Book: Witches Steeped In Gold by Ciannon Smart
Read From: 4th July - 9th July 2021
Rating: 3/5 stars
Summary: Jazmyne and Iraya are two completely different girls with the same goal. They both want to kill Aiyca’s doyenne and so enter a deadly alliance to take down the woman who threatens both of their worlds. Two witches. One motive. And a very untrustworthy alliance.
This book is a prime example of why my star rating system is slightly flawed. In my opinion, I’ve read better books that I have also rated 3 stars. But giving this book a 2 star rating, even a 2.5 stars, would be doing it a disservice because I don’t want it to be categorised in the same league as some of the other 2 star books I’ve read. I think this is why a full written review is so much more effective in conveying my thoughts, rather than a star rating being taken at face value.
It definitely took me a while to get into this book. While it was interesting to learn about the Nameless, the Yielding and why it was so important to kill the doyenne for example, I didn’t find myself hooked or even fully understanding this book until around the 100 page mark. This book was infused with culture which I absolutely ADORE - think along the lines of Raybearer, The Gilded Ones and Children of Blood and Bone. However, and perhaps this is testament to my own idiocy, but I do think it could have benefitted from a glossary. I really appreciated the character lists and the details about the different Orders, but for some of the more abstract terms that were rarely repeated I did find myself skimming through what I had already read in an attempt to understand, which definitely impacted the reading experience for me.
Ordinarily, I absolutely love dual POV’s but I did think that in this novel the voices were very similar and for the times when my attention was lacking, it was easy to forget who the chapter was following. I do think that the pacing was also slightly off at the beginning because of the different viewpoints - both characters were on a completely different path initially. Once they had come together however, I thought it worked really well.
Despite being a good book that gave me an enjoyable reading experience, it’s not one I think I will ever revisit. I believe there is going to be a sequel but I can’t say that it’ll be making it’s way onto my anticipated releases list. Overall, I do recommend this, it was an extremely strong debut novel and I’m glad that I read it.