A Circle of Uncommon Witches

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Synopsis

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?

Synopsis source: Goodreads

What pattern is that?
Pictured with the book in this post is the Brookside Scarf, which you can find here!

Review

Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance
HB&W Rating: 4 stars, 1 flame
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I really liked this book. The whole book equates love with hope in a “love conquers all” message. The curse in the book focused on romantic love, but I loved Doreen and Margot’s relationship and the love they have for each other as well. The writing is beautiful and the world-building was fantastic as well, eliciting something of a dark fairy tale set in Scotland.

The romance was very slow burn but felt rushed at the end. It’s an enemies to lovers trope + forced proximity and that’s definitely my vibe. I enjoyed watching the subtle softening of Doreen and Ambrose toward one another. At least, it was subtle until it wasn’t and then it felt like the author was approaching her word limit for the story and had to rush the realization of their romance.

I liked that there were several morally gray characters with unknown ulterior motives and it kept me guessing the entire time who the ultimate baddie was. The way each of the potentials were written, I found myself feeling compassion for each of them and their stories, especially since they were all motivated by love and the grief that comes from the lack of it.

Honestly, it wasn’t just the romance that was rushed at the end but the conflict resolution was rushed too. It seemed like up until about 94% we had a slow-pace that had me double checking to see if this was a planned series or a standalone, such was the lateness that things were resolved. I admit I found the curse itself was a bit confusing and the villain’s motive wasn’t really cleared up until the last 6% of the book (and still not 100% clearly, to me at least), plus the solution to the curse left me a bit muddled as well in its logistics. That said, I still very much enjoyed the ride.

At the end of the day, I really enjoyed the book and found it to be a compelling read. I wouldn’t have minded it being a little longer so that the end didn’t feel so rushed. It would have given the author more time to explain things more clearly, too.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Until next time,

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