What an absolutely WONDERFUL YA debut. Truly this story was magical and completely immersive. Such great representation.

Witches Steeped in Gold is a Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut about two enemy witches who must enter into a deadly alliance. They team up to take down a common enemy and get revenge. Iraya (Ira) has spent her life in a cell while Jazmyne is the Queen's daughter. I enjoyed reading both of these characters. All the characters are complex and layered, they feel real, not over the top. I also liked how I never knew who I could trust, that was something kinda new to me because not many books can make me not trust anyone. This book is set in a very richly world that is developed strongly. The political intrigues are strongly done and done amazingly. I loved the world-building of Aiyca, the build-up of the plot it's very well balanced. The twists! The magic system is established, very clear, and simple to understand. Ciannon writing is breathtaking! This is a stunning debut that stole my heart and I can't wait to read more by this author.
This may be one of my favorite 2021 book covers, it fits this story and reflected it so well.If you like morally grey characters, a complex magic system, and beautiful writing the Witches Steeped in Gold is a must-read for you!

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

amazing work beautiful story telling and breathtaking world building as well as extremely diverse hope to see more work in the future

I was really excited about this book. The premise seemed really unique to me. Unfortunately to story was a bit confusing.

I've attempted to read Witches Steeped in Gold many times. I even tried the audiobook! I love the premise but struggled to connect to the writing. I think it is almost too descriptive and the pacing is too slow. Something about it felt more like the set up and building of a world than a true story with a plot. I have heard the pacing picks up in the second half but I could never get there! That said, I am definitely open to trying something else by Ciannon Smart in the future because I think there is potential and love her concepts.

2021 was just not a good earc year for me. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t feeling the format or what. I’m hoping to go back to this book because I really wanted to like it more than I did.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, and HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review.

There's a lot going on in this Jamaican-inspired fantasy centering around two teen girls from enemy orders. Iraya is feisty and can take care of herself in contrast to Jazmyne who has others do her dirty work. I ended up listening to the audiobook and I think this book lends better to physically reading it. The audiobook was super confusing and hard to follow at times. Tamika Keaton-Donegal and Nicola Lambo do a good job with the audiobook performance, but at least for me, I found the plot difficult to stay on top of and more than once had to pause because I had no idea what was going on.

I wished the magic and world was developed more, I didn't feel like there was enough magic happening to make this a fantasy about witches. The twists and betrayals were interesting and the last 20% was really good.

The series has potential, and I can see this novel being perfect for some, I'm hoping that the sequel will work out the kinks because there is a lot of potential here.

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.

My biggest (and really only) complaint about this book is that you have to wait for book 2. This was a fast-paced, well written fantasy that fully developed the characters and the landscape. My favorite characters are the pirates, who thankfully seem to be a large part of book 2.

I loved the intricacy of this world and the magic system. That it is full of family conflict and the two main women are fully fleshed out and distinctive. It does run long in places, but otherwise it's a very engaging read that is much different than you expect out of a book about royals fighting with magic. It's nice to get inspiration from other cultures' versions of magic.

We read this as a potential nominee for our internal Printz Award committee. It did not make it into our final 10.

I feel like this book had so much potential but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I ended up listening to this as an audiobook but would strongly suggest physically reading it instead. Though the narrators were great, it just wasn't the easiest story to follow as an audio to begin with.

I wish this book had more world building - there were so many holes, which made the story confusing and even harder to follow. On top of it, the two MC's were very similar, to the point where I'd even mix up their POVs if their names weren't regularly used 😅. That being said, one thing I did enjoy was the cultural aspects included in the story.

I think the biggest let down though was that I was persuaded this would be filled with awesome witchy magic but there was nowhere near the amount I was expecting. Instead, this leans more towards political intrigue. I don't mind political intrigue (for example, I really enjoyed the Folk of the Air series) but in this case, it wasn't for me. That being said, if you live for it, I would still try this one out and see.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5

CW: Violence, sacrifice.

Thank you to HCC Frenzy and NetGalley for the e-copy to read and review! All thoughts are my own.

This was an imaginative story, but the pacing was all over the place and the story was very confusing at times.

I did not finish this book. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year simply because of the cover, but I found it tedious to read.

I love magic filled books, I love characters forced to work together even though they don't want to, and I loved this story. I knew from the moment that I saw the cover and read the synopsis that I was going to enjoy it, and I was right. Both the characters were so intriguing to read about and I loved following their story together. I am even more excited to see what the sequel will look like.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this one about halfway through. I just could not get into the world-building and it was a lot slower than I expected. There is nothing wrong with the writing itself, just the story and plot-momentum are not working for me.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one.
First, the characters. I was totally all about Jazmyne. I just liked how strategically she thought while Iraya came off as rush in and think later. I did like that Iraya was ballsy and ready to fight whenever she could. Really wanted Jazmyne to finish better than she did as a character.
There was a ton of action towards the end, but most the book came off as info dumps. I think this was just due to all the world building and magic that was really different than anything I ever read before and Smart was trying to crush all that in there and still keep the story moving along.
The action scenes were really great and I admire how the women just jumped into the middle of it, especially Iraya.
The setting was so lush and well thought out. I swear I could feel the humidity fluffing out my hair. haha
Overall, enjoyed the uniqueness of the story.

I was SO excited for this book and REALLY wanted to like it. But, I just didn't. I feel like there were so many unexplained details: the tribes, the magic system, the political system, that the author just didn't give the reader enough description to understand. It's like hopping into a 3 hour sci-fi film with no context or preface. Even without the needed detail, this book is over 500 pages, but not really saying anything. I feel like I could have skimmed or skipped chapters without missing anything. It also moved at a sloth's pace.

I really wanted to like this book, but the characters just fell flat. As a result, I had a hard time getting invested in the action.

I honestly was not a big fan of this one. I tried a few times to get into it and just couldn't do it. I ended up marking it as DNF might come back to it eventually but I just was not as captivated by it as I have been by other YA fantasies in the past. Marked as 3 stars because I might come back to it and feel it is unfair to give 1 or 2 stars since I did not fully finish the book.