Witches Steeped in Gold – Disappointing..

Title: Witches Steeped in Gold (Witches Steeped in Gold #1)

Author: Ciannon Smart.

Format: Paperback.

Publisher: Hot Key Books.

Page count: 532.

Release day: April 20^th 2021.

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Rating: 2.5 stars.

GoodReads summary!

Rating:
Characters: 6/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Writing: 4/10
Plot: 5/10
Intrigue: 4/10
Logic: 5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Average: 5.29

My thoughts:

I was so excited to pick this one up, I read it almost immediately after I got my copy!

Unfortunately this one just didn’t do it for me.

Characters: I liked the characters just okay, but there were some parts were I just didn’t understand certain choices that were made. I think I liked Iraya a bit more, since I could understand her a bit more. But also, they weren’t very distinguishable at times. There were not really any side characters I cared about..

Atmosphere: I did like the setting! Although I wouldn’t have minded to learn more about the world, and a map would have been very nice as well!

Writing: I think this is were my biggest problem was. I felt like certain things were overexplained, while other things needed more explanation.. Sometimes (mainly in Jazmyne’s chapters) the narrator would say ‘the Alumbrar’s would call it this, while the Adairs call it this’, even though it wouldn’t add anything to the story knowing this. But on the other side after reading this whole book I still don’t feel like I have any idea how the magic works.. I don’t mind not understanding it in the beginning, but I would like to understand it somewhat by the end of the book..

Plot: The pacing of this book was quite weird. I feel like sometimes we skipped quite a while, and then the book would be a bit slow, while in the next chapter everything was happening at once. Most of the time it was just slow, and nothing was really happening for quite some chapters..

Intrigue: As I said, some parts were so slow, that it was sometimes a bit hard to pick up the book again.

Logic: I had a hard time rating this part, since there are definitely parts were I really understood the characters, and why they made certain choices. But there were also quite some parts were they didn’t make sense, especially near the end. But I don’t want to say too much about that, in case of spoilers.

Enjoyment: I marked this in the middle, since there are definitely parts I did enjoy, and I liked the idea of the book. But this one just wasn’t there just yet.

I don’t think I will continue with this series, but I might pick up other books by Ciannon Smart later on!

Have you read this book? What did you think?