Review: The Bitterwine Oath

By Hannah West
Available now from Holiday House
Review copy

I haven't been keeping up with new YA releases the way I used to just a few years ago, but I've paid attention to know that witches are one of the current hot trends. The Bitterwine Oath slots right in, as the story of a young woman in her last summer before college who learns that she has magic and falls in love.

I read the entirety of The Bitterwine Oath on a lazy Sunday morning, a milieu that suited it well. Natalie Colter lives in San Solano, Texas, the home to a century-old massacre and a copycat massacre enacted fifty years after the first. It being the second fifty-year anniversary, everyone in town is on edge that it might happen again. Nat has even more scrutiny to worry about than most, since one of her ancestors was the leader of the group that caused the original massacre. Of course, she's also worried about the return of Levi Langford, who kissed her and then left for college.

I loved the atmosphere of The Bitterwine Oath. It captures small-town Texas well. I could tell that author Hannah West lives in Texas by the way the characters spoke, and I appreciated that she didn't go overboard with the folksiness. I also liked how West portrayed the way the local church is woven through almost everything happens in the town, and that the witches balance their beliefs around their powers with their Christian beliefs. It felt realistic - aside from magic being real.

As is tradition in these stories, Nat is kept ignorant of her power until it is almost too late, and she is actually the most powerful witch of all. (At least, among those still alive.) But she was kept ignorant for a reason, one that makes her mistrust the other witches and try to seek out her own path. Of course, the clock is ticking, and twelve men's lives hang in the balance. Nat has to decide whether to bow to tradition or strike out.

There's nothing too unpredictable or unfamiliar in The Bitterwine Oath. I was entertained that the male love interest was the one always getting himself in danger when he tried to charge in to find answers. Still, I found it fun. I liked the setting, and I thought Nat and Levi were sweet together. I'm sure fans of witchy YA urban fantasy will enjoy The Bitterwine Oath.