#the witchwood knot
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Taking a slight break from The Parisian with The Witchwood Knot, and I am loving it.
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the witchwood knot- olivia atwater
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The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater
5 out of 5 once upon a times.
I’ll be upfront. I am very bad at history. Telling me something is in the Victorian era brings nothing to mind. I could not tell you a single thing, including which years the era contains. Having loved Atwater’s Regency fairy tales, I knew that would not matter. If there’s historical inaccuracies here, I am the last person to ask.
What is here, though, is a darker fairy tale than I expected. The romance burned low and slow in all the ways I adore, the characters manipulated and lied and were heartfelt all the same, the plot was a nice solid little knot. I loved every second of this book. It made me grin wildly nearly as much as it made my heart ache. It was a little more connected to the Regency Fairytales than I expected, but in the best way. I literally cannot wait for the next installment in this world.
I’d advise to check the trigger warnings and make sure that it’s the kind of book that you’d like before just diving in, but to me it was perfect.
Thanks to Victory Editing and Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#the Witchwood knot#Olivia atwater#Victorian fairytales#my reviews#my book review#once again I absolutely hate tagging things#netgalley#booklr
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"It was so easy, Winnie thought, to feel alone in her convictions - belittled for her impolite fears. She was too cold, too paranoid, too quick to assume the worst of everyone she met. But she had been hurt already. Why should she be obliged to pretend that it had never happened?"
(The Witchwood Knot, Olivia Atwater)
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Rating: 5/5
Book Blurb: Olivia Atwater returns to the world of Half a Soul with “a sharp and beautiful gothic romance” (Alix E. Harrow). Dive into The Witchwood Knot, and enjoy a dark faerie tale set in a magical version of Victorian England.
The faeries of Witchwood Manor have stolen its young lord. His governess intends to steal him back.
Victorian governess Winifred Hall knows a con when she sees one. When her bratty young charge transforms overnight into a perfectly behaved block of wood, she soon realises that the real boy has been abducted by the Fair Folk. Unfortunately, the lord of Witchwood Manor is the only man in England who doesn’t believe in faeries—which leaves Winnie in the unenviable position of rescuing the young lord-to-be all by herself.
Witchwood Manor is bigger than its inhabitants realise, however, and full of otherworldly dangers. As Winnie delves deeper into the other side of the house, she enlists the aid of its dark and dubious faerie butler, Mr Quincy, who hides several awful secrets behind his charming smile. Winnie hopes to make her way to the centre of the Witchwood Knot through wit and cleverness… but when all of her usual tricks fail, who will she dare to trust?
Review:
A gothic faerie tale featuring a magician pretending to be a victorian governess in order to solve the mystery at the heart of Witchwood Manor while dealing with monsters... both fae and human alike. Throw in a dash of romance, a stolen young lord, a tricky fae pretending to be a butler and a protective familiar cat and you get a absolutely fantastic read. Winifred Hall is hired to be a governess to a spoiled young lord as a favor to an old friend, a friend who just happens to be living in a manor that is said to be haunted and cursed by the fae. Winifred is actually a magician herself and is beginning to realize that the magic and curse surrounding this manor is much darker than she realized. When the young lord is kidnapped, she'll have to delve into the dark fae realm to get him back and the games are only just beginning. The more she pries into the truth of the manor the more she is realizing that this is a very complicated knot and that she'll have to rely on her wits to try and make it out. It doesn't help that there is the very dark and dubious faerie butler, Mr. Quincy, who is hiding so many secrets behind his charming smile, is the one person she'll have to help her navigate the fae realm of Witchwood Knot... There's a price for everything when it comes to the fae and what price will Quincy ask of Winifred? I have to say I fell absolutely in love with this book. I cannot wait for the next books and to see where Winifred and co go. Winifred was a wonderful protagonist, she used her tricks and wits to get by and after everything she went through she was still strong and resilient. The romance was very soft and sweet and I just adored the relationship between Quincy and Winifred. I also have to say Ollie, my sweet sweet boy, a true star in this book, a familiar cat after my own heart. This book was the perfect mixture of gothic romance and fairytale! I can't wait to read the next book!!!
*Spoiler: Winifred was sexually abused (forced to kiss her older male employer) until she summoned the Lady of the Hollow who took her under her own wing and vanished said abuser. Winifred knows she is blueblood but has no recollection of her family or her true name. She grew up as the ward of the Lady of the Hollow and of Lord Socrcier (hint at the previous 3 novels). She knows Lady Longell (owner of the Witchwood manor) and the lady knows that Winnie is a black magician and can help with saving her grandson. Mr. Quincy is a formieg, a separate entity from faeries and lives off of blood and iron (things faeries fear). He was bond to serve the Lady of Mourningwood but wanted to save some of the people of Witchwood Manor as best he could. Winnie and Quincy fall into a romance, a sweet and gentle one. When Quincy is forced to take Robert by his lady lord, the Lady of Mourningwood he does (he inadverdently saves him from being killed by lord Longfell) Lord Longfell is the reason the faeries are cursed in Witchwood and he killed his own mother and was going to kill Robert, he made a deal with the other formeieg, Quincy's brother Secundus who was freed when a drop of Lady Hollow's blood fell onto the earth (Quinct had saved and freed the Lady of the Hollow when she was a young child trapped with the Lady of Mourningwood). Secundus wanted revenge against the faeries and thus is the reason why there are no faeries in London (he is also the reason the Lady of the Hollow has disappeared and why Winnifred is trying to find a way to free her). Winnie gets back Robert and Quincy kills the Lady of Mourningwood, making him the new Lord of Mourningwood. Quincy and Winnie take Robert as their new student and Winnie now is set to free the Lady of the Hollow who was trapped by Secundus all the while the Hollow lady's husband (lord sorcier) lays asleep beneath the hollow land which is now taken over by Tritia (Quincy and Secundus's sister who has also been freed). Now they'll have to find a way to trick Quincy's siblings and free the faeries).
*Thanks Netgalley and Starwatch Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
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#arc review#arc reader#arc reviewer#book review#book reviewer#book blogger#book blog#new release#new book release#new book#netgalley#book influencer#olivia atwater#starwatch press#the witchwood knot#victorian faerie tales#5 star review#five star review#book series#dark fantasy#fairy tale#fantasy#romantasy#fantasy series#gothic fiction#historical fantasy
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The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater - ARC Review!
The faeries of Witchwood Manor have stolen its young lord. His governess intends to steal him back.
Victorian governess Winifred Hall knows a con when she sees one. When her bratty young charge transforms overnight into a perfectly behaved block of wood, she soon realises that the real boy has been abducted by the Fair Folk. Unfortunately, the lord of Witchwood Manor is the only man in England…
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December 2023 Reads
The Witchwood Knot - Olivia Atwater
A Holiday by Gaslight - Mimi Matthews
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Good Part - Sophie Cousins
Faking Christmas - Kerry Winfrey
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love - Lex Croucher
Every Time You Go Away - Abigail Johnson
Second Chances in New Port Stephen - T.J. Alexander
The Spectacular - Fiona Davis
Below Zero - Ali Hazelwood
Happiness Falls - Angie Kim
Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank - Elle Cosimano
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone - Benjamin Stevenson
How to Find a Missing Girl - Victoria Wlosok
What Lies in the Woods - Kate Alice Marshall
Thinking of You - Beth Evans
Seance Tea Party - Reimena Yee
I am Superman - Brad Meltzer
Making It So - Patrick Stewart
Happy People Are Annoying - Josh Peck
Gentle Chaos - Tyler Gaca
The Comfort of Crows - Margaret Renkl
Laid and Confused - Maria Yagoda
Butts - Heather Radke
Imposter No More - Jill A. Stoddard
A Life in Light - Mary Pipher
What the F - Benjamin K. Bergen
Seek - Scott Shigeoka
Nobody's Fool - Daniel Simons
Call You When I Land - Nikki Vargas
When the Game Was War - Rich Cohen
Mostly Veggies - Brittany Mullins
One-Pot Magic - Good Housekeeping
Bold = Highly Recommend
Italics = Worth It
Crossed out = Nope
Thoughts:
If you liked Olivia Atwater's Regency Faerie Tales, definitely give The Witchwood Knot a try. It had a lot of the same magic.
When the Game Was War filled the void left by Winning Time. These tales of the magic of 80s basketball align with the one time in my life I had interest in the sport. It has been fun revisiting that time, and WTGWW provided a nice deep dive into elements and players that Winning Time was unable to explore in its short run.
Goodreads Goal: 432/400
2017 Reads | 2018 Reads | 2019 Reads | 2020 Reads | 2021 Reads |
2022 Reads | 2023 Reads
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@logarithmicpanda tagged me for this, thank you 💜
Last song I listened to: Roads to Moscow by Al Stewart
Last book I read: The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater, it was very sweet as always with Olivia Atwater's books!
Last movie I watched: Uproar, with the Rhys Darby Faction.
Last TV show I watched: I'm currently watching Extraordinary. Jizzlord must be protected at all costs (and brushed).
Last thing I googled: Our Flag Means Death. Got to feed the algorithm, you know.
Last thing I ate: Scrambled tofu
Amount of sleep: never enough :(
Sweet, savory, or spicy: SPICY!
Currently reading: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu. I'm about 15% in and I want to slap every single character... But it's not uninteresting?
Tagging: @lumiilys @starryfox0 @traeumenvonbuechern @hawt-pants-exe
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2023 In Books!
Due to mild fatigue, 2023 was a bad reading year for me - I did not reach my yearly 2-books-a-week goal for the first time since I began logging them, and many of the books I did read did not agree with me. But I still found ten fiction and 7 (!) non-fiction books I had to shout out for the end of the year.
Top 10 Fiction
THE RED PALACE by June Hur
A historical murder mystery set in Joseon Korea, featuring crystalline prose, a painstakingly evoked historical setting, and an understated romance in a dark atmosphere of terror, secrets, and palace intrigue. Despite being written for a young adult audience, this book impressed me with its complex picture of a deeply flawed real historical context.
TOOTH AND CLAW by Jo Walton
A Victorian style comedy of manners in which every single character is a dragon, from the dragon parsons and spirited young lady dragons to the crotchety old dragon dowagers and feckless young dragons-about-town. All of them wear little hats. Sheer cosy perfection.
DRAKE HALL by Christina Baehr
My bestie surprised me this year by spontaneously producing four whole novels pitched as "cosy Victorian gothic, with dragons". I haven't read the final edition of DRAKE HALL yet but it's sunshiney, summery, cosy goodness. With dragons.
CRIMSON BOUND by Rosamund Hodge (re-read)
A dark and bloody fantasy full of lifegiving female friendship, ride or die siblings, theology, guilt, and stabbings. This one also contains gratuitous St Augustine quotes, a one-page retelling of the VOLUNDARKVIDA, and a love triangle that exists to present the heroine not so much with drama as a proper ethical dilemma.
EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by Heather Fawcett
The story of a mildly autistic lady academic researching faeries with her flamboyant rival professor, who is probably secretly an exiled fae king…but the annoying part is his habit of making his students do all his field work. Cosy, thrilling, hilarious.
THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE by Roshani Chokshi
This gothic-infused psychological thriller was dark, creepy, and sometimes heavy, but it's also a tale that flips the roles of innocent maiden and Bluebeard, engages in valid Susan Pevensie Discourse, and ends on what I found to be a genuine note of hope and healing.
THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black
This book tackles vampirism as a metaphor for the evil hidden in the human heart, and it's epic, bloody, twisty, and monstrous. I couldn't put it down. Not sure I'd recommend it for the target audience, but it's mature and well-crafted enough to be enjoyed by grown-ups as well.
THE WITCHWOOD KNOT by Olivia Atwater
I've read a number of Olivia Atwater books, and this one is head and shoulders above the rest. The best blend of gothic and fae, like a grown-up LABYRINTH, with one of the great fae butlers and so many subtle yet walloping feels. It felt like an old fairytale in the best possible way.
BEHIND THE CURTAIN by WR Gingell
The WORLDS BEHIND series is about trauma and healing and repentance, and in this, the fourth book, everything comes decisively to the boil as our favourite twisty knife uncle pits his wits against an enemy who very uncomfortably mirrors himself.
Top 7 Non-Fiction
(because I couldn't get it down to just five)
TWO VIEWS ON WOMEN IN MINISTRY by Beck & Gundry (eds.)
Four New Testament scholars from a range of complementarian and egalitarian perspectives debate the question of women in ministry, with a lot of detailed scholarship. If nothing else, this book proved that this is something orthodox Christians can honestly disagree about, because there are significant exegetical strengths and difficulties with each position - it's time to stop seeing women holding ministry positions in the church as tantamount to heresy.
REFLECTIONS: ON THE MAGIC OF WRITING by Dianna Wynne Jones
This collection was magical - funny and sad tales of her life, many good and passionate thoughts on books and writing, and one absolutely marvellous study of narrative structure in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Absolutely delightful and highly recommended.
PATERNAL TYRANNY by Arcangela Tarabotti
A 17th-century nun takes aim at the misogyny of early modern Europe, wielding razor-sharp logic to argue boldly for the equality of women. But it's Tarabotti's passionate faith, which somehow managed to survive moral injury and spiritual abuse, and even came to see hope and encouragement in scriptures which must so often have been used against her, that will stay with me.
THE GOLDEN RHINOCEROS: HISTORIES OF THE AFRICAN MIDDLE AGES by Francois-Xavier Fauvelle
A series of bite-sized essays on the medieval history of Africa from approximately the Islamic conquests of the 7th century to the arrival of Portugese colonists in the fifteenth. Each essay offers the most fleeting glimpse of a long-vanished, half-imaginary world of often breathtaking sophistication and splendour. I loved them.
ONE HOLY LOCAL CHURCH? by Bojidar Marinov
This short book, which draws very solidly on past luminaries like Rutherford, Gillespie, Spurgeon, and Hodge, helped me think through some of the questions I've been asking myself about ecclesiology and the role and authority of elders, particularly as I've been rethinking women in ministry. Terrific.
TEN DAYS IN A MAD-HOUSE by Nellie Bly
"People on charity should not expect anything and should not complain." In 1887, the American "girl reporter" Nellie Bly got herself locked up in a New York lunatic asylum, and this shocking expose was the result. Sometimes, nineteenth century attitudes towards women and the poor were beyond parody.
A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
Some aspects of this book have aged poorly - the unthinking acceptance of Russian imperial aspirations, for instance - but apart from that, this is a sweeping, epic picture of the Russian Revolution, covering three decades and every level of society, from daily life in the village commune to the political rivalries of Lenin's declining years, without ever becoming dull or bogged down in detail.
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posting christmas gifts beneath the cut if anybody is Not In The Space to See!!! <3
haz n i agreed to keep it Low Key this year bc of saving for the wedding but alas haz is monstrous and i have been spoilt
i asked for some books maybe (list provided bc i own so many already gnkjfgbknj) and a perfume i wanted and haz absolutely delivered ;_;. a bonus round of applause for the bat jewelry and the shakespeare pins and the djunkelskog earrings!!! obviously they also bought me the crimson peak stuff i wanted and they also got me the newest book from one of my favourite authors (the witchwood knot by olivia atwater) but waterstones has not yet dispatched that one dfgbnkjfgbkjn
#nat.txt#every year i want to cry bc haz knows me so well and i love them#i love BUYING presents for them too so i hope they enjoyed the ones i got them ;_;
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hello everyone !! i was Assigned Webby at Blinky’s Rewatch Party, and we made LIBsonas !! i cannot art, so i wrote for her instead :]
meet finch!webby under the cut !!
They stood in the Witchwood Forest, terrified and yet bold, doing their best to hide their fear. They were no stranger to the legends that dwell in these woods, but they had no choice. This was the place with the strongest connection. Well, specifically this clearing, where several trees had been.. not cut down, but seemingly dissolved. They didn't know how this had happened, the edges of the clearing made a sort of octagon, with sides that curved in, and it certainly wasn't natural. No matter, no thinking about it now. They had to go ahead.
No words were needed, this wasn't a summoning like it would be for the others. It was a call, with something maybe once known, in another place, or another time. They closed their eyes, opened their mind, and felt the clearing out with their senses. It was strange, if they thought about it, using the senses that the others had a hold over to call for this one. They felt every blade of grass, swaying gently with the breeze, every rock and stick, everything until each end of the clearing, they felt it in their mind. And then they saw it there.
Looking around this impression of the clearing, they couldn't see their own body. It was strange, but any thought that could have been made was cut short, by a sudden heavy breeze. The leaves of the trees lining the clearing whipped fervently, the blades of grass shook, and the air was loud. A light-no, that wasn't a light. It was simply pure white. Something they didn't have a word for. Even just calling it pure white didn't do enough to explain how nothing, and yet everything, it was. A figure emerged from it, eyes closed, hands outstretched like a statue of an angel. Only missing the halo and wings.
Then, the eyes shot open, and with them, two more sets below opened as well, all completely black. There were.. mandibles, on the figure's face.
“Who seeks my presence in this domain?" Her voice was commanding, low and yet projecting. It sounded like a Queen's voice.
But when the White was gone, and their eyes adjusted, they could make out more of the thing standing before them. She wore a white corset over a white dress shirt, purple-pink webs covering the corset. The webs were shimmering, moving on their own. The shirt had sleeves that went to her elbow, then transitioned into long flowing pieces of silk. they also had webs on them, though these ones were black on the white translucent fabric. She wore a white petticoat, that also seemed to have webs, but they were white too, barely visible unless they looked closer and took notice of the shimmering. Her shoes were flat sandal types, with ties that wrapped around her shins, making a pattern that hurt to try and understand, until they stopped at her knees. There was no knot, they just simply stayed up.
Her skin was dark, her hair was white and curly, and sat weightlessly, so much so it could have been floating, on top of her head was a simple crown. Nothing fancy, just a silver circlet with spikes, topped with black obsidian. She was.. something to look at, that's for sure. More arms appeared, and extra shirt sleeves with them, as if it had never been any different.
After a long minute of silence, the spider queen smiled.
“Hi!" She said excitedly. "I'm so glad you've come! I adore meeting the holders of my Gift."
#my writing#woahh#does this count as an oc?#i had a lot of fun writing this#brp i appreciate you for expanding my writing skills<3
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the witchwood knot- olivia atwater
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for the bookworm ask: 1,10,36,45 🤗
1) Name the best book of the year you've read so far.
The Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (I'm also currently really enjoying The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater, which has the makings of a favourite book but I'm only 10 chapters in)
10) Favourite Classical Literature
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin is my favourite classical novel, but Sir Orfeo is my favourite classical literature (Middle English retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice where Eurydice gets kidnapped to Faerie rather than the underworld).
36) Your absolute most favorite character(s) from any book you've ever read.
Very! Hard! Question! I'm going to say Tiffany Aching because I think she's the character I've most recently had strong feelings about. But obviously Mr. Movingcastle and Ms. Hatter are quite far up there to be honest.
45) What book(s) would you sell your soul to get a TV/movie adaptation of?
I don't mind not having TV/movie adaptations bc even the ones that are good can end up hurting you (Shadow and Bone)... but I do wish more studios would pull a Bridgerton and adapt romance book series to TV - maybe even *gasp* some queer ones, so I'll say that.
Bookworm ask!
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The Witchwood Knot review
4/5 stars
Recommended if you like: Victorian era, fantasy, witchy reads, mirror worlds, Fae
Big thanks to Netgalley, Starwatch Press, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This book is connected to Atwater's Regency Faerie Tales, but set some time after, once the period becomes the Victorian Era. Characters from the Regency Faerie Tales are mentioned, and Winnie knows some of them quite well, so it's a little spoilery if you haven't read the other series. That being said, this one does stand on its own and you don't need to have read the Regency books to grasp what's going on here and how the magic system works. (I did not read the Regency Faerie Tales series, but now I'm kind of thinking I might).
I have to say, I appreciate Atwater's dedication not only to representing the time period she is writing about but also to the style and theme of writing from that time period. She has a 'review' here on Goodreads that goes over some pretty interesting things and I enjoyed finding hints of that in the book (it is a somewhat spoilery review though, so only read if you've finished or are OK w/ spoilers).
The book opens as all Proper Victorian Books must: with a stormy evening and a governess. You get an immediate sense that something about the manor is strange, first from the fact that the coachman wouldn't go near it and then from the skittish silence of the servants. I definitely liked how it set up a Slightly Off atmosphere, though Winnie's humor and matter-of-factness creates an illusion of calm. The weird goings-on at the manor are the result of Fae, not 'horror' creatures, and so you know the rules going in. That being said, Atwater creates Fae that are cunning and cruel, quick to press advantages and attempt to ruin things before they've begun.
I did think it was easy enough to figure out why the Fae were mad (it takes Winnie longer), but there are some interesting and gruesome twists in there that I wasn't expecting. I was definitely intrigued by the missing town's folk and quite enjoyed how some of Winnie's Fae stories came around in a different way later on in the book.
Winnie is used to Fae, was saved and tutored by one as a child, and so she's able to have a matter-of-factness about her that many of the other characters lack. Even if she doesn't practically know certain things, she knows them theoretically, and that's a leg up compared to people who have little information about them at all aside from their terrorizing of the manor. I enjoyed Winnie's practicality as well as the humor she suffused into many of her Fae interactions. I found her dislike of Robert to be relatable and honestly think she has more patience than I would in that situation. Despite her semi-tough exterior, and her own best attempts, it's clear Winnie cares deeply for people and is willing to go to great lengths to protect them, even if she still doesn't particularly like them.
Quincy is the butler for the Fae side of the manor and plays both harmless and horrifying pranks on the inhabitants. It was hard to get a good read on Quincy because he was clearly not on the side of the humans, but at the same time he seemed to have soft spots for them at times (such as for Cook). I didn't like him for a good portion of the book, but he grew on me in the last 30% or so and by the end I liked him.
There is romance in the story, and while I liked it, I also am not sure how I feel about it. I knew who would be involved and that it was coming, but I feel like we don't really get a solid buildup to it. I knew those things because I read fantasy with romance, and I've read fantasy/romantasy books like this before, but if I was new to the genre and didn't know the pattern and tropes, I would probably be confused as to where the romance was coming from. Now, that's not to say there aren't hints of the romance throughout, but it is to say that I don't feel like the hints really build up properly.
I liked the Fae elements of the book and the topsy-turvey version of the house. The mirror world was an interesting aspect, and I particularly liked how it seemed to grow and become labyrinthine as a way of confounding the humans caught in the mirror world. Quincy is the main Fae we come into contact with, but there are the standard Gentry partying in part of the house, and Lady Mourningwood plays a bit of a role too. As usual, I enjoyed the careful wordplay that the Fae engaged in and that Winnie and the others had to accommodate lest they get trapped. Winnie seemed particularly adept at using faerie rules, which proved a nice challenge for the Fae who weren't expecting her.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I'll probably read Half a Soul at the very least and see if I want to get the full Regency Era story.
#book#book review#books#book recommendations#fantasy#booklr#bookstagram#bookblr#bookaholic#bookish#book addict#fantasy book#faeries#victorian era#victorian england#olivia atwater#advanced readers copy#netgalley#netgalley read#netgalley review
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the witchwood knot, olivia atwater
#here to shout about how much i love this author and her books#and how easily she takes me apart with a few lines#so much care and thought is put into these books#and i adore
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