrudgingly teams up with an untrained magical source, Wren to try and track down the dark witch.

My Thoughts
Overall I thought this was a really fun, easy standalone fantasy to get lost in. It had great themes, a unique world, and a lovely slow-burn sapphic romance.

This plot is very much an adventure plot. There is a lot of time spent traveling across the world while the characters run into hijinks along the way. While this isn't my personal favorite fantasy plot, I thought it was done well was really fun to see this unique world. The world mashes together a lot of classic fantasy elements and I liked how they all worked together.

I thought the characters were well written but I didn't think they were deeply fleshed out. Their characterization was more surface level than I personally would have liked, but this is a standalone fantasy so much of the focus was on the actual plot rather than character development. Something to be aware of if you're a character driven reader.

But my favorite part of this was definitely the focus on love - specifically healthy love - and how relationships can turn toxic. It was a really interesting take and not something I've seen before. I loved how this explored not only romantic love, but self love and familial love as well, and delved into what healthy relationships look like.

Overall I thought this was a solid debut novel. This took a lot of classic fantasy elements and gave it a fresh, new spin. I'm very interested to see what Adrienne Tooley does next!

My review is live on Goodreads and will be posted to my blog on 3/15/21 @ 9am

I absolutely loved this book. The story and the characters are so relatable, especially to a girl like me. I will update this when I get my notes together, but I was an amazing book.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this ARC.

What a phenomenal debut YA fantasy! I've been looking forward to this for ages, and it did not disappoint! It falls into the rare category of standalone YA fantasy, and while these worlds can sometimes seem unresolved, Adrienne Tooley did it really well. The world building is well done, and the differences in knowledge between Wren and Tamsin gives the reader a sense of learning with the characters. And for a book with a character missing the ability to love (it's taken from Tamsin as part of a curse), it is utterly romantic. I loved watching these girls fall in love. They both go through so much in the book, and a sweet romance is the least they deserve.

One aspect I really appreciated was the book didn't just drop off at the end. We're given time to sit with the characters after the end of their big adventure. This means soft moments the reader will like and a chance to showcase the result of a book of character development.

Sweet & Bitter Magic delves deep into grief, family, love, and letting go. While it's a story of fantasy and adventure, it's also a coming of age novel about two young women finding their place in the world and with each other.

Thanks to @NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

“When Tamsin loved, she loved too hard. It made her dangerous.”

A slow-burn and sweet sapphic romantic fantasy that is sure to have you huffing a laugh more than a few times, Sweet and Bitter Magic is the story of a witch who cannot love and a magical girl who loves everything coming together to battle a plague upon the land (a little too poignant for 2021). After Wren’s father succumbs to the plague, she searches out the village witch and strikes an agreement with her to defeat the dark magic in exchange for the love for her father. But Tamsin’s inability to love is a punishment for an even darker past, and hunting for the curse might bring her back face-to-face with it in a big way.

This book, y’all. It’s possibly not the perfect story, but I am obsessed with the banter between Tamsin and Wren. Everything about the development of their relationship felt natural, if perhaps a bit rushed due to this being a standalone book. I found myself snorting at snark that both characters dished out, and really enjoyed how relatable it was. The “big twist” was actually surprising in a way that I didn’t completely see coming, but I did find the resolution to be a bit rushed. I would have loved a duology just to have some more “falling in love” moments as well, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The main thought I had when I finished this book was that I needed more. More of everything. More character development, more mystery and definitely more world building.

Adrienne Tooley’s debut novel has a fantastic premise. The sunshine girl and the grump girl? SIGN ME THE HECK UP. That is a trope I can read over and over again. I thought the first 10% of this book was very intriguing and I loved reading from both Tamsin and Wren’s perspectives.

As the book progressed, I feel like the plot suffered from some pacing issues. The travelling section was very dialogue heavy and I felt like I was told things and not shown things enough. I did appreciate that Tooley tried to capture the violent nature of the plague and it made the stakes a bit higher.

Towards the end, however, Tooley didn’t follow through with the high stakes promised earlier in the book. I wish she had kept the mystery surrounding the dark witch alive until the very end. Revealing so much information about the dark witch to the reader felt like the plot was being explained to me which took away some of my excitement and made the book very predictable in my opinion.

I commend Adrienne Tooley for attempting to write a standalone fantasy. I felt like I grasped the basics of her magic system and I like that the magic had actual consequences in this book. The world was also described pretty well, considering this is a standalone novel. A map wasn’t included in the ARC I read but I hope the actual book will have one.

Although I got very annoyed with Wren’s nativity at times, I did enjoy her interactions with Tamsin and my absolute favourite trope, THERE IS ONLY ONE BED, was incorporated, which I loved. Their relationship really blossomed on the page and it kept me reading.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but I wish there had been more world building, more laying the groundwork for the mystery and I wish that the twist at the end had not been revealed so early on. Otherwise, this was a great sapphic YA fantasy debut.

An inexplicable plague sweeps the land. Magical source Wren is fighting to stop it to save her father. Cursed witch Tamsin just wants to be left alone, to harvest feelings of love from hapless customers who need magic but can't afford to go elsewhere.

Wren's love for her father is very strong, though, and Tamsin's reserves are very low. So when Wren approaches Tamsin to ask her to help hunt the dark witch causing the plague, Tamsin agrees -- for a price.

What follows is part adventure, part romance, part family drama.

Tamsin's curse comes from a dark past, which unfolds to readers slowly as Tamsin puzzles through diary entries written by her lost sister in her final days.

Tamsin's story is one of grief, of being pushed out of everything she knew because of past mistakes, and having no one left to mourn with. And Wren is newly struggling with the loss of her father (and the eventual loss of her love for him). Wren becomes a friend willing to push back at Tamsin's habitual bitterness and cruelty. Together, they recover some of what they both have lost.

I am pretty picky about the enemies to lovers trope, rather than a staunch believer in it, and this one ultimately wasn't for me in the way the relationship started and developed. I was more interested in the themes related to loss of family, which do play a major role by the end, but feel very quickly and neatly resolved after the book's emotionally fraught first half.

However, there's a lot of interesting things going for this book: some fun magical worldbuilding, a clear and propulsive quest that merges well with character growth and growing feelings, generally propulsive prose, a lot of banter. It's something I'd recommend to a lot of readers, especially people who really enjoy enemies-to-lovers YA where the characters are initially frosty but grow to see the truth of each other.

4 stars out of %

Sweet & Bitter Magic is a dual pop, stand alone young adult fantasy. It follows a witch named Tamsin and a magic "source" named Wren as they try to stop a plague from wrecking the lives of people in their kingdom. The plague takes away memories and love from the victim's minds and Wren is worried about her ill father forgetting her. Tamsin has been banished from the Witchlands and cursed to never feel love again, so all of her deals include her taking a little love from others. The two girls journey together to the origin of the plague after striking their own deal, and fall in love along the way.

I really enjoyed this story! It was very character driven and each girl had her own unique voice. They had good banter and chemistry together, very "grumpy and sunshine" - esque. The plot itself was a very simple adventure type which I liked but it didn't blow me away. The parts I loved the most where the diary entries from Tamsin's sister. The writing thrived in those scenes which were incredibly cold and off putting, and we got more and more snippets of Tamsin's dark past. Wren's chapters were fresh and light and I liked the levity she brought to the story. It definitely wouldn't have been as good without both girl's pov's switching every chapter. I would've appreciated more story time spent in the Witchlands scenes since I thought that was the most interesting and entertaining of the settings. Also the climax and exciting third act were a bit rushed. I think that comes a lot with stand alone fantasy books. It did all wrap up, I just found it to be at a weird fast pace compared to how slow going the rest of the story was leading up to that. Overall, a fun book with sweet characters that I enjoyed reading!