"When the only thing left is your magic when that's all you have to rely on, you'll learn to respect it."

Clara is a unique witch. Most witches’ powers are tied to one season, and they use their powers to maintain the climate. But Clara is an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season. With every season, Clara changes.... Read to find out how (or read the blurb!)

There are many things addressed in this book which make it so much more enjoyable. I loved the unique take on witches and their abilities. I also loved how Clara, struggles with her power, with harnessing it, with using it, and the fearing the consequences of it. she has lost those who matter to her, and she worries about what will happen if she loses control. She is attending a school in Pennsylvania with other witches learning about their power, their magic and themselves. She has support, but she also has doubt.

I am not a big fan of fantasy but this one won me over. I enjoy books on witches, and this was a fresh and unique take on magic.

This book also looks at climate change, friendship, romance, and acceptance.

This is a magical and unique YA read!

Plus, that cover!

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wow! I loved everything about this book. From the moment I saw the stunning cover, I was hooked but this captivating debut novel by Rachel Griffin is not just a cover buy. The Nature of Witches is a stunning love letter to the earth, climate and magic.

Clara is an Everwitch (which is rare and she is the first of her kind to come along in 200 years), and her powers change along with each season making her powers unmatched. The other witches are either Spring, Summer, Winter or Autumn and their powers are strengthened during their season.

This is a story of self- discovery, overcoming fear, mother earth, love, trust, friendship and forgiveness. You will cheer for Clara from the beginning and be caught under her spell. There is a cast of supporting characters that you will love as well in Paige and Sang. I loved it and hope Rachel does a sequel. I feel there is so much more of Clara's story to be told. 5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

A unique story about witches that use their magic to help control and slow the devastating consequences of Climate Change it was an interesting and easy read that im sure teenagers will love.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a creative contemporary fantasy novel with an interesting premise I have not read before. The idea that the witches have strength in their power to correspond with their birth season.

There’s love, climate change, pollution, internal struggles, population worries and more. Compelling storyline with unique characters. If you enjoy contemporary fantasy definitely give this one a read!

This book is everything!!!!

For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, their power from the sun peaking in the season of their birth. But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season.

In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It's wild and volatile, and the price of her magic―losing the ones she loves―is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather.

In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she's the only one who can make a difference.

In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she's terrified Sang will be the next one she loses.

In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves... before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos.

Ok I absolutely LOVED this book. Clara is such an amazing protagonist and tying witch’s magic to climate is a great twist that I personally have never seen done before. I enjoyed this book so much that I actually purchased a physical copy for my personal collection.

This book is a must-read for fans of Alice Hoffman, Alexis Henderson, Louisa Morgan, and Katherine Arden.

Clare is a rare Everwicth, the first one in a hundred years. Her magic can be tied every season, whereas other witches magic is the strongest in their seasons. Every time she tries to gain control of her magic together with other witches, it targets those she loves the most. Now that other witches are being depleted of their magic and dying trying to control the faltering atmosphere, where unpredictable temperatures and storms are becoming more commonplace, she must be able to control her magic along with the other witches magic. But with the solar eclipse rapidly approaching, time is running out.

3.5 ⭐️

I had to DNF this book. I realized that it just wasn't for me. I really think I've started to outgrow a lot of teen/ya stories (I am not the demographic this book is for). I think the intended demographic will like this story and be able to relate to the main character. It has a reluctant hero trope, which is not a favorite trope of mine. The character felt selfish and whiny, perhaps by the end of the book she grows, but I just couldn't get through it.

RUN--don't walk--to get this book immediately.

The Nature of Witches was the most unputdownable book I've read for a while, and I loved every second of it. Also, currently sad that I finished it.

You've never seen elemental witches like this. Their closeness to nature and the beauty of it is truly fantastic and wonderful break from the norm. Witches fighting against the changing climate and worsening natural disasters is only the half of it.

If it first it feels like the beginning is dragging, hold on my friends because it picks up speed and doesn't slow down.

Not only is this beautifully written, but the message readers get from it is even more powerful. Being emotional, feeling everything, does not make you weak--it makes you powerful, if you'll let it.

I loved the characters and, even if I sometimes disagreed with Clara, I related to her so much. I saw so much of myself in this character, it was almost painful at times. But seeing her grow and learn was a wonderful feeling.

Seeing how hard I fall for imaginary characters, however, is laughable. Box me up a Sang and send him my way, pretty please.

Read this book, I promise you won't be disappointed.

I truly embraced this lovely story about the reluctant and scared witch, Clara. The intricacy of the seasonal magic intrigued me with this take on climate change. The author weaves magic out of the weather flawlessly, making me question everything I learned on this subject in school. And now I want to transition my house to be an immersion house.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Rachel Griffin for providing me with an eARC of this book. I am voluntarily leaving a review, all opinions are my own.

This was such a clever take on witches who's powers are tied to the earth and especially one during modern times, I was intrigued from the beginning. Each witch type is powerful during their season, except for the extremely rare Everwitches, which our MC was, who have power in all seasons, though there are some catches.

Clara was an awesome MC and I really did enjoy her voice and her role in this book.

The world building was unique and definitely kept me interested from the very beginning, I liked the way magic was described as well, I always love seeing how each different world or series portrays power.

This was a very unique take on nature witches in a modern world. There is a very clear and not veiled message about our planet's current climate and how we need to take action to stop the problem ourselves.

I loved the world and the nature of the witchcraft with each witch being a type of season... and only powerful during that season. This reminds me of Tinkerbell in a way but so much better.

Which leads into our main character, Clara, who is an Ever witch. A very rare type of witch who can connect to all four seasons... however, she hates what she is due to tragedy and wants to be anything but the savior of the world.

Clara was an interesting character and very flawed. And truthfully, I much more enjoyed the side characters.

Overall, a very enjoyable book with a fresh take on witches!

I won an advanced copy of The Nature of Witches, and I loved it so much that I couldn’t resist sharing my review with you!

Clara changes with the seasons, no matter how hard she tries to remain static. As the only known Everwitch, Clara deals with unique challenges from her seasonally bound powers. Typical witches have magic tied to a single season- spring, summer, fall, or winter. Outside of their given season, they are weaker and unable to access the strength of their power. Clara doesn’t have the luxury of weakness, though, as her magic never wanes. With each passing season, Clara’s powers shift, morphing her personality along with them. As the world faces increasingly dangerous weather variations from climate change, the pressure for Clara to master her powers increases. It seems that she may be the only one with enough magic to help heal the world, if she can learn to embrace her own power.

You can get your copy of The Nature of Witches on June 1st from Sourcebooks Fire! Also, each first edition copy has a gorgeous floral hardback case that you won’t want to miss out on!

The Nature of Witches is one of the strongest debut novels I have ever read! From the character development to the world-building, I was blown away by every part of this story. This contemporary fantasy tackles climate change in the most creative possible way, reinterpreting modern problems into a story for the ages. I was pleasantly surprised by the queer representation in the story as well, as I had not seen any indication that it was going to have a queer protagonist! Rachel Griffin has officially joined the ranks of my instant-buy authors and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

My Recommendation-
The Nature of Witches is an absolute must-read for people who enjoy witchy stories filled with natural-world magic and appreciation! I would especially recommend The Nature of Witches to fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This ARC was offered in exchange of an honest and unbiased review:
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2,5*
Pros: Queer lead. Features badass witches, even male witches. Showcases the enchantment and beauty of elemental magic, a true ode to the elegance of the four seasons. Very important focus in the climate crisis and global-warming, how the world is at an imbalance that is worsening day by day.
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Cons: Unfortunately very dull and slow-paced. No emotional connection. Over-descriptive.

Rating: 2.5/5

This book was pitched to me as a "contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate" so I went into it expecting a fantasy book that was going to discuss climate change. I was so excited about this but was utterly let down.

This book is mainly about romance and love in general. We hear a lot about the environmental changes but the world-building was severely lacking that I never felt the actual consequences of these things. Also, the synopsis is basically the outline of this story so if you've already read that, you don't really need to read the book.

Most of this story deals with the romance between the main character Clara, and her love interest Sang. I wasn't the biggest fan of this romance and I kinda wish it wasn't included at all. I felt it took away from all of the other things happening in this book, specifically the friendship stuff that never felt properly wrapped up. Also, the ending felt kinda drawn out. The whole big thing happened and things got wrapped up but the book kept going and it really ruined the quick-paced vibe of this book.

I did think the premise and writing were really good, and I loved that the love interest was Korean-American and Clara talks about being in romantic relationships with both guys and girls!

All in all, this was a bit of a disappointment but I could see what it was trying to do. I'll definitely be checking out Rachel Griffin's next work because I think she's a great writer and I want to see how she grows in her executions!

Thank you to Source Books and Net Galley for an advanced reader of this book!

I absolutely LOVED the setting of this book. It deals a lot of climate change and mental health, which are two things I am very passionate about.

So you have witches who are tied to a season and then you might have one witch who is tied to all of them, an ever witch. What sucks about being an ever witch is that the way you feel, move and love changes with the seasons too and you just might also hurt the ones you love and those who are near you. Seriously, the magic of an ever witch might kill their loved ones. In fact, it did for Clara (our very own ever witch) and it left her broken, traumatized and unable to connect with people. That is, until a certain spring-mentor comes into play.

The way that mental health is dealt with in this book is very well done, in my opinion. It talks about climate change, but it doesn't go into it to make you roll your eyes or skim. It is actually pretty interesting. If you are looking for a book about healing, loving yourself, seasonal magic, lgbtq+ and something that will melt your heart, I really do recommend this book!

MINI ARC REVIEW

3 things I loved:
* The romance is so. cute.
* The magic system is intriguing.
* Super complex backstories and past and present relationships.

1 thing I didn’t:
* The entire first half of the book was super boring and I kept having to convince myself not to DNF. (The 2nd half was great, though.)

Other thoughts:
The concept of this book is essentially Tinkerbell the Bisexual Witch and that’s... fun? I think? I really don’t know how to feel about this one.

I’m literally trying to find the right words for this book.

With all the hype around it I came in with high expectations with a little room for let down. Let me tell you.... the let down never came! It took about 24 hours to read and I am not even sad about missing sleep. I would give up sleep again if Griffin dropped a second book today. Just sayin...

Every season has a witch. In a witches off season their magic isn’t as strong. So a spring witch isn’t as powerful in autumn and vise versa. Every so often a witch comes along that has magic that never fades and changes with the seasons. She is called an ever witch. Clara is the first ever witch in over 200 years and so much is expected of her. She just wants to be normal but isn’t sure if that is enough she is hurting those around her and not intentionally.

Without giving too much away Clara finds herself in a pickle. Give up her magic forever so she can love or keep her magic to save the world.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced E copy!

I think my favorite part of this book would have to be the unique magic system. I’ve always loved a good witchy book but this one will definitely always rank high up on the list for me.

Clara is a character that you can’t help but feel so much empathy towards after everything she’s been through and how she feels about her powers. It keeps you rooting for her to find her confidence and happiness through the whole book.

I particularly liked the authors inclusion of climate change as a major part of the story without it being the main objective of what needed to be fixed. This was solely a story about Clara fully connecting with her magic and no longer being afraid of it.

Bonus points to the love interest in the book being a botanist. The communication with flowers and plants was so sweet even though the reasoning was sad.

This was an excellent debut and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

Most people probably think of the weather as a boring topic people bring up when they don't know what else to talk about. So...nice weather we're having today. But Rachel Griffin managed to use the topic of weather and climate change as the basis for an interesting and beautifully written young adult fantasy novel. I love that this is probably one of the most unique takes on witches I've seen, where each witch's magic is tied to specific seasons and used to protect the earth. Clara attends what is basically a witch academy, but having a rare power that even most of her teachers don't truly understand makes it hard for her to train, and realizing her magic has deadly consequences means that she doesn't really want to train either.

This book is interesting because I wouldn't say it's very fast-paced, but it's also not super slow. I will say that a majority of the story and conflict is about Clara's inner conflict and whether she can fully embrace her magic knowing that it has the power to hurt the people she loves. But while there isn't a lot of person-to-person heavy combat or anything (not that there isn't some conflict between characters too), one of the biggest enemies Clara has to face is the climate itself. People's abuse of the planet has led to insane weather anomalies. Many are even dangerous, and so there are scenes of witches giving all they have to temper these crazy storms or something, and the scenes are both intense but lacking heavy action. I don't know if I'm explaining that well, but it was really interesting, definitely unique. There's a very obvious underlying message about climate change that sometimes felt a little heavy handed, but one I agree with and it did fit within the story.

I also really liked the different characters. Clara is a strong protagonist who I think readers will really feel for. She's experienced a lot of loss, self-doubt, and fear that have driven her for so long, and now she's beginning to experience the impact of a love unlike one she's ever known. I like her and Sang's relationship, and the romance in this book is really sweet and fun to follow. Magic, romance, self-acceptance, and a whimsical setting that makes readers feel just as connected to nature as the characters. I definitely recommend this if you like witchy books and want something a little more unique.

Wow. I loved this stunning story! The writing was atmospheric and beautiful, and the witchy ways were awesome! I really loved that the author built the magical system around the seasons! It made the story so interesting. The character growth is truly amazing, and it's just an outstanding read!

If you enjoy witchy stories and character-driven plots, this is a great one for you!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.