Witches Steeped in Gold

Ciannon Smart

Witches Steeped in Gold #1
Publication date: April 20th, 2021
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

SYNOPSIS:

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.

REVEIW:

Nana would say that unlike storms, trouble doesn’t give signs like rain, so we must always be ready for it.

It’s interesting what influences your mind when you are imagining characters speaking reading a book. Throughout the entire book I heard the characters voices in a way similar to Naomie Harris who portrays Tia Dalma/Calypso in Pirates of the Caribbean. Ira & Jaz reminded me of her in their personalities too – just as beautiful and fierce.

Initially the book was a little bit slow and slow world-building, but the latter half made up for it in spades – I was hooked. The Jamaican patois (patwah in the book) threw me off initially and interrupted the flow of the book for me, mainly because I am a person that has to look up things that I don’t understand. I desperately wish that this book had a map, either as endpapers or inside. When I read fantasy books like this one with specific locations for things I like to have a visual representation of it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the prowler catch-all describing the animals of the island. It does leave things open for you to imagine but I love when they’re described in detail like the Zesian’s cat.

The plot twists in this book were a surprised and there were several that I didn’t see coming at all. I do plan on purchasing the second book in the series to read soon because I can’t stand leaving series unread. The closing of this book was a bombshell. I’m extremely thankful to the wheel of names for picking this one out of my backlog of physical books to read and I can’t wait to read the next book – Empress Crowned in Red.