Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill

3.5 stars

Rosemary and her sister Lois live with their parents and four witches. Everyone in the family can see the witches except for their dad. Rosemary thinks it's because he doesn't believe in magic.
Life has been going good until their mom finally lands an acting job. She's away from home a lot, their dad is always at work. When he isn't at work, there is a cloud hanging over his head. To make matters worse, one of the witches has disappeared and Rosemary thinks it's somehow making her dad worse.
Things have gotten so out of control that when Rosemary sees her mom and the witches pass right through the wall, she knows she has to figure out a way to get through so she can help her family get back to normal. She enlists the help of her sister and her friend Adi and they set off on an adventure to set things right.

I really enjoyed this story. It's a lot of fun. The characters are great. I laughed out loud a few times at Lois' “problem”. You'll have to read it to see what I mean.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a magical children's book and something I would have loved to have read as a child.

Rosemary knows her mum is a witch and has witches that pop by that only her mum and sister can see. One day Rosemary hears that Phyllis has disappeared and notices that mum and some of her witch friends go off to search for her, through the wall. Intrigued Rosemary asks her friend Adi to help her enter the wall and find Phyllis. With the addition of her little sister Lois, the threesome step into the magical world, through the mirror, to help bring Phyllis back and stop the the mayhem that is happening around them.

This book really captured my imagination and had a ‘Narnia' feel to it when the children stepped through the mirror. The characters were interesting and brought a uniqueness to the novel. I could picture each character in turn and especially loved the names given to them. The different rooms that the children found themselves in added to the magical feel and gave the book an air of mystery as you never knew where they would end up next.

I particularly loved Rosemary's gift of being able to see a coloured aura around people which beautifully helped illustrate the depression her dad was going through. I thought this was very cleverly explained and would help with children's own understanding surrounding depression. Despite the serious issues that are explored there is also a lot of humour which will definitely appeal to the reader. At the heart of this story is the concept of love, friendship and trust. There were some poignant moments in the novel where these themes shined through provoking moments of reflection and thought which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall a great fantasy adventure story with some fantastic characters. I can see this being the start to a great sequel and would love to read more about Rosemary and her magical journeys. Many thanks to Agora books for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.