A dreamy speculative, feminist fiction story. Wildwood Whispers introduces us to Mel who must travel to a sleepy southern town in the Appalachian Mountains to bury her best friend. Subsequently this story explores many feelings surrounding loss, grief and solitude but also celebrates found family, community and what it means to fullfill promises to oneself and the people you love. It's an intriguing murder mystery wrapped up with folk magic and mountain lore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for letting me read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A must read! Good vs evil, solitude vs. community, and finding home and family wherever it may be - all with a touch of folk magic! The depth of human emotion bringing Mel from solitude and loss, to family and love was a ride I couldn't put down! Although the story ended - would love to see more of the Wildwood!

This is the charming story of a woman who goes to a small town to fulfill the wishes of her deceased "sister", only to discover she has a lot to learn about herself. It's about magic and family and connection, and I liked the premise and basic plot. That said, the pacing was a little odd and some of the basic rules of the world were never explained adequately.

The Wildwood Knows.

An abundance of memories this book has brought back. The smells and the sounds of the mountains. The morning mist hanging over the peaks at first light. The sounds of the animals, the whip-poor-wills. An overall feeling of contentment and well being.

What a wonderful story of a young lady and her connection to the mountain and the people in Morgan’s Gap. I could see her growing in knowledge. Under Grandma’s teaching. She came to terms with the death of her friend, and began forging a life for herself.

After living as an orphan and foster child she found a home and a community of friends and neighbors in this small mountain community. Mel even found something more in her friendship with the young ranger Jacob.

A story of the mountain people coming together with the spirit of the forest to fight an evil man and his evil ways. Mountain people caring for each other as only they can. Their ways of life, their traditions and rites of passage.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Willa Reece, Redhook Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy of the book for my honest review.

As a murder mystery and a rustic witchy tale, this book was overall an engaging read. The characters felt distinctive, and I can tell a lot of effort was put into having readers move away from Appalachian back-woods stereotypes by creating a deeply connected and resourceful community.

My main issue with this book is the fact that in a story about generational connection to nature and the earth in a magical way, specifically the Irish settlers and the Appalachian mountains themselves, I could find no acknowledgment of the Indigenous peoples who had an even deeper relationship with the land for over 16,000 years.

Thank you Redhook Books for sending me this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Immersive, lush novel with a dash of magical realism. Thoroughly enjoyable! The writing is beautifully descriptive and I love the emphasis on The Natural world. Believable characters that I couldn’t help loving a satisfying read.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The book started off very promising. I really enjoyed some aspects. Unfortunately I found the villain to be very stereotyped and two dimensional and the climactic scene not believable. At times in the middle sections reading became a chore rather than an escape.

What a breathtaking book! Wildwood Whispers is full of magic from beginning to end, and I mean that literally and metaphorically. Themes of loss, belonging, grief, community, and appreciation of nature run throughout the novel and weave themselves into the novel in truly magical ways. Willa Reece's writing is gorgeous and lyrical, and I feel like I can picture every bit of the wildwood as it's described. Her way of writing Mel as a complicated character is well-rounded, which is a huge breath of fresh air after all the recent books I've read where the protagonist feels like a caricature instead of a fleshed out person. Also, the romance in the book is nice. It's not thrown in the reader's face, but it's present enough to make the heart flutter a little bit. Furthermore, the development of the attraction, then the relationship between Mel and Jacob feels authentic.

Wow, Wildwood Whispers is a wonderful book, and it's definitely on my list of favorite 2021 reads!

I had the weirdest time with my feelings on this book. I started it, made it about halfway, started over, then on the reread just…really, really enjoyed it after all. Honestly, I can’t tell 100% if that’s because I’m forcing myself to like it or not. This book ticks a lot of boxes for me. Southern Gothic? Check. Magical Realism? Check. Botanical magic abounding? Super check. Murders, mysterious deaths, and freaky religious cults? You betcha! Sexy biologists? Gotta be honest, didn’t know that a was a box to tick but here we are. Consider it ticked.

The first…maybe third of this book was ineffectively flowery. Lots of passages with a lot of words that aren’t actually saying anything, and the verbosity had a tendency to take me out of the narrative. I could tell it’s meant to be descriptive and evocative, but for me it didn’t especially deliver in terms of atmosphere until we started to finally settle into the story more than halfway into it. I kept skimming and then would find myself only half-reading, and I did that for long enough that I did end up starting over entirely around the 60% mark. In the second half (maybe last two-thirds) of the book, there are a lot more moments where the story hits a good stride and seems to find its rhythm, only to start dragging again. It’s frustrating because the writing is unfocused, which lead to unfocused reading. We get a handful of paragraphs that are just lush prose and deliciously atmospheric but they are strung together with a lot of paragraphs that feel like they are trying for that but end up being superfluous.

The pacing suffers for it just a tiny bit. This book feels looooong for what it set out to do. There are all these elements—the magic, Mel’s relationships with Sarah and later on all the women in the community, the religious cult, the murders—and plenty of space to explore all these things with depth, but I never felt like we really reached a satisfying level of exploration of most of it. There is closure, but when it was over it was less of that feeling you get with a thoroughly satisfying ending, and more of a, “Oh, okay. I guess that’s it.” I would’ve liked to see a deeper exploration of the cult, a deeper dive into Mel’s relationships within the community, just more of something. I think that suffered when we were well over halfway in and still meeting new characters every chapter, and it tipped into the territory of having too many characters to establish genuine connections

That said, there is a notable exception to this disconnect and surface exploration, and it’s the magic, which for me was just fully immersive and so gorgeously done I could cry. The incorporation of magic was sublime in that it was genuine without being kitschy. Lots of herbal spells and remedies, tea leaves and tisanes, songs with words that dance on your tongue even before you know what they mean, exactly. Soft magic, smart magic, emergent magic, ancient magic. Magic in the connections Mel felt and learned to listen to, with the earth, with the people of Morgan’s Gap, with music, with energy. Oh, so beautiful. Dizzying magic that pervades all your senses. It was understated in a lot of ways, muted but earnest, and just enough that I can believe that somewhere an hour’s drive from me in the mountains of western Virginia, there is a community of witchy wisewomen just like this.

At the end of it, I loved this. It's deliciously magical and once it hits its stride, it's very immersive and lush and is an overall wonderful experience. Highly recommend to those who love magical realism. Please read it, it was so good.

Thank you so, so muchly to NetGalley, Redhook, and Willa Reece for the ARC of this in exchange for an unbiased review!

This book was the magic I needed going through one of life's many valleys. Having alot of the things that capture my heart, the bond of sisterhood and the deep connections between women and the generations before them, the unmistakable pull to the beauty of Appalachia, and the ties that bind us to the dirt beneath our feet, I loved investing in these characters! Not a huge fan of magic realism, but it sometimes just speaks the imagination like this book did. Sequel, pretty please? #wildwoodwhispers #willareece #netgalley

I don't know that I have strong enough words to describe this book adequately. Wow - it was just an incredible story. Set in Morgan's Gap in the Appalachian Mountains it's full of beautiful folklore - of healing Granny's, and tonics and potions, and nature - always listening to nature and it's warnings.

Mel Smith is an orphan and the book starts when she meets and befriends Sarah Ross. Together they face the world, until an accident. Mel is following Sarah's last wishes, to take her ashes back to the wildwood where her mother was murdered years before. It's in Morgan's Gap that Mel learns the mountain's mysteries. The strange life of the mayor's wife, the sect of Rev. Moon, the townsfolk's connection to nature and their spirit animals, Granny's ways of knowing, what really happened the night of Sarah's mom's death and that Sarah's accidental death wasn't an accident.

The story is told in real time and in dream's - where Mel is dreaming of Sarah's past. Interesting concept. Fantastical story!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

This book pulls you into the wildwood of Morgan's Gap in the Appalachian Mountains. With the hint of magic and mystical powers It tells the story of Mel's friend Sarah and her mother, and the sisterhood of the wisewomen who live there. The description of the lush gardens will invite you in, but be careful, there is also a hint of danger and murder, mystery and secrets. Wildwood Whispers is an enchanting southern fiction read. I loved it and highly recommend this enjoyable novel. Thanks to the author Willa Reece, publisher Redhook Books, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for an honest review.

This book was enchanting to read! I didn't know this connection to nature was what I needed in my life (and I feel as though I am already connected), but this gave me another beautiful way to encounter nature.

Mel is an orphan. She's doesn't need anyone else and she's learned to survive on her own. But after her best friend, Sarah is killed, she must return Sarah's ashes to her home. When Mel returns Sarah's ashes to the cabin and the wildwood, she not only discovers Sarah's life before they met, but about the Secf lurking in the community and the meaning of the wildwood.

Reece gives a beautiful account of nature, the way we take from nature and the way we must give back. Nature is a cycle that we are all a part of and must return to, therefore, we cannot destroy it.

I look forward to the day this is in everyone's hands so all may learn to hear the whispers of the wildwood.

Wildwood Whispers is a magical botanical story about the fated connections that are created when nature sets things right. It follows Mel who returns to a small Appalachian mountain town after losing her best friend Sarah. The town and its mysterious woods conjure secrets and cunning ploys that are connected to the death of Sarah and possibly darker seedier events that have mystified the town for decades. Discovering an old book of herbal remedies from a wisewoman, Mel learns that there is a beguiling magic living in the wildwoods that knows everyones secrets, whispering truths to those who honour, protect, and defend its sacredness.

The healing power of nature is the floral path that the reader journeys down in Wildwood Whispers. Recipes and remedies, wisewomen and green witchery scatter seeds of hope, resilience, courage, and justice in this story about reconnecting to the magic inside you so that you may bloom into the person you were meant to be,

This was a highly original story about green/herbal magic that was not witchy or fantastical. I loved how the main characters were healers who are under-represented in fiction, It had the proper elements of a southern magical fiction novel but without the charm and flowery prose. This story was a bit darker compared to others in the genre. The only criticism I have is that the writing was a bit wordy and the ending was predictable.

Overall a lucious and enchanting story about life, death, flower, and thorn.

For me, one of the main criteria in evaluating a book is whether I would read it again. Wildwood Whispers definitely earned the five star rating. I thoroughly enjoyed this enchanting story and will read it again (and probably, again).

Raised in some of the worst conditions in the foster system, Mel Smith learned self-reliance early on. Her finely-tuned defense mechanisms never allowed for vulnerability and true caring until she met Sarah Ross. The two, close in age, became each other’s family – a sisterhood born of the heart, not of blood. When Sarah is killed in a car accident, Mel takes her ashes back to Sarah’s home - a small Appalachian town called Morgan Gap. There Mel learns the ways of the wisewomen – those who serve as emissaries between nature and humankind – and in the process finds healing for herself.

This is a lovely story that highlights our lost connection to nature. It is rich in the folklore and “magic” inherent in the beauty and power of the natural world. The storyline is compelling and the prose is evocative. It made me long for a simpler life that embodies an appreciation for the untamed - for the “wildwood whispers” - if we only would listen for its wisdom and truth. The characters are well-drawn and I especially liked Mel for all her bristly edges as she learns the truth of her own roots and finds her place in the world.

My thanks to the author, Redhook Books, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing a digital ARC in exchange for an independent, honest review.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

This is a lovely book. Set in Appalachia which does still have some secret places where you can feel the energy, Willa Reece's story rings true. Magical in its naturalness, terrifying in its humaness. I loved it.

Our daily interactions with nature go mostly unnoticed, these women live theirs every moment. The community they create includes a deep reverence for their natural surroundings and each other.