This centuries sprawling multi pov story was fantastic. I loved that it was almost three books in one all the way until the end where it all meets up so perfectly.

Three different women all with their own troubles and worries and how being themselves and embracing their family and their own nature can heal and pull you thru so much. Weyward cottage that helps to link the women and their stories was a character all in itself. And I daydreamed about having my own cottage to go and spend lazy afternoons reading and gardening.

I really enjoyed the writing style in the book and couldn’t stop reading, just wanting to get to a new section. I am very excited for this authors future works and I can’t recommend this one enough.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The cover first drew me in, but wow. The writing was beautiful and the story fully gripped me. I found the three stories sometimes jarring to slip between, but overall I loved the concept and the execution.

This is a masterful debut. I absolutely loved the multiple viewpoints and the multiple timelines. The history of the Weyward women is revealed through the life experiences of multiple generations.

Altha's story provides the background for the events that occur for the future Weyward women. On trial for being a witch, Altha is resigned to her fate of hanging or being burned at the stake. Altha begins keeping a secret diary of sorts to share with future generations in an attempt to explain her actions and connect to her mother.

Violet is a girl with gifts that allow her to understand and connect with animal life at a deeper level. The death of Violet's mother at a very young age left her with a void. Her father's attempts to control her connection to nature by secluding her on their estate leave Violet feeling isolated, strange, and naive. Violet soon finds herself in a desperate situation where understanding her dead mother is her only potential way out.

Modern day Kate is leaving an abusive relationship with a secret. Kate drives like hell to get to the cottage left to her by her great aunt Violet. What secrets did Violet keep? And will Kate begin to understand her strange aunt and the Weyward legacy in time to save herself?

I really enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and I enjoyed the connections between the different generations of Weyward women. Though each woman was unique and her story challenging on its own, the link of experienced trauma, secrets, and history made the stories tender. This was a 4 star read for me and I look forward to more work from this author.

I'm so tired of reading books where all the men are horrible and all the women are violently abused. And especially bothered that the only way these women escape trauma is through a deep, magical connection to, and the ability to control, nature, which doesn't happen in real life but only in books. So this supposed statement of female empowerment is actually saying, it's a fantasy.

But that cover...

Three women from three different timelines but the same bloodline. Three women who are put through literal hell by the men around them all for the simple fact that they were born women.

This book irrevocably breaks your heart at not only the pain these women go through but the fact that because no one helped them, they had to help themselves. With the connection to nature that began with one of the first in their line, in 1619, Altha Weyward a 21 year old girl put on trial for “using black magic” on cows to make them kill a man, she leaves something for her future descendants knowing that they too would one day face something that would make them need help.
The first of these descendants is 16 year old Violet Ayres living in 1942 amidst a World War with a father who seems disgusted at the even glimpse of his daughter. This girl who grew up without even a word of her deceased mother, whose father treats her like cattle to be sold off and who ends up being cast out of her home after she goes through a horrendous trauma. This girl though uses the same power that nature granted her ancestor to not only get revenge on the men who caused her pain but to gain the freedom to follow her dreams.

Fast forward to present time in 2019 to Kate. The most recent of the Weyward line who flees London to escape an abusive relationship going to the small cabin left to her by her great aunt Violet. As she starts to rebuild her life in this small town, she starts researching her ancestors and comes to the realization of just what it is to be a Weyward woman & what she can do to not only help herself but keep those who wish to do her harm away from her.

This book was simply amazing and though I felt like I went through it right along with these three women, I could not have been more glad than to have experienced this book.

4.5 stars
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advance copy coming out March 7, 2023. The opinions are my own.

Books often have multiple storylines and timelines weaving in and out through a story - it's a tricky technique to do well. This debut novel does an admirable job of using three clearly defined storylines, each in different eras and the chapters alternate between the women's stories. Each era is anchored by a well defined woman who faces realistic problems from her era - and all revolve around men. Beginning with Altha and her trial for witchcraft and her fears and how she overcame them, each woman has a fear, a terror, in her life that she has to overcome and find her Weyward family power.

This was a wonderful book and the characters are excellent - each suffering abuse in different ways and in different times, yet each able to overcome and take a measure of control of their own lives. Lots of character growth exhibited by each woman. Each era is faithfully rendered and feels authentic, both in setting and dialog. The writing was descriptive enough to set apart each timeline yet not so dense as to make it tiresome. However, all the men were portrayed as bad guys. That's a little too heavy handed and unfair even though I understand that's how Hart is making her point - a very feminist point.

“Witch. The word slithers from the mouth like a serpent, drips from the tongue as thick and black as tar. We never thought of ourselves as witches, my mother and I. For this was a word invented by men, a word that brings power to those that speak it, not those that it describes. A word that builds gallows and pyres, turns breathing women into corpses.”

Being in touch with the natural world - both critters and plants - is integral to the story and plays a big part in helping the women discover their true selves. There's a bit of witchcraft/magic in each era, but it's mostly secondary to the story of the strength of character each woman discovers about herself.

This would be a good book club reading choice - lots of things to talk about!
Amazon review posted.

Spanning centuries, Emilia Hart's stunning debut <i>Weyward</i> follows three women in the Weyward family. Not Shakespeare's three "weyward" sisters, Altha defends herself in a seventeenth-century witch trial, Violet attempts to find out about her mother as WWII rages, and Kate, in 2019, escapes her physcially abusive boyfriend. The three women find solace and security in the small cottage, connected through their lineage and their unique and powerful connection to nature.

There are strong implications from the novel's beginning that the three women are witches, based on their ability to commune with nature, but it remains only implied until at least halfway through the story. Their natural power seems tied to independence; when their autonomy is threatened, nature responds. It remains a bit unclear the narrative role of being a witch is in the novel. It's possible that the ambiguity is part of Hart's goal--leaving women open for accusations without confirmation--but it blunts the feminist impulses of the text. A relatively minor issue that is overcome by Hart's writing.

Hart beautifully illustrates the creepy crawlies and corvids that surround these women. The suspense of the novel as the three narratives unfold is expertly crafted, inhabiting the voices of these three different, but connected women.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy!

Three women, all from the same line of unusual and "uncanny" women, each must deal with bigotry, abuse, fear from neighbours, while also cultivating their deep connection to the natural world.

1619: Altha is on trial for witchcraft. Her mother was a healer, and so is she. Her mother never married, and neither has Altha, and both have had successes and failures as healers, but it's their unmarried states, the close presence of animals in their lives, and the deaths they could not prevent that damn Altha, and cause a neighbour to accuse her of killing the husband of Altha's estranged childhood friend. Altha assumes, after several superstition-laden testimonies, that she'll be hanged.

1942: Violet and her younger brother Graham live in the large home that's been in their family for generations. Their tyrannical father treats them like things that merely reflect him, and he is particularly hard on Violet as she resembles her dead mother, not just in looks, but in her affinity for the natural world. When a cousin currently serving in Libya comes for a visit, it leaves an indelible mark on her life.

Present day London: Kate knows she has to leave her boyfriend, who has been abusing her for years. She's pregnant, and is terrified of how much worse her life will become if he finds out. She has a place to disappear to: her great aunt Violet's home, which Violet recently willed to her. After arriving, Kate begins to discover what Violet's adolescence was like, and it reawakens in her her connection to the natural around her.

I liked this book a lot. I really enjoyed how author Emilia Hart wove history and fantasy together, while also showing the women's commonalities and how history kept repeating itself with the Weyward women.

I loved how, despite abuse being so much a part of their lives, Altha, Violet and Kate found used their connection to nature. I also liked how the women found support and safety in the centuries-old cottage owned by the Weyward women, and how accepting their legacy was a huge part of finding their strength. This was a captivating novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Weyward intertwines and connects the lives of three women living in different times. While they are all related the connection goes beyond just a bloodline. All three women's stories are full of strength and perseverance. They navigate their lives with the barriers put in place on women during those times. Altha’s story is that of a women being accused of witchcraft, Violet is a carefree teenager expected to live up to societal norms of women in the 1940’s and Kate is running from an abusive relationship and trying to figure out exactly who she is.

This was a quick read for me. The chapters bounce between each women but in an easy to follow way. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of the book!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Narrated by Aysha Kala; Helen Keeley; Nell Barlow

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan audio for the early listen/read. This review will be for both the audiobook and the ebook.
Very enjoyable read. Enjoyed listening/reading about the 3 main characters in 3 different timelines. The reader learns what happened in the past which explained why things happened in the 2 present or past and the present now.
Watching all 3 female characters grow into the strong women they became.
Will recommend!
The narrators (and author) did a great job telling the story of Altha, Violet and Kate.

Thank you to Emilia Hart, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for a digital copy of WEYWARD.

Weyward tells the story of three women, one from 1619, one from 1942, and one from 2019, and the horrible trials that each goes through and the magic of their resilience. I loved this book. Each woman was remarkably written and their stories were all so engrossing. Each of the women's stories was equally interesting. I'd finish one chapter and want to flip forward to the next installment in that character's story, but I wouldn't, and then the next character's chapter would be equally engrossing. I also was glad that the chapters went in 123, 123 order so I didn't have to wait too long to learn what happened next. The magical elements were so beautifully woven that they added to the story in the best way.

This story is masterful and rich in detail. It is a moving and realistic portrait of three women and their connection to the world and to each other.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Very well done handling of sensitive topics. The story weaves the lives of 3 women over multiple generations, common threads of family, responsibility, expectation, abuse, healing and friendship weave the stories of the women close together.
From the start, the women seem unlikely to have much in common, as they are from different times in history, differing social strata.
All of the women have some level of magical ability. For one of the women the use of magic makes sense, for the other two it seems contrived.
Otherwise, the story is well written.

Emilia Hart's debut novel follows the stories of three women, Altha 1619, Violet 1942+, Kate 2019, as they navigate the world around them, and the control and influence men have on them while hiding a family secret that could get them killed or ostracized.

"This wildness inside gives us our name...Weyward they called us, when we would not submit, would not bend to their will. But we learned to wear the name with pride."

I often find chapters with varying POVs a little hard to follow, but Hart does a magnificent job weaving the three stories together and giving each woman a clear voice that doesn't make me have to reread a bit to stay with each particular character. I enjoyed each woman's POV and felt they were pretty well-developed characters. The men in their lives, aside from being abusive, dangerous, or oppressive, are not as well developed, but I didn't mind that much since the stories were really about the women and their finding strength to be who they are supposed to be in spite of the hardships they face.
From the moment I started this book, I found it hard to put down. I wanted to know what happened next, and with each swipe of the page, I was not disappointed.
This was a great read for March, and I think readers of multiple genre interests can find something to love about this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Give me all the witchcraft. The cover is stunning and the story keeps up - not always the case! Can’t wait to reread this one in the fall.

Read WEYWARD by Emilia Hart if you love multi-generational narratives, witch trials, relationships with nature, dealing with generational trauma, insects, confronting sexual assault & domestic violence, heirlooms, cozy cottages, and crows.

"The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet" - Adrienne Rich

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women, bound by blood, across Five centuries. Weyward is a spellbinding, heartwrenching, and stunning tale of female resilience among the betrayal of men they hold dear.

First of all, this book is GORGEOUS to look at. The cover is unique, stunning, and eye-catching and then the small illustrations throughout really add to the over aesthetic of the book. I loved holding it in my hands almost as much as I loved reading it.

What an incredible debut by Emilia Hart. I loved the three main characters so much. They are beautifully and perfectly developed and I was so invested in all of their storylines. This is an example of alternating viewpoints done so well and the fact that the timelines were so far apart, yes still intertwined, was unique and enjoyable. The author takes such care in crafting each storyline and it's really remarkable.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Some parts are raw, real, and very difficult to read so please be aware of some trigger warnings going in. It's very powerful to know that no matter the century these women can unite through similar trials and tribulations and find their magic within.

Truly breathtaking.

Weyward by Emilia Hart is one of those novels I know I loved. I have notes that say I did, and my immediate ratings reflect that I loved it. Unfortunately, even though I finished it one month ago, I could not remember anything about the book, even though I do remember details about books read before and after it. I had to read the synopsis before finally remembering the story. Now that I remember Weyward, I still stand by my initial reaction, but I will have to adjust my ratings because the story has no longevity.

The story occurs over three different timelines. From the outset, you know the three protagonists share the same bloodline, and part of the fun is attempting to predict how they relate to one another. Thankfully, Ms. Hart does keep us guessing. What could be a very predictable bloodline ends up being a pleasant surprise.

We spend most of our time switching between modern-day Kate and World War II-era Violet. It makes sense to have Kate as the main protagonist because hers is the modern timeline and also because we can better relate to her flight from an abusive marriage and the whimsy of living in a remote cottage. Violet's narrative, however, drives most of the story, as hers sets up Kate's future. Altha's story exists to emphasize that their family has a history of being bossed around (i.e., abused) by men who profess to have their best interests at heart. While Altha's story has her confronting the reality of the death penalty, what the other two women face is just as haunting.

One cannot discuss Weyward without discussing the abuse all three women face. Ms. Hart does not fade to black during those scenes. She shows us exactly what each woman experiences at the hands of men. These scenes are ugly, raw, and uncomfortable. The worst part is that the abuse is not just physical or sexual but also psychological and emotional. You cannot escape any of it. As if that isn't enough, Ms. Hart heaps on misogyny and gaslighting to further her point about men ruling over women. It is a brutal picture of female-male relationships.

Thankfully, Ms. Hart also includes some positive female-male relationships to show that it isn't all men or all relationships. The relationship between Violet and her brother is particularly heartwarming. Graham makes mistakes, but his love for Violet is unconditional. The steps he takes to rectify his mistakes are the ones that have the most impact on Kate's life. More importantly, they help show that women are capable of anything without patriarchal oppression.

Interwoven throughout the three narratives is a familial magic that makes the women highly attuned to nature. Altha, in particular, is also knowledgeable in plant medicine, which, of course, makes her a witch. While their abilities play a large role in their fates, I feel the magic isn't as important as their interactions with others, especially with men. In my opinion, Weyward is a novel of self-discovery and healing, and the magic is simply an added but perhaps unnecessary bonus.

Despite its darkness, Weyward is a beautiful story. Ms. Hart brings 1619 and 1942 back to life in a way few authors can achieve. While each woman undergoes traumatic hardships, it is obvious that Ms. Hart cares for her protagonists and celebrates their successes as much as we do. It is so unfortunate that I forgot all of this in a matter of weeks. A truly great novel has staying power, and I cannot consider Weyward to be a truly great novel simply because I could not remember a single thing about it until I read the synopsis.

A generational novel with darkness, mystery, intrigue, with a little bit of black magic. The novel switches between three bloodlines from The author's unravels the mysteries of a family line when Kate leaves her abusive husband and hides out in her estranged -- recently deceased -- great aunt Violet's cottage. Strange things reveal themselves as Kate learns and discovers more about her aunt from the nearby townsfolk and the cottage itself. The chapters switch from Kate and her Aunt Violet as well as their long distant relative from 1619, Altha. Aside from their bloodline, the common thread between these women are their "otherness" and almost forced isolation by either the community or family.

Altha and her mother are ostracized yet needed by their community for their knowledge in herbal medicine, but are quickly looked at as witches when odd things happen in the community. But the town may not be far off as Altha's mother has a strong connection with the natural world who silently communicates with her crow Morg. The symbol of the crow and natural elements appear in Violet's story and Kate whom seem to be protected and use the natural world for their own power.

With these three different tellings, Emilia Hart, successfully captures the historic setting of 1619, the gothic atmosphere of Violet's world, and the contemporary mystery of Kate's. Whether you are a fan of historical fiction, supernatural, or even a thriller, this book will appeal to any reader. Fans of The Thirteenth Tale will devour this book in one sitting. A great choice for book clubs.

I received this book for free from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Man will take advantage of you and rape you.
That's it. That's the plot. Cover is gorgeous, in theory, the multigenerational tale of witches is fun, but my god. Kate was an idiot, Violet was naive, Altha was cool.