Hedgewitch – Skye McKenna

Illustrations – Tomislav Tomic

For we are witches, one and all,
And we are not afraid
Of goblins, grigs and gwyllions,
Our wards and charms are laid. 

All Cassie Morgan has to remember her mother by is a mysterious key and the promise she made that she would wait for her. Cassie never imagined she would still be waiting for her seven years later, behind the bars of Fowell House, with its questionable food, detestable teachers, a headmistress who’d give the Trunchbull a run for her money and the bullies on the hockey team.

When Cassie runs away from her boarding school, a talking cat named Montague accompanies her to Hedgely, where she meets the family she never knew existed. Only, her mother is not with them. It turns out the stories Cassie has been reading about faeries shouldn’t have been filed under fiction, and witchcraft? It’s real, too. 

The first in a five book series, Hedgewitch was a lot of fun. Being a new series, there were so many new people and non-humans to meet. 

When we join twelve year old Cassie at Fowell House, she’s an outcast whose primary escape when she’s perfecting her invisibility is reading. Once she arrives in Hedgely, some things come naturally to her but she struggles with others. The pain she feels as a result of her mother’s absence is always there but, despite this, Cassie has an unshakeable optimism. 

While Ivy has the potential for complexity due to both her personality and home life, so far she’s mostly sycophantic. Rue and Tabitha have the makings of being both supportive friends to Cassie and good teammates. 

For we are witches, one and all,
A coven of the best.
Good friends who stand together 
Through any threat or test. 

We’ve gone to work with the Hedgewitch but I suspect her page time will increase as the series continues and we’ll get to see what she’s truly capable of.

Montague, though? A mixture of wisdom and cattitude, Montague is perfect already. Joining Montague in the ranks of practically perfect in every way is Mrs Briggs, who smells of gingerbread and is welcome to cook for me whenever she wants.

Hedgely has many stores I want to explore further in future books but none as much as Marchpane’s, where I’ll be eating when Mrs Briggs goes on strike, and Widdershin’s, a Tardis bookstore.

I’m keen to join Cassie as she continues to search for her mother and am looking forward to coming face to creepy bone mask with the Erl King.

Magic I most wish was real: Spoon of Eternal Pudding. 

For we are witches, one and all,
We know, protect and heal,
With noble hearts, loyal and kind,
And courage true as steel! 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Welbeck Flame, an imprint of Welbeck Children’s Limited, for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

It has been seven years since Cassie Morgan last saw her mother. Left at a dreary boarding school, she spends her days hiding from the school bully and reading forbidden story books about the world of Faerie.

Certain that her mother is still alive, Cassie is determined to find her, whatever the dangers, and runs away from school. Lost and alone, she is chased by a pack of goblins but, to her surprise, escapes with the help of a flying broom and a talking cat named Montague, who takes her to the cosy village of Hedgely.

Here she discovers that she comes from a family of witches, women who protect Britain from the denizens of Faerie, who are all too real and far more frightening than her story books suggest.