*Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.*

When I first came across this title and read the synopsis I immediately added it to my TBR.

When we first meet our protagonist, Lucky St. James, she is anything but lucky. Her mother is dead, she is responsible for caring for her grandmother Stella who has dimentia, and they're being evicted from their apartment. She is going through some of her mother's things when she comes across a small souvenier spoon with a picture of a witch and the word "Salem" on it. This discovery leads her to a group of witches who are trying to locate the final two women to complete their coven. Each new witch must be the one to locate the next, so now it's up to Lucky (with the help of her grandmother) to locate the final witch.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I LOVED the LGBT+ and cultural representations of the other witches as well as the importance of feminism and women supporting women. I liked that we got some backstory for the other coven members, but I do wish we got more of them, either as they were entering the group or in present day. The end of this book definitely set up the potential for this to become a series, so I'm crossing my fingers that we get some more of these women!

My only real complaint about this book is that there was so much set up that the ending felt rushed. I'm not saying that the setup should have been condensed at all because it did a great job of showing us Lucky's personality as well as her dynamic with Stella, but I think this book could have used an extra ~50 pages to expand on some of the obstacles since everything was resolved pretty quickly. Each conflict throughout was resolved pretty easily, and the final battle in the book took up only one chapter (seventeen pages), so I never felt like the stakes were very high.

I would highly recommend this for fantasy lovers (or fantasy newbies, since the fantastical elements are still fairly rooted in reality) who are looking for a book with some great representation. I also have the ARC of "Funeral Songs for Dying Girls" by this author, so I can't wait to pick that one up as well!

~~~~~CW: I don't usually put content warnings but this book kind of comes out of nowhere with HUGE dubious/non-consenting bits that made me personally uncomfortable. So, heads up.~~~~~

It's been a little over a month and I don't remember most of this book. I've got a bad memory, yes, but even jogging it with the synopsis and highlights just made me roll my eyes at the bits I did remember.

This is a women-kick-ass-and-you're-gonna-like-it book. Listen. Women do kick ass and I do like it. You could argue that it's a big reason I'm a lesbian.

The women in this book, though, are virtually incomprehensible. Why does anyone make the decisions that they make? What is the purpose of the titular VenCo? What powers do they even have?? What happens after the arbitrary deadline? What are the stakes? Why is half the book just driving on the highway?

I'm singling out the women as incomprehensible here because there's basically one male character: the bad guy. He is the opposite of incomprehensible because he is incredibly one-dimensional. He might as well just be called Bad Guy because he has absolutely no redeeming qualities. He's an arrogant rapist whose internal monologue is basically just 'I hate women and I'm going to kill those witches' (not an actual quote but might as well be).

Okay, sure. Bad guys don't have to be nuanced all the time. But, like. Does anyone actually think like this? "Why were these women always so poor? One would think they could do better for themselves, what with their insight and all. But that is why men have always been at the forefront of commerce and development, he thought, never satisfied, always striving." What does this mean other than that the reader is supposed to hate this guy?

The tone of Bad Guy's chapters are such a hard left turn from the rest of the book that it's extremely jarring and disorienting. Outside of his internal narration, the book is filled to the brim with "fuck yeah girl power!"-type writing. Above all else, it's cringe. "I am the daughter of Arnya St. James, defender of women, drinker of gin, fighter of assholes, a fierce half-breed from a long line of fierce half-breeds who took no shit and gave no fucks. I am a witch and I am here." Lucky literally just says this to herself before going to fight Bad Guy. This is Kindle-highlight-bait for the caricatures of liberal feminists who lose their minds when they meet HRC. As a feminist with a healthy, developed sense of cringe, I'm rolling my eyes so hard they fall out.

There are SO MANY amazing ideas in this book that just go nowhere. The witches' powers are never explained; we just get glimpses of them using their powers, and of course Lucky is mega-powerful because she's the main character, but since I don't know what any of the other witches can do, how can I be impressed by that? The history of witchcraft and women through the years is fascinating, but we only really get that through Bad Guy, who is so absolutely despicable in every way that those passages are just frustrating.

Because nothing is explained, the climax and ending are similarly meaningless. I don't get the logic behind how Lucky fights Bad Guy and I have no idea whatsoever <spoiler>how she wins</spoiler> or what that even means. The "fight" itself just made me want to take a shower.

I'm sure there will be a sequel to this book. Maybe it will be super successful and get adapted for Netflix. I'll probably watch it because I love witch stuff. But I 100% do not recommend this book.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

This was a fun ride, although I did find the stretch between finding out about the world and going on the quest to be a little excessive. I liked learning about the side characters, but would have preferred to read more about Lucky and her grandmother. I'll certainly purchase this for our collection and use this for urban fantasy readers advisory.

Who wouldn’t want to discover she is a witch. Fun, engaging, and empowering story about witchy women and discovery. The writing is strong and and the story line makes you hope there will be a sequel.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

I’ve read one other book by this author, which I liked and found beautifully written. This book definitely has some of that heart and grit I associate with the author.

Beautiful prose and inspirational lines about empowering women and taking up space and advocating for yourself and believing that you deserve better than what you’re getting.

The book is a little slow and pacing struggles in the first half but it does pick up especially in the last 1/4 of the story. I wasn’t surprised by the ending but I gotta admit I thought Lucky’s mom was secretly alive.

Some spoilers follow:
Lucky finds a magical spoon and gets connected with American witches and brings her grandmother along cause they’re getting kicked out of their place. She learns about witches and how they have to search for one other and then begins a journey (mostly just her and her grandma which is super cute and funny) to find the last spoon/witch.

Along the way Lucky meets some awesome, vivid characters and I love that we get so many mentions of different cultures/backgrounds and witch lore. Some of the good ones get murdered by Jay who is after Lucky and enamored with her. His parts were the least interesting to read and honestly we could have done without them.

She decides to confront him after he steals the spoon and tricks him into a fight in their dreams and then burns his house down. He manages to escape but is caught by the three witches that comprise the Oracle, one of which is his descendant (he hooked up with a witch). They kill him.

Lucky realizes the last witch is her grandmother, which is just so beautiful I love it.

The story of witches finding their power and fighting evil, VenCo by Cherie Dimaline is also a spellbinding tale of multi-generational friendships and discovering one's own self-worth. A fantastic road trip novel that's as smart (and incredibly well researched) as it is funny, here's hoping for a sequel!

VenCo is certainly scratching a popular itch right now: fast-paced, female-led, gentle fantasies. With memorable characters and an escapist setting, I could see this being a popular Spring release! Great for fans of feminist-leaning low-fantasy.

This book is the definition of the divine feminine. Dimaline’s worldbuilding is so immersive it’s hard to put the book down and go back to real life.

Amazing story of witches, covens, family (blood and found), and magic. A mystery and an adventure. Will be featured on an upcoming episode of Your Rainbow Reads podcast.

I want to love more Cherie Dimaline books so much! I loved The Marrow Thieves, but every book of hers that I have read since that time just has not worked for me. This is no exception. Here we have a group of witches (VenCo/Coven) seeking the 7th (and final) witch to complete the coven. There is a long roadtrip, visits to various magical beings (sort-of-witches, but not exactly witches?), and a build-up to an end that was unsatisfying. There were things to love - mostly the strong feminist, "we are the witches you couldn't burn" vibe - and some fun characters. I'm still unclear on the magic system (see magical beings above), the purpose of the spoons, or why the road trip (won't say more because *spoilers*). True lovers of strong urban fantasy may love this one. It just fell flat for me.

I really enjoyed this book filled with varied, strong women. It was a gorgeous book about magic and supporting the ones you call family. I enjoyed to sometimes vague magic system because it felt more real somehow. I also really enjoyed our villain, jay! He was evil but we learned his motivations.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my digital arc.

I have enjoyed several of Cherie Dimaline's books in the past, and I was really pleased to receive an early copy of VenCo from NetGalley. I liked this book a lot, and it had some fantastic prose, but it wasn't quite a 5-star read for me. I was immediately drawn in by the opening chapters focusing on Lucky (and her childhood with her mom), and I found the flashbacks to that time (that we see throughout the book) particularly engaging. I liked the cast of characters in the coven, but I had a hard time connecting with all the different points of view, and because of or in addition to that, the plot felt pretty slow. I don't mind an ensemble cast or a character-driven story, but it felt like the scope was maybe too broad here. I still want to know more about Lucky and her mom and grandma!
I'll definitely still be following this author in the future and checking out her books; I'm glad to see her getting more publicity in the States with this novel!

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline was a modern take on witches that is sure to find a passionate audience. For me personally, it was not my favorite of Dimaline’s work, where both The Marrow Thieves and Empire of Wild rank among some of my favorite books of all time, which may be why, although there’s nothing I could specifically pinpoint as an issue for me in this book, I did find it a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t personally connect with the characters in the way I usually do with her work, which made the rest of the plot feel hard to get invested in. I would still highly recommend this book to anyone who likes witchy fiction, and am looking forward to reading more of the author’s work in the future.

"You have to allow for change, because it is coming. Everything changes. That's how it begins."

Venco is a multi-generational journey, a suspenseful adventure, and an exciting scavenger hunt all at once. The plot moves pretty slowly at times—but makes up for it with interesting, three-dimensional characters and hard-to-predict twists and turns.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

VenCo is a fun, witchy, feminist story that covers so much ground while also making new ground. Very funny and very sensitive.

This book isn't what I expected, nor is it for my tastes exactly, but it was a decent read with interesting characters. Even though the villain was a terrible individual, I actually found his part of the story to be the most interesting.

I was so excited for this witchy adult fantasy from Cherie Dimaline, an author I've previously loved. Unfortunately, this story didn't work for me as well as I'd hoped. Though her writing is always lovely, It read very different in this book as compared to her YA series, The Marrow Thieves, but also to her most recent adult book, Empire of Wild. Somehow this book read more like a debut than any of her other works. The plot was unclear at times and I felt like we were never able to get a good sense of all of the characters even though many told their own stories and sometimes we read from their POV. We do get a great sense of Lucky's character and who she is at her core. Her story really tugs at your heartstrings. We also get a lot of personality from her grandma, Stella. Stella is probably one of my favorite characters in the book. Sadly, even though we learn a bit of the backstories of the other witches, we didn't see much of their current personalities. To be fair, at times we are not with all the witches but I wish we could have seen more. Dimaline did an excellent job of making me hate the villain of this story. He is a certified creep and, honestly, I felt disgusted reading from his POV.
My biggest issue with this story is that there is so much pressure and push for them to find the spoons and the witches, but I failed to see the reason? I never felt like I was given a reason why it was so important to complete the coven or what would really happen if they didn't?
This book felt like a 400 page prequel story for...something. It was like a flashback of 'how we got here' in the middle of another book. And with the way this book ended, I am very uncertain of what that could be. It felt like the story came to a close, but then there was an epilogue to open the story to a wider lens...but for what? Maybe in the future I will give this a reread and see if maybe I missed something that told me why the coven needed to be completed other than it would have to disband if it wasn't complete, but I don't think I did.
I will say that there is a lot of representation throughout the book, which was nice to see. There is, of course, Indigenous rep, but there is also LGBTQIA+ rep, some very important people are Black, there are multiple versions of witchcraft not just a typical lens, we also see a young person having to take care of their elders. A lot of very good things. I can't say that the rep is done well or not, as most do not apply to me. So I will definitely try to seek out reviews from diverse readers.
Overall, this book was okay. I think if this is going to be a series, that I would definitely pick up the next book (if only to see where the story is going). I'm happy a lot of people are loving this one! It just disappointed me a bit.
I would give this 3.5 stars out of 5.

This wasn't what I was expecting, but once I got into it I was hooked. I loved the diverse cast of characters, and I liked the non-linear timeline. The world building is rich and multifaceted encompassing feminism, social issues, trauma, indigenous rights and other social issues while weaving through magic in multiple beliefs and forms. While a bit dark for me at times, the book's found family and strong women made the book memorable and inspiring.

Lucky St. James lives with her grandmother, Stella, in a Toronto apartment that they face being evicted from. One night, Lucky feels drawn to a hidden passage in her apartment building, where she finds a spoon. Unbeknownst to Lucky, that spoon is the key to her future full of some amazing characters who have long been awaiting her retrieval of the spoon. The coven that waits for Lucky is made up of a group of diverse women from different backgrounds. It was nice to see the inclusivity in this book. The journey is a long one, so hold on tight and enjoy the ride!

Full disclosure: this book had a super slow plot start for me, so I had trouble getting into it. Stick it out though, because I ended up loving it.

4.5 (rounded up) out of 5 stars.

I received a free ARC from the author and NetGalley; and I am voluntarily leaving an unbiased review.

This novel unfortunately fell flat for me. I think I came into reading this with high hopes from all the info I was seeing on various sites hyping it up. It just never got to where I wish it was going. Also is it assumed that there is a sequel coming or was the last chapter a wrap up?