Title: Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill
Author: Samantha Giles
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐. 5
Pub Date: 06 Aug 2020

Thank you Netgalley, Agora Books, and Samantha Giles for my free digital review copy in exchange for my impartial review.

This was a cute and fun read. It was a nice break from my usual thrillers and YA/adult fantasy and contemporary books. I haven't read a middle grade book in forever, and this was an amazing one.

The book focuses on Rosemary, the daughter of a witch, and how she deals with some issues and changes in her home life. We get to meet her parents, her friend Adi, her sister Lois, and many paranormal entities - friends as well as foes. Rosemary also has a unique gift of seeing people's moods as colors. We also see Rosemary's dad dealing with depression, and her mom dealing with some level of unsatisfaction in her life.

This read well as a kid's book, but there were instances of words that were too big being used. Words like voluptuous and trepidation don't come naturally to kids, especially a kid who would later ask for the meaning of "linear". Apart from this, this book was really good!

This is a great middle grade book which I will certainly recommend. Loved the characters & the quirkiness of some of them. Think this would make a great series.

My thought through much of this book was that there was something missing. I'm not sure if it was that there wasn't enough time spent on establishing the world in which this story takes place or that Rosemary just accepts as the new weird events in her life with no reservations. The overall premise, characters, and writing style aren't bad, but the book is lacking that special quality that makes it difficult to put down. I really disliked the part where Rosemary calls Adi a coward (for not wanting to walk through a wall into a magical realm) in order to get him to do what she wants him to do. The best part of the book was the way in which it handled Rosemary's father's depression, but by the end I wasn't sure if he was really depressed or if Mal Vine had something to do with it. The mystery behind Mal Vine and Phyllis and the magical world did not seem fully developed - it was like there was simultaneously too much going on and not enough. The story jumped around between all of these so none of the storylines felt complete.

A really great story that veers from pathos to laugh out loud humour. The combination of a family under stress together with a history connected to the famous 'Witches of Pendle' means that Rosemary has a lot to contend with, but with the help of her younger sibling and her best friend (plus a little bit of magic) she is determined to save her family. A fantastic middle grade read.

This had all the makings to be a magical adventure, perfect for middle grade readers, however I felt that it was missing something. There were moments when the flow of the story was a little jagged and at times terminology ect seemed to exceed what I would expect a 9 year old girl, in modern times, to use.

That all being said, I did appreciate that Adi was presented as being on the autism spectrum and that there were themes of depression, grief and recovery throughout. The characters were diverse, sometimes wacky but mostly wonderful. I do think that the idea behind the story was lovely and had great potential, however, the writing style just didn't click with me.

Unfortunately I struggled to get into this book. I read 30% and really struggled. I think it was too YA for me.
It's an amazing storyline for fans of the supernatural but not for me.

Rosemary's mom is a witch. She had a five year old sister Lou's. I love witches. I was bored and couldn't get interested in the descriptions.

I love the voice of this book, Rosie is so sweet and funny and her voice sets a great tone for this book. Her thoughts on her little sister are such a great view of sibling relationships. Her love for and annoyance with Louis really reminded me of how I felt about my younger sibling at that age. I loved the characters and thought they were all around well written.

I really appreciated the book’s depiction of mental illness. In the story Rosie’s Dad is dealing with depression and one of her classmate’s mom is receiving inpatient treatment for mental illness. The book shows not only the changes in the characters but also how it affects the rest of the family. The character responds in a way that seems realistic for her age and strives to be compassionate. I was really touched by the scenes where she tries to comfort her classmate while her mom is away. While the book does handle the serious stuff really well it is ultimately a really fun and funny book that had me laughing out loud.

This middle grade novel has potential, but ultimately fell a bit flat for me. There's turns and twists and zany magic aplenty (as well as quite a bit of bodily humor) which should appeal to young readers, but I (an adult reader) found it at times slow and repetitive. I would be unlikely to read this book series myself, but I'd happily purchase it for some of the young people in my life.

This was a good story, I read it with my 9 year old niece. I enjoyed it, it was fun, adventurous and different to most other children’s books. My niece said some bits were more boring than others but she liked to book overall. She enjoyed that there were some words she had to look up the meaning of.