This is a great palette cleanser book. It is cozy and witchy (but also has some dark themes).

I found myself really immersed in the town of Woodsmoke (it's giving Hallmark movie vibes) and fell in love with the Morgan women. This is a story about coming home, rehashing + healing old wounds, romance, complicated family relationships and acceptance.

The book also flows nicely between the past and the present. Can't recommend it enough!

Thank you to Netgalley and Rachel Greenlaw for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am new to Rachel Greenlaw but this title and cover just sunk its hooks into me immediately. So aesthetic and I was extremely hopeful for the story as well. I was anticipating it to be a little campy, but I honestly finished this feeling pleasantly surprised. Greenlaw has a penchant for building a beautiful setting and even more beautiful love. I found the chemistry between these two main characters to be extremely compelling. The magical element felt like just the right amount, and I think this will be a good book club read when the fall rolls around.

This book had a very cozy atmosphere- a little haunting but beautiful as well. It was well paced but could be a little slow in parts. The characters were wonderfully complex and I really enjoyed this book overall.

I liked this! It felt pretty slow and I would have liked for a little bit more to have happened...or at least some more backstory about the other Morgan women. But otherwise, I liked it. FYI throughout the book, Kep is referred to as both a boy dog and a female dog!

This is a book filled with magic and family and love.
This reminded me of an Adrienne Young book, but different setting and feel. But I could feel the haunting beauty of the mountains and the town.
It is slow moving at times, but there is build up to things to come.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5 / 4
incredibly well written, it had a haunting cozy atmosphere and paced well, the twists caught me by surprised and i loved the complexity of each character, thank you for the arc!

Thank you Netgalley for the free E-ARC! I have to admit, this was pretty underwhelming. I was intrigued by the cover & synopsis, but the story just didn't deliver. I didn't connect with the characters as much as I'd hoped & the events that took place were a bit anticlimactic. It was a cozy read at times, but I expected more out of it.

Greenlaw has crafted a absolute joy of a sophomore novel, it brims with complex characters and otherworldly atmosphere.

Readers follow Carrie Morgan as she reluctantly returns home to her mountain town. We get a glimpse into her life as she tackles renovations of a family property and as she navigated relationships left long abandoned. As she finds her footing and a mysterious confidant she is quickly reminded that the mountains, ever present and all watchful, still brim with magic and trickery. She may have left the old ways behind but they are keen to invite her back.

I thought this was such a lovely look into love on so may levels. Greenlaw writes romantic love in such a sweet and whimsical way but she also touches on family, friendship, motherhood, and the love we have of place. The pacing is just speedy enough, it keeps the pages turning but allows the magic in the mundane a little room to breathe too. The Characters were easily the highlight for me as each felt fully realized and had messy complexity that I think most will find relatable.

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells is achingly beautiful and haunting. I loved the history and lore of the town, combined with the generational magic of the Morgan women. This story was one of reckoning, of coming to terms with the past and carving a new path. I loved the themes of magic, love, and enduring sibling bonds. Plus, the characters were so real and relatable - the definition of perfectly flawed. The ending shattered my heart, but left me with feelings of hope and renewal.

I am quickly becoming a huge fan of Greenlaw’s work (Compass and Blade was also a five star read for me). She writes with such lyrical and atmospheric prose, which gives her stories almost dreamlike qualities. If you loved Adrienne Young’s Spells for Forgetting or Emilia Hart’s Weyward, then this story is absolutely for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars

Compelling, enigmatic

My summary:

In a small mountain town called Woodsmoke, the Morgan women have been notorious for years. Their belief in the power of the mountains and “the old stories” have led to much speculation and superstition surrounding their family. This intensifies further when Carrie Morgan returns home to Woodsmoke after leaving 10 years ago. Her late grandmother left Carrie her old cottage and storefront, with the one request for her to renovate the cottage and take care of the shop. Carrie’s great-aunt Cora is still in Woodsmoke, and does her best to help Carrie form more lasting roots in Woodsmoke and reclaim it as home. The ghosts of Carrie’s past life there come back to haunt her, though, initially convincing Carrie that this is not her home. Her attitude changes upon meeting Matthieu, a mysterious man from the mountains who helps her with the renovations. Cora warns Carrie that Matthieu is not what he seems, and is convinced he is a curse from the mountains -retribution for when she left. As Carrie works to rebuild her life and start anew with Matthieu, secrets from all of their pasts come to light and change everything.

My reaction:

I was instantly hooked reading his story. Rachel Greenlaw draws you into the lore of the Morgan women perfectly. They are mysterious, misunderstood, and constantly searching. Their Book of Spells holds stories, spells, and warnings that they alone manage. The mountains are their own foreboding character and presence throughout the story, very early on setting the tone of mystery and caution.

What worked for me:
The slow unraveling of everyone’s secrets: why Carrie left, what happened with Tom, what Cora and Jess did, who Matthieu is -all of it ties together wonderfully
The characters: fit together perfectly in this story. The amount of development each character had was appropriate -enough to see it and acknowledge it, not so much that it was hard to believe
The setting: I just imagined a smokey mountain town with a dilapidated cottage and run down main street and loved every moment of it
The romance: I really enjoyed how it developed throughout the mystery of it all. I was both hopeful and filled with dread for Carrie -rooting for it to work out, but scared of heartbreak. It was artfully done
The themes of friendship and coming home -it felt so good for Carrie to re-connect with her past friends and find her roots again. Everything in the story led you to this moment and feeling naturally.

I would have liked more:

Matthieu! As much as I loved the mystery, a few more breadcrumbs about him would have been awesome for me and helped the mystery pay off a little more. At times, most of his mystery was explored through his absences, and a few more moments of intrigue with him in person would have been great for me.
Spells! The beginning of the story is very dry on spells and magic. The pay off comes later, but since the title has “book of spells” in it, I was expecting a little more magic/spell work.

After reading this ARC, I am excited to read Rachel Greenlaws other works. Her writing and storytelling abilities are impeccable. Even writing my “critiques,” I kept arguing against myself that she actually did a great job with both Matthieu and the spellbook. Overall, great 4 star read. I would only have wanted more story here!

I enjoyed this book a lot! It had family lore/inherited magic, and (though I think it was actually set in UK) Appalachia superstition/folklore vibes. I’d recommend it if you enjoy stories along the lines of Practical Magic.

The story was at times heart wrenching and very very human. I enjoyed seeing this town and these events both from 3 different points of view, and through the lense of quotes from the family compendium.

I was grateful to receive a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this gem. This book reminds me of a mix of practical magic and spells for forgetting, both of which I loved.
A woman returns to her hometown of woodsmoke after a family death. She inherits her aunts house and needs to refurbish it. She deals with the curse of the mountains, her aunt, and a stranger who shows up to help. Carrie deals with the curse of the mountains", family drama, past relationships while home, and a buddig relationship.
The characters are all real and flawed. It makes them very relatable and an enjoyable read!

If practical magic met the divine secrets of the yaya sisterhood. So beautiful and touching, so much mystery. And I loved that the mountains were as much a character as anyone else.

This is part of my review for publisher but not in my public reviews: I do think some polishing could happen up front. The tenses feel weird in some places, the story takes a second to be coherent enough to pull me in. I put it down after the first 20 pages (not my typical move) and picked it back up. my second time picking it up was when it became a nonstop

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw is a great contemporary fiction that felt very real, raw, and yet magical at the same time.

Boy I am really into these autumn-ish feeling, atmospheric, magical, and mysterious novels lately.

I loved how the author balances love, loss, finding oneself, magic, real-world problems, and mystery all into one nice package.

Carrie is so realistic and relatable, but she also has access to something that is just beyond our comprehension. The interweaving of this fine tapestry created a novel, that for me, was unique and I was drawn in after catching on to the vibe that was presented. I like the emotions that this novel was able to provoke as it continued onward, especially with the ending.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 10/22/24.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC of The Woodsmoke Women's Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw.

Carrie Morgan returns to her hometown of Woodsmoke after ten years of running from her past. She has always felt like an outsider, in a small town where the Morgan family women have a book of magic and a relationship with the mountains surrounding the town that sometimes draw people in, never to be found again. With the death of her grandmother, Carrie returns home to fix up her cottage and find closure with her town for good.

Carrie's great aunt, Cora, has run the Morgan magic for decades, with some things saved, and some things feeling forever harmed. With Carrie's return, she is desperate to set things to right.

Jess, Carrie's former best friend, is also anxious over ten years of silence and for Carrie to come back to town.

When Carrie begins to renovate the cottage with the help of a man no one else has seen and who comes with the frost, Cora begins to suspect the mountains may be at work again...

This book very much vibed with The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic or a less dark Spells for Forgetting - it's definitely a book that feels like being in fall/early stages of winter. It also is not just Carrie's story, but equally that of Cora and of Jess, which I had not anticipated. In its own way, this split narration helps to move the plot and to further character growth in three people intertwined with each other. It also then greatly dilutes that this is a story about Carrie and a man who arrives with the frost - with that being just a microcosm of the larger story. I think this split made me feel less connected to all of the characters and more that this is a story of women and time and not of a romantic relationship. That being said, it is still engaging and interesting - it's just not what I expected from the description. I actually don't even think I'd classify it as fitting under romance, and I would have loved a bit of a deeper dive into each of the women as well to better connect with them.

The story was nice, but it lacked the depth to make a lasting impression, leaving me unlikely to revisit its pages.

4 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for the E-ARC!

This was such a not quite cozy, witchy read if that makes sense. There’s something about the Morgan women that makes the town suspicious of them. When Carrie returns to town after leaving in a hurry years earlier, old emotions get dug up. Carrie’s trying to find her place back in her hometown and wondering if the mountains will accept her. All while trying to figure out if she believes the folklore.

I loved the story between Carrie and Matthieu and the nagging feeling of the frost story. You teeter right on the edge of disbelief but not quite going one way or the other. The ending felt like the perfect closure. But, boy did the mountains take their price and it was steep.

4.5 / 5 stars
From the first paragraph of this book, and everything that followed, the reader sees beautifully detailed sentences, that creates the perfect picture through description. This is truly the most detailed book I have every read, each sentence playing out like a movie in the readers head. The characters are complex, never showing their true motives or meaning until the last second, or in some cases, the end of the book. The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells using previous generations experiences to guide the future, unless you want history to repeat itself. The spell book reveals that even though each generation of Woodsmoke women are unique and individual, the generations to come still have those major similarities. Something really beautiful and that shows these similarities is the perfect parallel relationship

I really enjoyed this book! The characters in it are complex and well written, and even though I didn't like some of them, their presence in the story helped move it along. I liked how the magic system is a mystery but that you get hints thoughout.

The only thing I didn't love is that the chapters were broken into POVs, but sometimes it seemed like we were getting into the mind of the other person in the scene. Or that we were getting too much insight into that other person's thoughts.

Overall, an absolutely great book!

(This is a review of an Advance Reader Copy, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher)

I was given an advanced copy in exchange for my review. This is my honest opinion that I am giving voluntarily. Everyone is right in saying this is kind of a practical magic retelling but I still enjoyed it. I love the different POVs we get and the mystery is thrilling and engaging. It doesn't give you a happy ending per say but it does end in conclusion. I really like the mind of this author and I will be following.