This book had me until about 70% in. It's National Treasure and a little Da Vinci Code, and I'm all about the history lessons mixed with conspiracy theories. Without giving anything away, it lost me when it got into science and quantum physics. I can see where the author was going with it, especially in terms of setting up for future books, but it took away from the story for me. Just trying to be too many things at once, though the author's note at the end was helpful for clearing things up. Still rounding up to 4 stars because I was loving the storyline and mystery. Wish it had kept going with just that! I'm a plot girl, so this was up my alley, but if you're character driven, this might not be for you because there wasn't too much in the way of character arcs and development.

It's an enjoyable story and I liked the characters. I'd probably read a sequel if there is one.
There were a few plot points and events that felt bumpy for me. Plus, I hope the editor gets to take another pass before publication.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Severn House for the ARC of An Intrigue of Witches by Esme Addison.

Addison has ideas and ambitions for her novel which I do applaud her for, but I don't know if this book is the best result of her abilities.

I'm sorry to say that this book just did not do it for me - I thought this would be more of a cozy mystery with a fun search for a magical object and a meet-cute in small town Virginia.- but there was an overarching issue of what story is being told. Is it about historian Sidney Taylor searching for a mysterious object for a million dollar payout? Is it about witches and magic and witch hunts and global conspiracies? is it about solar flares and the end of the planet? Is it about the harm of turning life into virtual reality or one run by billionaires who control the government? Is it about time travel and quantum physics? Is it about historical voyages and settlements of the early American settlers? Each storyline is briefly hugely important, but none seem to fit together reasonably, and none seem researched to the point of coherence. I don't know that I would want to share the quantum aspects with any actual physicists, and some of the larger conspiracies were overwhelming to the point of ridiculousness.

Sidney is an odd sort of character. She's a historian at the Smithsonian. Her mother is a famous news anchor. Her father is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She's broke because they want her to make it on her own and having a doctorate while working at the Smithsonian and being featured on TV for her work is not cutting it. When she is put on furlough and goes home to visit her grandmother, she is also given a job by an old, absurdly wealthy museum owner who has a private jet and who will pay her a million dollars to find an artifact he has been looking for for decades. From there event after event after event happens to Sidney and at no point does she reflect on any of this or make sense of it or do anything sensible. Also, she doesn't watch the news because reasons (?) so she doesn't know that solar flares are basically decimating parts of the west coast, but don't worry, everything is brilliant as usual in America even though the president and a persuasive billionaire want to have everyone live their lives solely through virtual reality while the world ends (Ready Player One mashed up with the recliner people of Wall-E).

Some of the writing is also childish to the point of being cringey. A former friend was "sixty pounds overweight and wore both glasses and braces" which is a terribly dismissive way to write about your college roommate and best friend. Some of the characters start to refer to each other as "sisters" and "sis" as though the language of an 18-year-old sorority girl would still be cool in your thirties. There is another character who insists on calling women "bitches" and other derogatory names, but he uses "bitch" or "whore" so often it's just a caricature of an angry Chad incel. There is a lot of repetition to drive unnecessary points and plots home, a lot of telling vs showing, and a lot of flat characterizations made worse by their dialogue.

Thank you for this copy!
The cover caught my attention right away.
This book started out interesting and drew me in, but I got confused as it went on, with how many things were going on. They didn’t mesh together well for me, however I would definitely be willing to try this one again

—Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a great start to a new series.
I loved the mystery action plot line because it was really cozy and fun. I love when characters go out to find artifacts in different media forms.
I wanted a lil more character development though. But considering that it was the first book, i’m sure we’ll get them in the next book.

Sidney Taylor, after being placed on furlough, goes back to her small hometown in North Carolina after receiving a letter asking her to find a secret artifact. She goes on a National Treasure-esque pursuit to search out the hidden artifact, falling into a secret society of witches and racing to stop a Virtual Reality takeover. This book was really fun and entertaining and I flew through it. The writing was captivating and kept me hooked. Sidney was charming and relatable and I enjoyed her inner thoughts and seeing her interact with the side characters around her. The secret society of witches was incredibly enchanting and I was truly immersed in the world. A few things I did not enjoy though were the pacing at the beginning, not learning enough background about the main character, and the way that the book tells the reader instead of showing them certain things that are happening. The very first chapter starts with the main character being placed on furlough and getting the letter that invites her back to her hometown. I would have liked to see a little more background leading up to the furlough, in particular, her relationship with Dr. Philippi so that the main character’s motivations and relationship with with her boss made more sense. This also leads into not getting to know the main character enough at the beginning and the telling of things that have happened rather than showing them. I feel that if there had been maybe just one chapter preceding the first chapter to show the reader what Sidney’s life was like before she was placed on furlough, it really would have helped to give a good representation of what being placed on the furlough meant for her. Overall though I really did enjoy this book and I would gladly read the next book once it comes out as I was truly delighted by the main character and loved the atmosphere of the secret society. 3.75 rounded up.

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for providing access to this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book starts out heavily with a conspiracy theory. The leaders of the world want everything to become a virtual reality. The thought is that soon people won't ever need to leave their houses. Businesses would be run through VR platforms. People wouldn't be working. There would be no jobs. People would be isolated into their own tiny group. Not only are the leaders pushing this through big business but it is also to become law at some point. Not to embrace it voluntarily would carry steep fines at that time. A secret society, Daughters of Hothar, is tasked with stopping the conspiracy by finding an ancient magic artifact. Sydney is the chosen one--the one that is supposed to stop the conspiracy. The book was confusing. There was a lot going on--danger, threats, attempted murder, romance--too quickly. I did not get to know who the characters were. It read as if I were skimming through the book. There was no meat to it. Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the complimentary digital ARC. This book gets 3 stars for imagination and the fact that I stuck with it.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the book for me. I was drawn to the plot immediately. The cover was beautiful, and the title was intriguing.

However, I felt like rather than use the events to give us a picture of situations, we had brief interactions and then a statement of the facts. If time had been spent describing the events this wouldn’t have been needed and the story may not have felt so disjointed.

The storyline was interesting, an early one using current AI threats as a point of focus. However; it didn’t feel that the storyline was developed enough.

Too much was attempted at once. Less is more, focus on character and storyline development before adding so much.

Thank you #netgalley for this early copy

This book is action packed and has a lot going on I enjoyed the history and mythology aspects of the story

It' got a little confusing in parts but overall I enjoyed it

I was really interested in this story based on the cover and title, but once I got into it I realized it was much more than your typical witchy fantasy.

It gave me Outlander vibes with the length of the story, the pacing, the depth of the history - fortunately, I love history and mythology - which this story combines both in such a way that all of the various elements are woven together for a really satisfying end.

I couldn't figure out how this would all come together because there was so much going on, but in the best possible way. I also loved learning about the Scottish mythology - it was new to me and told in a really fresh way. I don't really read scifi but this has elements of it in the story, and done in a way that I could understand the plot (even though I was googling some terms!)

I would definitely recommend this story to readers who like their fantasy mashed up with history and scifi - a really cool mix which made this story different from other books in my TBR and I'd definitely read this author's other cozy mystery series about mermaids and water witches.

Royal bloodlines. Sister witches. Quantum mechanics. A virtual reality takeover. A secret society connecting past US presidents. Time portals. A magic stone.. this book did A LOT. I was expecting a fantasy and got a little of that and quite a bit more of sci-fi and history.

The book opens on Sidney, a young historian and, conveniently, the past president of her college's Escape Room Club, who has just been fired, despite her status as the "Smithsonian's darling." At the same time, Sidney receives a mysterious letter offering her a million dollars if she will go to a small NC town to find some "artifact." We later find out that that this ancient artifact is supposed to help prevent a ploy to have virtual reality take over the world (I literally laughed out loud at this part- it felt so out of place). From there, the book covers a lot of ground, including all the things I mentioned above. Sidney and her band of small town friends have to solve puzzle after puzzle to find this artifact and prevent disaster. As one of the character's said "this is the wildest goose chase I've ever been on."

I admire the author's ambition with all these different elements, and individually they were very creative. They just didn't work well in tandem for me, with the biggest outlier being the threat of virtual reality. Aside from this, the writing is pretty clunky and conversations between characters are hard to follow, as they frequently take unnecessary tangents and get derailed by paragraphs of Sidney's thoughts. There were a lot of stories and characters and I got tired of trying to keep up. With that being said, the book did wrap up with a satisfying and interesting ending. It's clear that they are setting up for a series but I don't think I would read another like this.

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for access to this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

This started so good and interesting, but I got lost in all the things the author wanted to do. There were secret societies, witches, connections to ancient Egypt, Al and modern technology and ties to the American Civil War. I wish it had just stuck to the secret society part because that storyline was initially quite exciting.

I felt like with all this the story got too messy and it was hard to follow all the different threads. I also wish we would have gotten to know our main character a bit more because the little I got from the text was interesting.

This was overly descriptive, and I found it heavy going in parts. The tale is a good story, Sydney is looking for an artifact that should be kept secret, but in the end I only read around a quarter of the book. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the novel.

DNF. Unfortunately this didn’t land for me, I didn’t like the writing and the pacing was off.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

The gorgeous cover and clever title attracted me to this book immediately. It's a curious mixture of fantasy, history, and political conspiracy combined into a treasure hunt for an unknown artifact. Just when I'd think I understood a piece of the puzzle, the pieces would shuffle once more. I'm familiar with the ancient history connected to the story as well as the Scottish witch hunts conducted by James I but the virtual reality component lost me. I almost gave up but I'm glad I decided to keep going. All of the pieces really do come together and I enjoyed the empowering connections between the female characters. My personal inability to understand the virtual reality and quantum physics components didn't matter in the long run. The early American history thread of the story actually dovetailed with my own family history as it probably will with other readers with Scottish ancestry. Although the plot was neatly wrapped up in the end, I hope that there will be another book to pick up where this one ended.

My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for the digital ARC. All opinions and the review are entirely my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with the eARC of this book!

DNF at 15%

I had to stop when the book erroneously said that daisies were also known as narcissi when in fact they are not. Narcissi are often called daffodils or jonquils, but not daisies. I also noticed there's a mention of a character moving to "Columbia" and marrying a coffee plantation billionaire; was this meant to says "Colombia" like the country and not "Columbia"?

This is just the final straw though. I had a hard time getting into the book and connecting with the main character. I think the book needs some revision regarding the pacing and structure of the writing, and utilizing the "show, don't tell" advice. Show us the financial struggles Sidney is facing and how bad it must be for her to accept the offer to locate the missing artifact just for the money instead of just telling us. Show us her complicated relationship with her family, instead of just telling us. Show us why the takeover of VR and AI in this world would be a negative thing and how it's been affecting others to the point the discovery of this artifact is an urgent matter.

Perhaps some of these are further elaborated, but it feels as if it should have been done sooner than later.

I might continue to read this book in the future as I was enjoying the mystery aspect and the puzzles, and I'm curious to know how witches tie into this story, an element in this book that I feel has been lacking in spite of what the title might suggest.