Let's start with this cover. I mean, it's beautiful. And I am loving all the stories set in worlds inspired by places we don't see often, like Jamaica. The diversity in YA lit right now is heart-warming. I would recommend this book for teens who get bored with too much character development and those who love rich world-building.

This review will be posted to my blog, https://princessofink.wordpress.com, on April 20th 2021 at 8am UK time.

**I received a free Netgalley eARC from a Twitter giveaway hosted by the author.**

I wanted to like WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD so much. At face value, it looked like something I would really enjoy, but I'm sad to say this wasn't the case. Most of the time, I had to force myself to pick this book up, and when I did, I was either bored, tired, or confused.

WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD follows two witches, Jazmyne and Ira.  Jazmyne is an Alumbrar and the emissary to the doyenne (essentially, the princess), and Ira is an Obeah and daughter of the former ruling family whose people were all but wiped out. If their chapters didn't take place in different settings with different supporting characters, I would probably have struggled to tell them apart. They share the same personality trait of being fierce and determined, but other than that I didn't feel either of them had anything going for them. At times Ira would pointlessly flirt with enemy guards, which some may see as an endearing/positive/what-have-you trait, but I mostly found it annoying and questioned why she was doing it. Jazmyne's motivations are no less muddy either. Throughout the book we see her mother, the doyenne, commit heinous acts in service of her gods or whatever her other reasons were, and treat her only surviving daughter (she had her other daughter killed in a ritual sacrifice) as, well, not her daughter – the doyenne is repeatedly shown to be cold and unloving towards Jazmyne, and yet she is shown at rebellion meetings to be unwilling to be involved in plots to do the right thing and overthrow her mother. I found it hard to understand why Jazmyne would have any feelings towards the woman who treated her in that way.  There are other side/supporting characters present throughout the book, I found myself getting confused between who each of them were when they were on-page, and could only remember a handful of their names.

The worldbuilding in WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD was... a lot. What I thought was going to be the most exciting part about this book for me was ultimately its biggest letdown.  I didn't feel the worldbuilding was very clear, and was at times confused by what was presented. I also didn't entirely understand the magic system either, finding the information and rules Smart was feeding readers to be muddled or plain confusing.  Some of the vocabulary featured also took some getting used to. Smart uses terminology and vocabulary suitable for the Jamaican-inspired world, such as 'doyenne' (meaning queen), and while I eventually got used to it, it certainly didn't help my enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the book to begin with.

The plot of WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD was also slow-starting and slow-moving.  Smart spent too much time setting up the girls' individual backstories and the events that occurred on their own that by the time Jazmyne and Ira joined forces, I couldn't find it in myself to care that much; by the time the 'action' (or the premise of the book) started, I was already feeling bored and bogged down.

Overall, I personally wouldn't recommend WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD. However, given the largely positive reviews I've seen for this book, this one may simply have not been for me.

WITCHES STEEPED IN GOLD is a layered and immersive epic fantasy. The prose is magical, and I really enjoyed the non-Western setting. I've never read a Caribbean fantasy before, and this one swept me away with it's lush descriptions, intrigue, and betrayal. Ciannon did a hell of an AMAZING job of keeping the reader on their toes not knowing who to trust and I ate it up! Also, I didn't realize going in that there was going to be a sequel and now I can't wait until 2022!

Witches Steeped in Gold is a lushly realized world, that draws the reader in. The themes of familial loyalty and group loyalty and what sacrifices are needed to bring about a good world are particularly timely. The tension between mother and daughter, and between opposing claims to leadership is expertly teased out.

I was really excited to read this novel; Caribbean, Witches, powerful women...this sounded fantastic, but I found myself utterly confused many times while reading this and it definitely fell a little flat.

The overall story was interesting and caught my attention, however, diving into the rich history and the many characters started getting confusing as more and more people were introduced and the family/history tree grew. It was hard to remember who was part of what guild and who was related to who and why someone was after someone else...I found it a bit dizzying and it reminded me of GoT trying to keep everyone in order.

It was a slow-moving story in the beginning and it took some effort to stay engaged, but I was determined to finish it. Things picked up toward the end, lots of excitement and things happening and then it just ends...whomp whomp...not happy about that.

I hope the sequel makes things a bit clearer and understandable but I don't think I will be picking it up.

A really fun read about witches, rivalries, bids for power, and cultivating leadership.
Aside from the wonderful cover and the vibrant story, it is just so refreshing to read a YA novel centering the experiences of communities of color.
What I loved about this book is that it tugged at the intersections of hard fantasy, centering the conflict on the push and pull of power in a nation, while giving us the sweetness of a YA fantasy through elements of romance and characters that have an authentic teenage voice. I would definitely recommend this to the young people I work with.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library wishlist and recommended it to students.

Witches Steeped in Gold is a fantasy about two teen witches with the world on their shoulders. The prose is absolutely beautiful, at times, making me pause and retrace my steps over a line and let it sink it. There is very expansive world-building that is so intricately woven I'm truly in awe of it. However, it's strengths also felt like they got in the way of the actual narrative. There is a lot going on in this book--a wicked and cruel queen, a daughter meant to take her place, a lost queen still beloved by her people, oppression and genocide by the ruling class, fantastical beasts, rogue rebellion groups...pirates. It often felt like this book attempted to fit an entire series into the opener. With dual points of view between Ira and Jazmyne, I felt myself often wishing that Jazmyne's POV just simply ceased to exist. Compared to Ira, she was boring, reactionary, and her characterization inconsistent. At times she would have this air of being extremely tough, and that would quickly fall by the wayside due to her general poor constitution. And the times when she was meant to be conniving was just hard to believe. Her POV seemed to serve the big purpose of filling the reader in on what the doyenne (the queen) was doing, but that could've been done in third person in a way that didn't grind the pace down to a screeching halt. The first quarter and last quarter are very entertaining even when the action stops and the political intrigue takes over, but the middle 50% (about 270 pages of this book) are so painfully slow and clunky and full of unnecessary plot and description that I found myself not really caring what happened to anyone by the end. The surprises at the end thus felt unearned because the book spent so much time focused on too many other things to really draw out any connection or attachment to particular characters or their arcs. Overall, prose wise, I was really impressed. But it was ultimately a book I had a really hard time finishing. I don't think it likely I would continue the series, and that's pretty sad for a book I was so looking forward to.

I wanted to love this book so much, but at 25% I'm a DNF. It's simply too slow and the writing, while pretty, is much too flowery/circular for my taste. Honestly, 10% in I still wasn't even sure who the MC was or why I cared about her because iIhad to focus on the prose so much. That being said, I did love a lot of turns of phrase the author used, but at that point I was out of the story. I read to be immersed, not love on language.

It's a great idea, and a gorgeous cover, but the style is not my cup of tea, particularly if I'm looking for "an escape".

Incredibly immersive fantasy with well-crafted characters and an engaging plot. This title will appeal to a wide variety of YA readers. Strongly recommended for fans of Song of Wraiths and Ruin as well as Children of Blood and Bone.

I wanted to include a snippet of the beautiful author’s note in this book.

“Witches Steeped in Gold is an ode to my love of magic and island tales—those of fact as well as fiction. It contains echoes of unity and resistance, in deference to Jamaica’s history; a fallen empire where power is as fickle as a coin toss, and competing hands scramble to catch it; two girls from enemy orders who dare to challenge the past, and the resulting twists and turns as they navigate their way to a new dawn.”


It’s a bit jarring at the beginning, in a good way. Especially since I have not gotten to experience a lot of diversity of cultures in many books I’ve read. As with any new world a reader is dropped in, we have to adapt quickly. That is until we can think straight, research, and get accustomed to the world the author offers to us.

There’s mounds of information to consume in the beginning of this book as the author sets off at her own pace, a new and exciting pace that places us in the midst of these characters’ lives, where they’ve already been through so much and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I enjoyed getting to know the two main leads, their side kicks, the people they trusted, the people they thought twice about.

There’s beautiful and intricate imagery throughout. Monsters, witches, pirates, etc.

Through many twists and turns, I ended up at the end of the book wanting MORE. I’m excited to see where the author takes us and how much more the characters develop in their journeys In the next book!

Thank you so much for bringing the representation we need to not only YA novels, but all books.

Smart's writing is phenomenal--full stop. Her worldbuilding is next level, and the emotional angst we feel on each page is bar none. What a lush, rich world we fall into within Witches Steeped In Gold. It sets her up to really build a loyal readership who will always picked up what she's putting down!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I am a little conflicted on this review. The good: the cover is absolutely stunning; the Jamaican vibe throughout was a really fresh and interesting perspective; the main characters were all strong, smart, determined women; the world-building was pretty solid. The not-so-good: there are a lot of characters and I found myself pretty confused throughout; the book is quite long, but I still felt like there wasn’t really a lot that happened. You could definitely tell the author was ramping this up to be a trilogy or series. Overall, I would recommend this one and I do think the series will improve over the next book or two. A solid 3.5 stars, but rounding up to 4.

While I appreciate a beautiful world detailing various Jamaican magic and a plot to kill royalty, the writing style of this one just wasn’t my cup of tea. I was confused from the beginning and had trouble understanding what was going on. Even as the story developed, I found myself trying too hard to piece together characters, Magic’s, etc. For me, I want to read for enjoyment. So, if a story feels like it’s too much work to keep track of, it makes me not want to keep reading. I may be in the minority of readers on this, but I think my time may be better spent on other stories at this time.

This is the story of two witches on opposite sides of a fight over the throne of a Jamaica-inspired island, both arguably the rightful heirs to the kingdom, who come together for the purpose of overthrowing the current ruler - who happens to be the mother of one of them. This book delivered on everything that was promised. It had a way of enveloping me in its magic and it world. It's an incredibly unique fantasy and I am adding it to the list of books that need to be adapted.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a phenomenal read!

A story full of intrigue and told from opposing viewpoints. It felt action packed from the beginning! There's a big cast of characters who are memorable and have more than two dimensions. The world building is beautiful. It has magic and twists and turns!

An epic read for sure!

This book was so tough to get through. While I love the characters and the story... there is so much detail that it makes it so hard to get through. While I had trouble making it through the book as quickly as I normally read, I do recommend you give it a chance because it is a wonderful story with vibrant characters.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS IN THE WORLD! FANTASTIC, MAGICAL, GOLDEN, TRY IT AND ENJOY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the story of two witches on opposite sides of a fight over the throne of a Jamaica-inspired island, both arguably the rightful heirs to the kingdom, who come together for the purpose of overthrowing the current ruler - who happens to be the mother of one of them. Overall, the premise and atmosphere were exciting and full of potential, but the actual execution left a lot of things unclear as the plot unfolded.

The thing that stands out most here is the magic system. It is clearly inspired by the Jamaican mythos, but the reliance of all magic-users on gold was a really interesting device. The inclusion of deep patwah/patois as the language used in great magical workings was excellent, and overall although I can't say I have a comprehensive understanding of the magic system, neither do the two point of view characters so we're all on even footing.

With the twists and turns the plot took, however, there was very little (if any) foreshadowing which made them seem almost entirely random. It seemed to be gearing up to some really interesting character developments, until the introduction of a story about ancient artifacts at which point the story kind of turned into something of a Horcrux search, and almost entirely abandoned the rebellion plot line, only to return to it so quickly that I got mental whiplash. The narrators weren't unreliable, but it almost seemed that way because plot developments popped out of nowhere with increasing frequency as the book went on.

Although this would have been a 5* read for me, the lack of clarity behind a lot of the plot elements - to the point where some of them seemed very deus ex machina - knocked it down to 4*. This is not a quick read, but for fantasy lovers who are looking for something to shake up their day I think this is going to be a hit.

Wow! That was intense. I have to be honest, I was very confused in the beginning. There are a lot of characters and magic to remember. The world building is great though, I definitely wanted more. This book is rich and a very slow burn. The author took time writing this gem.

I loved it, love the characters, love the world and absolutely NEED the physical book! I don't know how I am going to wait for book 2!!!!

Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for letting me read this book in an exchange for an honest review.