Thank you so much for the review copy!
I just wanted to say that unfortunately this audiobook wasn’t for me. I felt as if the characters were a tad overdramatic and at times it began to get on my nerves.
For such a short book it also took a long time for any conflict to happen, and unfortunately I didn’t feel interested enough to finish listening to the audiobook.
The narrator was fantastic and the performance was well done! It was just the story that didn’t give me any motivation to know what was going to happen next.

I had such a hard time with this. I don’t read a lot of them, but I usually devour YA fantasy, but not this one. While I liked the plot, this book read so very, very young. And it seemed to go out of its way to stop the plot to throw in something to remind us it was a YA book. I hope future books bridge the gap a little better.

And after all that, I do think a young YA will still appreciate this book.

First thing I want to say for this audiobook review is that the narrator does a fantastic job. Spells Trouble is like two separate, very different books all rolled into one. One of those books was right up my street, and the other had me pulling my hair out in anger and frustration. The story itself. It has some very interesting elements, and I can't really call it derivative because the worldbuilding is somewhat unique and quite fascinating. The story seems to meander and take detours at times, and the pacing definitely suffers for the sheer amount of story and backstory introduced, as well as the author's propensity to take us through mundane character actions. Yet there are times when it suddenly seems to zip right along and leave the reader trying to absorb all of the information and the implications for what's happening. Overall, I liked it but wasn't a favorite.
Full review to come on my YouTube channel.

DNF at 35%

I can see the potential for appeal to others. I did restart this audio on four separate occasions over a few months in order to give it a chance dependant on my mood. Ultimately, it's not for me.
Thanks to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the alc.

I had a little trouble getting into the book at first but as soon as I did, I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed their house of night series and that is why I picked this book up. There were times the twins did get on my nerves but I feel like that was the point. I switched back and fourth from the audio and ebook which I loved. I really enjoyed the audio book as well and the narrator kept me focus. I want to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners for letting me read and review this book.

I'm always in search for a great witchy book; I think we definitely need more of them in YA and NA. PC Cast and Kristin Cast are very familiar names to me. I adored HON when I was in High school, so I obviously wanted to give this series a try, even if it was just for that nostalgic feeling.

Here is what I will say. I do think my high school self would have loved this series. It meant for YA anyways, so clearly I am not the target audience. The story was fine, I enjoyed the characters well enough, and the writing is typical for a Cast book. All that to say, is if you are a lover of YA, you will probably love this story.

If you enjoy YA at times, you might also love this story, but it definitely wasn't anything spectacular. I listened to the entire book but I could not tell you the plot, other than twin sisters lost their mother and have to protect the boarder. Other than that, I was not invested in the story much, but clearly invested enough to continue to listen to it.

I think I have officially outgrown my taste for Cast, which is unfortunate.

Sweet Valley High meets Practical Magic in this new series from popular authors P.C. and Kristin Cast. Goodeville, Illinois was founded centuries ago by an escapee of the Salem Witch Trials. Due to it's positioning along ley lines, the area hosts gates to different culture's underworlds, gates that have been protected by generations of Goode witches. In the present, identical twins Hunter and Mercy Goode are ready to pledge loyalty to a chosen goddess or god and declare the type of witchcraft they will practice. Something goes wrong during their 16th birthday ceremony, causing the death of their mother and the escape of a supernatural serial killer. Although the girls are opposites in many ways, they always had a tight bond of sisterhood in the past. But chaotic forces and their growing resentments threaten to tear them apart. While the setting was interesting, the writing tone fluctuated between soap opera and horror. The plot was also conflicted, at times emphasizing the time needed to grieve the twins' mom, then switching to the horror action, then reading like a guide to Wiccan practices. Enjoyment of the story was also impacted by an adequate but not stellar audiobook narration. Not a future classic, but sure to be popular with less sophisticated teen readers. Recommended for high school due to content.

I read and loved the House of Night series when I was younger and wanted to revisit these authors as an adult. Sadly, this book didn’t work out in my favor at all. I couldn’t connect to the characters and the mom talking to her teenage daughters about sexual pleasure was a bit over the top for me. The point of view would change and I would have to figure out who’s point of view I was listening to and that was frustrating. I didn’t care for the narration as the characters didn’t always sound like teenagers.

🍃Let’s start off by saying this book just wasn’t for me. As I have said before, fantasy just isn’t my thing... and now I know witches aren’t nether. Therefore, please take my review with a grain of salt.

🍃I really enjoyed how this story had five direct underworlds: Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, and Hindu. I also liked how they all had trees that marked each culture differently.

🍃This book has some great qualities that shocked me. I enjoyed some moments and found them so unique. I wish it did talk more about the monsters in here.

🍃This story also some graphic sexual content FYI, which was kind of disturbing considering it’s YA. I really wanted to enjoy this because I loved the premise, but I think I’m middle of the road again with this one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPKH_KcrmbV/?utm_medium=copy_link

I like the idea of this story. I was excited to listen to it after I read the description for it and was thinking I would really enjoy it. However, I did not care for it. If it was about adults and labeled as such it would have been more to my liking. I do not believe that having young adult books that portray underage drinking, partying, and sex is necessary for a good novel. There was an awful lot of lies being told to adults throughout the story.

I was so excited to get a chance to listen to the audio for this one after receiving the hardcopy ARC in the mail. Unfortunately I had to DNF the audiobook because the narration just did not go with the storyline in my opinion. I felt there should be more emotion with the narration. During the scene where the wolf comes out of the tree, I was bored and felt the narrator was very flat. Will try to read the hardcopy of this.

Spells Trouble is the first book in the Sisters of Salem trilogy. As descendants of Sarah Goode, 16 year old twins, Mercy and Hunter Goode, are following in the magickal family tradition.

Sadly, their mother is killed on the night of their sixteenth birthday. Her final words tell the girls to take care of the trees. Then, the bodies begin to pile up. Will Hunter and Mercy, along their aunt (the cat), along with a few friends, be able to save the trees and stop the killing?

I would highly recommend this book to teens and adults who love paranormal and magickal stories.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book to review from Net Galley.

#SpellsTrouble#NetGalley

I went hot and cold with this one. I really like the premise and I enjoyed the way it was told, bouncing between the twin sisters. There were some sections I really enjoyed, but overall, I was disappointed. I just felt like some things that were huge (no spoilers!) seemed to have little impact while other smaller things had huge impact. For twins who share a witchy, psychic type bond, they seemed to been split way too easily.

Give me something with Witches and I will likely love it, and Spells Trouble is no exception at all! I used to love the House of Night series, and while those are now a little silly to me going back, I enjoyed them - and once again they've created a book (& series) I am sure to love. They have managed to create a wonderful and whimsical world full of magic for you to get lost it. Centering around two sisters grieving a loss the relationships are strong and genuine, with the ability to warm your heart.

Are you a fan of witch novels? I’ve come to just adore magic stories of all kinds and this book is no exception. Thank you so much Netgalley and Wednesday Books for my copy of this book.

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twins who are about the celebrate their birthday and learn what it means to be the gatekeepers. When people start unexpectedly dying, trees start dying and the gates start to open, these twin witches are not prepared for what they must do do save the town and themselves.

I really enjoyed this YA fantasy and I am looking forward to the next one because the book really does leave you hanging. I wish the story was not cut off so abruptly because now I have to wait until April of 2022 to know what happens next! Ugh!

I love a good witchcraft story or movie and I was hoping that this would be one of them. It sounded quite interesting and the cover definitely caught my attention. I have also read The Key by Kristin Cast and I quite enjoyed it, so I thought I might like this as well.

I quite enjoyed the first chapter and it reminded me of the setting for Salem where women were persecuted for the people believing that they were witches. Then all of a sudden it was like I was transported to another time in the future. Somewhere there was a time jump that I missed and it made it quite unsettling. It took me a very long time to get over the time jump. I honestly am not sure if the first part of the book is really necessary at all.

The main characters in the book are teenagers, which makes sense since this is a YA book. Besides being witches the two teenage twins also struggle with real life situations. Hunter is a lesbian and the story touches quite realistically on how the LGBTQ community can be viewed even by their loved ones. There is also the teenage sex scene, which was quite detailed, and unnecessary to the story. The aftermath of the sex scene, is what you typically hear about in movies when it comes to the teenage boy who became "lucky".

The other main character is Zena, their cat familiar. I really liked her especially her character transformation. She is probably my favorite character out of the whole book.

The narration by Cassandra Campbell was well done. She changes her voice to represent each character in the book. Listening to her speak as if she was each character though does make you think that teenagers, at least in this day and age, do not really speak the way that they are written to in the book. Even the way that Zena speaks is odd but that could also be contributed to Zena's age.

Rating: 2 out of 5. As much as I wanted to really enjoy this book, I just couldn't get into it. I didn't feel like their was enough action and magic actually occurring until the very end of the book. I also found the time jump very hard to get past.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this review copy. This is my honest opinion.

Spells Trouble
Sisters of Salem, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Liked the author’s previous works.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: CCP Library
Dates Read: 5/4/21 - 5/18/21
Stars: 2 Stars

The Characters:

Hunter Goode:
Mercy Goode:


The Story:

I’m not going to spend a long time listing reasons I didn’t like this book. I am thinking maybe I’ve outgrown the author though. It’s not a terrible story, I just didn’t enjoy it.

The Random Thoughts:

I love a good witch story, and I was excited to listen to this story about twin sisters who lose their mother right when they are really beginning to come into their powers. I liked this book, but I really wanted to love it and I didn't.

The prologue sucked me right in, following ancestor Sarah Goode's escape from Salem to a new life in Illinois. I wish the tale would have been told in both in the past and the present, the dual timelines would have worked great and we would have had more of Sarah's story from her perspective.

The narrator was great, Cassandra Campbell kept me listening.

Side note: I definitely felt like this was an older YA book due to some subject matter; the mom is pretty frank (and for me - uncomfortable and inappropriate) about sex talk with her daughters, and there is a pretty gratuitous sex scene. The way it was written felt a little over the top for a YA book.

I really wanted to like this because the witchy premise held a lot of interest for me, but it just didn't keep me interested. I wasn't a fan of the main character and I just found myself getting bored. I was more interested in what had happened in the past than in the present.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A magical coming of age story exploring loss, family bonds, and consequences to decisions.

In this first book in the Sisters of Salem series, the Cast mother-daughter writing duo is back giving their readers what they have come to love about their storytelling. SPELLS TROUBLE is filled with family lore, ancient mythological monsters, gates to other realms, and tons of witchy goodness.

While reading this book, I noticed that there was a decent amount of setup. Like many first books in a series, characters need to be introduced, worlds need to be developed, and the scene needs to be set. SPELLS TROUBLE does a good job of this. The authors have created Goodeville as the backdrop to explore the coming of age of Hunter and Mercy. The way they explain how the magic works and the way each of the girls interacts with their gifts makes the reading experience richer. There is nothing worse than reading a book about witchcraft and not being given the background to where it all began. Though there are many questions still unanswered, the core of the Goode women’s powers history is well explained.

Here is the thing. There is an ending to this book that made me scream because I couldn’t believe I now have to wait for book two to see what happens. Though one aspect of the tale gets sort of wrapped up, there are still loose ends. Hunter and Mercy are not the people they were when we first met them. Goodeville isn’t the same place we were first introduced to in the beginning pages. There is so much upheaval, loss, and consequences to actions taken throughout the novel that I cannot wait to read book two. All the pieces are set, the potions are prepared, and I am anxious to see how it all shakes out.