Thank you to Olivia Atwater, NetGalley, and _ for an ARC copy of "The Witchwood Knot". All opinions are entirely my own.

This is a gotchic, fantasy novel about magicians and fairies struggling to gain purchase on the world they live in. The main character, Winifred (Winnie) Hall is a young magician who is tasked with teaching a young lord everything she knows about fairies. The young boy is kidnapped and Winnie must free him from the fairy queen, Lady Mourningwood. Our main male character, Mr. Quincy is a dubious fairy servant who attempts to twart Winnie before ultimately helping her in her quest.

There were a few things I liked about this novel I loved the setting, it sometimes reminded me of regency England, which is a favorite time period of mine. I also liked that it linked to her other stories Half a Soul, however, I found myself confused because it had been months since I read it and could not remember the particulars. A small synopsis of Half a Soul would have been great to fill in the reader on the connection between the two worlds. I liked Winnie's character and her relationship to the dowager.

There were a few things I did not like about the novel. First and foremost, I EXTREMELY disliked the way the main male character is described. He is described as having red eyes and a rat tail, which only allowed me to imagine him as the rat king from The Nutcracker. I could not find him even remotely attractive in my mind, with a rat tail. I also found the story to be a bit confusing at times. Although I liked the mystery, myth, and lore, I found myself to be extremely confused by the switching between Witchwood Knot and Witchwood Manor. I could not fully grasp why there was a switch between the settings. I struggled with the overall connection to the plot and found the book to be a bit dragging at times.

It didn't quite hit the mark for me. I was a bigger fan of Half A Soul, than I was this book. I would reccommend it to other's who enjoy Olivia Atwater's novels but I most likely won't continue the series.

I think I finally have my thoughts gathered about this one and I'm not on the fence with how to actually rate this anymore because at the end of the day I did devour this and I enjoyed it. So let's begin.

First I want to say I really like the overall premise of this story: cursed house with a trickster faerie lurking within. And it's set in Victorian England, which is a fave era of mine. Gimme gimme!

However (and this is where my fence sitting came in) right off the bat, I felt like I was missing something important and kept going back to read passages thinking I looked over some hint or description. But, while this is within the same world as her previous series and can be read apart from that, I was a bit lost in the beginning of the book -- which is where my initial frustration lived. That is not the author's fault of course, because had I read other reviews first I may have gotten the advise (and it's why I've changed my star rating that some of you may have seen before, because this is a really cool and exciting read, but I'm all about transparency.)

With that all being said: I got the gist of it, as Atwater does a decent job of filling in those spots for those of us who hadn't read her previous series and it just makes me want to read her others that much more! So while I did have some harsh thoughts on it at first, I've slept on it and am RUNNING to get her other series because this universe is so cool and creepy and I love it.

Absolutely loved this one. I cannot wait to purchase it and put it with my Half a Soul trilogy. I am a huge fan of how the stories are intertwined and I cannot wait for this series to continue. I don’t collect many physical books, but Olivia Atwater will soon have her own shelf

Olivia Atwater did it again! I’ve loved her regency faerie tales, so when I saw this on NetGalley I knew I had to try and get an arc because I was so excited to read another book in this world.

We follow Winnie who gets hired as a governess at Witchwood Knot, however the house is not as it seems, while trying to take care of Robert she also needs to solve the reason behind why the staff gets tormented.

This was definitely darker than the other trilogy and definitely check TW before going into it. Personally I loved everything about it, the world is just so interesting, the faeries and humans are just terrible in this. Winnie was great to read about, she was so strong and just so cool, I also really enjoyed Cook and Winnie’s sisters (hopefully we get stories behind them soon). Quincy reminded me so much of Lord Longshadow that I love, so it goes without saying that I also loved Quincy.

The gothic atmosphere was on point and although darker than the rest it still had its fluffy moments and such great banter. The little mentions of all the characters I loved were so heartwarming. If you still haven’t read the original trilogy please do, so you can get into this when it comes out! Olivia Atwater never fails!

Thank you netgalley and Starwatch Press for allowing me to get an arc of this.

Beautiful writing! I thoroughly enjoyed this gothic novel, and I loved the romance subplot. I haven’t read much in this genre but this have convinced me to branch out of my regular reading genres.

📣 a kissing-only, evocative Faerie tale featuring an intrepid heroine & lots of mystery.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 what are you currently reading? I’m about 30% into a historical fantasy called The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden.

The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater is a Victorian Faerie Tale—as the series name states—& it’s an absolute delight for those of us who want dangerous Faeries, a brave heroine who is adept at navigating this world, lots of secrets, & a questionable yet attractive possible love interest.

Winnie Hall is the new governess at Witchwood Manor, a place that gives off some *great* sinister vibes. The cook tries to warn Winnie off but Winnie won’t be deterred & we soon learn why: the dowager—whom she has a history with—has asked Winnie to come protect her grandson.

This book is creepy in the best kinds of ways & Atwater describes the manor so evocatively. Not to mention how the author writes the heroine Winnie, who is methodical & smart & resilient & also a practitioner of Magic. I love cheering on a heroine who’s outwitting the seemingly stronger forces set against her & I had lots of opportunity to do that with this book.

Check out my CWs but otherwise, a really great read that delivers on those whimsically dangerous vibes I love so much with Faerie stories.

4.5 ⭐️. Out 11/28.

CWs: Winnie’s employer when she was a child tried to groom her; past sexual assault attempt when Winnie was a child. In present day, Winnie’s employer touches her when she’s sleeping/exploring the Witchwood Knot.

[ID: Jess’s white hand holds the ebook in front of a line of brightly colored houses: pink, green, & then orange.]

This was the perfect gothic, atmospheric, and eerie but somehow cozy read all at once! From page one, the autumnal vibes were incredible. A creepy manor with ghosts, faeries, magicians and mysteries afoot.

As with the Regency Fairytales by this author, the writing was top notch and the story struck a perfect balance of humour and depth. I will say, I felt the tone overall was darker and leaned more into the gothic aspect in this one. I think you can read it without having read the original trilogy, but I feel like you would be doing the story and yourself a disservice because there are a lot of important character and plot elements mentioned.

I looved our protagonist Winnie! She was smart, driven, powerful, self-aware and a breath of fresh air. Seeing her try to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Witchwood Knot was quite the fun and creepy adventure. Mr. Quincy, the mysterious butler was also incredible. The side characters and villains were also well developed. Thoroughly loved this book but the ending stressed me out and I'm not sure it meant what I think it meant???? Need the next book immediately.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwatch Press for the eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the opportunity to read an ARC of The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater.

My initial thoughts were that this story was instantly charming with a little bit of a spooky vibe. As the story unfolds, the tone becomes more macabre, and as you learn more about some of the characters and Winnie’s history, things get even darker.

Winnie is a clever, strong and witty woman. She’s kind of an undercover bada**, and has overcome a lot, but she is still really likable in her imperfections, and even made me laugh a few times.

I found that the idea of a Victorian tale with magic and fae to be a bit unique! I have not read the Regency era books by this author, although Half a Soul is on my TBR! From what it seems, while this can be read as a standalone, I’d have had a better understanding of the world and some of the characters of faerie if I had read the other books. Sometimes I did feel a little lost in that way. This caused a bit of a lull for me at the 40-60% mark, but I did pick back up pace after about 70% through the end.

What is unexpected about this book, is that you might think that it could be a bit predictable/straightforward as far as who the monsters and bad guys are. However it touches upon the predatory nature of men, both humans in a position of power, and those with actual magical power. There are moments of crossed boundaries, and childhood grooming. It was done in a way that had me nervous or angry for the fmc, but wasn’t distressing to me as someone who can be sensitive with those topics. The authors note reflecting on this and the characters was also more moving than I expected and I appreciated that.

I feel like fans of Emily Wilde, who are looking for something more grim and less academic, or someone who falls in a cross roads of enjoying time period pieces, fae (not the 6’4 with abs fae but the pale with tails fae) AND spookiness, will enjoy this. While that might be specific, it definitely exists, so it’s cool there is now a book to cater to that!

(Possible/Slight spoilers ahead)

Overall I enjoyed this story for what it was, despite the lull I experienced in the middle. I think the romance did happen a bit suddenly, they could have just turned out to be friends honestly, but I don’t really mind. Maybe there just could have been a bit more build up or a few more flirtatious moments in the beginning. The romance didn’t seem to be much of a thing at all until about 80% in. But Winnie found someone she feels safe and kinship with, so I’m happy for her (and Robert). Also the willow tree moment was sweet, redeeming the jump into Winnie’s interest/attraction to him.

There might have been a few loose ends, but perhaps that’s to lead into a second book, hard to tell. The last few pages kind of felt like “okay let’s wrap this up!” After all that time in the story. I don’t really think a second book, at least with these specific characters, is completely necessary.. but it seems like there is more to the story with the magicians and the OTHER bad guys. If there ends up being another book with new main characters, I would likely read it though.

I had such a fun time reading Olivia Atwater's The Withhwood Knot that I paused all my other current reads.

For me, this book had a great balance of gothic and whimsical. I found the writing had an easy flow, where I managed to lose the sense of time.

Perfect for an autumn/Halloween read! In saying that if you feel like a semi-low stakes, suspenseful with a clever and stubborn protagonist, cats- alive and in ghost form, and creepy Forrest.

I saw a review that mentioned that reading Half a Soul prior might help with the experience, and I am so glad I did, I absolutely loved Half a Soul. If you haven't read Half a Soul, no stress! It doesn't take anything from the story, it's more like titbits from history or math class when you were in high school, if you know it, it helps!

I can't wait to read more of Atwater's works.

First a huge thanks to NetGalley for an e-Arc of The Witchwood Knot.


Let’s get this out of the way; this was a 3.75 stars book for me & my favorite character here was Ollie!


Winnie took me a little bit to enjoy as our FMC, in the beginning she seemed a bit rude and closed off, but the more you learn about her the more you understand why.
She’s a strong FMC for sure; she’s cunning, smart and very big liar (with reason), and she’s going to fight back if you try her 👌🏽
I will not have her watch my kid but I will definitely call her if my kid ever goes missing.


Mr. Quincy without any spoilers, i am going to pretend that a small detail about him was just my imagination and not real because I cannot get over it. I enjoy his interactions with Winnie a lot but it took the majority of the book to learn more about him; I just wished we would’ve gotten more from him throughout the entire story.


At times the pacing was off and some of the magical elements/world building could’ve used a bit more work, but it is what it is. The story was still easy to follow and enjoy. More dark than the author’s other work, touches on some strong & sensitive topics but I’d say they’re handled well.


Last while I do think this can be read as a stand alone I do suggest reading the Regency Fairy Tales first.

I’d give this book six stars if I could. Although this book could absolutely be read as a standalone, it follows in the same world and some of the same characters as Atwater’s Regency Fairytale series Whereas those books could definitely be called cozy fantasy, this dealt with darker themes, and could be more accurately called a gothic fantasy. However, despite that being a throughline, because of the commonality of the world, it still read somewhat cozily to me.

Our heroine is a magician who comes to a cursed manor to help an old benefactress protect her grandson from the nefarious presence in her estate. Although the other servants in the house can’t seem to tell her what’s happening, it’s clear that malevolent faeries are involved.

The story is masterfully woven, with charming characters and themes that encourage the reader to confront what constitutes a monster and how people regain their agency after violation.

Even when constructing a darker story, there is something so inviting about Atwater’s prose. It’s such a delight to read. I’m genuinely thrilled that she’s continuing to write in this world and hope we won’t have to wait too long for the next installment. Many thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this wonderful story.

I am a fan of dark, gothic novels and this one was a delight to read! This book is the first I’ve read by Olivia Atwater, and I can’t wait to explore more of her writing. Winnie was the perfect twisted heroine of the story. I did not picture Mr. Quincy as her love interest at first but I loved their interaction. The world building was exceptional.

It would be the ideal book for dark and stormy winter months with enough horror to make it captivating. I would love to revisit this when the audiobook comes out. Great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwatch Press for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Reading The Witchwood Knot is like seeing dew gather on a spider’s web: your eyes will skim the book’s pages like a lovely dream, but the details remain hazy, so you wonder, did it happen? Was I there with Winnie?

The Witchwood Knot is a quirky haunted house story from the Victorian era littered with faeries and a heroine as tough as they come. You will giggle and shout as you race through the pages to Atwater’s newest!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy to review.

Full RTC. Out Nov 2023.

I enjoyed this a lot! It's a fair bit darker than the author's other books, with a gothic atmosphere that I enjoyed immensely.

I loved Winnie's character: she's a liar, and a manipulator, and a survivor, but that doesn't make her a bad person, or cold and closed-off. She's always doing her best to help the people around her, sometimes even at great cost to herself. I loved the little glimpses we got of her found family, and I really hope that gets explored more.

The love interest, Mr Quincy, also should have been right up my alley as a character, and he was... once we finally got to know him better. Unfortunately this happened quite late into the book, so I didn't enjoy him quite as much as I could have.

The same goes for the romance: it was great, but I only really became invested in it around the 85 percent mark. Many of the early chapters are spent setting up the atmosphere and the mystery, plus Winnie and Mr Quincy spend very little time together in the beginning due to demands of the plot (and the few times they do meet they are pretty adversarial towards each other). This results in a bit of an enemies-to-lovers speed-run. I still liked it, but I think it really could have benefitted from being spread out into multiple books.

All in all, though, this was a great read and one I'd definitely recommend!

It's a sequel series, and while it can absolutely be read first, I do think it's better to pick it up after reading the Regency Faerie Tales books: you will get all of the reference, and there are a few spoilers (particularly a pretty major one for Half A Soul).

I have to be honest, I thought this was a one off book I hadn’t realised it was one of a series. Did this stop me enjoying the book, no it didn’t. I didn’t feel like I missed out on any information at all. I liked the characters and the story gripped me, I didn’t want to put my kindle down to do other things until I had finished it. A good autumn read

The first book in a series with gothic vibes that I devoured

I had read the Regency Faerie Tales series a while ago and I had forgotten how much I loved the very "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" universe !
So it was with great pleasure that I dove back into the universe =)

What I particularly liked :

- the writing style that completely sucked me in ! The descriptions are beautifully shot (I could almost smell the blood around Mr Quincy), almost poetic and we manage to feel the slightest nuance of feelings through the writing !

- the universe absolutely brilliant ! The very gothic atmosphere with the old manor was great but I love this mix of Victorian England and fairy magic ! (I love the "cat" Ollie so much !) I always have a weakness for the Fae when they are inhuman and then if we add Irish myths ... Love at first read !

- the plot was fascinating ! I wasn't expecting at all the horrors that we discover throughout the pages (OMG the trees !!) but I loved seeing Winnie struggle to discover the secrets and lies of the inhabitants of the mansion ! And it was exciting to discover that the plot went so much further, with much bigger ramifications ...

- the characters !! I had a huge crush on Winnie who is exactly my favorite type of heroine : clever, courageous and magical ! And Mr Quincy fascinated me from the first appearance (little vibes of Mausekönig <3)
I also really liked the secondary characters, the good ones (young Robert =)) as well as the monsters (and the Fae are not the worst !)
For readers of the Regency Faerie Tales series, it's also a treat to get glimpses of old characters (even if they're not all in good standing ...)

- the touch of romance which was PERFECT <3 I loved the way Winnie and Mr. Quincy slowly go from wary enemies to a sweet, almost shy but so beautiful romance (We only have two scenes from kisses in the book BUT THIS FIRST SCENE WITH THE PIANO <3)

In short, a beautifully written historical fantasy book with a delicious touch of romance I can't wait for the next book, especially with the revelations at the end =)

For fans of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Howl's Howling Castle, I recommend it !

Our story follows Winnifred Hall who becomes a governess to a vexatious boy at Witchwood Manor. Upon arriving at the manor, Winnie meets the mysterious butler (or is he?) Mr. Quincy and discovers the manor isn’t what it seems. Witchwood has a dark side where conniving and wicked creatures reside and we are constantly left wondering who to trust and who the true monster of the manor is.

Winnie is the type of main character I adore reading about. She is brave, intelligent, and honestly quite badass. Winnie takes all of the strangeness of her world and the manor in stride where anyone else would be running for the hills.
The beautiful romance that unfolded throughout the book took me completely by surprise and ended up being one of my favorite aspects of the story. I also greatly appreciated the delicate way Atwater navigated complex topics like SA. Reading about Winnie taking back her sexuality was extremely powerful and I think a lot of readers would find it very impactful.
I do think that some readers might find the pacing off. The first 50% of the book is mostly world and plot building and the main adventure doesn’t start until about that point. Personally, I enjoyed Olivia’s writing and the characters so much that I didn’t mind one bit.
Overall, a beautifully written gothic faerie-tale romance!

Thank you Netgallet and Starwatch Press for this ARC!

Disclaimer: I was aware of the author’s other popular series, and have it on my tbr, but did not realize this book was tied to the same universe so tightly.

Marketing it as a separate new story seems misleading, as I felt I was missing crucial information to enjoy this “new” series. It would be great to make it clearer to the audience, prior to picking it up, that you will enjoy the hints and nods and be more excited for this story, if you have previously read her other work. I felt like there were gaps for me, and it just made me feel like I was missing something. It was hard to move passed and still enjoy the story.

That said, The Witchwood Knot is a great autumn spooky story for those interested in dark fairytales, but not big on horror. I would heavily advise reading her other books first. 3.5 stars (rounded up).

Thank you to Starwatch Press and NetGalley for an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t realize this was part of a series, or part of an established universe, but I don’t think it hindered my enjoyment. Actually it made we want to go and read the other books that were alluded to.
This was a spooky mystery with intriguing characters perfect for October. But it also dealt with some very serious themes of SA and handled them beautifully. I’ve seen in some reviews that this is a bit darker than her usual writing, but I hope she keeps it’s up.

Winifred Hall is sent to Witchwood Manor as a governess with the express mission of discovering the secrets of the manor and recovering the young lord of the manor from the faeries who took him.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t read the Recency Faerie Tales series, but I thought this book was incredibly confusing. It felt half explained, and I didn’t love the narration style how it seemed to jump around from different characters POVs within the same page. Also I’m deeply upset about the rat tail randomly being a thing in the last 90% of the book.