The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin is a contemporary fantasy that gives witches the power of the seasons and the ability to control the climate. The magic system is fantastic and I think unique to YA witch-based fantasy. Witches get their magic from the sun and the four seasons, creating five kinds of witches: spring, summer, autumn, winter, and the rare Everwitch. When in their season, a witch’s magic is strong, but once their season is over, their magic weakens. What I really liked about this magic system is that witches can lose their magic by being depleted or by being in the path of total solar eclipse, and a major concern throughout the story is that witches are dying or being depleted while trying to combat rampant climate change. The book also hints that there is a decline in witches being born, which I would have liked to see explained or explored more.

What I didn’t like about this story was the protagonist, Clara. She’s an Everwitch, the most powerful kind of witch, capable of using her magic across all four seasons and could potentially tilt the balance in favor of witches and the environment. Unfortunately, Clara comes across as self-pitying and defeatist. She can’t control her magic, which accidentally killed her parents and her best friend, but she holds back in learning to control it because she’s certain it’s dangerous. Clara makes no effort to change her situation or help herself. She has to be pushed into training and when she succeeds her thoughts almost immediately turn to what if scenarios of her magic harming those closest to her. Also, her biggest concern seems to be whether or not she can have a boyfriend or a girlfriend without hurting them. She’s even prepared to get stripped of her magic so she can be with Sang, her romantic interest throughout the story, without worrying about her magic . . . never mind that witches lives and the environment depend on that magic. In the end, I kept waiting for Clara to do something, to pick a side and act, but she never actively tries to find ways to have both, and she never really changes her attitude about her magic until the last few chapters. She was just a lackluster protagonist for me.

Overall, I really wanted to love this book, but instead it was just okay. The magic system and details of this story are wonderful, but I was hoping for more than a flat romantic storyline. The descriptions throughout are lovely, and I really liked Paige, Clara’s ex-girlfriend (I think Paige would have made a fantastic POV character). I would recommend this to any young teen who is interested in contemporary fantasy, witches and romance.

I don't often read contemporary fantasy, but this book might just change that. The characters and world-building were unique and amazing, plus the central theme of climate change is timely and important. Will definitely recommend to my students!

Rachel Griffin's writing is simply beautiful and the imagery of nature and magic is incredibly captivating. I really enjoyed reading The Nature of Witches!

Clara is young and has the world on her shoulders, she's never been able to be close to anyone for very long, and therefore struggles greatly with the possibility of truly being in love and having so much power within her.

In the end, it’s a wonderful read with a delightful magic system based on the 4 seasons. I was left wanting a little more....I feel like each season wrapped up very quickly, however, I would recommend it to any young reader!

Best YA Book I have read all year!!! I loved everything about it. I have read where people say it is a mix between Practical Magic and Twister and I agree 100%!! Add in a little young love and teenage drama and you have a winner! :)

I really enjoyed this book and all of it's elemental magic!
The book opens with a wildfire and I was drawn in right away. We find out that most witches are able to harness magic from the season of their birth but Clara is different. She is an Everwitch and is able to harness magic from all seasons. This magic has caused her much grief and pain. After her magic caused the death of her parents she is sent to a school to teach her how to embrace and control her power. But at the school her magic ends up killing her best friend and Clara is sent to live by herself in a secluded cabin. She likes the time alone somewhat and it keeps her from hurting others, but she is isolated and doesn't know how to open up to her magic. It isn’t until her seventeenth year that she meets Sang and learns more about her magic and love.

I really liked how this book was broken up into seasons and we see how each season affects Clara and her magic. I loved the imagery also and the talk about botany throughout the book.
Sang and Clara's relationship was lovely to watch blossom. He is a great and thoughtful character and helps Clara a lot. Sang works with her so well and he never tries to hold her back or push her too hard like the teachers do.
This is a gorgeous debut from Rachel Griffin and I looking forward to reading more from her.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Source Book Fire, for the advanced copy for my honest review*

Woooooooo! This book.. Loved! I seriously loved the whole concept of Witches who control the different elements and seasons. It touches on the big importance of climate change that is happening right now as I type this. We meet Clara, an Ever witch and the only one of her kind, who can control all the seasons. Every season there are witches who can control the elements, where their power is the fullest, and when they’re season is no more they don’t have as much power. But not Clara. Because she is an Ever her power flows each season and change and matches what that season needs. There are non witches, known as shaders, who sort of counter balance the system with witches, but they keep wanting more and it throws a lot of the natural elements off balance. Clara must learn to control her magic to help the witches who are dying due to depletion from the shaders actions. In comes Sang, a spring botanist who helps Clara open herself up more. She’s closed herself off due to some unforeseen events.

I love witches!! Anyone who knows me know so gravitate towards these book. I loved Clara and her rawness of emotions in finding herself I also loved Sang and that he didn’t push Clara the way others did. He was honest and comforting. My only downside is the repetitiveness. The accidents that happened to Clara were repeated nonstop in almost every chapter. Like we got it, you really only need to say it twice!! So for that the book was a bit slow for me to get into.

I give this a 4.5/5!!

Most witches are able to harness magic from the season of their birth. Clara is different. She is an Everwitch and is able to harness magic from all seasons. This magic has caused her grief and pain. After her magic causes the death of her parents she is sent to a school to teach her how to embrace and control her power. At the school her magic ends up killing her best friend and Clara is sent to live by herself in a secluded cabin close to the school. It isn’t until her seventeenth year that she meets Sang and learns so much about her magic and love.

I found this book unique and interesting. Most of the books I have read contain elemental magic. This is the first I have read that focuses on seasonal magic. It was a light read broken up by seasons and each section explains how the change in season affects each witch.
Clara had a relationship with Paige when her magic killed their friend and she ended up breaking up with her due to the fear that she would be next. Paige holds a huge grudge against Clara and is extremely brutal during their interactions. Paige’s honesty helps Clara toward the end of the book and it also helped me like Paige more. She wasn’t ever my favorite character.
Sang is a great character that helps Clara so very much. The friendship they have is strong and it’s no surprise that they fall in love. I loved that he never tried to hold her back or try to push her too hard like the teachers did.
I really enjoyed this book. Clara’s self-doubt got on my nerves a bit, but this story was interesting. Since Sang is studying botany there is a lot of information about herbs and plants and the health benefits of them all. This is Rachel Griffin’s first book and I’m looking forward to more from her.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book! Rachel weaves a story of love, loss, trauma, magic, and healing in a brand new way! Clara is broken and fears so much about who she is as the only Everwitch in a century, and that with her use of her powers, the ones she loves are dead. This book is about not running from who you are regardless of your past, your mistakes, or whom you presume yourself to be. It's about finding a safe person that helps you see what's always been inside of you and helps you amplify others because of it rather than in spite of. One of my favorite reads of 2021 and of all time!

A school for solar witches who control weather in our increasingly climate compromised world. This does not read like a first book by a novice writer but rather reads like a tour de force of a long-time best-selling fantasy author. Romantic, full of regrets and the glory of fully realized magic amongst those willing to work together. This will move you to wish it were real.

Clara is the first Ever Witch in nearly two hundred years, meaning she can control the powers of all four seasons. Other witches can only control the powers of the seasons they were born into. Climate change is causing catastrophic events in the atmosphere, which makes magic so difficult to control. More and more witches are being depleted, their magic drained away as they attempt to fight the natural disasters. Clara theoretically has the power to help, to even stop these disasters from happening but she’s afraid of her powers. She killed her parents, killed her best friend, because her powers, when they are out of control, seek emotional connections and use those connections as a conduit, unfortunately hurting the person on the receiving end. As the seasons pass, Clara gradually gains control over her powers, with the help of another student, Sang. She has to stop herself from feeling anything for him but he’s possibly the only person who has even come close to understanding her in a long time.

The characters feel very one, or perhaps, two dimensional to me. Clara is very concerned about her magic killing more people that she cares about because it seems drawn to people she has strong, positive feelings for. That and she’s uncertain about her magic and the power she holds, and if she wants to keep it. She doesn’t seem to have any interests outside of the magic she almost hates, other than her cat, Nox. She didn’t have a TV in her little cabin or anything else to divert her time. I just found her cycle of thoughts to be annoying and repetitive for much of the time, no matter how justified her worries were. She was also very bratty, not listening to her teachers for the reason of personal dislike. The way she was treated was fairly demeaning, as well, completely devaluing her powers. I feel that these teachers are not at all the best she could, and should, have gotten, given that she’s a once every couple of years kind of witch. Sang at least gets the added benefit of being a Spring and also loving botany, pursuing research in the subject outside of his training sessions with Clara. The other characters are just there for their purpose as regards Clara’s story, not feeling particularly real. I couldn’t imagine what they did off the page while we were following Clara. Clara also seemed pretty stagnant. She might have grown to love her magic a little more, but not as it was. It had to become completely changed for her to grow to love it and herself.

As much as Clara kept mentioning how the shaders (people without magic) and the witches worked in harmony and lived side by side, all I saw was how isolated the witches were. The shaders might be aware of the witches but they don’t work together. They might not hunt the witches down or hate them but there is a certain hesitancy regarding their placement in society. There is very little of modern human society on campus. There were no mentions of television or the news outside, except in regards to weather. I didn’t even know Clara had a phone for the first half of the book. The campus itself is beautiful, awash in the magic of all the witches who live there. It is lively and well manicured, their magic weaving through and creating a wonderful atmosphere. The magic is probably my favorite aspect, as much as it, too, is limited in scope. All I saw was nature magic. Is there truly no other kind of magic? Botany and making potions, okay. But what else can magic be used for? Is nature magic really it?

The pace is very quick, jumping from one season to the next. The first season emphasizes how Clara changes with the season and how, when the changeover happens, she feels like a different person. The following switches don’t go into depth as to how she feels and that definitely feels like a loss. There is a formula, in which Clara tries to use her magic in a seasonally appropriate way, fails, hurts someone or herself and struggles with the fallout. A natural disaster happens, whether it’s an out of season heat wave or a thunderstorm in winter, and Clara has to stop it, with varying degrees of success. There’s a party to celebrate the season and Clara feels like an outcast. Clara has no friends and decides to leave to go back to her isolated cabin in the woods.

The writing feels strongest whenever the magic and the feelings involved are being described and perhaps that is why the writing feels like it jumps to the important moments. But jumping to the important moments robs me of getting to know Clara as a person. I would have liked to see more description surrounding how Clara spends her days. I wanted more excerpts of Alice Hall’s memoir, more things Clara could find comfort in as she discovered more about her own magic. But the memoir was forgotten, left behind after the first quarter of the book when it was presented as being a solution to some of Clara’s problems.

There was an important plot piece that was left entirely to the last minute and seemed way too convenient for my tastes. It basically saved the day and felt like it was much too powerful and sudden to be believable. I also don’t see how Clara’s powers can really help heal the world as it is because the world seems too far gone and Clara is only one person, no matter how powerful. There are too many natural disasters happening for her to fix every one. Because of this plot piece, what I thought would happen, any of the possibilities, were thrown out the window. It just felt like a let down.

I enjoyed the magic system and the change of the seasons, the celebrations of power. But even that felt trite and underdeveloped. There could have been more lore to describe their traditions, more history to deepen the meaning behind the celebrations. There could have also been more real world applications of magic, rather than repetitive training sessions where the format was always the same. I liked the cat, Nox, short for Equinox, and wish he’d had a bigger part in the story. The romance between Sang and Clara was very sweet but was soured by Clara’s insistence on not being close to anyone and Sang not being fully developed. I would have loved to see other chapters from his point of view, and from Paige, Clara’s former best friend/ex-girlfriend. Or even from Mr. Hart, Clara’s teacher.

If someone wants to read a quick magical romance, this book would be a good place to start. It might be good for fans of the Sweep series by Cate Tiernan. The overpowered, out of control magic reminded me of the main character in that series, and how she struggled to control her sudden power.

Thank you to NetGalley for an egalley of this book. I enjoyed reading it, for all that I did not end up liking it all that much.

I love witches and magic so I really thought this would be a home run for me. Unfortunately I just couldn't connect with it. The magic system is actually kind of interesting; each witch is stronger during one particular season (except for our main character, of course). However, their magic seems limited to just controlling the weather and making things grow? That kind of magic/witchcraft is really limiting and kind of boring to read. This story is all about internal conflict. Aside from one teacher who goes kind of hard on the main character, there's nothing external driving the plot. That really made the story feel kind of small and not extraordinary.

The Nature of Witches blends the elemental, environmental, and emotional aspects of each season into a beautiful poetic story about loving the world around you and, most of all, loving yourself.

In a modern-day world where natural disasters strike, witches are seen as the source of aid to help provide relief and limit the effects of these dangerous conditions. Witches only can encompass the power of their season, the intense magic of summer, the transitional magic of autumn, the aggressive magic of winter, and the patient magic of spring. But when the disasters become bigger and happening out of their season, the witches have to rely on one of their own, the single Everwitch who can bring forth the magic of all seasons.

This book spoke to my soul! I loved the environmentally-conscious narrative and how Griffin wrote this story with so much love for not only the seasons but for the earth itself.

The standout for me was the romance. It was SO beautifully developed and intertwined that it made my heart BURST. Their connection to each other was undeniable and so emotionally driven. It was the perfect slow burn. (Also, the scene where they speak using different flowers for their emotions was phenomenal! Just *chef’s kiss*)

4.25/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

4.5
Thank you to Net Galley and Fire Sourcebooks for my e-ARC!

The Nature of Witches was a perfect combination of witchy (w/o being scary lol), nature, personal growth and romance (Clara and Sang are so. CUTE.) I really liked Griffin's magic system with different witches being tied to certain seasons and how she connected her story/world with climate change, it was so interesting and FUN to read! Books with lots of nature writing and characters that love nature will always always have my heart. I wish that there had been more lead-up/development toward the final climax/solution, but I really LOVED this book because of the world-building, romance, and natural elements.

**I received a free digital copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

This was such an interesting ride of a novel. Clara is an Everwitch, meaning she has access to all four seasons of magic, but along with her powers come complications. Watching Clara's transformation felt very real, because the author managed to capture Clara's emotions and reactions in a way that felt authentic. I felt as though the whole thing played out in front of me like a movie, which is always a sign of a good book, in my humble opinion. I look forward to reading more from Rachel Griffin in the future, and I certainly consider "The Nature of Witches" to be a resounding success.

All I can say is wow! I could not put this book down. I am so thankful to sourcebooks for the ARC! I can see why it is one of the most anticipated new releases for the year!

This was such an amazing read that I really enjoyed. This was so different from other books I have read. The story was amazing and the characters were phenomenal. This debut was truly amazing and I encourage everyone to one click.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I did not connect with the main character nor the writing and as a result, I did not end up finishing it. However, a lot of other people have enjoyed!

What an incredible debut novel by Rachel Griffin.
The world is experiencing more chaotic environmental changes that witches are no longer able to to properly manage. Witches's are depleting their powers attempting to stabilize things but alas the problem continues to grow more severe. The only hope that Witches have rests on the shoulders of the Ever, Clara, who unlike all others can manifest the power of all seasons.... if only it were that simple.

The idea for this book--that witches can control the natural elements of certain seasons--is a solid and interesting one, but the story itself here is a bit of a mess and a little too full of self-pity for me. At a K-12 school for these season witches, Clara is a rare witch who can control all four seasons (sounds like the Avatar), but she's not in control of her powers and has accidentally killed her parents and best friend. Realizing that her powers attack those to whom she's emotionally close, she limits her training and abilities and lives alone in a hut on her school's campus rather than in the dorms. Then comes along Sang, an older student from a different campus who's out in charge of fixing Clara's magic. Or making her fix it. Clara spends a lot of time trying to decide whether to give up her powers and become a non-magic person, who are called shaders. She agonizes over her breakup with her girlfriend, then predictably falls for Sang. Finally, she gets info from previous all-season witches and learns to control herself. Clara isn't terribly sympathetic, and Sang is a doormat being used by his teachers. The magic itself isn't explained very well, and the idea of witches vs shaders in terms of saving the world vs destroying the environment is pretty bad. At the end of the book, shaders are invited to the school to work with the witches for the first time ever, but the language that surrounds the non-magic folk is pejorative.

I liked the special features like the quotes at beginning of each chapter and the whole book divided into seasons to reflect the story. Clara's journey was fascinating as she strove to find her powers and use them fully without fear of tragedies that happened in the past. Great read alike for readers of the Three Dark Crowns series.