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cgphoenix79's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
“Spells Trouble” by: PC and Kristen Cast
In this first book of the Sisters of Salem series we find our identical heroines, Mercy and Hunter Goode, at a crossroads. Their world is crumbling, figuratively and literally. Murder abounds in their tiny town of Goodeville, named after their ancestor, Sarah Goode. The gates are splintering allowing Demi-gods and demons to depart their realms and enter their town. Will the twins be Goode enough to banish the Demi-gods, close the gates, and save their town? Tune in next book as this one ended on a cliffhanger.
My rating? Meh. The Casts are good authors. They have solid writing styles, great plot development and I loved the inclusion of a lesbian witch as one of the protagonists. Where it lost me was some misconceptions re mythology and witchcraft practices. Nitpicky I know, but that’s me. I don’t feel a driving urge to finish the series but if there was nothing else to read I’d read the next book.
In this first book of the Sisters of Salem series we find our identical heroines, Mercy and Hunter Goode, at a crossroads. Their world is crumbling, figuratively and literally. Murder abounds in their tiny town of Goodeville, named after their ancestor, Sarah Goode. The gates are splintering allowing Demi-gods and demons to depart their realms and enter their town. Will the twins be Goode enough to banish the Demi-gods, close the gates, and save their town? Tune in next book as this one ended on a cliffhanger.
My rating? Meh. The Casts are good authors. They have solid writing styles, great plot development and I loved the inclusion of a lesbian witch as one of the protagonists. Where it lost me was some misconceptions re mythology and witchcraft practices. Nitpicky I know, but that’s me. I don’t feel a driving urge to finish the series but if there was nothing else to read I’d read the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Bullying, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia
shockinglyshayreads's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I felt the story was progressing pretty well the first 200 pages. The backstory was set really well with the prologue and the characters were great in the first few chapters. The first big event that occurred in the beginning as a little jarring and too superhero. Killing off their mother that early I felt was too much. I understand they were supposed to figure this out on their own but I think if the story was an extra 100 pages and left Abigail alive for another 30-50 pages would have done well. I loved the small little map of the town. I also really enjoyed that they tried to represent the major underworlds. I thought that was a very cool attempt at including diversity somewhere. The description of everything really was decent. The writing itself though sometimes was sudden. I felt like there were shifts that felt like one author stopped and another picked up.
The characters were ok. Mercy and Hunter felt like quintessential twins, almost exact opposite personalities while looking identical. They tried to through in some small town bullying but it just didn't read right. It felt like an attempt at making Hunter feel like she had a quirk. Mercy being a bubbly preppy green witch just felt so out of place. That honestly could have just been that I'm used to witches always being seen as an outcast because of the orphan/uncontrolled powers trope though. Kirk was a douchebag. He was written SO FLAT. It's like they tried to give him depth and then decided it wasn't worth in the end. Jax seems like he's pining after a lesbian and I'm not here for it. In my opinion, Emily seems to have the most depth and she's just a supporting character. She was definitely at the top as my favorite. Lastly, there is Xena. I loved her magic and how she was written and everything about her.
The characters were ok. Mercy and Hunter felt like quintessential twins, almost exact opposite personalities while looking identical. They tried to through in some small town bullying but it just didn't read right. It felt like an attempt at making Hunter feel like she had a quirk. Mercy being a bubbly preppy green witch just felt so out of place. That honestly could have just been that I'm used to witches always being seen as an outcast because of the orphan/uncontrolled powers trope though. Kirk was a douchebag. He was written SO FLAT. It's like they tried to give him depth and then decided it wasn't worth in the end. Jax seems like he's pining after a lesbian and I'm not here for it. In my opinion, Emily seems to have the most depth and she's just a supporting character. She was definitely at the top as my favorite. Lastly, there is Xena. I loved her magic and how she was written and everything about her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content
billies_not_so_secret_diary's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Spells Trouble
by P.C and Kristin Cast
This is the first book in a new series by these authors, and I will admit that while the premise of the book sounded good, I picked it up because of the authors. I really did enjoy the House of Night series, but sadly I have yet started to read the 'spin off'.
But with that said, I don't know if I will even try to read those books now.
I listened to the audio version through Scribd, and how the narrator portrayed the MCs, (it wasn't the fault of the authors), the valley, snobby pre-teen attitude, even though they were supposed to be 16, it just about made me turn it off. It was awful and if I had another book downloaded, I might have. But I stuck it out and thankfully, the kids, I should say the narrator matured and turned off the snob.
Now for the writing. While this book is aimed at 7-9 grade level, the narrator made it feel as if it is written for younger kids who are trying to be cool. Yes, kids do that, it’s normal, a lot of books are 'dumb-down so it's easier to read, I get that.
But while the writing is for kids, and most of the content is teenage issues, the description of a BJ was uncalled for, especially since one of the authors used to be a high school teacher. I'm sorry when a teacher, even a retired one, takes the time to describe a teenage boy's penis, all I could think was pedophile. Plus its adult content, not teenager. There should be a warning on it!
I don't understand how this got by Amazon let alone the publisher publishing this for kids and school libraries! I could not listen to this, I felt grossed out, a teenager, yuck, so I jumped through the audio, I was not going to listen to that, and also made me want to stop listening, and I did for a few days to debate on what to do. But as soon as I got home, I sent messages to those who I knew had teenage readers in their families to warn them.
I picked the book back up, while to see what happened so I could give an informed review, but to also find out if there was any other questionable content I should warn friends and family about.
While the plot and idea were good, and the writing was also good, it was the content and wrongness of it why I can not give this book a good rating.
I know kids do these things, kids explore, but as adults, as authors who teenagers look up to, we also need to let them be kids and not encourage behaviors we tell them not to. They see that you think it’s okay to write about, then it’s ok for them to do these things. Maybe I’m old school, but they are kids. Adults, teachers, don’t describe kids like that.
1 star because I have to give it one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
misslisag's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, and Sexual content
whatiskatelynreading's review against another edition
I’m 61% of the way through this book and not sure if I’m going to finish it or not. I really wanted to like this book, sisterhood and witchcraft? Sign me up! But there are definitely a lot of elements that are keeping me from loving this book.
- the voice feels off, it’s sometimes super juvenile, using terms like “bestie” all over the place and giving way too much exposition. The best writing I’ve encountered in the book so far was the prologue and I wish the whole story was more like that.
- random clinically graphic sex scene, didn’t even feel smutty or passionate it just felt weird and out of place and way too detailed for a YA book
- the treatment of grief in this book is what really turned me off. Death of parent is a big content warning for Spells Trouble and in this book for some reason the literal day after her mother dies a character is expected to be her old self and the other characters perform a spell to “remove her grief” so she can “get back to normal”. The characters keep emphasizing how they are so different now that they’ve grieved and how much they’ve changed when it has been a matter of days. One character also believes that another’s grief is only so bad because she wasn’t bullied as a child, and while bullying is a trauma that many children experience I think this could have been a chance for the authors to show that grief is such a different experience for every person and instead they chose to have one character magically get over it while the other forges on having decided “my trauma from bullying is more valid than your grief”. I think this is a really irresponsible, immature way of framing the grieving process and while I understand the characters are 16 and that this might get addressed in the end of the book, I still really didn’t like the way that grief was presented. It felt shallow and like a plot point to overcome not a chance for real emotional development in this story. A lot of recent YA releases have treated grief and mental health in a more nuanced way, I was disappointed Spells Trouble didn’t follow suit.
Overall this story feels like a cheesy CW or ABC family show about witches in high school.
- the voice feels off, it’s sometimes super juvenile, using terms like “bestie” all over the place and giving way too much exposition. The best writing I’ve encountered in the book so far was the prologue and I wish the whole story was more like that.
- random clinically graphic sex scene, didn’t even feel smutty or passionate it just felt weird and out of place and way too detailed for a YA book
- the treatment of grief in this book is what really turned me off. Death of parent is a big content warning for Spells Trouble and in this book for some reason the literal day after her mother dies a character is expected to be her old self and the other characters perform a spell to “remove her grief” so she can “get back to normal”. The characters keep emphasizing how they are so different now that they’ve grieved and how much they’ve changed when it has been a matter of days. One character also believes that another’s grief is only so bad because she wasn’t bullied as a child, and while bullying is a trauma that many children experience I think this could have been a chance for the authors to show that grief is such a different experience for every person and instead they chose to have one character magically get over it while the other forges on having decided “my trauma from bullying is more valid than your grief”. I think this is a really irresponsible, immature way of framing the grieving process and while I understand the characters are 16 and that this might get addressed in the end of the book, I still really didn’t like the way that grief was presented. It felt shallow and like a plot point to overcome not a chance for real emotional development in this story. A lot of recent YA releases have treated grief and mental health in a more nuanced way, I was disappointed Spells Trouble didn’t follow suit.
Overall this story feels like a cheesy CW or ABC family show about witches in high school.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Blood, and Sexual content
melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC of this book.
Twin witches Hunter and Mercy Goode are tasked with protecting the 5 gates to the underworlds set up in their town, just as every Goode witch has been before them. But when the trees marking the gates begin dying and so do people, they are forced to find a way to stop it before they are too late.
The plot of this book was pretty interesting, and I liked to learn about the type of magic they had. I liked the prologue with reference to the Salem Witch Trials and I liked that their magic came from deities that they each chose when they came of age. Hunter was a pretty interesting character for the most part, but most of these characters felt a little bland and one note.
I also thought that the writing was very over-descriptive for my taste and didn't feel natural. The dialogue was too exposition heavy for me. The over-descriptive is not my style of writing, but if you don't mind it then you will probably enjoy this book.
Pub Date: May 25, 2021
Twin witches Hunter and Mercy Goode are tasked with protecting the 5 gates to the underworlds set up in their town, just as every Goode witch has been before them. But when the trees marking the gates begin dying and so do people, they are forced to find a way to stop it before they are too late.
The plot of this book was pretty interesting, and I liked to learn about the type of magic they had. I liked the prologue with reference to the Salem Witch Trials and I liked that their magic came from deities that they each chose when they came of age. Hunter was a pretty interesting character for the most part, but most of these characters felt a little bland and one note.
I also thought that the writing was very over-descriptive for my taste and didn't feel natural. The dialogue was too exposition heavy for me. The over-descriptive is not my style of writing, but if you don't mind it then you will probably enjoy this book.
Pub Date: May 25, 2021
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Murder
shaunashares's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Sexual content
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