I wanted to like this one. The premise—witches breaking a centuries old curse—is definitely the kind of thing I enjoy. And I did really enjoy the world-building. Every scene was so descriptive with rich detail that captured my imagination.

But unfortunately the story itself fell flat for me. The plot was really confusing and hard to follow. It may just be because I haven’t read enough fantasy to get the tropes, but I was often very confused as to what was happening. There were several very significant moments where the characters seemed to grasp something of importance to the plot, but I was left confused. Even the big climax was hard to understand. I was glad they all lived happily ever after, but I didn’t quite understand how they did it.

I didn’t really vibe with the characters either. The aunt was presented as evil and controlling, ruling with an iron fist and torturing her enemies. But then in the final chapters she abruptly transforms into a kind and caring guardian and the torture is laughed off as no big deal. Although hers is the most dramatic, other characters too seem to shift personalities and motivations at the drop of a hat. It was very hard to like the characters when they kept changing so much!

Sadly, as much as I tried to, I didn’t end up enjoying this one.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my review copy of this book.

Unfortunately this is a fast dnf for me. 2% in and it talks about 7 year olds falling in love and wanting to brush their fingers over the others mouth or tucking the hair behind the others ear. That completely turned me off from wanting to read anymore of this book because that's something teenagers would do or YA, but not 7 year olds. It's just odd anyone would write that about 7 year olds and love.

I loved this book. Magic, generational curses, Scotland. What more do you need to know? Great twists and turns, and very fun.

While this book gives all the witchy vibes with an interesting premise, I had a hard time connecting to the story and characters. The middle of the book lost me a bit and I had to keep going back to see if I missed something. Concept was great but the execution was not.

Title:  A Circle of Uncommon Witches  
Author: Paige Crutcher          
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  3.0 out of 5

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.

Normally I love family saga type stories, but this one didn’t work for me. Family secrets were taken to whole other level, and the flip to “Oh, we were on your side all along” felt completely made up with no supporting evidence. I wasn’t a fan of the insta-love aspect, either.

Paige Crutcher is a former journalist. A Circle of Uncommon Witches is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 2/26).

An enthralling witchy romance with plenty of drama and mystery. Great character development and overall plot kept me drawn into this story throughout and turning pages to find the resolution in this story. My only critique is that it seemed to be tied up a bit too neatly in the end with some of the conflict and characters suddenly getting along.

Circle of uncommon witches was a good read… not bad but not great either. I had trouble connecting with the story and honestly got confused at times.

3.5 rounded up!

A CIRCLE of UNCOMMON WITCHES was a well written and good book. But, unfortunately, I don't think it was fully for me. This is marketed as a romance, but to me, it is more of a magical realism, character driven novel that happened to have some romance in it. As a result, I wasn't overly enthralled with the novel because the genre is not a favorite of mine. 

The novel is well written and explores the nature of relationships and love. The ideas were solid and those concepts were ones that made me think. The characters within are interconnected and detailed, and I appreciated how detailed these characters are. I felt like I knew them while I was reading. The magical realism element was amazing for those that love that, and this book is not overly invested into the romance aspect. For many, this is a book that they will love because of those elements. 

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. Magical realism is a hit or miss for me. And this time is a miss. I think it is because nothing is really fully explained well and effectively. The elements just are. And that is fine to some. But is a reason why the genre and I are acquaintances at best. And, I thought I was reading a romance, as that is how it is marketed. However, I think that is misleading. It isn't really a romance because they just happen to fall in love, very quickly, without the reader really following along with why. It has barely a romance plot at all. 
Overall, this book isn't for me. But it was well written and I cared about the story. If you like magical realism and deeply character driven novels, this will be your vibe. 

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

My review: very interesting read. When true love is out of reach because of a curse, you go through your whole life trying to figure it out. Sacrifices, lies and torture In some aspects. Kept me reading , and I really liked to ending.

gorgeous roamnce with some awesome characters and great lore. would definitely recommend. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

I love books about witches, so I was really excited to read this book. The story follows, Doreen, a witch who is cursed to marry someone before she turns thirty, or she will die. The curse has been in her family for generations. In order to try to break the curse, Doreen must team up with the man who cursed her family.

I was intrigued in the beginning. I liked the premise and the atmosphere. What really irritated me about this story was the instalove between Doreen and Ambrose. They hadn’t known each other that long before falling madly in love. It just made me cringe.

There was also this whole thing with trials that Doreen had to go through. I’m not that into books that involve trials. I just didn’t really care. The pacing slowed down a lot by the time I got about halfway through the book and it took me forever to finish it.

I was hoping to enjoy this one more than I did since I do love books about witches, but unfortunately this was a miss for me.

I really liked the witches, Doreen and Margot and started to like Ambrose. I did unfortunately feel as if I wasn’t given enough to fully invest in the characters. I was missing some of the connection pieces.

Also a bit confused over some of the plot lines. Thank you for the chance to read in advance.

Rating: 2.5

I really enjoyed the witchy vibes in this and though the romance was probably the least compelling aspect of the read for me, I still was pretty invested throughout. My biggest issue was that the world building/magical rules grew a little convoluted towards the middle which made it difficult to follow, on top of that it was, at times, vague in a way that reminded me of how I felt reading Assistant to the Villain so I just felt like I was reading a slightly more competent, and witchy, version of that book.

I did however really enjoy the relationship between Margot and Doreen (and wish that was explored a bit more) + I weirdly grew fond of Lenora/Eleanor so I do think this book had a lot of elements that were right up my alley but the execution was just a bit unsatisfying in practice

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC to review!

At first I was unsure of why these women were cursed but as it kept going I understood that even though to be cursed to have men fall in love with you it would all be because of the curse and never knowing true love. Doreen decides that she will not settle for anything less than true love and so she behind her journey to try and break the curse. I really enjoyed this. The pain and suffering they felt seemed realistic. The ending was perfect as well. If we don’t get a second book it will still be okay.

This one was just wow. I expected the usual "break the curse" story, but this was so much more! The setting is creepy, haunting, gives you chills while still being light and making room for all the banter between Doreen and Ambrose🤭 The plot mixed with the romance SO well! I was constantly needing to know what they would uncover next, then be giggling over their bickering.

“𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕.

I loved the multiple POVs. They weren't given in a way that said "Doreen POV" or "Ada POV". It was a little confusing the first couple of times, but was super easy and immersive once I got the hang of it. There's so much going on in the present, the past, and with everyone else that if it were delivered any other way I feel like it wouldn't of hit as hard.

”𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔; 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍 𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒆; 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒎.”

The character relationships and development? Top notch. This was a love story torn from a generational curse caused by forbidden love. There were no bad guys, not really and when I tell you I CRIED😭 And that ending?! I was SCREAMINGGGG

“𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝒊𝒏 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅, 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔.”

A Circle of Uncommon Witches has made me put all of Paige's books on my TBR. I'm absolutely in love with her writing style now🖤 Thank you so much to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's for the gifted copy!

The concept for this book was good. A witch dealing with a generational curse frees the centuries and witch who cast it to help her break the curse. But I didn’t feel it was executed well.

Our main character, Doreen, doesn’t like to play by the rules. She’s not like the other witches in her family that will marry someone they are cursed to have enthralled, just so she doesn’t die at the age of 30. She discovers where her family has kept the witch, Ambrose, that originally cursed their line 300 years ago and frees him so he can help her break it. Which leads to them doing fake trials for a soul eater who has connections to both of their families.

My main issue is that Doreen and Ambrose fall in love far too quickly, and there is absolutely no tension about it either. What should have been a good enemies-to-lovers is just ‘we hate each other because of things they happened 300 years ago, but now I love you.’ I felt like I was plunked into a story and things weren’t explained well enough.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc of this book! It was a wonderful read during spooky season 👻 In my opinion it’s a wonderful mix of adventure and romance. It is set in modern times but doesn’t feel like it because there is no focus on current events/technology which I enjoyed that fact because I was not sure how she was going to write about that at first. This story was captivating from the beginning and I was drawn in by the magic of it all! ✨

This was a fun read, two witch families feuding until the 13th daughter decides to break the curse one witch put on the other family. Doreen is such a likable character while Ambrose is not. I loved reading about the history of both families and the secrets were surprising. A solid 3.5-4 star read.

This was a very enjoyable read. Doreen is cursed like the rest of her line, that if she doesn’t marry by 30- she’ll die. Her family does not have trouble finding mates since they can pull any partner under their spells, but Doreen wants true love. The vivid setting and magical elements kept me enthralled. I loved seeing the love story play out.

I'm on the fence. While A Circle of Uncommon Witches was a super quick and easy read (and pretty enjoyable for the most part), something was just lacking. Overall it was... fine.