Weyward House has housed many generations of the wild, Weyward women, even if they don't know at the time that they are wild and Weyward. Kate is on the run. Violet only wants to run. Altha has been targeted and can't run. This multi-generational tale tells of the tests of women's strength, the tests of their love and friendships, and the tests of violence. Hart's novel of female resilience through time, with a little help from nature, links together the past with the future through bonds these women didn't even know existed.
This was a beautifully-written exploration of the connection of women, the connection of family, and how a little magic thrown in can change the course of people's lives. This was an engaging read from beginning to end, with every emotion felt throughout. I can't wait to read more from Hart.

Beautifully written and a great story about women and the challenges/injustices we face just by being women. Trigger warning: there are on page descriptions of domestic violence that could be disturbing to some. At least in my experience, that was not made clear in the marketing.

An eerie and heartbreaking intergenerational story of the Weyward women and the men who have abused and wronged them.

The Weyward women are connected through their relationship with nature, insects and birds that work to protect them. This story follows Altha, Violet and Kate and how their stories all intertwine and transitions seamlessly throughout the story from each of their POV.

This was an excellent book and blended several genres perfectly (women’s fiction, historical fiction and magical realism). An absolute triumph of a debut novel and a spellbinding/stunning cover as well.

I will say TW for SA/rape and I would not recommend this novel to someone who is sensitive to these topics. TW as well for abuse and neglect.

The audio narrator was a perfect choice for this novel.

5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and MacMillan audio for the Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this one, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, as historical fiction is not really my cup of tea. However, I liked the cover, and I'm a sucker for covers. I also really like witches and magic and all that. I would not call this a story about witches, though I suppose it is. It is a story about family, 3 women in particular. How these women are connect through the centuries, the gifts they share, the treatment of the society around them. Not only being women, but being different. How Altha's journey empowered Violet and Violet empowers Kate, though they don't know one another.

The stories are woven very beautifully together, even though you have 3 separate stories, you can feel the connection of each one as they braid together. There is so much sadness and melancholy in the story, so much really, really bad stuff that happened to each of these women. Even with all the badness surrounding them there is also so much hope. Thinking about everything now and reflecting back on the story, I can say it makes my heart full, happy, content. Loved it.

The audio version has 3 separate voice actors narrating each woman's story. All distinctly different though they bring a similar tone. I really liked that this was done, it gave the story so much more power and texture. I think that was just amazing. From what I can tell this is a debut for author Emilia Hart, I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us in the future.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio.
This is a story of three women connected through genealogy, tragic events, and an affinity for nature. One, a healer in the 1600s, is tried for being a witch. Another is a sixteen year old girl in the 1940s who is held to the social rules of her class. A third flees her 21st century abusive relationship. All three fight the patriarchy with varying success. The story was interesting in parts but felt disjointed to me - perhaps the multiple storylines. I'm not sure. That said, the narrators were great and kept me listening to the end. Many readers seem to have had a different experience with this book so I recommend reading other reviews and decide for yourself.

Engaging characters and vibrant settings in all three timelines! Powerful women never cease to fight for their choices. I enjoyed moving between the witch trial, a downton-like victorian and the terror of Sleeping with the Enemy. Will read again and annotate!

Special thanks to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the audio ARC..

I love a book with more than one narrator and especially narrators with accents.
All that is true but what captivated me was the story itself. Emilia Hart wrote a great book about 3 women in 3 different times but are also connected. All of them seem to have terrible strife but are also gifted. There is Altha, accused of witchcraft, Violet who was raped and forced to marry her cousin who raped her, a disgusting man, and Kate in the present, inheriting her great aunts cottage Weyward "weird" in old tales.

Anyway of course I'm not gonna say more. I don't like retelling the story. I think everyone should read for themselves. The blurb is enough. All you have to know is that it's well written, kept my interest and I am giving it 4 stars. I loved it.

cw: domestic violence, sexual assault, neglectful parent, death of a loved one, abortion
This was the kind of book that creeps up on you slowly; it started off unassuming, drawing me in with the stunning writing and some basic interest in the lives of these women (and the inevitable connections between them that are to be revealed), but the more the story swept me up in its waves, the less I wanted to jump out of it and back to the real world, always dying to get to check back on these women.
Each of the stories were harrowing and gut-wrenching in their own ways, but ultimately the writer offered each of her protagonists grace and hope on the horizon, which made for a well balanced story.
From a strictly craft perspective, not only did Hart's writing do a fantastic job in drawing the reader in and offering the story a perfect flow and offered enough gravity to the events within the story, but also some relief from the trauma, but she also does a fantastic job in making each of the women's voices to be distinct enough that I not once forgot whose perspective I was in (which is no easy feat in a multi-POV novel).
Must, of course, also point out that the audiobook was a perfect way of consuming the story and it really helped each voice come to life.
Perfect for fans of Maggie O'Farrell and Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The story of three different Weyward women.

In 2019, Kate runs from an abusive relationship to a cottage she inherited from an aunt, Violet, who she never really knew - Weyward Cottage.

In 1942, teenage Violet wishes she knew more about her mother who has passed. All she has is a locket style necklace with a W. The locals think she is "different", but she also hears them compare her to her mother.

Then way back in 1619, Altha has been accused of witchcraft and is standing trial.

All three Weyward women connected in ways they aren't even aware of. We see how each is treated - years apart. They were all strong in their own way and had to deal with difficult men who tried to have power over them.

I liked the multiple POVs and learning about each of these Weyward women. Their lives were different in many ways, but they experienced similar things and were all strong, magical women!

This book was wonderfully written and the audio was fantastic!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Weyward by Emilia Hart is an unforgetable tale about a long history of witches. This book spans through the centuries follow three women. Altha, who was on trial for witchcraft when her chidhood friend Grace 's husband is killed by his herd of cows. Violet, who wonders what happened to her mother and why no one will answer her questions. Is sent away to Weyward Cottage when she falls pregnant. Kate, who is fleeing her abusive boyfriend and the only place can hide away from Simon is at Weyward Cottage. All three stories come together at the end with many twists and turns along the way. I loved everything about this book from start to end. A must read for anyone who loves a good mystery and historical fiction.

Three Weyward women, connected with a special gift, are feared in society. I love how the stories intertwined over the decades. Hart is a fantastic story teller and had me captivated the entire time reading. I was fully invested while reading and couldn’t believe this was a debut. This was a magical read that I enjoyed more than I thought I would. I am not typically into magical, or witchcraft reads. All three women persevere even though they are shunned by their communities. There seemed to be a lot of domestic abuse and my hope is that one of them would break the cycle. I listened to the audiobook version and the three narrators did a wonderful job. This is a book about feminism, relationships, witchcraft, and family.

I was on the fence about this (not usually my type of read) but I'm glad I gave it a shot. This book was FANTASTIC! The stories of the Weyward women entangled together beautifully. The timelines were woven together seamlessly and very easy to follow. I loved the "independent women" vibe of this book. It shows the struggles of women throughout the ages (even in present day) and I loved how these women were helping each other overcome even though they had long since passed away. The strength of heritage and ancestry in this book was an uplifting breath of fresh air. Overall this was an easy and enjoyable read that will stick with me for a long time.

Really enjoyed this read, about three women from the same family, decades and hundreds of years apart. Their lives mirror each other in that because of the patriarchy, they had their agency ripped away from them, but they persevered.
Although, Violet and Kate are the women of the Weyward line, and though they lived in different centuries, they each find themselves victims of the patriarchy in various ways, but they do not take these attacks against them lying down. Each finds a way to overcome the trials that come their way.

Weyward is a twisting tale of multigenerational trauma and strength.

Following three Weyward women across three time periods, Weyward is the story of their lives and the struggles they faced.
1619: Altha has been accused of witchcraft and is facing her trial.
1942: Violet just wants to be an entomologist, but her father has other ideas, and she suspects the story he’s told her of her mother may not be the whole truth.
2019: Kate flees her abusive partner when she learns she’s pregnant to the cottage her Great Aunt Violet left her.

Before I go any further, I want to state that this book has a lot of trigger warnings: rape, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, child loss, physical and emotional abuse, victim blaming, false accusation of mental illness. All of these are woven into the narrative of the three women’s lives.

I love that the three stories seemed separate to start with, but as the novel went on they intertwined to become one larger overarching tale.

Their trauma and resilience shines through each of their stories, as do the mysteries which are sprinkled through the story. The women’s views are shaped by their lived experiences, so for most of the book they are fairly negative about men generally. However, I did feel this was offset somewhat by Kate’s love for her dad, and towards the end of the book I felt at least one of the other perspectives was able to see that not all men are the same.

The characters felt realistic and distinct from one another, and seeing the setting across three time periods was fascinating.
The different audio narrators for each of the women really helped to create the sense of each one, and made it very easy to follow who was who and which time period we were in.

Overall, Weyward was skilfully woven to create a moving story which demonstrates how attitudes towards and treatment of women has changed and stayed the same over time.

While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review, all opinions remain my own.

My rating 4.5 out of 5 stars

This was a creative weaving of three individual stories into one beautiful tapestry of a family line. I just loved the way that Hart put this family's entire history into this story and you really get a feeling for the Weyward women. I would love to read more of her stories if they are all like this. This book has an amazing element of magic in it, plus one of the story lines is back in the times of the witch trials, so you have that working against the Weyward woman of that time. Each woman, in her time, has a problem to work through, and each one works through it in their own way. I love the way that the future Weyward women use the stories of those they find in the past and learn from them. It is a beautiful way to learn from those who have come before us.

Anyway, a beautiful story and one I would gladly listen to again.

Three stories. Three women. Three generations of misogyny. The stories themselves were good. I left them feeling like I had done all of this before. Women who don’t conform. Women who are controlled. Women who are called witches. I was hoping for something to come as the stories weaved past and present, but I just didn’t find it. A good story, if not a bit familiar. Maybe even dated.

Kate has to leave her home for she has a husband who abuses her. She takes off to Weyward Cottage an old home left to her by her great aunt. The cottage offers Kate solace but it also holds secrets of her family that date back to the sixteen hundreds.

The author takes us back in time to meet up with Altha a woman living in 1619, as she awaits trial. Altha is accused of causing, through black magic, a herd of cows to trample a local farmer to death. Altha does know the magic of nature taught to her by her mother, but not the evil kind she is being accused of. Of course in those days every woman was thought to be a witch or to be capable of being one, so Altha's fate seemed to be that of many others and death to be her final judgement.

Next, we arrive in 1942, where we meet Violet, a woman who wants what she can't have, the freedom and education given to her brother. She lives a life confined until she finds a baseboard in her room with the word Weyward scratched into it. She carries the locket of her deceased mother who it was claimed went mad. 

This character study into the hearts and souls of these three women living centuries apart, is wonderfully intertwined into a riveting story that points to both magical realism and the hardships these women faced.

The men in the story do not come off well as they exert their power over these women and of course others that cross their path. It is a story of how women have struggled to be able to stand side by side with their male counterparts. In its chapters which flip back and forth in Kate, Altha, and Violet's lives, we see a progression of strength, of the nature of women, and the magic they often possess.

Wonderfully written (and it's a debut), this is a great look into what was and what continues to be if women do not use the rights that have been theirs for some time.
Thank you to Emilia, Hart, narrated by Aysha Kala; Helen Keeley; Nell Barlow who did a fine job, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio version of this book due out March 7, 2023

A breathtakingly beautiful tale of self-determination and courage. My heart wept and sang with the women in this story.
This tale is about many generations of women in the Weyward bloodline but it mainly jumps between 3 of them. From abuse, rape, repression through witch trials; these women overcome dreadful circumstances. Their amazing connections to nature aiding them along the way.
I think the historical truth behind these fictional characters really hit me hard. In our lives I think more of us than not have faced some form of abuse. In some sense this is cathartic, albeit a little bittersweet. If only I had their powers.
The women narrating the book have beautiful voices and perform magnificently. I highly recommend this one.
I received this ARC from Macmillan AuIdio and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This interwoven literary triptych follows the lives of three women, separated in time, but similarly struggling to thrive in worlds that react to their differentness with violence and oppression. The incandescent prose and mesmerizing braid of Altha, Violet, and Kate's voices make these struggles all the more poignant. While there are supernatural, magical threads woven throughout, they play second fiddle to the sheer humanity the author expertly evokes in her heroines. We live with these women. We suffer with them. But most importantly, we rise with them, as they each find within themselves the power to fight back, and ultimately, to find their own form of freedom. Undulant, lush, and propulsive, this story is one to pick up with caution, if only because once you do, you may find it difficult to put it down again until you've seen it through to the end.

was pleasantly surprised by this ARC. This was a combination of historical fiction and magical realism.
This focuses on 3 different generations of Weyward women and how they navigate their difficult worlds. With a little help from nature and magics.
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆…
🌿Strong female MCs
🌿 Magic & nature
🌿 Historical fiction
🌿 Revenge on men 😁