3.5 stars!

My favourite part of this book is when it proved to be something completely unexpected - when, 80% of the way through the book, the author pulled the rug out from under the reader and suddenly everything was tense and intriguing. Sasha Peyton Smith created a powerful female character, and made her confront the possibility of becoming suddenly powerless all over again.

This book was feminist in the early 1910s, and it combined the interesting historical time period with the fantasy trope of a magical school for witches, which I absolutely loved the premise of. It was a cosy read, and every time I opened this book I found myself diving right back into the friendships and escapades, the same way I would with Harry Potter when I was younger. I loved the very beginning, the inciting incident, and the concept, but I got a bit lost along the way with the sneaking out to meet up with a boy.

Eventually, however, the book redeemed itself by turning the existing plot on its head. I was impressed by the way the author made the comfy, cosy plot into something more stressful and suddenly part of a bigger world, and I was glad she did.

It's definitely YA, but it's also definitely got a lot of plot credence going forward. I'm intrigued to see how the series develops into the future.

The book started out weedy and boring - it eas hard to get into the story until about 1/3rd of the way through. The main character's fixation on her dead brother feels too much like pining for a lost lover to be completely settled and believable.
By the half-way mark, I stopped looking at how much longer the character was going to start whining, and they actually got up and did something. The final 1/3rd of the book sunk hooks into me and dragged me on, I could see the ending coming, but not in the form it did.

As an aside, the kindle version I received had horrible formatting issues when viewed on my android kindle app. You may want to check your lines settle right, drop caps aren't inserted halfway through the second line, and the font size is all correct, just in case.

“Something bad is coming”

Frances Hallowell is mourning the recent death of her brother. Her life gets a lot more complicated when her super slimy boss attacks her after hours and she sorta kinda accidentally kills him. Oops!

When it looks certain that Frances is going to be convicted as a murderer, salvation comes to her by way of an ambulance. She’s told she’s very unwell and is promptly taken to Haxahaven Sanitarium to be ‘treated’. Only Haxahaven isn’t what it’s advertised to be. It’s actually a school for witches…

The premise of this book hooked me: secret witchy school, murder mystery, underdog battling the Big Bad. The reality of the book surprised me, and I’m still conflicted.

I was entirely engaged until I learned that the witchcraft that was being taught at Haxahaven was limited to producing good little wives and domestic help. I switched off a little at that point and was even able to put the book aside for a few weeks without any trouble.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish reading but figured I’d give it another try. I found it easy to get back into. I hadn’t forgotten who the characters were or what was happening for each of them when I pressed pause. It didn’t take me long to get into the rest of the story, the parts that didn’t involve magical bread-kneading.

While I wasn’t the hugest fan of Frances, I absolutely adored Maxine and Lena. I wanted to get to know Oliver better.

“I think perhaps this is how we survive in the world. Passing little bits of our magic back and forth to each other when the world takes it from us. It’s survival. It’s love. It’s family.”

Content warnings include attempted sexual assault including suffocation, domestic abuse, mental health and a character who was removed from her home and taken to a residential school. Readers with emetophobia may have trouble with some scenes.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

The Witch Haven – Sasha Peyton Smith



I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in order to provide an honest review.



Sasha Peyton Smith is a New York Times best-selling author of The Witch Haven and The Witch Hunt. She enjoyed good soup recipes and stories about complicated girls.



Frances Hallowell is a young and naïve 17-year-old girl just trying to survive and make ends meet in New York City. Having lost her brother months earlier, brutally murdered and dumped in a river – now Frances must learn to survive on her own.

So, Frances sews and stays in the shop with the other young girls. It's hard but things could be much worse for them – and soon they were about to be. The owner of this particular little sweat shop was a drunk, greasy man. Who tried to put his hands on Frances when she was all alone in the sew room of the shop. And that’s when it happened, the thing that irrevocably changed the course of her life – a pair of scissors flew from one side of the sew room straight into the shop owner, killing him.

Luckily, before the Police are able to cart her off for murder, two women dressed in black capes take Frances to what the claim is a sanitorium, Haxahaven – turns out it’s a haven for witches, witches just like Frances.

Haxahaven was the home Frances never knew she need. Filled with other girls like her they spend their days learning about their magic. Frances was happy, she was safe and better fed than she had been in such a long time. But one thing was nagging at her – who was responsible for her brother's murder.

So, Frances finally starts asking questions and doing everything she can to uncover the truth about her brother's murder. Yet the more answers she finds, the more questions she discovers. When she does finally discover what really happened the night her brother was murdered, the truth is more shocking than she could have imagined and she’s possibly made a decision she might not be able to reverse.



“The Witch Haven” is a young adult fantasy and historical fiction novel about witches and magic. This book is a delightfully charming debut novel about some strong young women with magical abilities. Frances is such a young naïve soul that gets led woefully astray but her friends are still there for her when she truly needs them. Sadly, after all the loss young Frances has had to deal with, she must find a way to deal with the ultimate betrayal that led to her brother’s murder. It's such a spell binding and fascinating read that pulls at the readers imagination, away into a magical world of possibilities. I absolutely can’t wait for the second book and hope I am lucky enough to review it.

I loved the beginning, everything started firey and with a bang. Once we hit the 25-30% point though, it started to decline. At times it felt like the characters and the building of their personalities was completely forgotten. Even though everything picked back up again by the end, by that point it was too late for me to really enjoy. I did like the writing style and would definitely still pick up books by the author.

This I must say was a very long read I think because it didn't flow well, there was too much happening and the characters just didn't ring true to me.

Although I found it started well it didn't last long and I suddenly felt a bit lost.. It had what I wanted (or so I thought) with the historical aspect, a bit of magic and witchery along with a bit of mystery but it failed to hold my interest. The writing was lack-luster and the characters needed a bit more development.

I can't say I enjoyed it but can say it had merit and would have worked with a little bit more work.

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