Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart (ARC & Audiobook Review)

Title: Witches Steeped in Gold
Author: Ciannon Smart
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Date published: April 20, 2021

A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I also pre-ordered a finished copy.

Divided by their order. United by their vengeance.

Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom – and vengeance.

Jazmyne is the Queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.

Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But power is intoxicating, revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain – except the lengths they will go to win this game.

This Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut about two enemy witches who must enter into a deadly alliance to take down a common enemy has the twisted cat-and-mouse of Killing Eve with the richly imagined fantasy world of Furyborn and Ember in the Ashes.

⤖ My Review ⬻

I want to start out by saying that Witches Steeped in Gold was my most-anticipated book release of 2021! I was so, so excited to get my hands on it and dive into this story. For this reason, I will say that part of the way I experienced Witches Steeped in Gold is my fault. And I say fault because I went in with very high expectations.

I also went into this book with expectations for how the story would go and how the characters should be, which–looking back–I knew I shouldn’t have done. I try to avoid doing this whenever possible, but I’m only human. All that aside, here are my thoughts on my most-anticipated release of the year:

I think the pacing in Witches Steeped in Gold is what I struggled with the most. And also, I guess the way the plot developed (which ties back into the pacing probably). Things moved a little bit too slow for my tastes. That being said, I also realized that this is the first book in a series and that the scene had to be set. I will definitely be reading the sequel, because I did enjoy the world a lot and things definitely picked up (in my opinion) near the end of Witched Steeped in Gold.

The characters also didn’t feel as fleshed out as they could be to me, and I struggled with rooting for any of them in particular. Again, though, this is the first book in the series and the characters were being introduced. I’m sure I will get to know them better in the sequel. All in all, I did like Witches Steeped in Gold, and all of the struggles I faced with it, I definitely found reasons for. I really like Ciannon Smart and look forward to all of the books she will write!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Ciannon Smart grew up in a small town in the south-east of England. As the only daughter in a house full of boisterous sons, she developed a voracious appetite for reading from an early age, preferring anarchy in stories rather than real life. In YA she loves her heroines exactly as she loves her villains: wilful, wily, and unpredictable. When not