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Amy Crook

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To Hive and To Hold (The Future of Magic Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Amy Crook (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 125 ratings

Book 1 of 1: The Future of Magic

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Arthur is an apothecarist in the witches' district of a city that might have once been London, before the magic came. He also keeps magic bees in the greenhouse on his roof and teaches his trade to his apprentice, Ariadne. His life is settled, his customers are happy, and his heart is finally ready to open itself to more.Jade was a student of sorcery, but although he values the skills he learned there, he doesn't agree with their values up on the hill. He's taken himself, his newly-acquired tattooist's license, and the familiar under his skin, and moved down to the witches' district. He’s determined to make this work, and when he needs botanical references for his first client, Arthur’s Apothecary across the way is the obvious place to start.While Arthur builds a hive for a new swarm of bees, Jade builds a business and a new life. Together, can they cultivate a love as sweet as honey?Tags: m/m Romance, Slow Burn, Nonbinary & Genderqueer characters, Adult Communication, Found Family, Bees, Food, Magic as Science, Science as Magic, Mythological Mishmash, Post-Post Apocalyptic Hopepunk, Solarpunk, Shopping, Nesting, Domesticity, Community Building

Book 1 of 1

The Future of Magic
Print length

429 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

May 19, 2020
File size

1316 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B088YM35J7
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (May 19, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 19, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1316 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 429 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B089278ST1

Best Sellers Rank: #373,330 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,914 in LGBTQ+ Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #9,023 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
- #9,612 in Gay Romance

Customer Reviews:
4.5 125 ratings

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Amy Crook

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Amy Crook has escaped the wildfires and rising rents in the SF Bay Area to venture through the untamed skies and land in upstate New York. Amy is aro/ace, uses she/they, and prefers textual communication. She is working on making friends with new house ghosts, but the old monster under the bed came along on the move and still holds hands with them at night.

She specializes in writing magical worlds, boys in love, delicious meals, adult communication, and happy endings. You can find more about Amy, their artwork, and their eight cats online at her website, antemortemarts.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

125 global ratings

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Rhonda

Gentle, slow burn romance with fascinating world-building

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022

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I bumped this to 5 stars because I've already re-read it, less than a month after my first reading (and bought both ebook and print).

This is mostly character-driven, rather than lots of plot action. There's so much competence porn, as we see so much everyday living and working for Arthur, Jade, and Ariadne. The worldbuilding is integrated into these everyday actions, whether customers in Arthur's shop or the other shopkeepers and creatures that Arthur and Jade patronize.

The romance is very slow burn but absolutely delightful and adorable, as Jade and Arthur flirt from the beginning. It makes sense in the context of Jade settling into a new life and finding himself. I adore all of the characters in the family/household and am looking forward to reading more!

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CCaidan

A fantasy read with a gentle profound story

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2020

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This book was an amazing read for me. I went in not sure what to expect but needing an escape. I found it in spades. This is a gentle fantasy read with an almost journal type quality to the work. There are descriptions for everything. The gentle ebb and flow of life in a magical alternate reality. The story of a sorcerer come to the witch district and finding acceptance, family and love in a witch Apothecary. The story of Arthur, the apothecarist, his apprentice Ariadne and the newly named Jade...a magical artist and tattooist of sorcery origins...captivated me. At over 400 pages, this is quite a read. But it never seemed like a chore to me. In trying to describe it to a friend, I could not. It stands out in my mind from the hundreds and hundreds of books I’ve read in the past few years. It’s ostensibly a simple tale but the depth of it and the profound moment at the end...wherein you realize that family, contentment, a good days work for a fair wage or trade and above all else love and acceptance...well, that is it’s own sort of magic...is stunning in its simplicity and profound in this time of change and unrest. I don’t know if you’ll like it...I don’t know what you’re looking for but you might want to see if this one takes you on the same journey it did me.

The author gets high marks for acceptance of non gender specific characters and those that identify as one gender or another. There IS indeed enough space in the world for everyone’s preference.
I got this on KU and then I bought it.
It has some typos and little grammar blips here and there.
It’s not faultless...I don’t think any works are...but it’s a personal 5 star for me

5 people found this helpful

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SMJ

4.5 stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021

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The cover isn't particularly indicative of the story. I mean, sure, bees, but I honestly almost skipped this book even after reading a review that made me think it was right up my ally. Do not judge this book by the cover :'/

Its a magic-witchy solarpunk book about nice people being nice, and its as peaceful to read as just the right herbal tea thick with honey is to drink. I love the quite world building in this book, and I like that it dares to be on the longer side so the story can move along at the right pace. I love the effortless genderbending and overall inclusiveness, and the side characters are interesting and varied without intruding on the peaceful nature of the story.

Some of the phrasing can get a little overly feminine for a character we are told is supposed to be unapolagetically masculine, (the book... doesn't give off much masculine energy tbh) but other than that I have no complaints about the writing. It could have used a final editing comb over, but nothing incredibly jarring jumped out at me.

2 people found this helpful

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Samantha R Luccese

A wonderful, soothing read

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2021

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I am glad I purchased and read this book. Ms. Crook’s writing style is so soothing and peaceful. I love the theme of family and trying to live in harmony with the Earth in this story. The only thing I had trouble with was that I feel like I missed out on some of the world building, I love fantasy and the world is so unique and detailed but at the same time I felt that I was missing a key point. But otherwise it was a Fantastic read.

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MJ

Unique, gentle, lovely

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2020

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To Hive and to Hold is not like anything else I've ever read. A witch and a sorcerer - experts in two very different magical disciplines - create a family in a world that might be ours forever altered by magic. I wanted this book never to end. I wanted to curl up into it. But I don't know if it's for everyone. It is, mostly, about the gentle blooming of a deep love; about the daily work of a mostly-back-to-pre-industrial, magically enhanced world; about gender fluidity coming to fruition; about simple pleasures and tending plants and looking after bees. There is little conflict and much joy. If that sounds boring to you, it probably will be. If not, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I'm thrilled that's apparently the first of a series and can't wait for more in this world. This is going to be a beloved reread for me.

One person found this helpful

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Lorecrystal

Beautiful world building and witchy, ecologically sound lifestyle, in a slow, sweet love story

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2020

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I have to say this book has probably the most beautiful world building and lifestyle portrayal of anything I have read. The author takes our urban world into a future with magical and magical beings, but incorporates ecologically sound lifestyles and city environment, a walking lifestyle, bartering economy, and self employment for most characters. The love story is slow and sweet, one of the main characters is in the process of changing their gender expression, but this is respected, and the characters TALK about their relationship with each other. There is a small amount of drama that appears to be setting up the backstory for the next book (please, please have more books!), and the only editing issue I noticed was that Jade's name was originally Eames, and it did not get changed in a few places.

One person found this helpful

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Wintermask

Tedious

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2021

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I found this a little tedious and very slow-paced. It has no action in it and rather too much food, particularly too much tea. It was low on plot, especially for how long it is. I kept waiting for something to happen other than all the relationships between Arthur and his community and lover, and meals. I much preferred her Consulting Magic series, which has a better balance of worldbuilding, relationship building, plot, and action.

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Amazon Customer

Lovely, quirky and sweet

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2023

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This was a really sweet book. I loved the main characters, Arthur and Jade. The world building was fantastic and the different types of magic was done really well. Recommend if you want a read with only a little conflict. I’ve since gone onto read more of the authors books and enjoyed them all. Waiting patiently for the next book.

RobertaR

Wonderful Story

Reviewed in Canada on April 13, 2023

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I really enjoyed this story. The character and world building is magical. I really hope there is another book in the works.

Redling

Insubstantial and twee

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2022

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This book wants to be a soothing slice-of-life fantasy with a hint of messy backstory, but it’s seriously let down by the writing. The world has a lot of potential – I really liked the focus on barter, forming connections, and sustainability – so it's a shame everything else is boring. The prose is dull, only becoming compelling when the main couple starts having sex, which is nearly 90% of the way through the book. It otherwise never comes close to immersing you, choosing the most banal words for everything and hoping that adjectives like 'beautiful' will make up for it. Once I noticed that almost every line of dialogue is either ‘said’ or ‘teased’, I couldn’t stop noticing it; in fact, I did a search on my kindle and found that, in this 429-page novel, there are 1602 uses of ‘said’ and 105 variations on ‘tease’. If such repetitions likewise bother you, I would steer well clear of this book.

The narrative arc is meant to be about Arthur opening up to people and creating new connections in his life, but I never felt like he really changed; he doesn't start the book grumpy, as the writing insists towards the end, and the only difference at the end is that he has a boyfriend and a new beehive. The story is also way too in love with its focus on 'family', constantly drawing attention to it in a way that made me feel like I was being attacked by a feather duster, and seems to think that any and all actions the protagonists make should be punctuated by kisses (indeed, there are 311 variations on ‘kiss’ over the course of the novel, or one kiss every 1.4 pages on average). Speaking of punctuation, the author appears to be very fond of comma splices; I am not, and was duly irritated every time one appeared.

A lack of conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially in a slice-of-life story, but after a while the ongoing cycle of characters drinking tea, eating, going shopping, and engaging in truly mundane conversation began to grate on me. The most interesting interactions occurred when characters from different districts appeared, but unfortunately those instances are few and far between. Combined with the aforementioned obsession with family and ‘cute’ couple behaviour, the lack of plot and dull writing style mean that what could've been a lovely, calm book about daily life in this magical future was nothing short of twee and saccharine.

As a final note, I initially thought the consistent use of certain terminology was an unconvincing attempt at imitating British English. It’s eventually revealed (a long, long way into the book) that Arthur is from the Americas, but has spent a long time in the main setting, which I believe is meant to be Britain, so this accounts for some of the linguistic oddness. Even then, as an English person, I found myself scratching my head at the way words like ‘snogging’ were used. Although the dialectical usage might have been correct technically, it nonetheless felt off a lot of the time. I also found it strange that differences in accent were never mentioned, especially as linguistic shifts would likely be significant in a post-post-apocalyptic world where humanity lives in small enclaves that are quite distant from one another.

Overall, while I can see how this might appeal to some readers, it was thoroughly underwhelming to me.

One person found this helpful

Loki

Gentle magical fantasy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

Amy Crooks trademark descriptions of food will make you wan to cook, and although I miss the mystery element of her earlier books this gentle story of building homes is charming. Arthur’s magical bees want a second hive, and as he builds it he falls in love, acquires a familiar and settles more firmly into a life away from his powerful family.

Amazon Kunde

Love it so much!!!

Reviewed in Germany on January 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

I really love this story!!!!
Already read it a second time.
Please let there be a second one 😉

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