The Orphan Witch was a detailed and original storyline. The author created a story with a great deal of world building and stage setting. Persephone May is in her thirties and still hasn't gotten over being orphaned. Growing up was challenging for her as she was continually moved from foster home to foster home. Persephone had trouble understanding and controlling her powers. Unfortunately, his sometimes led to dangerous situations for others.

The invitation to return to Wile Isle comes at the perfect time for Persephone. She has hit a new emotional low and hopes that returning to her ori9inal home will help her deal with things and move forward with her life. In addition, she desperately needs to know how to control her powers better so as to not endanger others - - in particular, men who are interested in her.

At times, the book felt as if it was moving a bit slow. As I mentioned earlier in the review, there was a significant amount of world building and as such, a great deal of detail was being used. That can often bog readers down and detract from the overall storyline. Once the book moved past that section, the plot felt as if it picked up a bit.

Along with the paranormal witch element of this story, there is also a mystery blended into the plot along with a love story. It's a well-written book with strong characters and a clever storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

The Orphan Witch starts as a lovely book about finding family but slowly turns into something more suspenseful with secrets looming, dark forces lurking near, and magic demanding a price possibly greater than many are willing to pay. I was immediately charmed by the writing with its rich descriptions and the sense of yearning it evokes from Persephone's desire to find a family. I appreciated the level of detail that went into the history of those on the isle as well as the magic system.

As the mystery of the isle deepens and the rift between cousins begins to affect Persephone's livelihood, the slow pace and certain plot elements (miscommunication and misunderstandings) began to impede what could have been a more exciting second half. This theme of belonging and a desire to be among family was a heartbreaking one. Anyone who has ever felt out of place will be able to connect with Persephone's loneliness and desire for love.

The book managed to keep me engaged for the majority of it; however, I was not a fan of the ending. Individuals who enjoy slower reads and magical novels that emphasize love and family while also pitting good against evil may enjoy The Orphan Witch. (3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars)

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Griffin for the chance to read The orphan witch by Paige Crutcher. The description and book cover of this YA magical book drew me and I love anything to do with magic and witches; plus it includes a magical library so why wouldn't I love it? However, as with some books written for a certain age group in mind, I found I was bogged down with too much plot, characters I didn't care for, and it took me forever to read and finish the story. I don't want people to think it is a bad story; there was some great moments: I really enjoy the relationship between Persephone and Devon, the guardian of the library, the library itself, and of course, the magic. I believe older teens will enjoy this book and I will look for other books by the author because I did enjoy some aspects of The orphan witch.

Poor Persephone May has led a doomed life. Abandoned by her family and shuttled between foster homes she has always felt out of place. Persephone is different from everyone else and strange and magical occurrences happen when she is around. The worst of all is, if someone looks into her eyes something bad will happen to them. All of these things force her to live in then shadows. Then one day, after an accidental public display of her magic, Persephone knows she must move on immediately. As she ponders where to go next, she receives an email from the only friend she has managed to keep inviting her to Wile island in North Carolina. With nothing to lose, Persephone decides to go there and what she finds is not at all what she was expecting. Suddenly she feels much less alone in the world.

I enjoyed this book. The magical elements were fun and Persephone is a character you root for. I do wish she had been portrayed as a little less downtrodden but she grows in her spunkiness and that was a nice transformation. This book is a good mix of heartwarming and fantasy, a combination you don’t always see. It should appeal to readers who enjoy a little lite witchiness and a lot of feel good charm.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and St. Martin's Griffin, for the chance to read and review this book in exchange of an honest review.

Persephone May has been always alone. Abandoned as infant, grown up in foster care, strange things happen when she's around, weather changes, things take flight and so on. So Persephone, to protect her heart and feelings, decides not to get attached, not to make friends or to date anyone, always ready to move from town to town. After another scary and accidental display of power, she's ready to move again and she, luckily, gets a letter from the only friend she's managed to get: Hyacinth, inviting her on Wile Isle. The timing is perfect, but as soon as she arrives Persephone understands the island isn't an ordinary one. She can feel its power and mystery and Hyacinth and her sister Moira will open a brand new world for her, making her feel at home, accepted, loved and protected. But answers and family come with a price and Persephone finds herself involved into a 100-hundred-year-old curse, family feud, a Library of the Lost, a rude and fascinating librarian and, maybe, a way to save them all.

I really loved reading The orphan witch. It's a brilliant fantasty story, captivating, the plot full of twists, secrets and discoveries and Persephone is a wonderful main character. She's very realistic in her longing, pain and desires. She wants to belong to somewhere, to someone, she's looking for answers about her past and family, finding more she was looking for, involved in a world full of magic, curses and so on. Persephone is dragged in a complex and scary reality, where she discovers her powers, where she belongs and her role in everything. The setting(s) are truly mystical and enchanting...and enchanted, too.
The island is beautiful, rich and evocative and its description made me feel like I was there with Persephone, discovering it slowly, smelling the flowers and the sea, the herbs, learning magic and connections, falling in love and so much more. On the other side the library is another captivating setting, with the rude and mysterious Dorian, books and secrets, voices and clues, scattered everywhere.

If the setting is evocative and intense, so the characters. As I've already written, Persephone is brilliant and a very relatable character. She's also brave and stubborn and she's, as she will discover in time, surrounded by love and bonds. Except for Dorian, the book presents only female characters, wonderfully complex and intricate in their feelings, emotions, past traumas, connections and mistakes.
The jovial Hyacinth and her struggles and pain, the strong and stubborn Moira, hiding her past and losses behind a facade, the mysterious and elusive Ariel and Ellison, the witches Amara and True, who started everything years and years ago. The side characters, as the main one, are brilliantly written, very relatable in their actions and feelings.
The writing style is captivating, it was impossible not to feel Persephone's feelings and longing, her desires and fears, her dreams, to be involved in her adventure, following her discovering herself, her strength, her family and her love.
It's an intense and magical fantasy with romance, action and sisterhood.

The orphan witch is a book about family and bonds, about belong to somewhere and someone, the sacrifices one would do for love and the right things, about being brave.
It's a wonderful, evocative, sometimes sad and others funny, fantasy story about sisterhood and love, action and magic, family and curses to be broken.

Charming and magically-booklicious! The story line was interesting, and the characters were complex and rich with life. I enjoyed this book immensely!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

Really good storyline and great characters. I fell in love with. Imaginative and mysterious. Persephone is a great heroine. Alone and abandoned she comes to Wile Isle and gets more than she expected. Absolutely loved it. Great new author for me!

I'm sad to give this one only 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed the story and the themes, but found the writing to be unnecessarily wordy. I get setting up a scene and the ambiance of it, what I don't get is taking several paragraphs to do it in.
The magical journey Persephone goes on to find the place where she belongs is wonderfully full of twists, turns, and revelations that really make you want to follow along with her story. The people she meets along the journey are interesting and have very well-defined personalities and histories of their own. The magical island and other locations where the action takes place are memorable and great additions to the storytelling. Alas, the author's attempt to sound magical and mysterious through word count failed to work its magic with me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the read!

Thank you so much to Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc!

I may have clicked on this based on the cover. It’s gorgeous!

Persephone has lived a lonely life in an out of foster care she struggled opening up to anyone. When she would open up to someone it never ended well. She frequently changes jobs and once she’s in her thirties after a mishap she flees only to end up with an invitation from a relative.

I enjoyed this book, I found her powers interesting and enjoyed the characters. This book is written well and I would recommend!

The Orphan Witch by Paige Crutcher is a heartwarming lost and found story centered around Persephone May. Beginning on the first page, we are pulled into an imaginative and magical journey through time and space as Persephone realizes the love of one’s family is everything.
Shuttled from foster home to foster home for most of her life, all Persephone wants is a family. She wants to be found. When she is invited to Wile Isle by the one person she considers a friend, she jumps at the chance for a fresh start. Weird things are happening to the people around Persephone, and it is taking its toll on her.
Things are not as they seem on Wile Isle and Persephone will have many hard choices to make for the people she has grown to love. Persephone must come to terms with the knowledge she is a witch, one with immense power. She will need to learn how to use this power to save the ones she now calls family.
“Love is giving up the whole world for the people you love. I gave up mine for you, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The only way to keep you safe was to give you a fresh start. I may not have been beside you, but I have always been with you.”
I loved this book so much, it has witches, fantasy, love and just a little bit of thrill. It is the perfect October read.
Thank you so much to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this eARC with me.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s book review time. This month, I wanted something more fantasy than anything. Just something a little different than all of the cozies I’ve been reading lately. I thought that might help me get excited about reading again. My search brought me to The Orphan Witch by Paige Crutcher. It was released yesterday (the 28th) from St. Martin Press’s Griffin imprint. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

The Orphan Witch follows Persephone May as she drifts through life trying to find her place in the world and a family to share it with. Bad luck seems to follow her around until she’s invited to spend some time on Wile Isle, then everything goes from bad to worse. There’s a curse only she can break, people who keep attacking her for no reason, and lots of betrayal and deception. But throw in a hot librarian and maybe things aren’t so bad.

Sounds fun, right? It could be, but it’s not. The plot is far too convoluted. It honestly feels like an early draft where even the author is just going along and trying to figure out what’s happening. The beginning is slow and sparse on important details. Everything is crammed into the last half of the book, which makes it super muddled. And for an island that doesn’t let people come to it during certain times of the year, it sure seems to make a lot of exceptions. If the rules of the magic system are so easily ignored, it destroys all my faith in the system to begin with, which makes the loopholes Persephone and her cohorts exploit more annoying than exciting. There was a lot of potential for this story, but the execution was lacking.

The characters were okay. Persephone was too naive a lot of the time. And her background could’ve been explored and utilized better, but she was an okay protagonist. Hyacinth was ridiculously manipulative and selfish, but it was (poorly) explained away as her being under someone else’s influence despite the fact that she was a horrible person all along. Moira, Ellison, and Ariel all had potential to be really interesting, but were largely undeveloped. They felt like afterthoughts, brought in to move the plot along. And Dorian could’ve used a lot more fleshing out.

You can probably guess how I feel about the pacing. Ugh. Aside from the beginning being slow and the end being rushed, there were so many spots that were just infodumps. Instead of spreading the background throughout the story naturally, there are huge sections of it unceremoniously scattered everywhere. I almost didn’t get past the first chapter because of it. But I pressed on.

The writing itself was average at best and subpar at other times. Mostly, the dialogue was the cringe-y bit. It was so stilted and a lot unnecessary things were said that were strictly for the benefit of the reader. I can’t think of a specific example from this book, but I mean like when characters are talking about someone the main character knows, but the speaker goes into ridiculous detail about great aunt Muriel with the glasses and saggy jowls or whatever. People don’t talk that way. It’s annoying. Just say “Aunt Muriel died,” then do a descriptive paragraph. Not everything belongs in dialogue.

Ultimately, The Orphan Witch didn’t live up to its potential. Luckily, it works just fine as a standalone, so I don’t even have to entertain the idea of sequels. It just wasn’t for me.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. Well, one and a half, really. One star because it got published (which is hard to do and means someone liked it) and half of one because it had potential. If you’re interested in it, you might like it. If it just seems meh to you, you’re not missing anything by skipping it.

Lots of magic and an orphan looking for her family sets the tone for this witchy tale. I really enjoyed Persephone and her journey, Dorian and the library of the lost, and her sisters quest to save their home. Sometimes the story got muddled in the middle, possibly more twists and turns than necessary. Although the ending is satisfactory this story does leave an opening for further adventures. Thanks to net galley and ST Martins Press for this ARC.

Persephone May has had problems her whole life making eye contact with anyone. If she does, something bad happens to the person. Her life is lonely. Until one day, she goes to a seaside village in Wile, North Carolina. She finds out she is a witch and other female witches living there are related to her. She finally has a home and a family. Except there is a curse connected to the place and her family along with a family feud.

She discovers she may be a World Walker, one who can walk through worlds, and she finds a Library of the Lost and a male librarian, who she can make eye contact with and nothing bad happens, she is attracted to. But time is running out and Persephone hopes she is the walker that may save them all.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Orphan Witch is such a fantastic book. I was drawn in on page one. The story centers around Persephone May, who grew up in foster care. I felt a lot of compassion for her straight away because all she wanted was a family and stability, both of which eluded her. After all, anytime someone indeed looks at her, something happens to them. When it does, she moves on to the next town.
Eventually, Persephone meets Hyacinth, who invites her to come to visit. Persephone decides to take her up on her offer and travels to Wild Isle. As soon as Persephone steps off the ferry, she knows it feels different here, and things begin to take shape as she learns more about herself.

The characters in this book are well developed, and I was drawn to them as the story is very compelling. I was drawn in from the beginning and read it quickly. It’s a beautiful story, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good witch story!

Like a lot of other reviews the cover and title drew me in. I wanted to try something a little different and it just wasn't was I was expecting. This is not about an orphan child witch. She is an adult who had a very lonely life growing up. When she is invited to an island she discover more about her family and her magic. The story had potential, but it fell a little flat and parts felt a little repetitive.
It had it's moments that I liked, I just never really got invested in the characters.

I enjoy fantasy stories and ones about witches come in a close second after vampires. The synopsis of The Orphan Witch sounded intriguing. Persephone May bouncing around foster care because strange and unexpected things happen to her. Now an adult, when strange things happen, she just picks up and moves. Then she receives an email from an old acquaintance to come to Wile Isle. Once there she discovers that she is actually a witch.

This book has a few things I like about magical books – found family, a love interest and a curse to break. I did have a hard time getting through the story. I was hoping for a little more action. The pacing was slow and at times the plot was confusing to me. I’d recommend this for fantasy readers that enjoy a character driven story.

Thank you to NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’d like to start of by thanking you for receiving an ARC of this book! As someone who truly appreciates the fantasy book experience for me this one was a win! It gave me the magical elements I wanted and a growth that drew me in.

Thank you to Netgalley, Paige, and St. Martin’s for an advance copy of The Orphan Witch.

Persephone May is an outcast in every sense of the word. Abandoned by her parents and bounced around the foster care system, she’s never known security. Worse than that, things happen to Persephone that she can’t explain, sometimes dangerous things. Because of this, she bounces from town to town, searching for a place to call home.

When yet another incident happens, she is packing up to relocate and received an email from the one casual acquaintance that she has secured over the years. This friend asks her to come visit her on her home island of Wile Isle. Persephone decides there’s no harm in trying and sets off. She is immediately captivated by the island and feels a strange sense of belonging that she has never experienced before.

But this is not a chance acquaintance and this was not a random invitation. Persephone will soon discover that she does have some family, she is magic, and with these amazing things might also come some dangerous consequences.

I thought this book would be so much different than it was. I did enjoy it, but it was a much slower story than I was anticipating. I was expecting a YA fantasy pacing and I definitely got the vibe of a Practical Magic-style adult magical realism/adult contemporary read. Which again, did not mean I didn’t enjoy it, but that’s not my typical genre, and I prefer a faster pace overall.

I really enjoyed the 100 year curse/prophecy aspect of the story. I liked the sister/family feud. I liked the romance, but wish I’d gotten more. I did find it a little difficult to keep the characters separate as we were getting to know them, but that’s to be expected in a story with so many similar characters. Moira was my favorite character. Persephone was written well as someone who’s eager for love and connections, but also not well-versed in how to achieve those things.

I think this would be a great fall read for anyone who enjoys contemporary books with some magic and romance. The romance was very mild and a side story, but I really enjoyed it and thought it was done well.

This was an interesting tale with magic, romance, and family. Persephone is trying to find her place in the world and throughout the story learns more about herself. The pacing of the story was good, if slow at times. However, I enjoyed that the author provided details helping readers to imagine and understand this world. Persephone was also a relatable character and I found her relationships with other characters endearing.

Persephone May has grown up in foster care, bouncing from home to home, never belonging. Bad things happen when she makes eye contact with anyone and now that she's an adult, she's forced to move constantly. But when she meets Hyacinth, she finally finds a friend, someone not afraid to look her in the eye. When Hyacinth invites her to visit their home in Wile Island, she finds her true home and friends that feel like family. Wile Island is full of magic and Persephone discovers a whole new side to her magical abilities. Is she the one foretold in the prophecy to break the curse and bring the lost witches home?
At times I felt a bit lost in the story with the many characters, past and present. It's a slow build with the world-building on the island, but I was fascinated by the library of the lost and the "librarian". The cover art on this book is amazing and what drew me to the book on the first place! Mysterious and magical...
I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.