Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

3.5 rounded up to 4

This book follows Ilsa, a magician's assistant with a difficult upbringing, who also has the power to shapeshift.
One day someone shows up to take her to another world, the Witherward, as she is being hunted.

So I would definitely agree that this has aspects that are similar to A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Schwab, especially at the beginning but it quickly veers off into something entirely it's own.

I really liked the world building and magic in this book, especially all the different factions. The characters are all very layered and intriguing and I really liked the found family aspect..

However, I do feel like it took a while to get to the climax for it then to end quite abruptly leaving many of the plots still wide open.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what else this world has in store for Ilsa and everyone else if / when we get a sequel!

CW: Panic attacks, Blood, Death, Injury, Child abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Confinement, Torture, and Violence, Drugs, Drug Addiction, Grief, Death of a Parent (past mention)

I was intrigued by the story and I have to confess, the book cover influenced me a lot in picking this book. Unfortunately, this was not for me and I could not finish the book, but the main story still intrigues me and I will give it another go at another time. I am sure other people will enjoy this way more than me.

I gave this book several tries, but it just couldn't hold my attention, there was a lot of info-dumping and stilted dialogue. And quite frankly, the whole plot didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Well written. Good word-building. Good characters. Liked the story. Looking forward to more.
Well written. Good word-building. Good characters. Liked the story. Looking forward to more.

A historical portal fantasy where the heroine doesn't leave the old world completely behind but the intrigue and action continues to play out across both. I loved the worldbuilding, where magic and politics are woven together to create tension between and within the factions of the Witherward that spill over into London as the Witherward inhabitants take advantage of the opportunities presented by a city full of unsuspecting, magicless people.

Ilsa was the kind of scrappy, determined main character I love, who doesn't lose her background when she falls into this new, amazing world. Surrounded by people with magic like hers for the first time in her life, she doesn't simply trust or obey everything she's told but continues to use the instincts that helped her survive her old life. The cast of supporting characters she finds in the Witherward were all complex and three-dimensional, and it was almost impossible to know who to trust and who to suspect right up until the very last moment. The mystery around the alpha's disappearance never came to a neat conclusion - that is, we do get answers, but they only open a whole raft of new questions and leave a delicious set-up for the sequels - and I enjoyed the way it unravelled a tiny fraction at a time under Ilsa's investigations, and every time I thought I knew what was happening there was another twist around the corner.

Very enjoyable, and hard to believe this is the author's debut book!

A fantastic adventure. Sorry I didn’t get to start this sooner, had a little reading slump due to covid, but this book sucks you right in, the author paints the scene and the story so well, you can’t put it down!

It looks like a knock-off of V.E. Schwab. It was nice, but I wasn't really impressed. The plot was fine, but I feel the book lacked character development.

Another decent fantasy that blurs the line between YA and adult fantasy. I liked it a lot, most of the characters had plenty of depth and the world building was pretty detailed. It did get bogged down for a while in the middle after the initial action packed start, enough to slow my reading pace down by a fair bit, but I was intrigued enough to keep going. I'll be reading the next one.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

Loved it! I've seen books about parallel London's before but I really enjoyed Witherward.
This is one of those books where you get to the end and wish you could read it again for the first time!

I really enjoyed the premise and ideas of this book, but not so much the execution. The world building is intricate and complex, but to the point that too much dialogue between the characters is exclusively there to explain what is going on to the reader (through the proxy of the main character, who I just could not like…). It is almost as if there was no trust that the plot would develop with clarity without these long scripts, which always felt kind of unnatural. I was also half-way to DNFing if one more side character was introduced by the time I was 60% through. These are all stylistic preferences of mine, but overall I found this book underwhelming.

Sadly, although this sounded right up my street, I DNF'd it at the halfway point. As much as I loved the concept of the second London with its different areas and factions, the politics got a bit too tedious and overtook the sense of adventure for me and I had no want to continue. I'm sure other people will enjoy this book and I may return to it at another time but it was not for me.

I'm a huge fan of book featuring a parallel London and loved the dangerous and fascinating city in this book.
It's an enthralling and highly entertaining read, full of action and mystery to be solved.
The author is a good storyteller and the plot flows and never drags.
The world building and the character development
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine are excellent.

Last, but not least, Witherward by Hannah Mathewson (this was by far my favourite out of this batch). This is a YA/crossover portal fantasy set in London – which I loved because I’ve been to many of the places mentioned. Ilsa, seventeen, is a foundling with shapeshifting powers, making a living as a pickpocket when she finds out about a whole other London, the family that abandoned her and much more. This is a really intriguing debut, well-written with interesting characters. I didn’t quite fall in love with it – I’d rate it a solid 3.5 stars – but it’s certainly a book to look out for, and an author to watch. I am curious where the story will take this next, and this is the kind of book that can scratch your itch for a comfortable, escapist fantasy read.

Really enjoyed this one. Hannah Matthewson created an interesting world and it was easy to get caught up in it and finish the book in one sitting.

I will look forward to future books Matthewson writes, hopefully a sequel to Witherward sooner rather than later.

With it’s wrong side of the tracks orphan with a magical talent and alternate London, Witherward definitely invites comparison to Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic. But this isn’t a knock off effort. The book does it’s own thing and so well that I actually prefer it to Schwab’s popular series. Ilsa is a magician’s assistant with a real talent for shapeshifting. Events conspire to trap her in the wrong version of London where she’s embroiled in a mystery that seems to centre around her lost brother. This was twisty and fun with an engaging style and likeable characters.

I saw this book described as something fans of the Shadowhunters books would like, and I definitely agree that it has a fair few similarities to The Infernal Devices in particular (which, incidentally, was my favourite series of the Shadowhunters). We have a strong female protagonist, Ilsa, who lives in Victorian London. But she's never quite fit in - mainly because she has powers that barely anyone else seems to have. She keeps them secret but uses them to her advantage in sneaky ways.
Then one day, her best friend is killed in front of her and a mysterious man claims to be here to rescue her. He tells her she's a Changeling, and not from this world at all. He takes her to the parallel London of Witherward, where various factions of magical beings live not-so-harmoniously. She's returned to a family she never knew of - though she's still an orphan, as she'd always believed.
The book takes us through various areas of the Witherward's London, with an array of odd and wonderful and dangerous characters. There's a bit of action, a fair bit of emotion and heartache, betrayal, and mystery. The mystery element was particularly appealing to me, especially combined with the magical elements.
The characters were really lovable, too. I loved Fyfe possibly the most, and although Eliot was perhaps a little cliche as the dark and broody type, I still found myself very emotionally invested in him. And Ilsa was wonderful, of course - strong, proactive, and a bit of an odd-one-out no matter where she goes.
The ending was also pretty great - a decent conclusion, but definitely leading on to something more I should think. I can honestly say I'd be keen on reading any sequels! 4.5 stars.

Welcome to the Witherward, and to a London that is not quite like our own. Here, it’s summertime in February, the Underground is a cavern of wonders and magic fills the streets. But this London is a city divided, split between six rival magical factions, each with their own extraordinary talents – and the alpha of the Changelings, Gedeon Ravenswood, has gone rogue, threatening the fragile accords that have held London together for decades.

Ilsa is a shapeshifting Changeling who has spent the first 17 years of her life marooned in the wrong London, where real magic is reviled as the devil’s work. Abandoned at birth, she has scratched out a living first as a pickpocket and then as a stage magician’s assistant, dazzling audiences by secretly using her Changeling talents to perform impossible illusions. When she’s dragged through a portal into the Witherward, Ilsa finally feels like she belongs.

But her new home is on the brink of civil war, and Ilsa is pulled into the fray. The only way to save London is to track down Gedeon, and he just so happens to be Ilsa’s long-lost brother, one of the last surviving members of the family who stranded her in the wrong world. Beset by enemies on all sides, surrounded by supposed Changeling allies wearing faces that may not be their own, Ilsa must use all the tricks up her sleeve simply to stay alive.

*Checks book-blurb* Welcome to… a London not quite like our own. Sold, I’m in. A historical urban fantasy set in one of my favourite cities? Oh, hell yeah! This has got my name written all over it. Over the years I’ve read many urban fantasy novels that use London as a backdrop and I’m always impressed how authors manage to twist the city into something uniquely their own. The same is true here. London has long been a melting pot of cultures and creeds. It makes perfect sense to me that there would be portals to an alternate version of the city that had that same cosmopolitan air, just a bit more fantastical.

Ilsa has shape-changing abilities that are not the norm in Victorian London. Hiding in plain sight has been the only way for her to get by. A traumatic event leads Ilsa to another version of the city. A place where magic is an everyday occurrence, a place where she might be able to fit in. There is a real strength to Isla I liked. For years she has only had herself to rely on. When faced with the wondrous streets of a new London she dives straight in. She embraces her new life wholeheartedly; it just feels right. Naturally inquisitive and observant, Isla is the perfect guide to the world Hannah Mathewson has created. We get to follow Isla while she navigates the cutthroat politics that exist within her new extended family and the other groups in the Witherward.

Mathewson’s alternate version of London is a city chock full of magic and intrigue. Whitechapel is the home of The Whisperers. Sorcerors rule a part of town known as The Heart. The Oracles are based in the Docklands. The Wraiths control the North. The Psi live in the Underground* and finally, The Changelings are in Camden. On the surface, there is an uneasy truce between all these factions. A set of rules has been established to help avoid conflict. Needless to say, many view these restrictions as guidelines at best. Interpretations of laws you don’t want to follow do have a tendency to be somewhat flexible. This fantastical cold war forms the backbone of the entire story. How can these groups, who view one another with constant suspicion, do anything other than fight? There is a sense of change in the air, a city on the brink.

It is the world-building in Witherward that made it for me. It really is exceptional. You can tell the author has spent time considering how the various factions within London interact with one another. The Witherward version of our nation’s capital manages to be comfortably familiar in some regards yet unrecognisable in others. Even the smallest details have been thought about. The Oracles are the perfect example. Just imagine, you are born with the ability to see the past, the present and the future of all things. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Realistically though, how could your mental health possibly cope? Rather than a blessing, this could be viewed as the ultimate curse. Everything all at once all the time? Of course drug abuse is going to be rife within this part of society. Mathewson explores not only the good but also the bad within the lives of her fantastical beings.

If you are a fan of V.E. Schwab’s Shadow of Magic novels, or the equally awesome Blackhart Legacy trilogy by Liz De Jager, then I predict this is the novel for you. Hannah Mathewson’s debut is a confident, engrossing page-turner. I loved the characters, Fyfe and Captain Fowler for the win! The plot rumbles along with plenty of twists and turns and there is limitless potential for where this could all go next. I hope I get the opportunity to find out.

Witherward is published by Titan Books and is available from 16th February.

There was really only one choice when it came to my musical recommendation to pair with Witherward. The soundtrack to Sherlock Holmes by the mighty Hans Zimmer is a seamless fit. Zimmer’s evocative score is London made of music while Mathewson’s novel is London made of magic. They complement one another perfectly.

*The Underground is not nearly as bad as it sounds, trust me.

This is a new author for me. The blurb made the book sound amazing and I really wanted to read. I couldn’t wait to get lost in it. The book opens well, set in Victorian London focusing on a magician’s assistant scraping a living. After this the book moves to a Parallel London plagued by warring magical factions. The transaction isn’t as smooth as it could have been and it took a few pages for me to ground myself. I loved the historical detail and world building which really bring the book to life. The characters are all developed really well. I had a great time with Witherward. It’s supposed to be the first in a series and I look forward to reading more.

I found Witherward an exciting, absorbing but at time frustrating read.

Introducing Ilsa Ravenswood, orphan and magician's assistant who is scraping a living on the street of Victorian London, the book gives the barest glimpse of her life - though what we see is fascinating - before whisking her away to a parallel London, divided between warring magical "factions", each with their own talent, for example, the ability to control others' minds, or to see the future.

Ilsa's clan, the Changelings, are able to transform themselves into any animal they wish - useful for fighting or escaping - or a stage magic act: she's already learned what she can do, but rapidly polishes her abilities once she's introduced to "the Zoo". Which was where the book kind of got stuck for me. The short, early section following Ilsa and her friend Martha in "our" London, was gleeful, busy and full of fun. Ilsa's escape to the Witherward is fraught with danger and mystery. But on her arrival, nothing happens very quickly. A key plot point is that Ilsa's brother Gedoen, the so-called Prince of Camden, has disappeared, leaving the Ravenswoods rudderless and under suspicion from the other factions. But this means that in his absence there's no unifying figure to greet her, no sense of what purpose Ilsa might pursue. She spends a lot of time learning about the strange world that she's in, and then begins to investigate Gedeon's absence, but both of those entail a great deal of conversation which feels a big contrast to the actions of the opening pages.

The Witherward is, I have to say, a fascinating, well worked out and complex world. And the conundrum of Gedeon's whereabouts is a challenging and many-layered one, akin in many ways to a crime or spy story. So this book always maintains interest and it's also great seeing Ilsa's background and personality unfold. She has grown up under the thumb of a singularly unpleasant guardian (the details here are held back but there's clearly been abuse) which has marked her in many ways and finds it hard to come to terms with a family that she never knew about and which left her to suffer alone. Trust is hard to build, understandably, and Ilsa very much wants to do things her way but there is so much she doesn't know and it seems likely that "her way" may get Ilsa into trouble every quickly.

Ilsa does, thought this middle part of the book, keep her wits about her and she does focus on tracking down Gedeon. As she discovers more and more answers, she begins to appreciate how complex and dangerous life in the Witherward is, and who in her extended family may have their own agendas (it's most of them...) That leads to a furious (and glorious!) climax to the book, another change of pace which made me glad that I read to the end.

Leaving a number of plot strands open, Witherward is clearly setting up the possibility of sequels in this intricately imaged alternate London and I will be here for them when they appear. Ilsa is a formidable protagonist and she's obviously got lots more to see and do.