Legacy Witches

The first line grabbed me in its initial horror. Then the story became everything I wanted in a daunting tale of haunted houses, witches, and everything else in between.

For readers bored of ‘good’ witches. This is definitely a hard-to-put-down book.

Legacy Witches was so much fun to read especially if you’re someone who loves all things witches and supernatural. Vianna is a feisty main character who is reluctantly out to solve the mysteries of her mother, her missing best friend and what she wants from her life. This is the first in a series and I am EXCITED to read more!!

I went into this book with very little knowledge. I have never read this author but I was looking for something paranormal and maybe a little spooky and the cover caught my attention. I read this book SOOO fast and I couldn't put it down. It had everything I love about a witchy book. It had a demon possessed house that chooses who comes and goes and hid items and growls, it had major family drama and murderous ghosts and death scenes spiraling throughout the house. It has a small town with a rich history and a so many witches to learn about it. The book as great world building that is based on history and feels so real. I want more!!!
This reminds me in some ways of the Sookie Stackhouse books with the day to day interactions with huge actions scenes with tons of witchy knowledge (instead of vampires). I love the writing style and the found family and could see reading many more books in this world. I need more Vianna & Dee and Grayson and I can see them working together to solve some mysteries.

Legacy Witches was absolutely enchanting! Kay wrote a story that was so well written I found myself flying through the pages, unable to put the book down, pondering what would happen next. My favorite piece of this entire story was how believable the characters were.

The writing is clear and clean, and very immersive. The book hums along at a good clip, but the pacing makes sure we're given time to breathe between plot-intensifying moments. The story was absolutely engaging and the work that went into the settings was noticeable and superb. I felt absolutely transported and I'm so incredibly glad I was able to read an arc of this story

Vianna Roots is a Legacy witch returning to her home in Salem after more than a decade. She faces challenges both new and old in a captivating and new take on witchcraft.

Personally I love witchcraft stories and read a lot of them so when I say this is a unique take I really mean it. The book drew me in from the first pages and I got annoyed when I had to stop reading. Honestly this is a wonderful story and I can't wait to read the next one!

I was given an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Legacy Witches by Cass Kay is a action packed tale of a reluctant witch who is called home after the passing of her mother. At 18 Vianna Roots ran away from home and vowed to not carry on in the family's traditions. Her plan is to attend her mother's funeral, pack things up, get the house sold and be on her way back to her normal life. Unfortunately nothing in Vianna's life has ever been that simple. The harder she works to make a quick getaway the more people and things that pop up to keep her in place.

This story was full of action, mystery and strong characters to both love and hate. My favorite parts of this book were the characters and the suspenseful situations. I also like how the past unfolded at the same time as the mystery played out. I felt fully engaged from beginning to end. I really liked how the main character stayed true to her convictions throughout. I want to read more about Vianna and her friends and am happy that this is just the beginning of a promising new series.

I received an ARC of Legacy Witches in exchange for an honest review. Read the full review at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/

The market on urban fantasy and witchy protagonists is arguably glutted these days. Witches are cutesy, they’re sexy, they’re demon huntresses and vampire lovers and all sorts of fun combinations of back-cover blurb buzzwords, but something that truly sets Cass Kay’s Legacy Witches above the rest for me is that her witches are DARK.

Vienna Roots’ ancestors and peers deal in moldering corpses, gruesome deaths, and necromantic rites as a matter of course, and while Vienna herself shies away from the murder edges of magic, Kay seems to revel in the gory details. As something of a connoisseur of gory details, thank you PhD in Frankenstein, I appreciate the unflinching approach to maggots and skeletons and what a pain in the butt it is to rob a grave on a rainy night.

I appreciate that Kay doesn’t try to redeem the terrible things that the Roots witches have done in the past, and the lengths they will go to to protect their own.

A story of generations, and rewriting the scripts of eras come and gone, Legacy Witches is more than just one more urban fantasy with a witchy protagonist. This is a novel with heart, a story about growth, and acceptance, and magic far darker than most authors in the genre dare dabble in from a writer who obviously knows her craft. In a market that has long been saturated by the cozy, the sexy, and the action-y, and the overly romantic, Legacy Witches dares to be something different, and as a reader, I appreciate that too.

[tw: death, violence, gore]

“leaves rustled in the tree where grandma susannah hung. the hem of her peasant dress swayed with her legs as she swung backward, then forward, making the branch bow before the tip of her pointed boot hit the trunk.”

barely two sentences into the book & i have already lost myself into it. how a story begins in such creepily-captivating way, i have no idea. but if these two lines aren’t enough to prove my point, the book further plays with centuries-old covens, small-town grandma ghosts, and one secret murder—legacy witches is //that// easy, horror read i’ve been looking for & probably one of my best, thus far.

the story gives us a rebellious, runaway witch in the person of vianna roots who refuses to be part of a coven which her mother, grandmother, & her lady ancestors have been founders of. but then, her mother dies which eventually, forced her to go back to salem for funeral arrangements as well as the settlement of the estate ( mainly consisting of an eyesore for a garden that badly needed weeding & a demon-possessed, dilapidated haunted house that has been passed on from one roots witch to another like a precious family heirloom).

the pacing of the story was good & the banters between legacy witches were full-on rainstorms but, i especially fell in love with sandeen—the trans daughter of the coven librarian who loves her sugar treats & has the level of loyalty+wit+fashion anyone would want from a best friend/partner.

i also liked that you can feel from how the events panned out that there are more stories to be told (i.e, probably future interactions with officer grayson & vianna’s childhood best friend, tucker, charles’/barton twins’ revenge, mother’s ghost, etc.) & how such red herrings somehow made me feel giddy for the books that will follow.

thank you netgalley and ingram spark for sending this e-book arc for review consideration. legacy witches will be out on october 11, 2022.

There is, in my opinion, no better feeling than when a book exceeds your expectations and Legacy Witches did just that!

Vianna Roots has been running from her past for ten years, escaping her families Legacy as one of the four main Witch Covens in Salem through a window one night. But now Vianna's mother is dead and she must return to Salem to lay her mother to rest, permanently. Because as a witch who can see the dead that last thing Vianna wants is to have her hag of a mother following her around for the rest of her life. After her mother's funeral however Vianna is shocked to see her best friend's ghost in her own home, it's clear that her mother killed her and Vianna is determined to find out why and lay her friends spirit to rest. Unbeknownst to Vianna though this course will spark an all out war in Salem with all of its Witches turned against her. Vianna just hopes she can find the strength and the courage she needs to face her past and protect her future.

As I said this book absolutely exceeded my expectations. Vianna was a wonderful character trying to do the right thing in a hopeless situation with, she thinks, no one to turn too. She perseveres while coming to grips with her family's bloody past and even comes to respect her ancestors a bit after spending a life time scorning them. And she of course makes a wonderful friend in Dee who I love absolutely more than Vianna if possible.

In terms of the plot itself I found it to be unique among witch stories. I like that it's set in modern day Salem and has this almost world within a world vibe. There's the real Salem and then there's Vianna's Salem which is full of scheming witches that are the puppet masters of the country's political stage. And also seem to hate each other but tolerate each other, which gives Kay plenty of material for future books. What I *really* enjoyed here though is Dee's part of the story, I'm not going to spoil it but I think it was such a wonderfully clever way to address the matriarchal position some real life covens still take.

Overall, this was an excellent story of what it means to be a family, how are generational legacies define us, and of simple friendship between two women. I'm truly looking forward to the next book!