Weyward

Books | Fiction / Women

4.3

(424)

Emilia Hart

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF TWO GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS (Best Debut Novel & Best Historical Fiction)An Indie Next March 2023 Pick • A LibraryReads March 2023 Pick • An Amazon "Best Books of the Year So Far" 2023 Pick"A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." ––Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance SocietyI am a Weyward, and wild inside.2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great-aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she suspects that her great-aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. When Altha was a girl, her mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence of witchcraft is laid out against Altha, she knows it will take all her powers to maintain her freedom.1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an astonishing debut, and an enthralling novel of female resilience.

Historical Fiction

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More Details:

Author

Emilia Hart

Pages

336

Publisher

St. Martin's Publishing Group

Published Date

2023-03-07

ISBN

1250280818 9781250280817

Community ReviewsSee all

" ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️"

Sher Free✌️

"Just wow... I could not stop reading it. And when I was finished I had to just sit for a minute and cry... beautiful, heartbreaking, and makes you remember what women have fought so hard for and why women are STILL fighting. "

Meagan Khatthaname

"A beautiful, spellbinding tale of the power of women and their intuitive connection to the natural (and at times, supernatural) world. I loved this story."

Merry

"Weyward is the expertly woven story of 3 different women living in 3 different times. Altha is being tried for witchcraft. Violet lives a very sheltered life and has so many questions. Kate runs away from an abusive husband and goes to the cabin left to her by her aunt. All three women are Weywards. They all have a powerful connection to nature. Definitely worth reading, especially if you feel powerless."

Brandi Always Reading

"Women's power transcending time. Gorgeously woven stories of three young women fighting patriarchal norms bound by a magical familial thread. Three weyward sisters, hand in hand- posters of the sea and land...."

Alexia Hollis

"HUGE TRIGGER WARNING: Frequent mention of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, miscarriage, mental abuse, etc. so keep in mind This book is about empowering women through their traumas and coming out on the other side of it. The women have magic through nature. They speak to the animals, the insects, the wind. They work through herbs to heal people in the village or to harm them, and are often called witches or wild for being different or “unruly”. I think the same could’ve been understood without so much trauma because it really hit me with shock constantly. Because the times are in 1619, 1942, and 2019, none of those are really good for women’s rights and the respect they get from their men counterparts is atrocious. I feel like the trauma is accurate of what happened in those time periods to women, it was just a lot for me. I liked that it made the women strong, they were their own saviors, and became stronger because of their traumas. It didn’t have as much magic as I thought it would. But the character development and storytelling was good. It has 3 POVs and goes back and forth between the three timelines as the three women lived out their lives. You start to see the connections of the womens lives and it truly is amazing how decisions made can fully change someone’s life and their entire family. "

Leeann Smith

"Beautiful! "

Elise Meyers

"This book took me by surprise. I was expecting a kind of young adult, witch-power focused book. What I got instead was a powerful story about the struggle against a patriarchal society told from the viewpoint of three different women, each in a different century. This book truly blew me away. I loved the way each woman was facing a different struggle that all stemmed from misogyny: society’s eagerness to brand unmarried women witches, a neglectful father, and an abusive husband. It was so interesting how the book explored all these ways women are oppressed and how it highlighted that, although many centuries have passed, society hasn’t changed all that much. The end gave me hope for the future, as all of the women thought that their descendants might be better off and hoped for them to live free. It made me feel deeply connected to all of the women in the world and left me hopeful for a better future for all of us. "

Lauren Fahrner

"I dnfed this book. This book is heavily disappointing for I was so bored reading it. Literally the only interesting aspects was the green witch aspects and the ancestor povs, the modern main character hell no. But otherwise? Why should I care? It has constant manbashing and the whole men= bad woman= good aspect which just has to make you roll your eyes. I've always had this issue with books described as feminist because there is always one character that constantly man bashes even if they run into a male character that is kindhearted."