The Once and Future Witches (November 2020) Buddy Read Discussion ~ Laura ☾, Gaea, mina

[Althea ☾]

Welcome to the The Once and Future Witches Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on November 4th and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each day we will be reading by chapters or page numbers. Page numbers are an approximation based on the hardcover or paperback that is the default on Goodreads. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Nov 04: pages 1-99
Nov 05: pages 100-199
Nov 06: pages 200-299
Nov 07: pages 300-399
Nov 08: pages 400-499
Nov 09: pages 500-528

PARTICIPANTS
~ Laura ☾
~ Gaea
~ mina

[Laura ☾]

I've read up to Chapter 8 - so far I'm not really sure what to make of the book!

Honestly, the premise seems entertaining, but I feel like the tone is really inconsistent!

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I started it, and I'm on the second chapter.. Maybe because I'm not feeling like reading or maybe because it's the beginning but at this point I'm making myself read. I'm not going to get to chapter 8 😅 I'm aiming for 50 pages at least.. and I just noticed that Althea put the last page being 528.. my ebook has 594 pages 😲

I was annoyed by the man that wanted Agnes to marry him because he'll make a "honest" woman out of her.. like, go die in a ditch.

[Laura ☾]

Yes I feel ya!

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I finished the 4th chapter. It's too early to tell, but this doesn't give me the "i can't put you down" feeling, maybe later it'll get more interesting. So far I'm interested to find out why Bella and Agnes separated, what happened there, but also I could live without knowing it 😅

[Laura ☾]

Same to be honest

I really loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January but this one doesn’t seem like it’ll match up so far

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I liked January too, and at times while reading this I got a bit of the same feeling while reading January, but if quickly disappears. Hopefully it'll get better and more interesting and then I'll read more pages.

[Laura ☾]

Me too! I feel like I get glimpses of things I like in this but not like January yet - with January I was hooked!

[Gaea]

I'm still behind in the reading schedule for today, but so far I'm not really hooked. It's interesting in the vague way that all stories are but I don't feel invested to find out what's going on yet. It feels like it would be very easy to put this down and forget about it.

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

😂 it does feel like it's easy to forget about when you put it down. Don't worry on being behind, I am too 🙈 I read only the first 4 chapters.

[Laura ☾]

Yes I feel you both! I will continue later

[Laura ☾]

I'm up to Chapter 15 - still feeling a bit disconnected

I feel like some of the ideas are really interesting, but somehow I just don't feel that invested in the plot

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I read yesterday's pages. My interest hasn't changed, it's still on low.. if I had the audiobook I think I would've liked it a bit more. By this point I'm going to read a bit for a day or two and see how I feel about it, and if I still don't feel much I'm going to put it on hold. I'm not giving up on Harrow that fast because her writing is good, but maybe it's the story she's telling not that interesting to me.

[Laura ☾]

Maybe! I’ll definitely finish it but so far I’m not feeling invested

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I'm already slumpy I don't want to add more to it 😂

[Laura ☾]

Haha fair enough!

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

Chapter 9.. I have to say that I find it very interesting that Juniper and the other women are using witching to fight for women rights to vote. Also the shadow thing is happening more than in the beginning and I'm intrigued to see what it means. Oh, interesting one of the "good" women is apparently a witch too.

Chapter 11: Well, I'm glad we found out what happened. Why Bella and Agnes left home, and what happened between Bella and Agnes.

The story: I like how Harrow is using well known folktales and changing them, and making them have witches.

Chapter 13: “The Ladies Union of Giving the Bastards What’s Coming to Them.”

😂😂 Oh, Juniper.

I finished chapter 13 for today. And things are getting more interesting, so maybe I won't put it on hold 😂 but I'll still read it slower than the plan. I have bitten more than I can chew when I said we should do 100 pages a day 😂

How are things looking in the pages you are at?

[Laura ☾]

Yeah I’m up to chapter 16 and while I feel like the ideas are interesting I’m just not feeling all that connected to the characters!

[Laura ☾]

Ok so I finished it because I felt like if I spaced it out longer i'd lose interest. Honestly, this was just lacking *something* to me, I can't quite put my finger on it - I wanted to like the characters, and the ideas as I said were definitely interesting, but somehow all put together it just didn't work for me

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

Yes, it feels like a book not to be left with room because we initially had low interest in it. I planned to read yesterday because today was supposed to be a busy day.. but it isn't and yesterday I just took a day off from reading.. it was nice. I'll probably continue reading because what I read on Friday was bringing my interest up a bit, but I'll take my time 😂

[Laura ☾]

Aww fair! Let me know how you get on

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

Will do :D

[Gaea]

I'm still on chapter 9, haha! I might make it through this but I just can't seem to make myself read any faster. Oh well~

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

@Gaea We'll read it slow 😂

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

Finished chapter 17.. whatever was that thing that made the book intriguing for me in the previous chapters I read now it's gone again. Which is frustrating.

[Laura ☾]

I know exactly what you mean! It kept giving me flashes of something great and then it’d be gone

[Gaea]

Sad to say, I've ended up putting this on hold for now. I just can't get into it and I feel like putting my effort into trying to read it is just making me waste time when I could be reading other things >.>

[mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator]

I haven't picked it up in a few days 🙈 And honestly, I might put it on hold/temporary DNF it too. But I'm thinking "oh, but maybe I should give it a bit more time", and I'm going to give it one more chapter 😅