Title: A Curse of Ash and Embers (Tales of the Blackbone Witches #1)
Author: Jo Spurrier.
Format: E-ARC (Thanks to Edelweiss, all opinions are my own!)
Publisher: Voyager.
Page count: 268.
Release day: November 3rd 2020.
Genre: YA, fantasy.
Rating: 3 stars.
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
A dead witch. A bitter curse. A battle of magic.
Some people knit socks by the fire at night. Gyssha Blackbone made monsters.
But the old witch is dead now, and somehow it’s Elodie’s job to clean up the mess.
When she was hired at Black Oak Cottage, Elodie had no idea she’d find herself working for a witch; and her acid-tongued new mistress, Aleida, was not expecting a housemaid to turn up on her doorstep.
Gyssha’s final curse left Aleida practically dead on her feet, and now, with huge monsters roaming the woods, a demonic tree lurking in the orchard and an angry warlock demanding repayment of a debt, Aleida needs Elodie’s help, whether she likes it or not.
And no matter what the old witch throws at her, to Elodie it’s still better than going back home.
Rating:
Characters: 5/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 5/10
Intrigue: 5/10
Logic: 5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Average: 5.43
My thoughts:
I was quite excited to pick up this book, since the synopsis sounded quite interesting!
Unfortunately this one didn’t quite do it for me. It was not a bad book at all, there was just something missing.
I did like Elodie as a character. She had an interesting view on things. She was looking for a place where she would ‘belong’, which made her open for quite some things. She was very curious and asked quite some questions, which made us learn a lot as well. But I did not really like any of the other characters, as in I neither hated nor loved them just felt very ‘mweh’ about all of them.
My main ‘problem’ with this book was the plot. I really enjoyed the beginning but at some point I was getting kinda bored while reading this story. I felt like it was building up to something but then nothing really happened..?! I guess this also explains my rating for intrigue and enjoyment.
I did like the world, especially the woods(?) surrounding the house! And also the writing was quite nice, I was flying through the book while reading!
There is no romance in this book, so if you like your YA fantasy without romance, this one might be something for you!
Idk why me and this book did not connect, so far I’ve only seen very high ratings for this book! Not that a 3 star rating is anything bad! It was just a very in the middle book!
I was tempted by this one – shame it didn’t work for you! Nothing worse than a plot that just never gets going, how frustrating!
Yeahb it was!
I love the cover but it’s a shame about the plot! It’s always disappointing when that happens!
It indeed has a good cover!
It really is, I was quite excited to read this..!
Ooh this one sounds interesting, especially since I might enjoy the dynamics between Aleida and Elodie (grumpy, reluctant old mentor type I hope). I’m sorry this one doesn’t really work for you, I hope your next read would be better!
I hope you will like it more then I did!
Aleida was not as crumpy as I would have expected though..