The gorgeous cover and clever title attracted me to this book immediately. It's a curious mixture of fantasy, history, and political conspiracy combined into a treasure hunt for an unknown artifact. Just when I'd think I understood a piece of the puzzle, the pieces would shuffle once more. I'm familiar with the ancient history connected to the story as well as the Scottish witch hunts conducted by James I but the virtual reality component lost me. I almost gave up but I'm glad I decided to keep going. All of the pieces really do come together and I enjoyed the empowering connections between the female characters. My personal inability to understand the virtual reality and quantum physics components didn't matter in the long run. The early American history thread of the story actually dovetailed with my own family history as it probably will with other readers with Scottish ancestry. Although the plot was neatly wrapped up in the end, I hope that there will be another book to pick up where this one ended.

My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for the digital ARC. All opinions and the review are entirely my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with the eARC of this book!

DNF at 15%

I had to stop when the book erroneously said that daisies were also known as narcissi when in fact they are not. Narcissi are often called daffodils or jonquils, but not daisies. I also noticed there's a mention of a character moving to "Columbia" and marrying a coffee plantation billionaire; was this meant to says "Colombia" like the country and not "Columbia"?

This is just the final straw though. I had a hard time getting into the book and connecting with the main character. I think the book needs some revision regarding the pacing and structure of the writing, and utilizing the "show, don't tell" advice. Show us the financial struggles Sidney is facing and how bad it must be for her to accept the offer to locate the missing artifact just for the money instead of just telling us. Show us her complicated relationship with her family, instead of just telling us. Show us why the takeover of VR and AI in this world would be a negative thing and how it's been affecting others to the point the discovery of this artifact is an urgent matter.

Perhaps some of these are further elaborated, but it feels as if it should have been done sooner than later.

I might continue to read this book in the future as I was enjoying the mystery aspect and the puzzles, and I'm curious to know how witches tie into this story, an element in this book that I feel has been lacking in spite of what the title might suggest.