'Reading The Honey Witch is like dreaming in a fragrant sunlit garden while bees sing around you. It's a gorgeous book, with a lovely cottagecore ambience and a heart-warming sapphic romance intertwined with unique magic that enchants the imagination' India Holton, internationally bestselling author

Marigold Claude is entering another season without any intentions of accepting a proposal. When her eccentric grandmother Althea visits and finally provides an explanation for Marigold's strange magical abilities, they return to the Lake Isle of Innisfree where she begins training as a Honey Witch-an apothecary and alchemist who uses her magical connection with the bees to create enchanted honey for her spells.

While this lovely power leaves her especially adept at helping others find love, it also comes with an ancient curse that none have been able to break: no one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.

When Lottie Burke, a notorious grumpy skeptic who doesn't believe in magic, accompanies her best friend to the cottage for a love spell, Marigold can't resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. She invites Lottie and her best friend, August Owens, to stay with her for the summer to prove her abilities, but Marigold begins to care for Lottie in a way she never expected.

She longs to break the curse and escape her lonely fate, but when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her freedom-at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.

A delicious debut that combines the swoon-worthy romance of Bridgerton and the whimsical sorcery of Practical Magic, with a dash of The Secret Life of Bees thrown in for good fun.

About the Author
Sydney J. Shields (she/they) is a YA and Adult SFF Author represented by Mollie Glick at CAA, and she is a Bookish Content Creator with over 30,000 followers. Her debut novel, THE HONEY WITCH, will be published by Orbit Books (Hachette) in 2024. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Columbus State University, where she majored in Communication. Sydney lives in Georgia with her British partner and her dog, Olive (also known as Ponchdog).

Reviews
Reading The Honey Witch is like dreaming in a fragrant sunlit garden while bees sing around you. It's a gorgeous book, with a lovely cottagecore ambience and a heart-warming sapphic romance intertwined with unique magic that enchants the imagination. I was so charmed by this impressive debut -- India Holton
The Honey Witch will charm you with its setting and its love for all things natural - especially bees! This tale of a young witch dealing with a curse and a battle between dark magic and light, with her romance in the balance, is one all fans of witches and folk magic will love -- Louisa Morgan, author of The Secret History of Witches
As sweet and warm as honeyed tea. Shields' debut deftly explores love, loss, and loneliness-and the joy of seeing magic in all things, however small. With charming characters and a lush setting, The Honey Witch will delight fans of cosy fantasy -- Allison Saft, author of A FAR WILDER MAGIC



Book Information
ISBN 9780356522531
Author Sydney J. Shields
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Orbit
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 153mm * 22mm