Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review!

As soon as I heard the pitch for this book, I knew I needed it in my hands. I love retellings and I love queer retellings even more. This one absolutely didn't disappoint. I did expect a little more romance from the blurbs, but honestly I was so invested in the action and the stakes for these characters that I didn't mind that the romance took a backseat. It was fast-paced and fun and I was invested in all the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.



Wow. I stayed up until 3 am knowing I would have to be up in a few hours to finish knowing I’d be exhausted- but this was worth the lack of sleep. I’m a sucker for a good retelling, and THIS is a good retelling. Rapunzel, wicked step dad, trainings, witches, vampires, lgbtqia+ representation- it has it all.
I do know some complaints are that the book is marketed as a lgbtqia+ Romance, and while it is- it is not heavy on any romance or romantic feelings. Personally, I didn’t mind and I didn’t feel like it was a cop out- our main two characters are literally so busy trying not to die or kill each other-‘they don’t have time for feels. I didn’t mind the lack of romance.
Fast paced, great world building and character build, it wraps up as if it can be open to a sequel but it wraps up nicely if it doesn’t happen. I enjoyed this one and enjoyed the journal excerpts at the beginning of each chapter to tie in the story overall. 5/5!

I found the book well developed and it has adventure romance friendship.
Kaye and Ava relationship is strongly show in the story and the feelings Kaye and Ava have for each other written well. The story plot is well developed and the world is detail. The vampires, magic, fighting,

A sapphic (friends to) enemies to lovers, where a vampire-witch is kept as a Rapunzel-like prisoner to fuel her mother's ambitions and power-grabs, and the other MC is a witch sworn to kill all vampires. Stuck together as unlikely allies, they soon rekindle a lost friendship, but they're not children anymore - trusting each other would be a mistake.

Pros: This book is a great example of sapphic fantasy and I think signals the direction in which publishing of WLW fantasy should move. I loved the romance between the two characters and felt their young but genuine connection, built on a foundation of memories and shared experiences as outsiders. I also thought the magic system was very cool, although I have a lot of complaints about its writing - more on that later.

Cons: MAN such a missed opportunity here - Sapphic Rapunzel?? Sapphic witch + vampire romance?? Enemies to Lovers, journey through a magic forest, a vampire army?! So much potential. Unfortunately, the execution was just very lacking. At best, I could say this book was 'fine'. Actually, the rest of this review is Cons.

The start of this book was incredibly slow going because there is so much world-building and it is all told, not shown, in pages and pages worth of info-dumping. To be honest, I don't see how some of these passages made it through editors. Why introduce faraway lands if we're never going to hear about them again? Why introduce an emperor and his importance if we don't need to know about him to understand the politics that are relevant to the story? I found myself picking the book up and putting it back down after a page of reading because this was just so dense and I had no connection to the story yet to care about all of this background.

At the same time as all this world-building, we are expected to connect to our two main characters, who have no identifiable differences in their personalities or tone of voice. Even much of their characters arcs are the same - about whether they respect the humanity of vampires and/or humans, and then reversing their opinion on the matter, and then reversing it again. OR about whether they want to make their mothers proud or shun their mothers' ways. The two characters could have been the same character.

The book reads extremely YA (I don't know that it reads "young" but it does read "simple") for instance, the world-building is vague, the magic-system is undefined, and most significantly, each thought or emotion the two narrators have is gone over 4 or 5 times. This was WAY too repetitive and made the book drag - every chapter we are going over the same feelings and concerns. Additionally, the plot is very basic, with Ava running away from home, getting caught by Zenos and/or mom, escaping and running, getting caught further down the road, escaping again further, caught yet again somewhere else, etc. Inventiveness in the plot could have helped quite a bit with some of the repetitiveness. OR hear me out - we actually flesh out the ideas of what mother gothel wants out of overthrowing Casiopeia - what is her long game, what are her motivations? What about Liander? These concepts came way too late in the book for me to care about them.

Finally, the most offensive plotting - the Casiopeia plotline and ending. So, she goes from vampire queen, last OG god on earth, dedicated to keeping her vampire family safe and her weird zombie-son's body sacred, and the tree alive (so much so that she's willing to destroy the forest and/or go to war over it) and then within one or two sentences of dialogue from the 17 year old she's like, "ok FINE I'll move on to the next life, destroy my son, here have my powers," ugh, like I'm surprised the author didn't just write that the god-ghosts themselves snatched her up and took her away with them.

The magic system - so, witches who become vampires can still be witches as long as they are teenagers? And... why hasn't Casiopeia been building an army of these super vampires? But then witches who become vampires later have the magic ability to siphon those powers from other witches? Why? How? Where do they learn such a skill? Also Ava hears the gods asking her to help them, but we don't know why. or how. or if anyone else hears them. Actually we never find out if they are actually the gods... maybe Ava just hears voices.
Also, there are witches but don't worry about what they can do with their powers - these are flame witches, they control fire... But fire creates light so they also control light. And light is the opposite of shadow, so they also control shadow. Some of them can actually bend light and shadow to become invisible. Others can actually form light into a blade of some sort. WHAT?!?!?!? WHAT IS THIS SYSTEM??? Also there are these others witches but we don't need them for this story so don't worry about those other people in far away places right now. But I'm going to tell you about them briefly anyways.

I feel like this was the first draft of the book, do you know what I mean? I'm still waiting for the 20th draft of this book, that could've been great.

Let's start with the Pros:
What a cool premise!
The romantic tension between them is cute and very well done.
Very clear objectives for main characters. Ava wants to stop her mother from destroying the magical wall and setting loose all the vampires, and Kaye wants to find her mother's killer and hunt vampires.

Cons: Ooof, the writing. If you had shown me an outline of the story I would have thought, oh, this looks great! But the writing....
A perfect example of telling not showing. I mean, the random exposition paragraphs explaining stuff! And explaining how a character is feeling, why they are feeling it, instead of just showing us.
There is no subtext in this writing. The characters just shout whatever they are feeling/thinking and it's a little cringey.
You remember how the protagonists had clear objectives. Yeah, well, part of the reason they were so clear is because they repeat them OVER AND OVER. I get it,

Lots of wishy washiness from Kaye. I hate Ava, maybe I don't hate Ava. I don't trust Ava, now I DO trust Ava. And like... not even for good reasons. Just small things seem to make her change her mind about Ava.

Then ending was confusing. Wasn't the whole point to save the magical barrier? And in the end, the queen just changes her mind about her plans, and Ava destroys the barrier herself? Then we end with her and Kaye outright killing someone?! What the heck.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for letting me read this book. I found the characters and the storyline to be very enjoyable. This is an LGBTQ once friends turned enemies romance. Would recommend!

That was fun! From the first chapter, I was really hooked into the story! Ava was a really exceptional character to me and I resonated with her a little bit faster than I did with Kaye. Honestly, Kaye got on my nerves until about a third of the way through, but when she did grow on me, I really adored her. This book was less romance-y/Rapunzel-like than I thought, so that was a surprise, but I wasn't mad about that. We got a lot of action and plot movement in this and a lot of world building too. I thought we'd get a bit more romance, but overall what it did have was really sweet! The vampire/witch lore in this was unique and sooo cool. I will say that I hope the finished copies have a map because I think this book deserves one. It was easy to follow for the most part with all the moving around going on, but a map would make it even better. The first half was pretty repetitive in some parts, which was distracting early on. The plot twists weren't all that surprising, so I wish there were more jaw-dropping moments (there was really only one that I didn't see coming). But overall, this was a fun book and I always love a good vampire/witch story! If there's a sequel, I would definitely read it!

Oh man:(

I really really wanted to like this. Sapphic vampire x witch in a rapunzel retelling? I was so excited but ultimately almost every aspect of this novel let me down.

So even though this book is marketed as young adult, it read like an upper middle grade novel, which isn’t necessarily bad but evidently ruined my reading experience. There was just a lot of telling and not showing in every interesting original aspect of the novel — the vampires, humans, witches, etc.

Having both vampires and witches and abusive mothers are grounds for a complex, interesting, and gray plot and characters. Unfortunately, we didn’t get ANY of that. Instead, we got incredibly shallow characters with incredibly shallow motivations and any “plot twist” could have been made out by the reader in the first few chapters. All of the side characters have literally no personality trait besides being evil or good. For example, one of the mc’s old best friends is so incredibly flat, with no conceivable personality or purpose except to act as a convenient plot driver. Still, there is nothing written about his character that makes his “close” friendship with the others believable.
This excludes the main characters but both of the main characters read in almost exact same neutral tone and there were so many times I forgot whose pov I was reading because their narrations were identical. This extends to how the author repeats passages many times and includes repetitive phrases between the two povs. Also, side note but idk how old everyone is supposed to be lol.

In addition to the characters, there is no complexity in the nature of humans, witches, and vampires. As I mentioned, vampires= bad and humans = good. Though the writing attempts to engage with this notion, it fails miserably because the characters in the book are just caricatures of the classic villain and hero archetypes with no dimensions to their existence.

However, my biggest issue with this book is the HEAVY info dumping. Past events that occurred between characters were explained when relevant. For example, a character picks up a scarf they gave to another character and we are told (NOT SHOWN) the memory that supposedly makes the scene relevant. Combined with the info dumping, we get over-explained passages, scenes, and sentences that could have been cut down.
This info dumping extends to the world building as well, however, the world building is so incredibly basic in its mechanics that sometimes it reads as under-explained. For example, witches that control fire are dubbed Flame witches. Witches that control plants are dubbed Root witches. Literally, how does the magic system even work? Though this is a fantasy novel, I have no idea what kind of world its inspired by. Doctors are dubbed as “human curers” but clinics are dubbed as clinics — it’s just very confusing.

Genuinely, this book should’ve gone through several more rounds of editing. Grammar just felt really off at times and we got really awkward sentences at times in addition to the repetitive phrases. For example, one of the characters mention brushing blood off their cheek instead of wiping blood off their cheek. Another time, a character is dying from thirst and another character finds berries for them that can help them see in the night so they can use them for later. I don't understand why the thirsty character doesn’t just eat the berries regardless of wasting the power, they’re literally dying from thirst. Like hello??
In short, the writing is really weak and illogical at times.

Eventually, you get to a point in the book where some of the character motivations are just really really stupid. Like Really Stupid. And sometimes the characters are just incredibly illogical.

In short, 1.5 bc even the sapphic romance couldn’t save it seeing at how underdeveloped and unbelievable it was.

This book reminds me of being a teenager and staying awake all night trying to get to the end. It’s that kind of propulsive, page-turner. I would have loved it when I was younger. Now that I’m in my 30s, I tend to like my oppressed characters a bit messier and angrier, but I really think this hits all the right notes for a younger audience. In fact, I’ll probably buy it for my teenage cousin when it’s translated to Portuguese.

Despite a long-standing enmity between witches and vampires not all is as it might appear, as revealed during a journey through a cursed forest in The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores.

Locked away in a tower of her home by her mother for the past two years, Ava has been kept from the world and Kaye, a Flame witch who had been her best friend and has been training to hunt vampires; being locked away was for her own good since she’d been turned into a vampire, which are hunted down when they venture beyond the magically walled off forest, and sometimes even within it. Ava still has her Root witch powers, which her mother siphons to obscure the fact that she’s also a vampire while serving in leadership role within the community. Finally escaping confinement and determined to stop her mother’s plans that would destroy the town, Ava flees to the forest to seek help from Casiopea, the vampire queen, using the chaos of an attack as cover; following Ava’s tracks in to the forest, Kaye catches up and convinces Ava to travel together despite her plans to turn Ava over and get vengeance for the death of her mother. As the pair travel through the forest they both reminisce about how their relationship used to be, questioning what they thought they knew about one another, as well as what they’ve been taught to believe, while trying to avoid the dangers in the forest and emerge alive.

Using Rapunzel as a base for some initial plot points and characteristics in shaping Ava, the story has familiar basis from which to build and reform itself from the fairy tale’s basic frame as it incorporates its own lore regarding witches and vampires. Scheming and plays at power in order to serve the “greater good” from the adults of the story provide both intrigue and moral conflict for Ava and Kaye, playing out across chapters from their respective perspectives, which alternate to build out the story; the oscillating backsliding and growth of their relationship dynamic felt primarily surface-level and a bit forced to fit within the narrative and help drive the action, yet still came across as relatively authentic for melodrama associated with young teenagers. The magic within the world has a well-thought out origin slowly presented as events evolved, but the way it functions in actuality and how it impacts those who wield it or have been turned to vampires is not as thoroughly detailed or contextually fleshed out as it might have been, leaving a flatness to the world that has rich potential.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"I know I must look like a true monster now to the humans and witches watching me, but I no longer care. That's all they'll ever see me as anyway."

The Witch and the Vampire is a Rapunzel-inspired, queer, paranormal story. Ava and Kaye are ex-best friends. They were close until Ava was turned into a vampire and locked away by her own mother. While Ava's mother is out, vampires break through the magical barrier that was protecting the town--Ava uses this as her catch to run free. She runs into Kaye and they have no choice but to work together.--ava believes to be reunited with her ex-best friend and Kaye sees an opportunity for revenge.

First of all the cover is absolutely stunning. TWATV takes the fairytale of Rapunzel and spins it with vampire lore in a dark and enticing way. I think fans of Bone Crier's Moon will enjoy this book.

Where to start. At times, this book read a lot younger than I would have liked, even for a YA book. There is content that is better suited for an older teen audience, like 16-17, but there are times when things are presented in a way that makes me wonder if this book is for young teens (13/14). Things that are over-explained or simply glossed over. I feel like that was a missed opportunity to delve into the world.

The characters were fine, but we're constantly told about their past without getting enough backstory. I would have liked more flashbacks or something to show their friendship that was developing into something more before the main part of the story takes place. I would have also liked to know more about Tristan, their other "friend". His role in the story could have had more of an impact. He was a former friend turned somewhat bully, back to being a friend, then nothing. His character almost didn't need to be there.

Ava and Kaye were also just okay as characters. A lot about them felt surface level. Their conflicted feeling for each other, that also could have gone deeper. They both miss their friend, but they are also on opposite sides of a conflict that grow back together to fight a common enemy. They flop back and forth with trust too much, in an "all or nothing" way. It would make more sense to just be reluctant to trust each other again, not for them to profess to fully trust the other, and then when something happens that seems suspicious to them, talk to each other before acting like they were betrayed and turn on the other.

With Ava being an undead Vampire, would she still look the age she was when she was turned, or does she age? These things aren't ever really explained. The magic was also a little confusing before each chapter is either a journal entry or a passage from a handbook, and there we learn that their gods gave people magic, but we don't learn how the magic works. Another thing is, I have no idea how old these characters are supposed to be. I'm going to assume they're around 15/16 based on their actions.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I liked this take on vampires and witches! There were little twists and turns in this book that I thought were pretty interesting as well! I enjoyed both Ava and Kaye and the powerfulness of both of these women! I feel like the pacing could be a little slow at parts but it definitely hit its stride and then I couldn’t put it down! I love the back story of two old friends who are turned into enemies and eventually find their way back to being more than before! I highly recommend this book!

Thank you so much to the publishers/author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This had been one of my most anticipated books for next year. The cover is beautiful and the summary had me hooked. I love anything supernatural and a vampire/witch romance sounded amazing. Also I love a queer retelling and I hadn’t come across a Rapunzel one.

Ava is a vampire who was forcefully turned by her mother and has been locked away from the world for 2 years. She longs to go back to her normal life and see her best friend Kaye again. Kaye on the other hand has made it her mission to kill her old friend Ava. She is a fire witch and she believes Ava is responsible for the death of her Mother 2 years ago. Ava vows to have revenge on whoever was guilty. When Ava is able to finally escape her prison, Kaye finds her and they begin a journey together. This story had a solid friends to enemies to lovers trope.

I liked the two main characters of Ava and Kaye and the flip flop of POVS between them. We get all of the story that way. However, I thought some of the characters were just there for plot and didn’t really amount to anything. Tristian was a vital character in the book and then at the end it’s just like Tristan who?

If you’re more interested in a book that is heavy on the action and light on the romance, this is one for you. It’s obvious that Ava and Kaye like each other, but it doesn’t really make that the main focus. I thought this was a very interesting take on vampire lore and witchcraft. I liked all the different types of witches and the mythology that the world had. I wouldn’t really say this was a Rapunzel retelling except for the fact that Ava had really long hair and was locked away. If you came to read this book for a retelling, you might be disappointed. I thought this was a solid fantasy YA book and I’d recommend it if you love queer vampires as much as I do.

This book was amazing and such a wonderful read! From the romance to the world-building everything was so good and so detailed. I loved how Ava and Kaye came to trust each other again and the trials they had to go through together. I especially loved the ending and how there is room for a potential sequel. If there ever is one I would love to read more about Ava and Kaye's adventures and see how their relationship develops. But yeah 10/10 was a really good read and a fun time!

Thank you so much to wednesday books for sending me an advanced copy of this fantastic book in exchange for an honest review.

I adored this story! Dual perspectives of two ex best friends who have each gone through sad things in their lives. The story did start off slow but picked up very quickly. And the romance was to die for.

Highly reccomend this for the spooky season!