I haven't loved a book this hard in SO LONG! Omg, I can't believe we now have solid queer rep in the Vampire world and I'm here for it!! Love the sapphic tones and meaningful representation. This book was a long, but so enjoyable read. I devoured every word!

Rating: 4 stars

The Witch and the Vampire is a captivating paranormal romance that weaves together the worlds of witches and vampires in a spellbinding tale. Emily Nightshade's writing is beautifully descriptive, creating an immersive and atmospheric world filled with magic and supernatural creatures. The strong female lead, Luna, is a complex and relatable character who undergoes personal growth throughout the story, and her forbidden romance with the brooding vampire, Damian, is both passionate and heart-wrenching. The plot is well-paced, with a perfect balance of action, romance, and mystery, keeping readers guessing until the very end. The book is deserving of a solid 4-star rating, and is highly recommended for fans of paranormal romance and supernatural fiction.

I liked the idea of this book. A queer rapunzel retelling with vampires and witches! It was enjoyable, although it didn’t blow me away. The placing was a bit slow and I didn’t feel the chemistry between the MC’s. But I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a fun, unique read.

DNF @ 52%. 159 pages in.

When I read the synopsis, I thought: "oh a queer Rapunzel based story with Witches and Vampires? What's not to love?"

Well, I was wrong. Cause I was just *so fucking bored.* I got 52% in, where there is vampires being set on fire, mayhem happened, betrayal, and more and I am just so unengaged and just wanting to get the story over with. At that point, I knew I needed to just stop bothering. Sooo, that's what I will be doing.

It isn't a bad book, and it might be great for someone else, but not for me.

Ah well, cest la vie.

Such a lovely sapphic Rapunzel-inspired story! I liked the characters and the all the action. I don't want to spoil anything, but pick this one up!

DNF at 15%

I loved the cover on this, it’s gorgeous, evocative, stunning. The concept sounded so good!

Anyway, that’s it for positivity.

<b>Plot:</b>

I don’t think I hit a plot yet. Characters don’t really have motivations. Things just happen to them or around them. They have little agency and they both feel like puppets. I was informed there is never a plot.

I tried to read to the point where the MCs even meet, and I <i>assumed</i> it would be shortly after I bailed…but my friend who made it halfway through told me they don’t meet for a long time after that. This is a romance book, is it not? Or there’s supposed to be one? Or you know, at the very least, the plot is centered around their interpersonal conflict? Fun fact: your characters have to meet to have any of that happen!

There’s this bizarre dichotomy of having very serious subjects introduced and then just skated over. Racism, abuse, torture, etc. The characters are just like la di da what do you mean this is supposed to affect me. If you’re going to include these, please treat them with a modicum of respect. It would make for a more compelling story if they were approached seriously and used to drive character arcs instead of sprinkled in like carrion beetles on the corpse of my happiness.


<b>Characters:</b>

This one is actually going to be a little challenging to discuss, because the characters are identical. The POV were so similar I forgot there were two characters.

<u>Ava (this is the vampire idiot):</u>

Please shut up about Cassiopeia, you don’t even know her! Girl. Chill. The queen is probably going to be like “damn bitch what is wrong with you get out of my house”

wow I don’t actually have anything else to say. She’s a shell of a person.


<u>Kaye (this is the somehow even stupider one):</u>

girl you cannot possibly walk and breathe at the same time.

She is consumed with her nonsensical need for revenge - I’m not even kidding, I do not understand why she is this way, and I don’t think she does either - but it is heinously boring. It’s like watching a toddler throw a tantrum over a sock yet nowhere near as funny.

Her revenge. You know, the revenge motivation that drives this character, her only personality trait. Where do I <i>start</i>.

It makes no sense. Her bestest friend disappears during a vampire attack and then she sees her later in a window with blood on her face (days later!!) and decides. Yes. She killed my mother. Whose body I did not see at all. Someone told me a vampire did it tho. I will now kill my friend without ever talking to her. Brilliant.

To rudely cap it off, she’s also like “well maybe she didn’t BUT IF SHE DID” bitch what

You know what, this actually makes even less sense to me after thinking more. Kaye knows Ava is in this tower in the middle of town, and she knows Ava is a vampire somehow, and yet no one else does? Or everyone else is okay with their mortal enemy A Vampire just chilling in town? Does this not affect how they see vampires? Ava is obviously controlled and not a muddy freak so…what is going on?

There’s also a lot of page time spent on her alleged friend turned meanie enemy Tristan, who is so two dimensional a line would be jealous. There are so many pages dedicated to their childish race to tattle(?). I’m not really sure what the motivation was there.


<b>The writing:</b>

This may have been one of the most repetitive books I have ever read. How many times was The Vampire Queen Cassiopeia mentioned despite her not even being present? Like 400. Information was repeated several times in sequential paragraphs. Where is the editor

Everything is over explained, relentlessly. It’s such a great combo with the repetition!! not.

This is about 100% telling and -5% showing. Actions are narrated instead of shown, which makes it very dull to read. Given the poor and choppy writing, it’s also very confusing because the actions described rarely make sense.

There’s so much info dumping as well. This is such a terrible combo - nonsensical info dumping (no context so it’s meaningless), it doesn’t work with the flow of the story, it’s repeated ad nauseam, and it’s <i>boring</i>. The cardinal sin. Boring.

Well, I guess it inspired homicidal rage in me so it’s not <i>entirely</i> boring. Small mercies.


<b>The world/setting/idk you know the part where this is fantasy and should have worldbuilding:</b>

I do not understand this world. It is so poorly described I felt like I was lost in a funhouse mirror maze. What are these locations? How are they related? Why is there fantasy racism that is glossed over?

Why is there a vampire genocide going on? Why are the forest vampires both idyllic and ruled by this glorious queen Ava won’t shut up about but also muddy hungry weirdos?? HOw does this work!! The flame witches are all-powerful little genocidal freaks. I hope they all die.


<b>Select quotes for your exquisite suffering:</b>

<blockquote>I’ve never liked the coppery smell of blood; something about the scent feels so sinister. Reminds me I’m actually drinking human blood.</blockquote>

Presenting Exhibit A to the jury: is she aware that all blood smells like copper, not just human? (she is very stupid)

<blockquote>I can’t accept it as coincidence that Ava disappeared that same day and I saw her with blood on her chin a few days later.</blockquote>

Why not!!!!!!! ok. lemme pick this one apart.

Why <i>wouldn’t</i> it be a coincidence? Maybe she got a bloody nose or something, those can get really nasty.

Does she really think Ava would eat a person, get covered in blood, and then <i>NOT WASH HER FACE FOR THREE DAYS</I> girl you are dumber than a worm (my apologies to wormkind)

<blockquote>Then I see it, and my breath catches in my throat. There, near the bottom left of the darkness, a giant hole gapes in the Bone Wall. The bone shards cut off around it in jagged edges. It’s big enough for at least two people to walk in, side by side.</blockquote>

are you serious!! people missed a DOUBLE WIDE DOOR SIZED HOLE IN THEIR DANGER WALL you all deserve to die

<blockquote>The second rule a Flame witch must know is that we trust one another first. If one among us strays too far, bring them back into the fold and remind them of our mission. For the moment we fall apart is when our enemy succeeds, and when the beast overtakes the man. —Training Academy for Young Witches of Arborren</blockquote>

this comes with a minor caveat that i (obviously) did not finish the book, so maybe (lol as if) it gets addressed, but i seriously doubt it.

This is picture perfect cult material. If the author meant to make the Flame witch stuff a serious cult, then A+ this is amazing. I don’t think it’s on purpose though, so F- effort making them sound reasonable.

<blockquote>Once I’m graduated, I’ll be able to speak to Liander as more of an equal. Right now, no one would trust the word of a trainee Flame witch over an esteemed Clarity councilor with the emperor’s favor like Eugenia Serení.</blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote>

why would graduating baby training make you an equal with well established and powerful people!! i suspect you are defeated by some cardboard boxes

<blockquote> I need status to my name and I need proof that her daughter was involved in my mother’s death.</blockquote>

BITCH WHAT

you hate her and you have zero proof omg please die

<blockquote>In the gravel below, a trail of footsteps</blockquote>

what the hell kind of gravel shows footsteps

<b>Overall,</b> I strongly recommend against even trying this book. I do not know why it exists or why no one edited it.


Caveat 2: I got this as an ARC so maybe some of the dumber shit got fixed. I doubt it though, you’d need a whole new book to fix it.

DNFed at 10%. I really gave this book a chance, but when I began struggling to get into it after the first chapter, trying to figure out if I had missed something, I began reading reviews. One that really struck me (Linked below) just amplified the concerns that I had for the book, and made me not want to go any further into the journey with this book. From the blood libel to the plot holes to the weird magic system (if someone could explain to me how avas mom can take her magic even though shes a vampire, so she shouldnt have magic EXCEPT if she was turned when her powers were at her maximum, I would give you an award. You shouldnt have to jump through that many hoops to make something make sense), I just cant put my limited energy into a book like this. I was excited for this, but its just not it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4722246517?book_show_action=false review that I mentioned earlier (they actually finished the book, so make sure to read it for a more in depth review)

I really wanted to like this book because I absolutely love retellings. But the way that this book was marketed was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it was going to be more romance intertwined. However it was a very rushed ending, the only impression I got that it was Rapunzel inspired was that Ava was originally locked in a castle, the resolution to the conflict was solved so abruptly that I felt like I missed parts of the story. On top of all that it ended with Ava doing something that she vowed NOT to do the WHOLE book! Overall, I was just very disappointed.

DNF This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I mean a queer tangled retelling?? Is all I never knew I wanted. But this reads so convoluted and the only two things I felt reading this were confusion and boredom.

{3.5 stars}

This tells the story of two teenage girls. Both are witches, and were formally friends. Ava disappeared about a year ago, she was turned into a vampire and held captive by her mother. Kaye is a fire witch who hunts vampires. Ava‘s mother is out to break the barrier that holds vampires within the forest and Ava has her chance to escape. When Ava and Kaye cross paths they are both forced to challenge their preconceived notions and work together to save their home. Oh yeah, and they’re both hot for each other.

Meh, this was ok but I wasn’t wow-ed in anyway. It builds itself as a fairytale retelling, but I didn’t get a lot of Rapunzel vibes. Sure Ava had ankle long hair and was held captive by her mother, but it was only for a short period of time, and she seem to fairly easily get away. Some of the vampire stuff was a little Twilight-y to me, which isn’t bad but I felt like it’s been done.

I did like the sapphic romance angle however, it’s super PG and you have to wait a really long time for anything to happen. I also liked the natural element of the forest.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

Honestly this book wasn’t for me. I ended up DNF it but the reason I still gave it two stars is because there are others who still might enjoy it. For me it was too dark and there was just something about it lacking, I really had nothing in it making me want to continue.

I'm sorry. This was not good. It was possibly one of the worst things I've ever read.

Story: D
Prose: D-
Characters: C-
World: C-
Theme(s): D
Enjoyment: D-

The Good:
- Cool concept. A witch/vampire hunter and a vampire who were super close friends before the vampire turned? Good stuff. Unfortunately, a good concept only goes so far.
- Some sweet scenes between Ava and Kaye. When Ava and Kaye travel together during the first half, they spend time sharing the struggles and trauma they've endured during their two years apart, and sometimes protect each other. It's nice.
- Some of the end visuals were cool. I'm thinking primarily of a specific scene in the last 25%. Flores' description itself is poor, but the set-up she describes is gloriously macabre in invention.
- Some solid effort into worldbuilding/history. It's scrambled and messy and nigh impossible to follow, but the effort is there. It doesn't work well in a standalone YA fantasy with a romantic focus, though.

The Bad:
- Slow, clunky set-up. There's clearly a lot of important personal background information, but it's dropped in SO awkwardly. I think the author is trying to drop it "casually" in conversation, but all of the conversations are dull and the information is awkward and out of order. Kaye's mother hunted vampires and was an important councilwoman, but was ALSO considered a traitor for sympathising with vampires before she died? This is all considered preliminary info to understand Kaye and her motivation.
- Abysmal prose. Not so much a writing style as it is words banged out on a keyboard with nary a thought beforehand, during, or after. The equivalent of driving off readers with bear spray. A chore and a headache to read.
- Shitty, ineffective storytelling. Entire paragraphs and sometimes even pages spent on useless, tedious content, from describing walking down a street to regurgitated information.
- Treats readers like they're stupid. There's always extra details. It's small things like Ava's "non-beating heart" to Ava's "Clarity Mother" long after they're established. Plus, general things, like mentioning there are more businesses "most probably run by humans, but possibly some by witches as well." Like no shit???? There are more humans than witches and vampires are killed. Who the fuck else would run them?
- The MOST telling over showing. It feeds nicely into the above two issues, officially rendering The Witch and The Vampire unreadable.
- Counterintuitive worldbuilding/introduction to the setting. Books give you information in a specific order, so you can build a cohesive image of the world, how the characters fit in it, and so you realize things at the right–and satisfying–time. Here it's given in a chaotic, hard to follow, "wait, I just remember that ALSO" sort of way.

YMMV:
- Spellcheck keeps correcting Kaye to Kate, which is personally insulting.
- The weird focus with youthful witches. A witches' power is at its height when they're in their mid-teens and this is the ONLY time they retain their powers if they're turned into a vampire?

What the heck even was this?
- This quote: "Then I wipe the dust off the books on literature and mathematics that my mother gives me, the ones I never touch because the journal tells me all I need to know: that there’s a whole world of vampires waiting in the trees."
- Ava's dad died prior to the start of the book. He was accidentally caught in a vampire trap and starved to death. This isn't anything important to the story. It's literally just a FOOTNOTE to explain why Ava remembers to check trees for vampire traps, which is something SHE SHOULD DO ANYWAY.
- Setting a prison wagon on fire and driving it through the forest. There's a part where there's vampires imprisoned in a cage, and the flame witches set it on fire for… security reasons??? Idk. And then they drive it through a forest where–and this is actually a significant plot point–rivers, streams and other sources of water have dried up. (Not even touching upon how the cage is silver in the first place.)
- Kaye was "trained to track" things in the forest, but despite graduating in a few months, she doesn't have any practical experience. Also, how do you train someone in tracking without providing experience???

This!!!! Friends to enemies to reluctant companions to lovers. What a ride it was. There was mystery, murder, politics, hidden agendas all along side two women journeying to find themselves again.

‘The Witch and the Vampire’ is a cute, queer Rapunzel retelling with a gorgeous cover and strong narrating character voices. The world building and lore were well crafted, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the romance or story. That said, I for some reason missed the fact that this book sits firmly in the Young Adult category and the divergence from my expectations related to the intended audience age threw me off and made it difficult for me to get into and enjoy it. That’s my own fault though! If you like ‘Tangled’ and the supernatural, and you are aware this is YA going into it, you will definitely like this book! I’ll be trying it again sometime when I’m in the mood for what it actually is and not what I thought it would be so I can give it a fairer chance.

Thank you very much to St Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for and advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesdaybooks, LibroFM for the ARC/ALC in exchange for an honest review

This was a great atmospheric fantasy dive of two former friends and crushes turned rivals to allies. Both Ava and Kaye have to grapple with a lot as they travel together and try to uncover the mystery of their mothers. Their romance was soft and a great addition to the story.

Steam: 1

I have never in my life been so bored by a book with a cover this beautiful. I am so mad that this book is awful because the cover is so pretty and I had such high expectations.

I'm not going to lie This book just did not work for me in any way shape or form. I didn't like the narrators, I didn't like the main characters, the world building is absolutely non-existent, The romance is not believable, and there is such a lack of plot points.

You basically have Ava who is a witch who was turned into a vampire by her mom and her mom keeps her in this attic or whatever. Her stepdad does weird experiments on her and her mom is evil essentially. Then we have Kaye who is also a witch and Ava's ex best friend. Kaye hates vampires with a passion so much that she routinely calls them bloodsuckers which is mentioned as a slur throughout the book and yet we're supposed to believe that they rekindle this forgotten romance or some nonsense? I do not buy it whatsoever.

Ava is portrayed as this wholesome victim and all of this yet at the end right before saying some nonsense about how we're going to do better moving forward she literally kill someone. Like what? I could not. And then you have kaye who is just this hateful human and jumps to conclusions without any information who all of a sudden you're supposed to feel bad for when the entire time she's just so aggressively terrible.

Then you have the vampires in this book. Ava's sitting there trying to get compassion for them or whatever but then they turn around and they're just ripping people's throats out. Like yeah I probably wouldn't have compassion for them either. And then you have the witches that are supposed to be vampire hunters who are also manipulating and murdering people. Who the heck were we supposed to like? Everyone is awful.

I just don't understand how someone can take a Rapunzel retelling (but that's a VERY loose interpretation at best let's be honest) and throw in witches and vampires and have it be boring. I was so bored. Anyway it's safe to say I will not recommend this one no matter how pretty the cover is. Do not be drawn in. It is not worth it.

2 starts out of 5
I was pretty excited for this book when I saw the synopsis. Who doesn't want to read a Repunzel retelling with a lesbian main romance? I don't normally read romance, but when I do, I usually prefer sapphic or bi with a sapphic main relationship. This seemed right up my alley.
As I stated, I had high hopes, but i felt the book fell flat pretty early. Everyone seemed pretty one-dimensional, the world-building was almost non existant, and the relationships just felt forced.
I likely would have dnf'd, but I have a really hard time not finishing something once I'm over 100 pages in, and I don't feel like I can judge a book until at least 100 pages in lol.

If you like sapphic retellings, maybe this book would be for you, but I would have a hard time recommending it

2.5⭐️

Kaye and Ava used to be friends; Kaye is a Flame witch, and Ava a Root witch. On the night that Kaye’s mother is killed, Ava is turned into a vampire, and is locked away and controlled by her mother, who siphons her Root witch powers to pretend that she is still human instead of a vampire. Two years later, Ava’s mother secretly plans to destroy the wall separating the humans and vampires, and Ava plans her escape to find the vampire queen and stop her mother’s plan. Kaye is now a fully trained Flame witch, and protects the city from vampires. She knows Ava must be a vampire, and plans to capture her to prove herself and graduate early. When Ava escapes, Kaye finds her, and lies to her and tells her she will escort her to Chrysalis. The two set off into the forest.

This was one of my more anticipated YA books this year, and I was sadly underwhelmed by it. I wasn’t a fan of the magic system vs the vampires or the world building, and I think it would also have been better had I not be thinking of it as a Rapunzel retelling. Really the only thing I liked is that it was queer.

I was admittedly disappointed in this title. There were elements that were undoubtedly mature, but the writing throughout felt overly juvenile. An intriguing concept that fell much too short.

For me, the best thing about this book was the cover.

I had a really hard time not DNF’ing this. I found the plot lacking and this really suffers from “telling and not showing” syndrome. The chemistry and tension between the characters was great, but the payoff was lackluster imo.