Witches Steeped in Gold

Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart is everything I love about fantasy novels. Simply, it is a fabulous story, rich in backstory and culture with its basis in Caribbean folklore. The two main characters play off each other to perfection with their opposing desires for revenge versus better leadership. I never knew what was coming, and I definitely didn’t know how it was going to end. While I find myself more sympathetic to one of the main characters, the entire story has me vested in both their stories, so much so that the sequel will be one of my more anticipated stories for 2022.

Firstly, let’s talk about the cover. It’s absolutely stunning and perfectly presents what the novel is about—two witches Iraya and Jazmyne, despite being divided by their castes, enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat.

The Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut novel was one of my most anticipated books of 2021. The author’s writing style brought this story to life with its incredible details, magical and strong female characters and most importantly brilliant worldbuilding.

In spite of this, I was not able to connect and immerse myself in this read. I found it overly detailed (ugh, info dumps are the worst!), confusing and hard to keep track of who was who. There were a large number of characters who had strong show more connections to Ira and Jazmyne, and background stories of their own. Also, if you’re a reader looking for something fast paced, this is not the one for you. It was terribly slow moving and oftentimes, I did skim a little to find more engaging scenes that peak my interest but overall, it didn’t help improve my reading experience.

‘Witches Steeped in Gold’ can be categorized as a hit or miss for readers due to it’s info dumps, large quantity of characters, very very slow pacing along with rich world-building.

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This is one of those well done books that turn out to not quite be for me. It’s about two girls in different magic orders, one the daughter of the current doyenne and one the daughter of the ousted (and murdered) former. The magic system was awesome and well described, the plot and pacing was well done, so I do recommend it if you like stories of revenge and where people work together but only by forced necessity. I really really hope they become friends in the next book, they could do so much if they were truly working together. I don’t know that that is going to happen though, and it is the main reason I did not end up loving this book.

I was disappointed in this book. The premise sounded really cool: a story of begrudging allies, betrayals and magic, but it wasn’t that??

This world was complex, there were magic orders, lizard familiars, longstanding feuds and it really had a Jamaican atmosphere to it. I liked how the two groups had opposing ideas about magic and neither of them was right. However, it was so complex that it took me well over hundred pages to understand it. Especially the beginning was very confusing.
It was made more confusing by the writing style. A lot of sentences were just wordy and complex to read, as if a third of the words were replaced by a synonym from the thesaurus.

Jazmyne and Ira both had interesting character arcs and I liked how they show more developed in opposite directions, but the book was too slow to make me care for either of them? They barely interact as well, which I found disappointing, and both their romances were terrible.
I liked some of the twists, (not all of them made sense). Some books that are advertised as such are very predictable, but this one wasn’t. It’s a shame that they were saved for what felt like the last few pages.

I do want a lizard familiar though. show less

This was an enjoyable read overall.
It started strong, ebbed off a bid in the middle and went out with a lot of action again. The world building was great, the island and the places on it came to live very nicely. The was the magic worked also made sense, no complains there. Being set with a background in Jamaican folklore was a nice treat, having not that much knowledge about it, I have now the meaning to fix that.
I only gave three and a half stars though because I just could not warm up to Jazmyne in anyway. In the beginning she came off as dull and then the transformation towards the end came so quick that it felt forced. Most of the time I was not really interested in her side of the story, whereas the side characters like Anya show more seemed to be more exciting than her.
Ira on the other hand was the opposite, her inner struggles were good portrayed and even though her stubbornness in seeking revenge was getting a bit bothersome at times, she was the one I was drawn to. Maybe I just like sassy characters more?
It will be interesting to see where the second part of this story will bring us and how the characters will go on developing. show less

Thank you to NetGalley and HaperCollins for the ARC of this book.

Most of the book was more of a 3/3.5 stars for me but the ending really picked up. It is a well thought out and intricate world and I hope the full published versions have at least a glossary and a map would be nice as well; I found myself wanting a reference for many of the terms to keep them straight. There is a lot of background and a lot of building for much of the book before the action really picks up. I wasn't completely bored by it but it wasn't completely captivating either - I didn't mind setting it down but I didn't hate picking it up either. The ending has me ready to read the next book in the series. I also think this could be done really well as a movie or tv show more series. show less

I really wanted to love this book and while it was fine I found myself disappointed that it wasn't better.