The setting of Savannah was very atmospheric. The descriptions of the buildings and the environment really helped immerse you into the story.

I think there should have been more interaction between Emily and Wyn to flesh out their relationship a bit or even better remove it altogether. I’m not the biggest fan of instalove and couldn’t see the attraction other than “he’s hot”.

Lydia and Jackson are fun friends for Emily and I’d have preferred more focus on them than Wyn. Lydia in particular has a lot of potential.

Catherine was a good antagonist right up until the end when things fell a bit oddly flat.

The writing felt quite young in places. I really dislike the use of the word unalive in books. I could vaguely forgive Emily but she barely uses social media so even with her it seems weird but when her Aunt Ashley says the word it feels very out of place.

Overall an enjoyable YA fantasy book and I’ll read any more that come in the series.

Eh. So-so reading experience.
I acknowledge here and now that I read a VERY early copy of this book, so some things might change or be corrected.

First of all, one thing that this book does absolutely right: athmosphere. I never went to see the deep South, but goddamnit was I transported to Savannah, with all its lush plant life and squares and old Southern mansions. I din't know what Spanish moss was before reading this book, but now it's one of my favorite plants, I think! I could practically feel the air and its humidity, and the smells and sounds of the perfume garden.

Overall, this book is a very nice YA novel about Emily, who finds out she's a witch after her father tragically dies. I think this book could have been very, very good if it wasn't for the romance.

Ah, the romance. Never did an insta-love manifest more quickly than in this book, between our heroine Emily and her oh-so-beautiful boy Wyn. I looked at Kelk's other works, and they are pretty much only romance books, so I expected the romance to be sweet and balanced, but ... no. They came, they saw, they confessed their undying love for each other at the third date. They don't even know each other! It honestly took away a lot of my enjoyment of the book, and I found myself looking forward to the parts where Wyn is gone, because then I could focus on the actual story and character development. Wyn has no personality except that he's hot and that he's specifically built for Emily to be in love with. There's another character, Jackson, who has a crush on Emily, and honestly, those two have TONS more chemistry than Wyn and Emily, because we see them interact, and because they seem to actually like each other. Ugh, anyway.

I loved all of the interactions that Emily has with her family, and with her newfound best friend, Lydia. Lydia was honestly a stand-out character for me, even if she does fit into the trope of racially ambiguous quirky best friend. She's just incredibly entertaining.
Emily's family are very well written. Ashley, Emily's resentful aunt, was also one of my favorite characters. Anyone who stress-bakes is an automatic 10 in my book.
Catherine was a very good villain for a story like this, though I have some problems with the execution of her eventual downfall, namely the fact that she doesn't really get to BE the villain. It's complicated.

Lastly, I have some issues with the writing style.
First, the fact that the word "unalive" is used as an actual verb, in the text, in place of the word "kill". At first, when Lydia used it, it did take me out of the story enough to write a confused tweet about it, but eventually I thought that because Lydia is hip and cool, that using this word was a way to paint her as a modern young woman who is internet-savvy. But then Ashley used it. Ashley, who doesn't use the internet. ... What? Please don't do this. "Unalive" is a word people use to get around AI filters on platforms like Tiktok and Twitter. It has not yet found it's place among the English language as a real, legitimate verb. It just comes off as cringy.
Secondly, there is a sentence structure that is overused by the author, and honestly, I'm not even sure it's grammatically correct. Kelk tends to use the word "but" in place of punctuation. "I did this but Wyn just appeared on my door step," "Everyone knows her but your friend lives with her grandma," or something like this. This sentence structure, using the "but" to join to sentences together without even the slightest appearence of a comma, appears on every page multiple times. It's ridiculous. This overuse of a sentence structure hinders the flow of the language and just annoyed me to hell and back. Granted, not everyone is obsessed with sentence structure and punctuation like I am ... I hope that this book is due for another round of editing anyway, and that someone will also notice this and correct it. Or just add some commas. ... Please.
Lastly, the amount of Taylor Swift references. Look, it's cringy, and it ages your text. We get it, everyone loves her right now, but in a couple years, people will look back and say: "This is a product of its time." We don't want that.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This book has a lot of potential but wanted maybe to be a little too much.

The found family trope was done a bit conflicting. And it felt like the emotions changed rather quickly of the characters without much thought behind it.

I really liked the fmc finding her best friend and getting her support out of it. I would have preferred that the focus was more on that than the romance with a mysterious boy. As that was a little too much for me. (They were proclaiming their love for each other after meeting for like ten minutes, im getting too old for that.)

As I said a lot of potential and fun for ya audience. I hope in the next book there will be a little more focus on the storyline so it is able to get more details.

Unfortunately this one didn’t hit the mark for me. Whilst I enjoyed the witchy background and history of Bell House/Bell Witches. I thought it felt very similar to other books I’ve read and I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likable.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐲 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐤
You’ll want to be one until you know their secret. After the tragic passing of her last remaining family member, Emily is forced to live with the only family she has left. With her aunt and a grandmother in a house that is as beautiful as it is mysterious. But all is not what it seems with this family: they’re hiding a magical secret.

When Emily meets there alluring Wyn, she forms a connection that feels like it was written in the stars. As the spark between them brows more powerful, her life takes an exhilarating and terrifying turn. Ever step closer to him takes her a step further away form her family. Emily will find out that blood is always thicker than water and there is no bond heater than family.

A story about love, loss, family and magic that will have you enchanted form the very first page. A coming of age story that will resonate with readers young and old, as they too navigate the emotions of loosing a loved one and learning to find your place in the world. A beautifully realised magical system and epic story that will leave you eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐲 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐤

wow what a book!
i fell in love with the characters and bell house.
i loved how you felt you were there witnessing the events.
i can’t wait for the next instalment.
a real page turner

I’ve been a Lindsey fan for a few years now so was intrigue when I saw she had written for YA.

Emily is 16 when her dad dies in a tragic car accident, leaving her orphaned. Then she learns she has paternal family members she’d never heard of living in Savannah and her aunt Ashley is dispatched to bring her home to Bell House. But all is not quite as it seems….

A story about love, family, friendship, magic, new beginnings and teenage life. I really enjoyed it and will be eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review .

This was just an ok read for me due to personal preferences. I found this a bit too YA and has too many tropes for my liking but it was fun and I liked the family and magical parts of the book
Better suited to those who like romantic fantasy and that’s not me. It was well written and an easy read

Already a massive Lindsey Kelk fan, I was desperate to get my hands on her debut YA fantasy.
After Emily's father tragically dies, she is sent to live with a grandmother she has never met, in a birth town she cant remember. The Savannah setting reminded me so much of Stars Hollow, or even Hocus Pocus, and I loved going along on Wyn's guided tour of the town, seeing Emily discover more about herself and where she came from.
The supporting characters were brilliant- everyone needs a friend like Lydia, and I'm desperate to learn more about Emily's auntie, and her role in the Bell family.
This story was honestly so much fun, with a few twists along the way that I didn't see coming. I feel like we've only just scratched the surface of this brilliant story, and I'm already awaiting book two!

Enchanting and atmospheric! This book swept me away with its magical world and captivating story. The dark, mysterious setting and richly developed characters kept me turning pages until the very end. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Oh. My. Goodness!! I have been waiting for this book for, what feels like, forever! When I tell you it was worth the wait, I am not exaggerating!.

The Bell Witches is incredible! It's got the Kelk stamp all over it, but it's so refreshingly different too. This book is phenomenal. It's fast ride after a leisurely start, it's shocking, romantic, dramatic, gripping, tense. It's everything you could ever want in a YA witchy book, but it's SO much more too.

Lindsey Kelk is a genius and I am in awe of her.

The Bell Witches is an enchanting YA fantasy set within the historical town of Savannah, Georgia.

I've been looking forward to this since it was announced and I was not disappointed. The location is stunning - the various squares, the cemeteries and gothic buildings are described so beautifully that on the surface it seems like a picturesque settlers town. But this isn’t the cutesy witchy story you think it is.

I was drawn in from the first chapter, watching Emily go through all the emotions you would expect from someone in her circumstances. Not only does poor Emily, have to adjust to living in this new somewhat strange place, surrounded by the family she thought were dead, but she discovers the magic is real and she comes from a long line of Bell women who have been guarding a huge secret for centuries.

I loved that the magic system was a little different, in terms of the inheritance of power, but it still included the more common aspects of nature and using plants and herbs.

The plot unfolds at just the right pace and we are fed lots of little snippets of information that create a feeling of intrigue and suspicion. Whilst magic can be used for good, an ancient prophecy threatens to upend Emily’s new life and watching her journey of self discovery and empowerment was incredibly heartwarming.

Perfect for readers who enjoy escaping to a world of magic, mystery and romance!

I've read almost everything Lindsey has written so was really excited to see sneaky bts peeks at this new book she was writing and to get an early copy!

Normally what I love about Lindsey's books is the main relationships in a book, whether that be the love interests or family, she knows how to write characters who make you feel things and root for them.
In this book, I wasn't very invested in Emily and Wyn. I think it was just a personal thing but for me it was a little too intense too quickly.
But I loved Lydia, Jackson and the complex Ashley. I enjoyed learning about the magical world with Emily as we went but it's those characters who kept me invested.

I also really loved the gothic, atmospheric vibes of Savannah. Lindsey set the book so well that you can really picture the place and imagine how magical and eerie at times it must feel.

I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next and need answers about what happened to one of the characters! (No spoilers)

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins, Magpie and the author, Lindsey Kelk, for the review copy, provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

3.75 ⭐

"The Bell Witches" is a ya fantasy novel, with gothic overtones, written by Lindsey Kelk. A beguiling, quick and captivating book that, among many lights and a few shadows, I enjoyed a lot.

The writing simply enchanted me! Elegant, evocative and lyrical, it captured me with its curated and vivid descriptions.

I loved the setting of the city of Savannah! I was fascinated by the many elegant historic mansions, the many squares, the distinctive trees, the quaint cemeteries, the unpredictable weather, and the abundance of history and folklore. I found everything beautifully painted, so much so that I could easily imagine the various places. Moreover, the magical, dreamy, almost suspended in time atmosphere that hovers between the pages won me over! The magic system, the presence of supernatural creatures, mix perfectly with the history, legends and folklore of the city, intertwining to create a fascinating picture.

Emily, protagonist with her only first person pov, left me a little lukewarm. Overall, I liked her, but she didn't win me over. I appreciated the way she tries to cope with the loss of her father, the way she tries to adapt to the new reality and new discoveries. However, her constant underestimating herself (even when she is constantly told otherwise) made me roll my eyes repeatedly. In addition, she didn't particularly strike me in terms of expressiveness, and I don't know, other than what I mentioned above, she seemed a bit shallow. Some of the secondary characters, such as the grandmother and aunt, seemed more effective to me by comparison. The dialogues did not particularly impress me (some even left me puzzled) and I admit that I found the romance too insta love and rushed in certain dynamics. I perceived no development in the relationship, no chemistry between the characters and this left me rather indifferent, if not bored. Also, Wyn did not convey anything to me and this made the situation worse.

All in all, "The Bell Witches" is an enjoyable ya fantasy that did not completely win me over!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Bell Witches by Lindsey Kelk
Rating: 4/5

After Emily’s father tragically passes away, she is compelled to relocate to Savannah, Georgia, to reside with her remaining family — an aunt and grandmother — in a house as enchanting as it is enigmatic.

Yet, the Bell family harbours a mysterious, magical secret.

In Savannah, Emily crosses paths with Wyn, whose captivating presence immediately resonates with her. As their connection deepens, Emily’s life undergoes a thrilling and unsettling transformation. However, every stride toward Wyn pulls her farther from her family.

In this journey, Emily discovers that familial bonds are steadfast, even in the face of magical allure and uncertainty.

If I were to encapsulate this book in a single word, it would undoubtedly be: Magical.

In "The Bell Witches," Lindsey Kelk has masterfully crafted an enchanting world that seamlessly intertwines multiple captivating genres — romance, magic, and mystery.

From the very first page, "The Bell Witches" draws you in with its compelling narrative that compels you to turn page after page, eagerly devouring both the intricate plot and the richly developed characters. Kelk’s skilful storytelling effortlessly transports readers into a realm where magic feels both natural and enthralling, making it a joy to immerse oneself in.

The protagonist’s journey struck a deep chord within me as a reader. Her path is one of grappling with the complexities of everyday life — navigating issues of love and grief while striving to cultivate inner strength and empowerment. This emotional depth adds a layer of authenticity to her character, making her journey all the more relatable and compelling.

The supporting characters, particularly Wynn, contribute significantly to the story’s richness. Their presence adds depth and complexity, enhancing the overall narrative and providing meaningful insights into the protagonist’s experiences and growth.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend "The Bell Witches" to anyone seeking a seamless blend of romance, magic, and fantasy. It’s a book that offers an engaging and enjoyable escape into a world where the extraordinary meets the everyday, leaving readers enchanted and eager for more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | Magpie, and the author, Lindsey Kelk, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Title: The Bell Witches by Lindsey Kelk

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Stars

Release date: September 26th 2024

Step into the enchanting world of The Bell Witches by Lindsey Kelk, where magic, mystery, and romance intertwine to create a spellbinding tale set in the heart of Savannah, Georgia. I absolutely loved this!

Emily is thrust into a new life after the tragic loss of her father, finding herself under the care of her aunt and grandmother in a house that whispers of secrets and holds a magical allure. The Bell family, with their captivating charm and hidden powers, soon reveal that they are more than meets the eye. As Emily navigates this new world tinged with mystery, she discovers that her own destiny is entwined with the magical legacy of her family.

Enter Wyn, whose magnetic presence draws Emily in like a moth to a flame. Their connection sparks a journey that is both exhilarating and perilous, as Emily learns the truth about her family’s magical abilities and the sacrifices that come with them. As she delves deeper into the world of the Bell witches, Emily faces choices that challenge her loyalty to her family and her growing feelings for Wyn.

Kelk weaves a captivating narrative that keeps you turning the pages, eager to uncover the secrets hidden within the walls of the Bell family home. The atmosphere of Savannah comes alive, rich with Southern charm and a touch of mystique that adds depth to the story.

The magical elements are seamlessly integrated, creating a world where spells and enchantments coexist with the everyday struggles of love and loss.

The Bell Witches is not just a tale of magic; it’s a story of family bonds, love, and the discovery of one’s true self. Emily’s journey from grief to empowerment is beautifully portrayed, and her evolution as a character resonates with authenticity and depth.

The supporting characters, especially the enigmatic Wyn and the intriguing Bell family members, add layers of intrigue and warmth to the story.

The Bell Witches is a delightful blend of fantasy and romance, perfect for readers who enjoy tales of magic, mystery, and the enduring power of familial ties.

Dive into this bewitching world and let yourself be enchanted by Emily’s journey—it’s a ride you won’t want to miss!

Thank you to The Publisher HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | Magpie ,The Author Lindsey Kelk & NetGalley for an advanced reader copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review.