Had to put it in DNF pile after less than a hundred pages.
The graphic artist did an amazing job on the cover. I definitely judged this book by its cover. Wish I hadn't.
(I'm sure Sydney J. Shields is lovely, I blame the publishers and editors)

The first thing that bothered me, was the Content Warning, as I've never come across such a thing before and I was struck by how both author and publisher thinks so very low of the readers emotional intelligence, that we would need to know beforehand, that there are for example bee stings in this book...
BEE STINGS?!
We are warned of triggers for bee stings, but not the fact, that the first chapters give us a villain witch who is trying to murder a child..?!
Most of the content warnings are also spoilers, so congrats for making me not want to read it now...
I understand that this is an American and UK thing; the sensibilities of newer generations making publishers caution everything, in fear of offending, rather than let the young'ens experience the world and all the cruelties in it.
Could you imagine, if there was a content warning on Halfblood Prince warning readers of Death of Friend and Death of Old Mentor? There would have been an outrage!
Put a content warning on books with SA, suicide and violent and psychological abuse, by all means, but tattoos, bee stings and dead grandma? Those are facts of life.

I did try to read it though and was then offended by the uncultural appropriation that is an American trying to write a story is a whimsical, magical, historical Europe and doing it badly. The author might have Irish and English heritage, most pale Americans are a mix of all sorts of European immigrants and claim cultural heritage all the time, but in one of her first attempts to give us a magical creature, she uses an OLD NORSE word "landvættir" for a nature spirit, rather than use the multitude of folklore that exists in the British Isles, specially in Ireland, where real islands known as Innisfree are located, as well as the lake island of Inishfree in Yeats' poem.
If you're going to write about landvættír, write about Iceland or Sweden, not Ireland...

The publishers also try to market the book as "Bridgerton meets Practical Magic", where they must mean the Netflix series, not the Bridgerton books, since the colourblindness is a visual feature from Shondaland, because no actual regency era story will depict an aristocratic Europe without racism and the economics of slavery and colonialism.
I can accept a parallel world, where villages are colourblind and queer friendly in historic times, but then market it as such. Don't lie to the readers, we are, for the most part across the pond, more educated than that. (I write modern themes in classic settings too, but I'm honest about it being a parallel fictional world, not reimagined history)
I will accept the Practical Magic reference, because the author is truly inspired by this (much better) story, but I can't tell if she's actually read the books, or just seen the film. Both are great and inspirational!

And then there is the writing. It's too much telling, not showing and I swear chapter 3 and chapter 5 are basically the same; "You're a wizard Harry... I want to protect my daughter from magic! But you can't, she's special and must fulfill her destiny! But no! But yes! Mom, I'm old enough to make my own choices! But no! But yes!"
Two chapters on this.

This book is written by gen z for gen alpha and I'm not having it.
Grow up,
best regards
Nordic Gen X childrens and youths author, who kills parents without content warnings

i finished this book forever ago and i’ve genuinely been unable to stop thinking about it for the past like two months. not because i loved it, but because this is by far the absolute worst book i’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. this book feels like something i would’ve written and been proud of in the 5th grade. it truly shocks me to my core that this is a published work. i think i read all the way through out of nothing but sheer spite and disbelief.

some of my gripes include but are not limited to:

• the plot being stagnant and generally making zero sense

• the setting in which everyone is somehow simultaneously extremely misogynistic and conservative but still gay allies

• the main character being an insufferable pick me, getting called out on it, and still proceeding to have absolutely no character development in nearly 400 pages.

• the almost cartoonishly one dimensional cast of characters and incredibly tepid relationship between the two girls

• special shout out to the shockingly hysterical sex scene in which one girl dies as soon as she climaxes. the sole reason this book received one singular star in enjoyment and not a zero

i will give the author her flowers where they’re due; i will not be able to stop thinking about this book for a long time. if this book has no haters that means i’ve died. this book made me homophobic towards my own community, and the author has for sure made an enemy out of me. i am truly shocked by how much hatred i now know im capable of experiencing