I liked the idea of this book, taking an idea people see as concrete and exploring how we can make it individual to our crafts and journeys, but the book did not hold up. First of all, it's rife with antisemitism, anti-science, and cultural appropriation (I put specific examples below in spoiler tags). Secondly, it is not well edited. The book does not flow well, there are really random anecdotes and a lot of the book seems irrelevant to the overall point being the wheel of the year. She doesn't start taking about the wheel of the year until halfway through the book and a lot of the information felt basic and not original. It's hard to tell which level of practice this is targeted to; it's confusing for baby witches, but doesn't add any extra substance for more seasoned witches. 

For specifics, Alden uses the term Judeo-Christian throughout the book. She first uses it to describe her Christian upbringing, which makes no sense, then uses it to talk about witches worshipping angels, specifically Michael, when Islam also worships angels, including Michael. She references "Qabalistic" magic (kabbalah is Jewish closed magic and the misspelling is western appropriation) and golden dawn (which have very antisemetic roots). She has a spell to call upon Lilith, which is cultural appropriation from Judaism, and put Yom Kippur in her wheel of the year, which is also cultural appropriation from Judaism. That's not the only culture she appropriates from though; she suggests using Cascarilla powder for a witch's ball and, in the appendix, mentions how it comes from hoodoo and Santeria, but doesn't seem to care how it's not appropriate for her to use. The quote "Not only did they [the original Wiccans] take these holidays out of their original context with the original gods, but they gave no credit to the cultures and origins of the festivals" which I find very ironic with the golden dawn references. She also uses the term "Indian summer" which I'm not familiar with but seems to have racist roots.

She writes about birth control and hormones in an anti-science and bioessentialist way. She says that birth control disconnected her from nature and suggests others shouldn't use them without any care for people who medical need them. Also, automatically associating estrogen with womanhood and testosterone to manhood is ultimately transphobic. Another instance of anti-science is found in her section about climate change. The section started out well by saying that global warming changes our connection to nature and our seasons, but then says that it's a naturally occurring event and not a manmade phenomenon that can and needs to be stopped. 

In her section about Litha, she talks about shadow work without mentioning its origin and presents it as releasing the attributes you don't like about yourself, which is a gross misunderstanding of how shadow work works. 

There were a few things I enjoyed. Her section on plastic witchcraft and smudging were pretty good, but they did feel out of place. I also thoroughly enjoyed the quote "witchcraft is in the heart of the witch-not in the tools or supplies. An experienced witch can get more done with a paper, a pencil, and their will than an imitator can with all the supplies in a metaphysical store."

Ultimately, the bad outweighs the good and I am disappointed in this book. I wouldn't recommend.