I liked parts of this book, but the majority did not work for me. I did not really care for the characters, I have questions when it comes to the world building and in general the entire novel felt low key unfinished to me.

i thought this was a super fun and summery read! i've never read a witchy book set in summer so that was refreshing. i thought the book handled themes of pain and grief really well. the romance between Edie and Rhia was so adorable!! we love a YA super sweet queer romance.

This was a unique read. Not my normal style but I still enjoyed it. The cover is super fun though!! I think I was just a bit too old to fully appreciate this.

Friends, welcome to the book release from 2021 that I believe is most underrated. Edie in Between is a remarkable fantasy/contemporary magical realism book that completely drew me in and captivated me.
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Edie was a likable hero and I was eager to see how the story unfolded. I loved how grief was also touched on in this book. One of the best parts, for me though, was the sapphic relationship at the forefront of the story. I had heard a little bit about it but not as much as I would hope.
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This book is incredible and I highly recommend it. This will appeal to fans of practical magic and under the whispering door. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Edie in Between by Laura Sibson will be my recommendation if you are looking for a witchy book with a strong summer vibe. This book is so fun to read and the perfect choice to cleanse your palate from a heavy epic fantasy read.

✨𝟏𝟓 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤
- First chapter and it's getting interesting!
- GG! You are so hilarious. Anti-theft charm 🤣
- Hmm.. I think I see a spark of love ☺️
- I shouldn't read it at night, this one is kinda spooky
- Ahh.. Eddie.. I just want to give you a hug 😢
- Dual POVs! Love that!
- Hmm... I didn't see that one is coming...
- Can I have Tess as a friend? She is such a sweetheart!
- Magical Scavenger Hunt... Ohh I loveeee it!!!!!
- Hidden magic spell. Such a fun idea!
- Wow! How come I am already here?
- GIRL! That thing is an obvious BIG NO NO!
- She just didn't realize that she is the magic
- Ouuuhh.. Both of them looks so cute together 😍
- Very atmospheric! I can feel my body shiver while reading this book 😝
- What a fun read! I wish there are a little bit more...

Five Reasons You Should Read Edie in Between

I weirdly love all books that have anything to do with magic, especially family magic. There isn’t much I won’t read in this genre, so I was SO excited to be picked for this book tour. So, without further ado, here are five reasons you should add Edie in Between to your TBR!

Grief is a thing we all are experiencing

While we’re not all experiencing grief in the same way, the last 18 months have made it very obvious that we’re feeling and managing grief in so many ways. For Edie, she’s grieving the loss of her mother, doesn’t know her dad, and grieving the loss of her home. It’s a lot. Edie’s journey is something you will find yourself in if you’re experiencing grief in any way.

Friends become family

There are two people in her life that she’s not related to, but are closer than family: Tess and Rhia. Their friendships (and friendship +) ground Edie when the magic she’s tried to deny her whole life becomes something she can’t fight any longer. Trusting her friends with who she is – all of who she is – is a risk she has to take to survive.

Magic. Magic. Magic.

Edie comes from a long line of witches, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. From the very first page, we see how magic is part of Edie’s life, even when she wants to ignore it. While she’s said she’s not interested in the “family business,” the family business isn’t done with her. Magic seeps from the pages with a slow burn that keeps you coming back for more.

Magic woods.

The perpetual woods. I want to live there. Read it and see how wonderful it is!

Full Circle

Edie in Between comes full circle as it explores grief, first love, power, corruption, hate, hope, and everything in between. This is a book that feels complete, but you still want more when it’s over. It’s a lovely journey through what it means to be more than human in a world where magic is very real and very much not understood. Is magic something you’re just born with? Can it be learned? Is it a little of both?

Final Thoughts

This book reminded me so much of some of my other favorites. Pick it up today and you won’t regret it. It’s a great read and a great book club read. 4.5/5 stars!

This was such a unexpectedly fun story! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did! It’s a summer story about love, magic, and family!

Grief: such a simple, five lettered word and yet an emotion that does not heed to the human mind. It just consumes and devours, pulling every radiant emotion, every other feeling like a black hole pulls an object towards it. Usually caused by someone’s death, yes, but also caused by various other things. Though, in Edie’s case, it is indeed caused by her mother’s death.

How can a girl who does not feel any connection or attraction toward her family magic manage her mother’s loss, combined with a cabin that looks haunted and pulls her towards itself? What does she do when things start unveiling themselves to her, and only her relationship with her newfound friends is going to drive her forward? Edie in Between is a book that answers all of these questions.

The book begins with Edie introduced to a new place where her grandmother and she live now, yet not feeling completely at home. Edie has a way to always run from her problems, and that is, well, pun intended, running. She goes on a daily run with her best friend Tess when she discovers a peculiar cabin, which Tess tells her is her family’s. Overcome with curiosity, she ventures into the cabin, only to get infected by a very vicious, ancient impure magic. With her grandmother, her numerous ancestors, Tess, her love towards Rhia and just her dead mother’s journal, she tries her best to make the impure magic subside, but there’s only one way that can happen.

The book is medium-fast paced and short, which keeps the reader hooked until the end. The friendship between Edie and her friends is described and written very nicely and there is a certain uniqueness to the book, which I can only associate with Edie and her friendgroup now. They say cliche one-liners when they’re nervous, they communicate when they’re not getting along well, even though a lot of friends might already be doing this, this is the first time I read it and I really liked it. The story is very flow-y and seemed like a lot of other witchcraft related books I’ve read, but I ended up liking it.

The title, according to me, didn’t seem completely apt to the story and although the story is in flow, the writing came with a lot of pauses that seemed a little off and interruptive. At times it also felt like the story was less about Edie and more about her mother, but the author made up for it at the end. There were also certain questions that were unanswered which I felt deserved to be addressed, but overall it was an okay read and I did like it. PLUS POINTS FOR SAPPHIC LOVE LIKE I ALWAYS SAY!!!

I was granted access to this book in order to conduct an interview with the author, which can be read in its entirety below:

1. Edie In Between has been described as “a modern-day Practical Magic” and expertly balances paranormal and contemporary elements while also exploring compelling subject matter like grief and female power and connection. How did this story come to be?

First, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate that you saw those elements I strove to convey. The first version of Edie In Between was a contemporary realistic story that I wrote for my MFA creative thesis when I was at VFCA. Fast-forward many years and my agent and I were pitching ideas to my editor for my second book. It was my editor who suggested merging the grief narrative in Edie with a witches-on-a-houseboat story that I had been exploring.



2. Of all the paranormal creatures and elements to choose from (vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc.) what was it about witches and witchcraft, specifically, that felt perfectly suited to Edie’s story?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved stories that feature magic and witches. On a basic level, I’m drawn to stories with magic because they are just good fun. I mean, who doesn’t want to cast spells? From a writer’s perspective, magic can be a wonderful vehicle for representing a character’s emotional arc and their relationship to power. Even more specifically for Edie In Between, I was interested in using magic to explore intergenerational female relationships.



3. Edie is initially reluctant to acknowledge or practice her magic, both for fear of the power she potentially wields and because she worries that her abilities make her different and strange. I think readers of all ages will be able to relate to and empathize with Edie’s feelings of loneliness, isolation and fear of alienation, myself included. Thankfully, Edie ultimately realizes that “Every person is an individual with some attributes that they like about themselves and others that they struggle with. Maybe my attributes and struggles are different from other people’s, but that didn’t mean that I need to be alone with them.” I think it’s so important we celebrate what makes us unique, and I loved watching Edie learn to embrace who, and what, she is. What’s something that you love about yourself and that makes you special?

Thank you for raising up that moment in the story and the journey from isolation to acceptance because those themes are exactly what I was working toward while drafting. For various reasons, I spent a lot of my younger years feeling that I didn’t belong and so all I could see were the ways that I was different from those around me. Eventually I learned that it does not serve me to compare my insides to other people’s outsides. I knew I wasn’t alone in that experience, so I sought to share it through Edie. Today, I love that I connect with most people easily and I also enjoy connecting people to one another.



4. Like other members of her family, Edie has the ability to see the ghosts of loved ones who have died, though she is unable to communicate with them. This ability seems to be bittersweet and both a blessing and a curse, as it allows Edie to remain connected to her mother after her mother’s unexpected death, but also makes it difficult to heal as it’s a constant reminder of what she has lost. Would you welcome and embrace having such a power? What are some other ways the novel demonstrates that our loved ones continue to live on with us after their death?

Jen, you truly see everything in this book that I wanted to convey! Thank you for being such an ideal reader. If it were the way in my family, as it is the way for the Mitchells, to see the dead on a daily basis I’d like to think that I’d relax into it like GG. But I think that it would be painful to see those who’ve passed on and not be able to fully communicate with them. At the same time, the ghosts in my book are metaphors, they are actualized memories offering that sense that our loved ones are near whenever we think of them. Similarly, the items that Edie and her friends search for during the scavenger hunt have memories magicked into them, but in real life items that belonged to a dead relative can have the same effect.



5. As the aforementioned question suggests, Edie In Between offers a powerful and touching exploration of loss and the grieving process. Edie is mourning the sudden death of her mother and, as illustrated through entries in a journal her mother left behind, Edie’s mother, Maura, mourns the death of her own father when Maura was a teenager. We see Edie, Maura and other characters literally and figuratively silenced in the wake of such trauma. What, if anything, would you say to a young reader who is currently struggling with loss and/or grief in their own life?

Grief is not logical and follows no calendar. Processing a huge loss is intensely personal and no two people will walk it the same exact way, which is why I showed Edie, Maura and GG responding so differently. In my experience, loss is not something to be surmounted so much as something we learn to live alongside in varying degrees. I didn’t lose a parent at a young age, so I did research for this book, and I learned that adolescents express grief in very different ways than adults. I hope that teen readers who have experienced loss and who continue to struggle will identify coping strategies that allow them to feel their feelings, but also encourage them to move forward with their own lives.



6. The Mitchell family magic is described as a “balance between nature and the elements” and “magic that helps and heals.” Their magic is deeply rooted in a connection with the earth and there’s a particularly beautiful scene that moved me in which Edie must remove bark from a tree for a spell but does so in such a thoughtful way that seems to emphasize respect, gratitude, and care for the natural world. What inspired you to craft the book’s magic system in this way?

The first element of the magic that came to me was GG’s ability to grow anything. Much later, while reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s gorgeous and thought-provoking book Braiding Sweetgrass, I was moved by the way she wrote about her people’s approach to making an offering before asking something of the earth. Kimmerer is both a PhD botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. To authentically craft GG’s character, I consulted a book about medicinal uses for plants and herbs, some of which referenced tree bark. As trees are symbols of strength in this book, it felt natural to have GG require tree bark for Edie’s salve. And it felt important to give GG and her family the same reverence for nature that I learned from Kimmerer’s book.



7. Speaking of Edie’s family’s powers, each member has control over a different element – Edie can control fire, her mother can control water, and her grandmother can control earth and vegetation. If you could control any one element, which would you choose and why?

Manipulating water appeals to me but doesn’t strike me as super-useful. I would love to have GG’s talent, which is based on my mother and grandmother. I swear that my mother can bring back dead plants and my grandmother grew the best tomatoes I ever ate. I, on the other hand, murder plants on a regular basis.



8. Edie is a passionate, dedicated runner and often uses movement to explore and process her feelings. This deeply resonated with me as I’m also a runner who uses running to take better care of her mental and emotional health. Can you share a little about this aspect of Edie’s creation and why it was important to include this element of her character? Is there anything in your own life that helps you decompress when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed?

You and I share that connection to running! I’ve run for many years for my physical and mental health. There are times when I’m running to escape and times when I’m running for joy. I wanted to give Edie a way to process her own internal struggle around the loss of her mother and being stuck with her grandmother away from her home. From a writing standpoint, I hoped that by giving Edie the passion for running also helped to ensure that she wouldn’t seem passive despite her emotional state.



9. Memories play a pivotal role in the novel. Rhia is plagued with turmoil and grief over her grandmother’s dementia diagnosis, which prevents them from connecting as they once did, and Edie becomes consumed with using magic in order to visit her mother’s memories, despite the potential danger it poses to her. Can you speak a little about a memory’s ability to connect us to those we love and the role this plays in Edie In Between? Is there a memory you cherish that you would feel comfortable sharing?

When I was young, every year just after Thanksgiving my mother, sister and I gathered on weekends in my grandmother’s kitchen to bake Christmas cookies very specific to my family. Years later, when my grandmother became ill, she gifted me with the cookie cutters she’d used for decades. All these years later, when I use those beat-up old cookie cutters, treasured moments from the past come singing back to me, not unlike having my grandmother appear in my very own kitchen! I began to think about memory differently when my mother-in-law Ann Mitchell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It was so painful to see this woman, who loved her family above all else, no longer recognize her children or her grandchildren. These experiences inspired me to consider the importance of shared memories as I drafted Edie In Between.

This was a quick and fun YA read. At the heart of the book is a sweet story about a daughter missing her deceased mother and learning more about her in her journal. There is some magic thrown in with the women in the family being witches. Plus the main character Edie is a runner and I immediately loved her!

Laura Sibson has dealt with mental trauma, death, loss, identity, memory, Sapphic relationships so well in this book I absolutely recommend this to everyone who loves these themes.

Edie's mother passed away recently but her ghost never left, and Edie has visions of her mother often. Edie not being able to move on from this has caused a stand still in her life. Although Gigi keeps pushing her to embrace her identity and family values as a witch, she has no interest in it.

One day, she finds a journal that belonged to her mother, and since then it's like a quest to look for Talismans that belonged to her mother, when she touches them she is transported to a different memory, and through finding these, she finds herself, her identity, and copes with the death of her mother.

The friendships, relationships, friends to lovers trope is adorable in the book. Edie's character is written so well that I wanted to befriend her all through the book. The magic lessons were also interesting. I love me a witchy book with incantations, spells and adorable full of life characters.

Thank you @tbrbeyondtours
@lauraosibson
@netgalley for the arc and the opportunity to read the book. 🌻💜

A modern day Practical Magic about love, loss, and embracing the mystical.
It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left. According to her GG, it’s tradition that the dead of the Mitchell family linger with the living. It’s just as much a part of a Mitchell’s life as brewing cordials or talking to plants. But Edie, whose pain over losing her mother is still fresh, has no interest in her family’s legacy as local “witches.”
When her mother’s teenage journal tumbles into her life, her family’s mystical inheritance becomes once and for all too hard to ign
ore. It takes Edie on a scavenger hunt to find objects that once belonged to her mother, each one imbued with a different memory. Every time she touches one of these talismans, it whisks her to another entry inside the journal where she watches her teenage mom mourn, love, and hope just as Edie herself is now doing. Maybe, just maybe, Edie hopes, if she
finds every one of these objects, she can finally make peace with her loss and put the past to rest for good. But this journey to stake her independence from her family may actually show Edie who she truly is...and the beautiful gifts that come with being just a little different.
Tinged with a sweet romance with Rhia, who works at the local occult shop , Edie in Between
delivers all the cozy magic a budding young witch finding her way in the world needs.

I really enjoyed reading this book that is a mix of magic, love, friendship, and teenage drama. As Edie embarks on her path of self discovery, you get to learn a lot about life. If you like a good YA Contemporary book with a little bit of sorcery and magic, do read it. 💕

« Edie in Between » has been an amazing ride. It’s full of emotions. Fear, Anger, Sadness, Happiness, Love,… I seriously can’t complain about this. It has been an emotional rollercoaster because Edie definitely didn’t have it easy. At least in my opinion.

I loved the fact that one of the main themes about this book is friendship. « Edie in Between » also had a great way of showing how to deal with grief. I had to deal with grief last year because of the death of my grandmother. Which is why I think that it’s very important what the author did there. It’s always helpful if you can be guided during these times.

I found it very interesting to read the parts about Edie’s mother when she was younger and to see the parallels between mother and daughter. It also helped to get to know the mother and to learn more about her and how she acted when she had about Edies age. I also love it when there are multiple P.O.Vs in a book. It’s always exciting when there are several characters.

I kind of had my troubles with the pacing of the story because I simply prefer fast-paced ones but I think that the pacing for this book did work just fine. There isn’t always the need for fast paced stories.

The writing style was perfect. I loved it how I could imagine myself on the houseboat with Edie and GG and being a spectator in the book.

« Edie in Between » is a great story about a young witch and I suppose that we can all relate to her at one moment in our lives. I can highly recommend this book. If you love witchy reads then this one might be your next favorite.

It may be that I am biased towards books with queer witches, but I absolutely adored Edie in Between. The story had a softness at its core, even while dealing with magic and heavy themes. It felt to me that you could really sense @lauraosibson’s care for the characters and world in her writing, which was a little magical in itself. I thought the way this book explored grief and coping with the loss of a loved one was incredibly smart and original. Watching Edie discover herself through her mother's talismans was something truly beautiful. I know that this book will hold a piece of my heart for years to come.

My Recommendation-
If you love witchy stories staring queer characters, you need to pick up a copy of Edie in Between! This book would be perfect for fans of The Scapegracers, These Witches Don't Burn, or The Babysitters Coven.

This was a cute young adult witchy read. The friendships between the three girls was nice to see, though I got frustrated by the lack of understanding at times. I loved how reverent Rhia was of nature and how sacred she finds the magic. I did find that for a book where the main character's life is at risk, there is somehow a distinct lack of urgency. Days and weeks will go by without any comment, it felt very strange when you know she's at risk. If you're looking for a light witchy adventure this one's a pretty good one. For me, this was a 3.5/5.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super fun summery and witchy magic filled read centering around friendship, family, and grief. I enjoyed how this book combines the big topics of grief and others with magic and some humour to help make the book not as heavy but still making sure these topics were talked about. This is definitely a great read about the death of a parent and how someone might act and feel after that happens and the ways they heal. Besides the grief Edie is feeling, she butts heads with her grandmother quite often. However, as the story goes on, you can see the two slowly beginning to get closer.

I enjoyed the main plot of the book – the magical scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt is a really cool idea and I loved the mystery behind it and all of the items they found. I did feel at times that the plot did move a little too slow since the scavenger hunt (the main plot vehicle) didn’t start until the halfway point of the book, I think it may should haven started earlier. I also felt at times it did move a little too quick and glossed over somethings that weren’t returned to later in the book.

Edie and her friends were all likeable and I enjoyed reading about them. At times they did feel a little flat and not super developed – especially Tess through the majority of the novel. I liked seeing Edie grow and develop throughout the book – including her magic but also the way she acted with her friends, family and her grief. The romance in the book felt kind of forced and could have been left as just friends, however I do see how it is good for self discovery of sexuality. The characters just felt a little too surface level and the writing of the dialogue wasn't super great to me.

I enjoyed the dual POV of the book and found it added so much to the story. The two POVs and the flashbacks given through the journal and the memories were a great touch as it added depth to the story and we got to learn a little bit more about the characters.

Overall, Edie in Between was an enjoyable read but I’m left wanting a bit more

Edie in Between was such a magical and emotional story dealing with family, friendship, and grief.

I loved how this story was told both in the form of present day and also journal entries.

The characters were all likable and had such good chemistry. I would’ve liked more from characters like Jim and GG. They felt so important but we also weren’t given much background on them.

"As it is above, so below"

Edie in Between written by Laura Sibson is such a fantastic witchy read! I adore all of the witchy elements in this book including: tarot, crystals, spells, rituals, magic and finding magical items!

One thing I really loved was the lgbtqia+ representation in this book, I felt like it was very well done! So if you love sapphic reads, Edie in Between is definitely for you! The relationship built in this story I felt was really well developed!

I also love the way that grief is handled in this story, the fact that is is not something you just get over, but it stays with you always.Sometimes as Edie learned that grief can be a reminder of love, which is in itself is a powerful form of magic. I think the way that it was handled sensitively through the plot was really well done.

I also loved the language used in this story, especially when it came to the magic. It also helped to make the story more  immersive which I really liked. I think my only issue was the pacing at times was either a little slow or a little fast but it did not make the story any less enjoyable. I also wished we got to learn about other Witch families as they must be more, so I wished there was a bit more world building.

However, one thing i really loved was how well crafted the ending was as it was, as I felt that the story's ending was very fitting and also really beautiful too.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Edie in Between and I recommend this to anyone who wants a really good read. Thank you so much to tbr and beyond tours for choosing me for this tour and for Netgalley for the chance to read it. My rating for this story is a well deserved 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Edie in Between

Author: Laura Sibson

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: Sapphic romance, but only a little bit

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, magic, witches, sapphic

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publication Date: August 24, 2021

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers

Pages: 384

Recommended Age: 14+ (Death, Parental death, Romance, Sexual content)

Explanation of CWs: Sex and romance are in the book and important to the plot. Death is also mentioned and a plot line.

Synopsis: It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left.

According to her GG, it’s tradition that the dead of the Mitchell family linger with the living. It’s just as much a part of a Mitchell’s life as brewing cordials or talking to plants. But Edie, whose pain over losing her mother is still fresh, has no interest in her family’s legacy as local “witches.”

When her mother’s teenage journal tumbles into her life, her family’s mystical inheritance becomes once and for all too hard to ignore. It takes Edie on a scavenger hunt to find objects that once belonged to her mother, each one imbued with a different memory. Every time she touches one of these talismans, it whisks her to another entry inside the journal—where she watches her teenage mom mourn, love, and hope just as Edie herself is now doing. Maybe, just maybe, Edie hopes, if she finds every one of these objects, she can finally make peace with her loss and put the past to rest for good. But this journey to stake her independence from her family may actually show Edie who she truly is…and the beautiful gifts that come with being just a little different.

Review: This was an ok book. I loved that it was a fun quick read and that the characters were all kinda fun and fairly well developed.

However, I actually hated reading this book. The magic system is not well explained and the world building is so poorly well done. It's really hard to get into the book and overall I was really bored with this book.

Verdict: Not for me but maybe for you.

I follow Laura on Instagram, so I’d been hearing about Edie in Between and was eager to read it. When I saw this tour opportunity, I jumped at the chance! Now, we know that Edie’s mom has passed from the synopsis and that she’d be dealing with her grief, but what I wasn’t quite expecting was the darkness that was within these pages. And I mean that in a good way! There is a serious creep factor to this book that shocked me but that I loved.

Edie has closed herself off to the part of her heritage that includes being a witch, and her mom understood that she wasn’t ready yet to learn more about it. But then her mom is unexpectedly killed in an accident, and Edie has to go live with her grandmother, GG, who is not so understanding about Edie’s reluctance. (Side note: we called our grandmother, my mom’s mom, GG, so my eyes did tear up at that; I’ve never met anyone else who called their grandmother that!) When GG gives Edie her mother’s journal and Edie discovers the old property where her mother grew up, she realizes something is definitely amiss and she’ll have to learn to master the witch inside of herself to fix it. With the help of her new friends Tess and Rhia, she embarks on a quest to undo some dark magic, encountering some nasty shadows and spirits along the way.

I loved Edie’s exploration of grief - both her own at the loss of her mother, and her mother’s at the loss of her father around the same age - and how deeply it can impact us. But does it have to be so dark? Are grief and love two sides of the same coin? Does Edie deserve to maybe find happiness, even first love, with Rhia (this one made my heart swoon)? All of these questions and more will be answered. I’ve never read Practical Magic, so I cannot speak to that comparison in the book’s synopsis, but I definitely loved this witchy tale. My favorite part was the personification of grief and the emphasis on the importance of memories. If you love a good witchy, spooky tale, I cannot recommend this one highly enough!

Rating: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an early e-copy of this book for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.