"I never wanted to sleep in the rough forever. I was just waiting until it was safe to come home."

Whimsical, witchy, and wonderful, The Hedgewitch of Foxhall was everything I could want in a standalone YA fantasy and then some. Set in a magical 8th century Wales, the novel follows Ffion (a hedgewitch who is just a little bit feral), Tal (a bastard prince who will do anything to protect his family), and Dafydd (the prodigal older prince who wishes for nothing more than ordinary life) as they quest to restore magic to the kingdom and prevent the approaching army from destroying their home. Sound like something belonging in mythology? It was certainly mythical in proportions and just as epic.

"I'd held my life together with twigs and twine for years now. I ignored the part of myself that sometimes longed for something just a little bit sturdier."

Ffion was a delight. After all, who doesn't love a girl who is just a little wild? I was worried that she would fall into the manic pixie dream girl category in the first hundred pages, but I was quickly proven wrong. With layered character development, I was delighted to slowly unwrap her depth as the story progressed. Her magic, her desires, her fear; all could stand on their own, yet together, they created a charmingly complex witch I couldn't help but root for.

"Sometimes we couldn't make things better; we could only keep them from getting worse. Sometimes offense was impossible, and all we could hope to do was defend the thing we loved the most."

Ah, Tal. The perfect, scared princeling of every girl's dreams. He flirts and charms as much as he talks, he's tortured (without taking it out on other people), he has secrets, and he actually feels like a human teenage boy rather than a 1,000-year-old demigod. I adored his struggle with accepting the wildness and watching him deal with what power meant to him was fascinating. He and Ffion were at the perfect level of banter, tension, and cute moments. I would read novels about their daily life.

"Who else? Who else was there?"
"No one."
"You could have cried the whole way here. And no one would have blamed you. But you didn't. Any why?"
"Because it had to be done. And there was only me to do it."

Of our main characters, Dafydd certainly came the farthest. Watching him refuse the call (in English terms) and then grapple with the effects his refusal to take the throne had on those around him was inspiring. He's the sort of character willing to get down in the mud who struggles to see gray in the black and white. But goodness did he learn to see the layers.

"It is only men who want women to be young. An old woman is free."
"Free from what?"
"Not free from. My youth is gone, and now I'm free to be what I wish. I have years of love to be grateful for, a lifetime of work to be proud of, and no fear of the opinions of others. No need to be beautiful."
"But you are beautiful."
"But I don't have to be. Someday you will understand what a gift it is, to be free to be a little bit strange, or ugly, or old."

My one issue with this novel was the pacing. I could've used another 50 pages or so to wrap up the conflict---the end felt rushed and everything ended with a neat little bow. That being said, the incredible prose and vivid worldbuilding completely made up for it. While I am somewhat of an ancient history and mythology nerd, Welsh mythology is relatively new to me, yet I didn't feel overwhelmed with the new magical creatures. The writing was descriptive without being purple and I adored each moment spent in the enchanted forsets alongside Tal and Ffion. If you're looking for a fun YA quest novel filled with love, enchantment, danger, and scarface (and a gorgeous cover, because come on people, that cover is stunning), The Hedgewitch of Foxhall will not disappoint.