Warm, sun-dappled queer love stories, masquerade balls, and folk magic, you say? A story about a honey witch cursed never to fall in love? To that, we say yes! A million times yes!

When we first heard this pitch on TikTok we knew immediately that we had to read the manuscript, and it was everything we’d dreamed of and more. Redhook is thrilled to have bought The Honey Witch, Sydney J. Shields’s debut novel about a honey witch cursed never to find love and the woman who she’ll risk anything to save. For fans of Practical Magic and Bridgerton we’re so excited for this book to sweep you off your feet in Summer 2024.

Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude is entering another season without any intentions of accepting a proposal. When her eccentric grandmother Althea visits and finally provides an explanation for Marigold’s strange magical abilities, they return to the Lake Isle of Innisfree where she begins training as a Honey Witch—an apothecary and alchemist who uses her magical connection with the bees to create enchanted honey for her spells. While this lovely power leaves her especially adept at helping others find love, it also comes with an ancient curse that none have been able to break: no one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.

When Lottie Burke, a notorious grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, accompanies her best friend to the cottage for a love spell, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. She invites Lottie and her best friend, August Owens, to stay with her for the summer to prove her abilities, but Marigold begins to care for Lottie in a way she never expected. She longs to break the curse and escape her lonely fate, but when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her freedom—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.

While you wait, feel free to reach out and say “hi” to Sydney at her website, on Instagram @sydneyjshields, or on TikTok @sydneyjshields.