Thank you NetGalley for approving me on this title. A very good book that is well worth a read. Highly recommend

Love the concept and the setting, found the very YA style a little inaccessible. That said I loved the characters and really enjoyed the story. This would be perfect for someone actually in the audience for YA witchy mystery.

The cover of this book is stunning! Absolutely beautiful.
After seeing the cover and reading the synopsis, I was expecting something a little more towards the mature side, however this was very much a young adult story.
It was well written, with good descriptive work but for me, I could have done with a bit more of a faster pace. Some of the characters could maybe have been fleshed out a little more also and the relationships explored further.
Overall it was a good read.

Thank you for the ARC!

I am so excited to read this one, but the formatting is unreadable on my Kindle and Kobo, and I cannot properly access the file, even after contacting support.

I loved the first chapter, but it was so difficult to read through the formatting, I stopped there. Can't wait for this release to be able to read it more easily without technical difficulties!! I just know I'm going to love it.

The Bell Witches is the first novel in a new witchy-focused, young adult novel from popular author, Lindsey Kelk.
Our story begins with the return to Savannah, Georgia by Emily, after the recent death of her father. Until his sudden death, Emily was unaware of the existence of her paternal grandmother and family, so you know that there are lors of secrets to be uncovered.
And the best part? Emily will uncover some painful and potentially, hazardous truths about her family history.
As mentioned, this is a young adult novel which has a gothic atmosphere and builds up the feeling of danger nicely. It's not difficult as anadult reader to guess where the storyline is headed, but it is a fun journey, filled with brilliantly descriptive paragraphs of magic and nature. I enjoyed the storyline and I look forward to seeing what challenges Emily and co., will face in book two.

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

So sad to say that no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get invested in that book.
I think the book cover style and the synopsis made a trick on me by giving me more mature vibes kind of story (still YA but with more maturity).
Let's just start with the fact that I loved the atmosphere in the book and the descriptive surrounding that gives you distinctive feeling while reading.
Alas, the most of the characters—Emily and those around her, felt too immature in their voice even for a YA book and the writing style solidified that problem by using words and phrases that felt strange.
The romance line between Wyn and Emily was also a bit problematic for me—I acknowledge that it was instalove kind of story, but without any backstory or knowing anything about each other they fall in love and it just….felt strange, rushed instead of instalove and without any sense.
Again, it pains me to write this because the atmosphere, the magic, and the plot idea are wonderful, and it was a good foundation for a promising story.

This book had my jaw dropped. After the death of her dad, Emily is brought into a world by her Grandmas she couldn't have possibly imagined.
Learning their family is descended from a long line of witches, arriving at her grandmas in Savannah begins to awaken Emily's own magic.

From learning to master these newfound skills, the ceremonies required as a witch as well as navigating trust and mystery, this books is chaotic but enthralling.

With a romance that can only be defined as love at first sight we see Wyn and Emily learn so much about themselves and others through the course of this book, and if their is a sequel i cannot wait to see where this duo goes.

Let me start by saying I don’t read fantasy. However, I’m a big time Lindsey Kelk fan and I do enjoy tv shows like The Vampire Diaries, so I was looking forward to reading this and was delighted to be approved to read a netgalley arc.

Well, despite changing genres, Lindsey has once again smashed it out of the park. I was absolutely hooked on this book and I gobbled it up whilst recovering from covid. I know this is going to be a trilogy and I am now desperate to read book 2.

If you like shows like Buffy, Charmed and TVD, you will love this book even if fantasy isn’t your usual genre. It’s witches anc werewolves not elves and faeries so it’s easy for a fantasy newbie to get into. It’s sort of fantasy ‘light’ if that makes sense? I highly recommend this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5 stars)

This enchanting and atmospheric novel drew me in with its magical world and compelling narrative. The dark, mysterious setting combined with well-developed characters made it an irresistible read. The author's ability to create such a vivid and immersive environment kept me engaged from the very first page. Each twist and turn of the plot added depth to the story, making it difficult to put down. I found myself fully invested in the characters' journeys and the intricate details of the world they inhabited. It was a truly captivating experience that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish, savoring every moment.

This book was okay, how ever I feel it had so much more potential to be amazing…
I think the best thing about it was the setting and atmosphere, this part of the story was amazing and I felt like i was right there with the characters how ever the book is a little lacking elsewhere… overall the surroundings was amazing in this book.

One major thing for me was I found the instaLove way to soon? I felt the characters age and story line didn’t really fit with the instalove in this book which made it a little hard to finish.

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

This book shows a lot of potential, but it seemed to be trying to do too much at once. The found family trope felt somewhat conflicting, with character emotions shifting too quickly and without sufficient development.

I enjoyed the main character finding her best friend and the support that came from that relationship. I would have preferred if the story focused more on this aspect rather than the romance with a mysterious boy, which felt overdone to me. The rapid declaration of love after a brief meeting seemed unrealistic and out of place.

Overall, the book has great potential and can be a fun read for a YA audience. I hope the next installment focuses more on the storyline, allowing for greater detail and depth.

Emily moves to Savannah to live with her aunt after her father's death, and she starts to have visions.
Then there is the romance element.
I believe this is indeed a good read for the YA audiences.
As for older readers, my breakdown goes like

Characterisation: 3.5 (Emily 4.5)
Plot: 2.5-3
Mood/Atmosphere: 4
Twists: 2
Prose: 3

I really wanted to like this more than I did. I struggled with a couple of big key points of the story, and unfortunately it just kind of made me feel a little bleh.
I feel like this story has some huge potential, but just fell a little flat.
The one thing that does stand out is that the descriptions of the town in the Deep South were beautiful! I felt as if I was actually there, eating ice cream in the park, or taking a stroll down one of the avenues.

However, the insta-love story between Wyn and Emily just doesn’t really make much sense. She is a confused mid to late teenager who is grieving and in a strange place. I just couldn’t understand the timing of it all. They didn’t even know eachother, or even get to know eachother before they confessed feelings of love. And it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth when reading the story.

I just couldn’t get on with the writing style either. It felt a little immature for the kind of story that was being written. I get that this is a YA, but considering the main characters are 16-17, I would think that the target audience would be around that too. And some of the language used (eg: unalive) did feel a bit icky..

As said before, this story had huge potential, but I just think that it wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

First how beautiful is the cover
I really enjoyed this I’m more of a thriller reader but this draw me in and I’m glad
I adored Emily and was rooting for her from the start I adored her family and the way they are together it was beautiful.
I loved the magical world it was written in it was so imaginative and I could just picture it
The whispers the secrets the magic over all an amazing YA fantasy that will definitely be In my younger sister Christmas box this year!

First I have to thank Harper Colllins UK and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly I have to say I dnf the book at 27%.
First, what I absolutely loved was the southern state atmosphere the author created! You can practically feel the heat and humidity, together with the old southern mansions, the lush gardens and Spanish moss, the whole vibe was simply perfection!
The reason I did not finish the book was unfortunately the main character. She felt way too young for my liking, that’s not generally a problem, but I didn’t really expected it from the synopsis… She is constantly underestimating herself and feels a bit stereotypical (girl lost her dad, finds out she has more family, has to deal with the new environment and everyone thinks she’s so pretty and smart). Additionally she fells almost instantly in love (Spoiler: She literally thinks he’s her sun and everything revolves around him at 26%), that’s not a trope I like.
I’m giving the book three stars because I’m sure a younger audience will enjoy it!

This book was good with the potential of being great.
I think the best thing about it was the setting and atmosphere. Everything was described so on point that I felt like I was there with all the characters and very aware of my surroundings.
One thing I didn't like was the insta-love. It happened way to quick and just didn't sit right with me.

4 stars - YA urban fantasy with Witches.

Emily moves to Savannah, Georgia to live with her aunt and grandmother after the unexpected death of her father. Emily is surprised to learn she has family left as her father told her, her grandmother was dead. She starts to get weird visions and weird things start happening around her, then her grandmother informs her she is a witch.

I loved the setting of Savannah, the atmospheric description of the heat and storms, and the beauty of the flowers made it feel like I was there along with the historical buildings and the southern hospitality.

I liked the character of Emily and connected to her really easily. From the death of her father, moving countries, making new friends and learning all about her family history. I loved her friendship with Lydia and hope to see more of her in the next book .

I easily guessed the twist with Wyn and suspected it from the very beginning. I disliked the insta romance between him and Emily - I thought it might have been leaning towards a fated mates / soulmate trope but this was never suggested.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending and felt like a certain character didn’t get the judgement they deserved and felt like Emily was too quick to forgive. I’m interested to see where the author goes with the story in book 2, as the initial plot was resolved but the characters stories were left open.

Would recommend from teens onwards as either, a summer witchy read or autumnal read.

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.