I have mixed feelings on this one. It started out really interesting, but then fell flat. The characters changed and got petty and childish. There's no real ending making me think there will be more to this series. There was a very graphic sex scene, which is out of place, and really could have been a fade to black or idk less detailed. I just really think this one could have used more planning and better execution.

I have to say reading another book from PC Cast was extremely exciting. I’ve read all of the House of Night books when I was in high school and Spells Trouble brought me so much joy. As a twin I felt the same connection as Hunter and Mercy. I loved all of the spooky and witchy vibes! I enjoyed the fast pacing of the book and all of the characters. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read Spells Trouble! I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy for my classroom.

Spells Trouble was an enjoyable book. Maybe not my favorite by this duo but I feel it will definitely appeal to the young adult crowd. I thought the characters were well written and the premise of the book was a nice change. I just can’t put my finger on what made this just ok for me and not great. I will look forward to the next installment.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the opportunity to read this book.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and were not affected by the free copy.

I so badly wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. I loved the House of Night series and the mother-daughter writing duo, but this book fell flat for me. The premise of the book was intriguing: Sarah Goode and her daughter escape Salem during the infamous Witch Trials, travel across the country, found a town, and become Gatekeepers to protect the world from the Underworld. Twins Mercy and Hunter are ready to join their ancestors as Gatekeepers, when all hell breaks loose (literally.)

Sadly, that's where I lost all interest. The pacing was extremely awkward-racing forward, yet nothing was happening. I wish there was more world building. Sometimes, jumping ahead 300+ years works. Here, it felt like we left off at the most interesting part of Sarah's story, to getting dropped right in the middle of all of the drama, with none of the explanation.

I felt nothing for either main character, and sadly, they almost seemed interchangeable. I was way more interested in a couple of the side characters than I ever was in the main girls.

The writing style was not well done. It read simple and young, but the but the content was definitely not.

All in all, this book fell far below my expectations. Granted, my expectations were high, but even if they hadn't been, I still would have been disappointed. I don't know if I'll continue on in the series.

This was a very interesting book, it had lots a action and I really enjoyed the characters. I am looking forward to hopefully the next book to see what happens next with the twins my favorite is hunter I really want to see her find herself and happiness

** This review was left on Goodreads on 4/13/21 **

As a big fan of the House of Night series, I was excited to see this new series from P.C. and Kristin Cast. This series is about twin sisters (Hunter and Mercy) descended from a Salem Witch. Their family has settled in Goodeville are are guardians of gates to other realms. During a coming-of-age rite, something goes wrong and their mother dies. The girls then navigate their powers and investigate what went wrong, while grieving the loss of their mother.

The prologue of this book was promising, and there are a lot of creative and fun elements of this book. I particularly love the Goode family familiar and Hunter's best friend, Jax. The ending of the book is full of action and fantastical magic. While there are many elements that I typically love in a YA fantasy books, this book suffered from awkward pacing, uneven world building, and revelations and mythology that seem to come out of nowhere. There a large portion of the middle of the book where the plot doesn't move forward very much - things happen, but no major development related to the central mystery/plot. And then a lot of things happen at the end, and it all happens very quickly. There is a part of the book where Hunter says that she wants to earn the right to call someone by their first name - not just have it given to her because of her age. It was an odd statement, but I feel like it correlates to the magic, rituals, spells, and revelations of this book. We get the correct spells, perfect rituals, and all the answers - but it doesn't feel earned, it feels convenient. I know this wouldn't bother most readers, but there are so many excellent YA fantasy reads and this book had so much potential, that I feel like this book could have been so much more.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, about a pair of twin witches who, despite being twins, are totally different people. Mercy and Hunter are the most recent in a long line of Goode witches, dedicated to saving their town, Goodeville, from potential evil - and on their 16th birthday, that evil is suddenly no longer potential. In an attempt to save the girls, their mother casts a major spell, which works, but which costs her her life. With help from the family familiar, the sisters embark on a quest to close the otherworldly gate that let in the monster that killed their mother. This novel contains good information about Wiccan ideas, as well as about several mythological traditions; unfortunately, it also contains a couple of scenes that are explicitly sexual, which, in my opinion, detract from the flow of the story. The same information could have been conveyed without being that explicit, and without impacting the plot; in choosing to write it the way it was written, the author has made this novel inappropriate for readers under the age of about 16, as well as creating a pair of scenes that distract from the story itself. Because of this writing choice, I am rating this novel lower than I otherwise would have.

Trouble is right.

“Spells Trouble” celebrates the birthday of twin sisters Hunter and Mercy as they balance their normal lives and the coming ceremony to take on their roles as witches and protecting their town. When the celebration goes from fun to deadly they find themselves at odds with how to set things right but with the help of their friends both sisters work to manage their new responsibility.

My lack of enthusiasm over this book is not from lack of trying who doesn’t love a good sister witch book? The issue is it seems like a lot off ideas were thrown together with weak structuring to make it make sense and so with the tiniest brush of your fingertips across each page it falls apart.

Looking at the plot itself it’s pretty basic two sisters who despite being twins couldn’t be more different and a drastic change forces them to grow up and work together, that’s fine. My issue is the way the book is written I kept forgetting who was who as we shuffled between Hunter and Mercy’s POV and when we got to the actual plot it was all downhill from there.

Without too much spoilers the concept of being protectors of these trees is pretty interesting but the world building does little to explain the how and why these trees are what they are. It seems almost as if one person wanted to write about mythology and another with witches and they decided to mash it together behind crumbling doors and for me it was not successful. Part of me wishes they spent less time focusing on the romantic relationship between Mercy and Kirk and more on how the magic system worked especially when what we were presented with on page one is no different than how it ended between the former whereas the little extra time given to the craft might have smoothed over some of my problems with the book as a whole.

This may work for some people and I hope it does and I’m just the odd one out but for me this was not worth the time I spent on it.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

Unfortunately this book reads like a 2008 teenage story, in a bad way, with overused troupes, nothing fresh and predictable twists, it wasn't even fun to read, and I had high hopes.

I could not finish this book. The beautiful cover and description were appealing and had me requesting the book, And the introduction was fabulous, but as it transitioned to the chatty, airy, twins and friends drama, I could not get into it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. It may appeal to some young adults, just not for me.

Spells Trouble will appeal to many readers who enjoy fast-paced and supernatural stories with heavy character narration.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to review this title.

Final rating 2.5/5 stars

I really wanted to enjoy this one. But the characters felt so generic and I had trouble connecting with any of them. The beginning was so compelling but I just found myself getting bored. It was a good concept (so witchy!) But the magic itself didn't feel fleshed out.

Ahhhhhhh this was just such a wonderful book and I just thoroughly enjoyed myself. I didn’t want to put this book down. I just fell in love with this wonderful story and it’s wonderful characters. I will most definitely be reading more stories from this wonderful author.

I’ve never read the series written by this mother/daughter team, but knew it was incredibly popular, so I had high hopes for this book.

The premise grabbed my attention immediately. Twin witches, ancient portals, monsters infecting a town – what’s not to love? The prologue was also promising, and I was excited to see where the story would go from there. But I lost interest pretty soon after that. The inciting incident doesn’t happen until around the 25% mark. After that, there are several scenes that don’t contribute much to the plot, and the pacing feels uneven. I read a lot of YA, and obviously teens engage in sex, but I was surprised to come across a pretty graphic sex scene. It felt out of place – especially considering the trauma Mercy had just experienced. The book should definitely be marketed to the older YA age group.

The authors do a wonderful job with Mercy and Hunter – each have distinctive voices and personalities. Jax is probably my favorite character – everyone should have a best friend like him. I also enjoyed Xena – both as a cat and a human!

This book just wasn’t for me, but would probably appeal to die hard paranormal fans and fans of these authors’ other series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was hoping for a little more from this one. I just couldn’t connect with the characters or the plot. I would have also liked a bit more romance but the writing was well done.

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've read a few of the House of Night series by this duo which I enjoyed so I was excited to see something else from them.

I thought this was a good YA read. I enjoyed the witchy aspects mixed in with some mythology. There were some aspects of the main characters that I found hard to read and follow but overall I enjoyed the book.

Witches, Salem and the amazing authors P.C and Kristin Cast, what more can a reader ask for?! Spells Trouble had me hooked at the Prologue, which I don’t typically get hooked with. I enjoyed the storyline that P.C and Kristin created. While this is not my favourite witchy series by far, and to be honest, I may not read again I do appreciate the hard work that goes into writing a novel. A few downfalls that I picked up on was the level of YA, while some YA tends to be on the higher spectrum, Spells Trouble was on the lower end of YA for me, more of a mix between middle school and YA. There were also a few romantic … aka sex scenes that didn’t seem to fit with the storyline, being place just because.
Overall, this novel was not my cup of tea but it might be yours! If you enjoy younger YA Witchy books them this book is for you!

I DNF’ed this book at 25% because it was just not for me. But let’s look at what I liked ~

Likes:
*Love the cover, it’s what drew me to the story in the first place and a book about witches? I was definitely interested.

*Right away there is some crazy action with the girls 16th birthday ritual night but I can’t say for the rest of the book because I wasn’t interested in finishing.

*The Goode twins, Hunter and Mercy, are different and have distinct voices.

*Their familiar, a cat named Xena turns into a human, so that was fun.

Random Notes:
*The one time I read this mother/daughter duo is when they came out with the House of Night series back in 2007! I followed it up until book 5 maybe? It was fun and I was obsessed with it in 2007-2009 and then I outgrew it. The writing here is much more suited for teen readers (except there is detailed sexual content). At times the story felt superficial and rushed especially when their mom died.

*I felt no connection to any of the characters.

*I really wish this held my interest because the concept is good and witches always make for a fun and thrilling story.

Final Thoughts:
Overall this one is definitely not for me because of the writing style which felt rushed. At times I felt like I was in my 20’s reading a young adult novel again, but not in a good way because times have changed in the young adult world and I did not finish it but I think many people will still enjoy this one. I feel like it’s written for teen readers except for the detailed sexual scene.

This was promising: a story with a strong sisterly and mother-daughters bond, daughters suddenly left in the company of a shapeshifting cat, and the need for the sisters to repair broken magics. And while the diverse characters felt a bit tokenistic: the One Black Person, the One Lesbian Girl, the characters were at least interesting and developed through the book. But then it became a predictable sister-against-sister mess, setting up a big sister/witch fight in a sequel. I was really disappointed that writers who were so creative with everything else in the book couldn't have come up with something better than this for a conflict.

I really wanted to love this book. I read The House of Night Series as a teenager, I was trying to be mindful to not compare them, but the fact is I had high expectations for this book. I was expecting to immediately be pulled into an engaging world with characters that I could connect to, and that's just not what I got.

The writing felt very young compared to their previous work, like it was aimed at 10-12 year olds instead of teenagers.

The concept was a good one, I was very interested in reading it from the description, Unfortunately the story did not grab my attention and the characters fell flat.

*Thank you to the publisher for this eARC.