A Circle of Uncommon Witches
Paige Crutcher
A witch generationally cursed to never find true love sets out to break the spell cast on her family, and must team up with the last person who wants to help her – the witch who set the curse in the first place. Doreen MacKinnon is doomed to die of a broken heart - if she can’t break the centuries old curse placed on her family. Three hundred years ago, Ambrose MacDonald, a powerful male witch, fell in love with a MacKinnon. And when the MacKinnon witches forbade him from seeing his love, by secretly hiding her away, he retaliated by cursing the family and its future generations to never find love. But it wasn’t without a cost. Now, Ambrose is imprisoned by those same witches, trapped in a tempest and doomed to outlive everyone he has ever loved. But Doreen isn’t like the other MacKinnon witches. As the 13th generation of the MacKinnon line, Doreen is one of the most powerful witches in centuries… and one of the loneliest. So when she discovers where Ambrose has been trapped, she releases him to help her break the curse, once and for all. Ambrose agrees to help, but with his own motive: vengeance. He plans to use her as bait to enact his revenge on her family. Together, they enter a series of trials, which take them to a castle in Scotland, off a cliff, and into a world beyond their wildest dreams. As they work together, sparks start to fly, but soon Doreen must choose how far she is willing to go to break the curse, and what she's willing to sacrifice. Paige Crutcher's A Circle of Uncommon Witches is a story of adventure, romance, and destiny, that asks: is true love worth the cost?
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The Vibes:
—cozy witchcraft
—generational curses (literal)
—gentle romance
Heat Index: 3/10
The Basics:
After being kept from his true love, Ambrose curses the MacKinnon witches, preventing them from finding true love. In turn, they imprisoned him; he'll outlive everyone, trapped in a tempest. Way down the line, MacKinnon witch Doreen frees Ambrose with the intention of breaking the curse—while he has revenge on his mind.
The Review:
All of the above sounds pretty exciting, right? I think it would've been, had this been edited a good bit to up the pacing and give more intensity to Ambrose and Doreen's connection. As it is, you have a great idea, a fun world, and pretty prose, without a lot of... oomph.
There's a lot of coziness here, and I think the premise would've been better served by a lot more tension. I mean. Ambrose has a lot of reason to seek revenge, but I never felt like Doreen was in true danger. They fell in love rather quickly, and then it was like "Welp. They're in love. On to the rest of the plot."
This is a "great concept, needed more work, but the writing is actually technically good" book, which I find rather frustrating.
The Sex:
This is basically closed door. Which I also found frustrating, to be honest. Do what's right for you as a writer, but this kind of intense story could've used some intense sex.
A swing and a miss for me, but I do think Crutcher has talent. She just might not be interested in the types of books that best serve my particular interests.
0“𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕.
I loved the multiple POVs. They weren't given in a way that said "Doreen POV" or "Ada POV". It was a little confusing the first couple of times, but was super easy and immersive once I got the hang of it. There's so much going on in the present, the past, and with everyone else that if it were delivered any other way I feel like it wouldn't of hit as hard.
”𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔; 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍 𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒆; 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒎.”
The character relationships and development? Top notch. This was a love story torn from a generational curse caused by forbidden love. There were no bad guys, not really and when I tell you I CRIED😭 And that ending?! I was SCREAMINGGGG
“𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝒊𝒏 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅, 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔.”
A Circle of Uncommon Witches has made me put all of Paige's books on my TBR. I'm absolutely in love with her writing style now🖤 Thank you so much to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's for the gifted copy!
0This book had so much potential to be a fantastic fantasy with a romance storyline. The magic was intriguing, the plot twists kept coming, and the relationships were great. However, I have finished this book and still have no idea what happened for major parts of the book. Aspects of the magic system weren’t explained well enough to know what happened, and some world building lacked to the point where the reader was expected to understand the lore behind something without it ever having been explained. The same phrase being repeated over and over was supposed to clue the reader in… except this was the same phrase throughout the whole book. Also, the love story was extremely unbelievable and not developed on the page in my opinion. The magic system and journey were very unique and interesting, but the lack of clarity makes it difficult to recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an early copy!
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