Alex Crespo's Saint Juniper's Folly is an atmospheric and gripping young adult novel that kept me hooked with its surprising twists and turns. While the pacing was initially slow to start, the story rapidly picked up steam, and I found myself eagerly turning the pages.

The three main characters, Jaime, Theo, and Taylor, are likable, but I do wish they were better developed. However, their distinct personalities and struggles drew me in and made me invested in their journeys.

One of the book's strengths is its atmospheric quality. The setting of Saint Juniper's Folly and the nearby woods is vividly described, and the ghost that haunts the characters adds a haunting and eerie quality to the story.

The plot itself is not as straightforward as it initially seems, and the twists and turns surprised me until the very end. Overall, I give Saint Juniper's Folly a four-star rating. This was a wonderful debut novel, and I definitely recommend it to fans of young adult fantasy who enjoy atmospheric and unpredictable stories.

"Cemetery Boys meets The Haunting of Bly Manor in this spellbinding debut!

For Jaime, returning to the Vermont town of Saint Juniper means returning to a past he's spent eight years trying to forget. After shuttling between foster homes, he hopes to make something out of this fresh start. But every gossip in town already knows his business, and with reminders of his past everywhere, he seeks out solitude into the nearby woods - Saint Juniper's Folly - and does not return.

For Theo, Saint Juniper means being stuck. He knows there's more out there, but he's scared to go find it. His senior year is going to be like all the rest, dull and claustrophobic. That is until he wanders into the Folly and stumbles on a haunted house with an acerbic yet handsome boy trapped - as in physically trapped - inside.

For Taylor, Saint Juniper is a mystery. She tries to practice the magic her dad banned from the house after her mom, an accomplished witch, suddenly died. But without someone to guide her, she's floundering. Then a wide-eyed teenager barges into her life, rambling about a haunted house and a trapped boy. He needs a witch.

The Folly and its ghosts will draw these three teenagers together. But can they each face their demons to forge a bond strong enough to escape the Folly's shadows?

Alex Crespo's queer haunted house mystery is equal parts spine-tingling thrills, a celebration of found family, and must-read for paranormal romance fans."

Queer haunted house mystery centering on found family? Yes, yes, yes!

Running away from home, Jaime becomes trapped in a haunted house in the forest. Taylor and Theo, new friends, plot a rescue.
Overwritten and characters are one-dimensional.

This is honestly the perfect amount of horror I can handle in my novel but even putting that aside it was a really really enjoyable read I managed to breeze through faster than I expected to

I really enjoyed this one. The three protagonists were fantastic, and we know I always fawn over for a good paranormal mystery. The themes in the book surprised me most of all, I didn't expect it to go as heavy or deep as it did in some things. Race, generational trauma, representation, it was all handled incredibly well.

As a whole I'm starting to find the whole "found family" trope overdone, but this book does it well enough that it didn't bother me. The three characters form a bond that's believable and genuine and doesn't feel like the author ticking off a box because they know that readers enjoy that type of things in a book like this.

The romance is slow, which works in the confines of the story and I enjoyed how it played out. Their interactions were some of my favorites of the book, and I often looked forward to the chapters that were just the two of them talking.

Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of this book and couldn't really think of a single negative to give it without being insanely picky. I fully recommend.

Saint Juniper's Folly is a beautiful story of found identities and found families. The three main characters struggle with their families in various ways, but find comfort in their friendship and bond over solving the mystery of the Blackwood, and the angry ghost that lives within it. It is a story filled with hardship, but also heartfelt love. Dabbling in witchcraft, powers, and the unknown with a magnetic call that brings our trio together to accomplish what failed before. It is a truly mystical and beautifully written book. Alex Crespo did a magnificent job on this debut novel, and I can't wait to read future books written by them.

Thank you Netgalley and Peachtree for letting me read a copy of Saint Juniper's Folly, and thank you Alex Crespo for an amazing read!

thank you to netgalley for this arc !

i thought this book was so lovely and good!! theo, jamie, and taylor are such a good trio, the way their characters and relationships with each other develop was so nice to read. the way their different backgrounds all came together to give them a common ground was really well done and i just love them a lot! the plot was also really interesting, i was so intrigued that once i started reading again, i couldn't put it down. overall, i thought this was such a nice book to read. the povs worked well, the characters were so lovely, the plot was interesting, it was just really good!! i cannot wait for it to come out, i think i'll definitely be buying a hard copy of it!

Received an arc from NetGalley, thank you! Right off the bat, I knew I was going to enjoy this book! This book has beautiful friendships and relationships! What is not to love!?! This book had queer romance, witches, and haunted houses.

4.25 stars
I did not expect this gem of a story when I picked up this YA contemporary fantasy! I fell in love with the characters pretty quickly and the supernatural elements pulled me in further. Throw in a sweet romance and I had a hard time putting this one down.

Three seventeen-year-olds in Saint Juniper, Vermont, have their own separate problems and have to face them after a magical crisis involving a haunted house brings them all together. Jaime is in foster care after having been left by his mom when he was nine and he has a hard time letting people in. Theo is under pressure from his parents to be the perfect son. Taylor recently lost her mom and is banned by her magic shop owning dad from practicing very real magic.

Jaime, Theo and Taylor form the kind of connection and friendship that lonely people who feel like outsiders quickly do. I rooted for them all to get along and help each other, and also for two of them to realize they could be more than friends. Friendship, love and support of others are important themes of the novel. See also this reader squealing with joy when certain realizations between characters were made. ;)

Two of the main characters are of Mexican heritage, which is partially explored in the book. Especially for Jaime who has had his own journey with being a white-presenting Mexican-American in foster care. There is also great LGBT+ representation.

A lot of the elements gave me Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas vibes, as well as some Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. For me this novel fell somewhere inbetween those two when it came to the writing and enjoyment of the story. I liked this better than Cemetery Boys, but the prose was not quite at Stiefvater levels, and some side-characters felt underdeveloped. I can't wait to see this book out in the world however, and for the author's future novels. Those will be insta-buys for me!

Thank you to Peachtree Teen and Netgalley for sending me this ebook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A phenomenal queer ya mystery!! It's got so many twists and turns and I highly enjoyed it! I really loved the characters. I will be recommending this to anyone who enjoys a good YA mystery!

This book has everything: Small town, misfit teens, magic, haunted woods, that one weird old house in the middle of the woods where you live that everyone says is haunted (yes that one), queer representation, library volunteering, some generational trauma, witches, and found family.

Saint Juniper's Folly is a teen gothic mystery that follows three teens who are on separate paths in life but are all feeling stuck in this small Vermont town. Theo keeps to himself and volunteers at the library. Jaime has moved back after being away for 8 years in foster care. Taylor is a practicing witch who helps run her late mother's apothecary. However something has been calling out to each of them...an old house located in the middle of the forest called Blackwood. Together the three strangers must work together to solve a mystery.

I do have to say that it took me a bit to get into the book. Especially as each chapter bumps between the three characters POV"s so it took a moment to get used to it. I do like that it focused on each character equally which is usually not something you get to see with three main characters. The queer representation in the book is very realistic and sweet. I really enjoyed this book. It is a little spooky but not scary book. However the quote "Do you ever think about how the forest won't remember us?" is absolutely haunting.

Thank you to PeachTree Teen and NetGalley for the eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This YA lgbtqiap+ mystery romance novel is said to be “Cemetery Boys meets The Haunting of Bly Manor” and I’d say they were pretty darn right.

A small eerie tourist town in Vermont, a haunted house in the middle of a forest, a boy just living life day to day so he can escape town after his senior year, a boy running from his past, and a witch whose father doesn’t want her practicing.

This book has 3 POV’s, Theo, Taylor, and Jaime, and they are all in first person. Their lives intersect when Theo wanders into the forest, Saint Juniper’s Folly, after hearing a scream, to find Jaime trapped in a haunted house. But Theo doesn’t know where to start in helping Jaime get out, so he brings in a witch, Taylor, who might know what to do.

This was such a good ya mystery, the writing was great and easy to follow. All three of the characters were complex and interesting in their own way, and I liked how throughout the book they really grew into and felt confident in themselves.

It had a slow pace romance which was super sweet to read, the friendship and found family between the three was cute and fun, and I love how sarcastic and sassy Jaime was with them.

It was a good haunted house story, the only criticism I have is that I wish it included a little bit more of a horror theme but overall, it was a quick fun romance mystery and it was a really great debut novel! And that cover is beautiful!

Thank you NetGalley for providing this e-ARC, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book! You really can't go wrong with a little YA haunted house mystery. The friendship between Jaime, Theo and Taylor was sweet and felt very real. I adored the slow building of Jaime and Theos relationship and love that it wasn't turned into an awkward and unnecessary love triangle situation. Just pure love and friendship.
The main thing that bothered me was the formatting of the book. I assume this was just because this is an ARC and will not be the case in the released book. But especially chapter 29 was very confusing and distracting in its format. There were also some typos and missing letters in some words, nothing major or extremely noticeable but it did happen a couple of times.
All in all this was a quick, great and fun read and I would recommend this to people that enjoy some light haunted house and mystery vibes with a lot of friendship, teenage/young adult problems and some very cute romance.

"Do you ever think about how the forest won't remember us?"

AAAAH, THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!

Haunted houses, curses, magic and three traumatised teenagers – what could go wrong? Alex Crespo serves both very thoughtful and fun story about old secrets, walked right by murderous spirit in strange town. It's such a fun to read, characters are easy to fall in love with, perfectly balanced between warm YA and chilling horror-wanna-be.

Recommended to every Cemetery Boys Starkid lover!

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Saint Juniper's Folly is an interesting read about a boy who gets trapped in a house in the woods, a witch who's struggling with her ability after her mother's death, and a boy who's looking for purpose and identity in his small town life.

I enjoyed both the story and the characters. The author does a really good job of giving the town its own persona and setting the eerie theme for the house and the forest. The characters were wonderfully individual, and it was great to watch them grow together.

There was a little of the common YA trappings of insta-love. I'm usually less critical of it within the genre, but it felt a little like being beaten over the head with the ~immediate attraction~ of it all, despite a brief and antagonistic first interaction. Once we were in the swing of things though, I thought it progressed very well, and enjoyed the conversations Jaime and Theo.

I also really enjoyed Taylor and her journey with her magic, although I feel like the book would have benefited by keeping her friend Anna involved more presently in the story, even if it were still as a foil, both because of her connection to magic but also to one of the groups regular life.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story about three kids learning who they are (in magical and regular ways), which is always a fun time as far as I'm concerned.

An emotional and breathtaking paranormal YA story!

Saint Juniper, Vermont is not a place Jaime, Theo and Taylor like, and they have good reasons not to.

For Jaime, it's where his parents left him. For Theo, it's a tiny world burdening him with expectations. For Taylor, it's a place where a witch is not safe.

But when Jaime gets trapped in a supposedly haunted house, the 3 teenagers are brought together in a race against time to unravel mysteries of the town's past, and in Taylor's case, of her family's past.

To solve the mystery, Jaime will have to deal with memories he buried long ago, Theo to deal with new, confusing feelings and Taylor to deal with the grief from her mother's death, while keeping everything secret from her father.

The book is an emotional rollercoaster, a real page-turner and an excellent debut!

Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the ARC!

I knew about this book when it was still being written (since I follow the author on twitter) and that was why as soon as I heard that „Saint Juniper‘s Folly“ was on Netgalley, I immediately jumped at the chance to read it. And let me tell you – it did not disappoint.

The story follows three teenagers – Theo, Taylor and Jaime – as their small town lives change drastically one summer, bringing them together to solve the mystery of Blackwood manor, before it’s too late and one of them ends up dead…Told in triple perspective the book delves into what it means to be true to yourself and to others, the importance of family – both blood and found – and the age old problem – growing up.

Even if it might seem that a multitude topics have been touched upon in this story, all of them are intertwined and dealt with in such a masterful way, that at no point in the book did I feel like I was being spoon fed the ideas. Instead, I found myself nostalgic for my own teenage years and the friends I made and lost through the years… A particular passage stuck with me, where one of the characters wishes to exist in a moment of common day happiness forever, feeling as if seeing the scene from outside, and then pondering how such happiness is always just out of reach.

The reading experience was so smooth and I found myself flying through the book (even though I read the pdf of it on my Netgalley app on my phone and everyone knows that pdfs and phones do not mix), making it probably the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year, based on the experience itself. I loved the characters and their wit, the atmosphere and the picturesque descriptions. This is definitely a book I’d recommend reading (especially in the summer)!

I received an advance review copy from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Decent book, had really great potential but was really slow and drawn out, until the end and then everything seemed to happen at once. Wish there would have been more horror and excitement.

This story follows Jaime, Theo, and Taylor as they navigate life in their small towns, ghosts, and magic. There is mystery, multigenerational trauma, and themes of self-discovery.

I enjoyed this book so much from start to finish. I loved all three of the main characters, which I feel like often I do not, so that was nice. Each of the three fulfill typical YA character tropes - you have the sarcastic one who uses that and a prickly exterior to hide pain and trauma, you have your golden retriever boy who is actually deeper than he seems at the start, and the one with the brains who has a side issue to solve and has to teach one or more characters. Basically a classic golden trio, which I do not always enjoy, but I did this time.

The setting of the Blackwood house is very gothic in a watered-down YA way but still gives a good amount of creepiness to it and is an ideal backdrop for the story. There are many themes of self-discovery and acceptance throughout this, as well as identity, race, and LGBTQIA+ issues. I feel like if there was an entire series of books devoted to these three and gothic mysteries I would 100% read them.