An Intrigue of Witches is a mix of historical fiction, fantasy and sci-fi and it's a lot to take in. And when i say it's a lot i mean, it's has a lot going on and not enough pages, so it felt a bit lacking in a sense.

This is the first in the Secret Society Mysteries book and as expected there's a lot of world building for the size of it. There are many great ideas and i wish they can be more explored in the next instalment. Will I continue with the series? Yes, i felt like this as potencial to became a good series.

GENRE: A mixture of fantasy & Sci-Fi
RATING: ⭐⭐.75/5 - rounded to 3 stars
FORMAT: eArc

Would I recommend to others?: For the time being, I think I would recommend this to people who enjoy Sci-Fi and a heavy detailed book

Review:
Where do I begin? I did not expect the book to go in the direction it did and I do feel that the synopsis did not prepare me for the book at all. I was pretty surprised (not necessarily in a good or bad way, just in a curiosity kind of way if that makes any sense). There were a LOT of elements in this mixture of historical fiction, fantasy and sci-fi book and when I say ALOT I mean it. I do tend to enjoy historical fantasy and love reading about different eras and histories and this was interesting in that sense.

However, there were many elements that did not feel like they added up in the story. There was a lot of strings that also did not come together quite well. Without giving away a lot of things and spoilers, I think it was quite a heavy book for its size and pages at 300 pg. I might choose to continue the series if I'm being honest as I am intrigued to see how this book will continue, purely out of curiosity. I think I wish this book was longer, more developed and dived into alot of the aspects in more details to make it flow better. I do wonder if reading the rest of the series will achieve this.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 ⭐ Rounded Up. Thankyou to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC (And sorry it took me so long to get round to reviewing).

The first thing I would like to say about this book is don't go in expecting loads of witchy stuff, the witchy stuff takes until the latter half of the book to get going. But in place of this we get... a LOT of other subplots, far too many in fact which is the massive issue with this book. Because whilst I enjoyed the national treasure stuff of solving clues and hunting for mysterious artifacts the other subplots crowd and distract from this.

Subplots we get include.... Treasure map hunts, goverment conspiracy, VR taking over the world, family discord, a threatening prescence coming to attack our main character, secret societies of people dating back to the Egyptians which explain basically everything that's gone wrong in the world.. ever... including natural disasters, witches and time travel.

So whilst the actual treasure hunt aspect was fun we then also have a trilogy's worth of plots in a single less than 300 page book and as could be expected it makes it really hard to keep everything straight and means none of these plots get properly explored and many feel random and unnecessary. In particular the VR stuff just felt so out of place, not to mention ridiculous to anyone that knows anything about that space.

You're telling me VR, a prohibitive and expensive peripheral becomes so advanced that you can feel all the esensations and perfectly render someones body, illnesses and all (they mention using it for medical consulations/treatement) I'm sorry what do you MEAN treatment? How? You know even if you see someone in a VR space you still need to be in a physiacla space to actually do anything to them right? And NOONE is asking any of these questions apparently and most people are just buying into this. Not to mention that we're expected to believe the whole world, most of which don't even recognise how online friendships or content creation as a career work will just, be in VR quite happily... ok. <spoiler> Yes I know it's all a front but that almost makes it MORE ridiculous that people are just ebeliving this level of technology is legit </spoiler>.

The other major issue I had was Sydney herself. We are told she is a superstar historian so presumably quite a smart woman? No... she's dumb as bricks at times. The main moment is when she ends up at a bar/museum/bookstore that ends up being connected to the mystery, at this point her lead is having a key and needing to find what the key unlocks. The owner mentions that there's a strange clause in the inheritence of the building, there's a particular book they must keep on the premises and are not allowed to sell, pretty intriguing yes? Probably connected to this mystery surely? No, decides Sydney because... prepare yourself... according to our very clever historian protaganist, she "has a key and books don't have locks". Yeeeahhhh So firstly Sydney yes... they definitely can, I literally had a locked diary as a child, like... I sense this is common knowledge let alone for a historian. And even IF books couldn't have locks do you not think it's important to check anyway, it might have a clue in it. But don't worry Sidney being an idiot doean't matter because the owner offers to show the book a second time and Sydney does look at it and... OMG guess what??? There's a lock on the book! No shit Sherlock.

Writing wise it's also very weird that major reveals happen to Sydney and she just... seems to move on and forget 5 minutes later. At one point she finds out who it was that got her fired from her beloved job at the Smithsonian that she had to work so hard for, she's angry with them for a few lines, then it's immediately forgotten about and never mentioned again. She finds out something major about her Grandma from a friend and tusted source and then never ever talks to her about it.

She also has a stupid habit of trusting literally everyone she meets despite being told "hey don't tell people you're hunting for this treasure" and having threats texted to her and some mysterious person threatening her, her family and friends.She immediately ends up tipping of everyone or flat out telling them with very little thought of "huh maybe this person is suspicious".

There's also this weird thing of Sydney knowing literally nothing about what's going on the in the world. Like lietral; natural distaster stuff happens and she's like "Huh what do you mean?". Now I get that she doesn't like watching her superstar news anchor mums show. But 1) There's other news channels) 2) You can y'know read news artciles instead and 3) I literally never look at the news but I still know about major things happening because of osmosis from overhearing things, social media etc. Just again, super weird.

And this is the problem, yes the overcramming of the plot is a problem but the treasure hunt stuff might have been enough to save it... if it wasn't for how annoying and stupid Sydney is.

First I want to show my appreciation for being given access to the e-arc through NetGalley. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be continuing the series. I really enjoyed the flow of Esme Addisons writing style and although it was a relatively short book but it was weaved well. The witchy vibes were immaculate and there was a strong mystery too that I really appreciated. The characters revolve around the family and there was a lot of nods to mythologies and fairy tales without it overtaking the witch vibes. I am really looking forward to the rest of the series.

This was ok, but there was too many conspiracies and unexplained "miraculous" knowledge moments. I enjoyed the twists, but I felt like there could have been a few less and the story would have been able to expand on them more and really let each of the twists be shocking.

Was this book entertaining? Yes. Was it what I expected going in? Not exactly...

This book packs a *lot* into 288 pages, blending elements of fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, thriller, romance, and sci-fi. Yes, all of that is included in this one book. This was an incredibly ambitious story, and while I don't think it was executed poorly, I do think it could have been written in a way that was more enjoyable for the reader and took advantage of the fact that this is part of a series vs. a standalone.

As you can probably imagine, being the first in a series of Secret Society Mysteries, there was a good amount of world building involved. However, fitting so much into a relatively short novel meant that a lot was told to readers instead of being shown. There were so many interesting ideas in this book that I wish had been explored more deeply.

Some elements of the story felt superfluous, often at the expense of plot and character development. A prime example of this is the romance between Sidney and Gabe, which felt like insta-love for the sake of moving the plot along. I wish that the author had instead taken time to build their dynamic throughout the series into something that felt more realistic, while using the first book to allocate more time to explaining the history and magic system.

Overall, An Intrigue of Witches was an entertaining read that I don't regret picking up. However, I'm not sure that I will continue with the series.

I forgot how much I love a good historical mystery. This one introduced me to an entirely new history and I can't wait to delve deeper. What a great adventure!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

1.5

I saw "National Treasure meets the supernatural treasure hunts of Indiana Jones, with a dash of A Discovery of Witches," and thought well I have to read that. Unfortunately, I wish I hadn't.

I am a firm believer that every book has an audience, and I know that my reading experience (the audiobook while stuck in stop and go traffic) did not allow for the greatest mindset while reading, so I will try not to judge this book too harshly; however, I think it was trying to do way too much.

Billed as a "cozy thriller," An Intrigue of Witches follows Sidney Taylor, a 30 year old Black woman and talented early American historian when she's mysteriously placed on furlough (despite being the TV personality of the Smithsonian Institute). Then she gets a letter that sends her on a wild goose chase of American history à la National Treasure. What follows is a series of implausible clue finding missions and weird mixes of actual (or almost actual) American history set in a future version of the United States that also has witches and time travel?

I think I can understand where the author was trying to go with this and I applaud the creativity of the genre mash up but between the main character who has clearly never done a thing wrong in her life duh and the mustache twirling villain monologue (that actually included the lines "that's how awesome we are" and "It's your funeral. Literally.") I really struggled through this.

I think if you go in expecting this to be a speculative cozy mystery, you might fare better, but by the time I realized this was going down the traditional cozy mystery path of zany and unbelievable plot, I was already Over It.

The definition of throwing everything but the kitchen sink in, An Intrigue of Witches never really nails it's blend of supernatural shenanigans, politics, romance, time travel, and even more, and the writing style needs further development, but Addison shows a talent for characterisation and if nothing else, a brilliantly boundless imagination.

This is book 1 in a great new series, Secret Society. I'm looking forward to book 2 with magic, time travel and great characters. Thirty-year-old Black woman Sidney Taylor is a talented early American historian, working in fast-paced Washington DC, with her eyes on promotion. She’s also currently persona non grata. Who knew that making an inconvenient historical discovery would see her stuck at her desk, shuffling paper?
So when she receives an anonymous and very cryptic invitation to visit historic small-town Robbinsville, North Carolina and hunt for a missing archaeological treasure – with a million-dollar pay out at stake – it’s one she can’t refuse. Besides, her beloved grandmother lives in Robbinsville, and it’s been too long since she’s paid her a visit.
Soon, Sidney's on an exciting treasure hunt, following two-hundred-year-old clues that lead her ever closer to the artefact she’s searching for. But what is the artefact? And why is Sidney starting to feel like she’s at the heart of a terrifying conspiracy she doesn’t understand?
Some of the clues are a little far fetched but a very enjoyable read.

This novel was a very huge undertaking to say the least. This book had a whole LOT of narrative writing throughout the book. The author must have done an extensive amount of researching. It made me think of National Treasure/ Indiana Jones with witches. It was very fast paced and mystery around every corner that you had to figure out. I really enjoyed the mystery and secret society here. The characters are multidimensional and the foreshadowing is on point. If you enjoy female sleuths or secret societies this is definitely a book for you.

This was very much National Treasure with a focus on historical women and witches. It definitely has some interesting conspiracy theories and a ton of adventure.

It wasn't as witchy as I thought it would be, but I did enjoy the puzzle solving and unraveling of secrets. It felt felt like the story would have been better without the AI plot as it didn't exactly add much of anything useful. Because of that, I ended up giving this book 3 stars instead of 4.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest, personal review. Sidney is a historian working in DC when she is unceremoniously put on furlough after making the discovery of a lifetime. She then receives a mysterious invitation to locate an artifact which would bring her back to her grandmother in Robbinsville. This book is filled with conspiracy, treasure hunts, puzzles and much more. Very intriguing, worth the read!

I tried to get into this book, but unfortunately I was unable to connect with any of the characters, and found the writing to be a little juvenile. Maybe I'll come back to this later, but I am not sure right now. 2.5/5 for what I finished

Sidney Taylor gets a strange invitation from a friend of her grandmother to come to Robbinsville, North Carolina and find a long lost artifact and if she succeeds the paycheck is 1 million-dollars.

Sidney is given numerous clues but still doesn't know what exactly she is looking for. As she progresses in her search, it gets more dangerous, with threats and attempts on her life. Will she find what she's searching for and why there are those that don't want her to find it?

Great characters and numerous shocks and twists

I'm not a super big mystery or like real world reader, I think the witchy stuff really sucked me in.

This was a really interesting first book in what appears to be an exciting series! If you're a fan of movies like National Treasure and you love a speculative edge, this is the book for you! Sidney is a great protagonist — her perspective is deeply empathetic and you resonate well with her and her point of view. In particular, I liked Sidney's habit of putting things in lists. As someone who can't do things or remember things without a similar system, I thought this was just a little bit of specificity in her characterisation that was well done. There's plenty of excitement and action and a historical mystery that I found very intriguing, especially with Sidney's take and approach and adventure to solve it.

An Intrigue of Witches is a different type of book than I'm used to reading. I usually stick with cozy mysteries, but since the author wrote a cozy series I enjoyed, I thought I'd give this one a try. I thought it was a very interesting book. I did find the highly scientific parts of explaining certain things in the story to be a bit tedious though. However, it was still a fun read that I couldn't put down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Sidney is a very intriguing character that I'm looking forward to reading more about in future books. I can't wait to see what happens next in her story because there's so many different things that can happen. I'll definitely be buying the next book in this series when it comes out.

American history professor Sidney Taylor is on furlough from her job in Washington DC when she gets asked to return to her hometown Robbinsville to search for a historical artefact. It doesn't take long for Sidney to realize there is more to the story of the artefact than she first thought, and before she knows it she is in the middle of a huge conspiracy revolving around ancient bloodlines and secret societies, with the fate of the world at stake. The history and magic side of things was much more along the lines of what I had expected, and I thought Addison did a good job of weaving the fantasy elements in to the story in what felt like a natural way. Although there's aspects of this that reminded me of Dan Brown's books, it also felt like something new and different, unusual. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for an arc in exchange for an honest review.