Back of Book: 

Divided by their order. United by their vengeance.

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.

This Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut about two enemy witches who must enter into a deadly alliance to take down a common enemy has the twisted cat-and-mouse of Killing Eve with the richly imagined fantasy world of Furyborn and Ember in the Ashes. 

Book Number: One 

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy 

Review: 🌟🌟

A dark fantasy steeped in Jamaican folklore that follows two young witches who come from different tribes but find unity in their need for vengeance. 

Iraya has spent most of life in prison, but the opportunity she needs to seize her revenge is fast approaching. Jazmyne is the doyenne's daughter, but she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother's power. Hailing from rival witch orders, Iraya and Jazmyne hate one another, but realize that they may be forced to work together to take down the false queen once and for all. 

You guys, I struggled through this one so much. I am actually a bit shocked to learn that I only spent a week reading it. That's obviously still a ton of time to spend on a single book, but this one was over 500 pages, and I struggled through most of it, so I'm glad that it only took me a week. It felt like so much longer!

The first one hundred or so pages of this book are some of the most confusing that I've ever read. There are so many different types of magics, Orders, and complicated lore in this one, that I found myself really confused and drowning in all the information that was being thrown at me. I was even confused about how the two Orders, the Alumbar and the Obeah, connected to one another. Once I realized that the Alumbar cooped the Obeah, the story began to make way more sense. Jazmyne is also princess of the Alumbar and Iraya is the fallen princess of the Obeah. After I figured out these two facts, this book was a tad easier to digest. 

Despite eventually figuring out what in the world was happening, I found that I just really didn't care about this world at all. The plot mostly focuses on getting revenge against the current Doyenne of the Alumbar due to her being a very corrupt individual and the fact that she is responsible for the deaths of many Obeah members. Revenge plots aren't ones I usually like all that much, so that had me distant from the story from the start. This one is also incredibly violent, which isn't surprising from a dark fantasy, just not something I was really a fan of. 

I found the worldbuilding to be alienating in this one. I think this one could have really benefited from a glossary in the back that defined a bunch of words. I really struggled to tell which words were Jamaican words, and which ones were made up fantasy words. I spent a bunch of time trying to just figure out what everything meant, which definitely took me out of the story. 

I did want to end this with a positive. There were quite a few sentences in this book that are absolute bangers. The writing itself is quite beautiful, and there are a ton of powerful lines that I found myself enjoying. As a whole though, I just found this wasn't enough to keep me engaged. 

Overall, "Witches Steeped in Gold" was a long read, that I honestly found quite painful to get through. The worldbuilding was slow-going, yet super confusing. This alienated me from the story and made it rather difficult for me to engage with the plot or characters. Revenge stories also aren't usually my cup of tea, so that was another thing I struggled with. If this book would have been two hundred pages shorter, I may have come around on this one, but as is, it just drug on forever. 

Back of Book: 

Iraya, her revenge taken and magic unfettered, turns her sights on a bigger goal: freeing Aiyca for the Obeah. But first she must shed the guise of the rogue warrior and become the Lost Empress her people need.

Jazmyne has crowned herself the doyenne and is prepared to go to extreme lengths—and court ruthless danger—to prove to her people she deserves the throne.

But there is more at stake than Jazmyne or Iraya know: a new threat is awakening on the other side of the island that could destroy everything they’ve been fighting for.

Trust is scarce, and betrayal a breath away. But Iraya and Jazmine once again find themselves turning to each other—after all, better the witch you know than the nightmare you don’t. 

Book Number: Two (Last Book) 

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy 

Review: ?