I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Spells Trouble by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast
Series: Sisters of Salem #1
Published by Wednesday Books on 5/25/21
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 309
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Double double, twins spell trouble…

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

When their mother becomes the first victim in a string of murders, the devastated sisters vow to avenge her death. But it will take more than magic to rein in the ancient mythological monsters who’ve infected their peaceful town.

Now Hunter and Mercy must come together and accept their destiny or risk being separated for good.

Short and Sweet Review

Mercy and Hunter Goode are descendants of Sarah Goode their town’s founder and like their ancestors have done before them its time for them to become gate keepers. Gate keepers are the protectors of gates to different underworlds where mythological creatures rule. During a ritual the girl’s mother becomes the first victim in a string of murders that begins to plague their town. The girls vow to avenge their mother, but they also have work together in order for the gates to close again.

The book starts off with Hunter and Mercy celebrating their birthday with their friends and later that night is when they go out to do their ceremony with their mom Abigail. During the ceremony in which the girls are supposed to become gate keepers something goes wrong and Abigail is attacked by a Fenrir that came from one of the gates and is unfortunately killed. The girls realize something is wrong with the gates and with the help of Xena their cat familiar who can conveniently transform into a human try to figure out a way to fix it and fast.

So there were a lot of things I didn’t like about this book starting right after their mother was killed was when things went right off a cliff.

~ Xena was just weird but I guess if you’re a cat person it’s to be expected. she would groom the girls, call the characters kitten and hiss at people. You would think that for being around people for as long as she has she would know how to act as a human.

~ Mercy and Kirk were a mess and unfortunately I had to read about them. Everyone could tell that Kirk was a piece of trash except for Mercy, her friends warned her, her family warned her, but she just didn’t care. The authors for some reasons thought it would be pertinent to add a sex scene which added nothing to the book. All this scene did was make me cringe, apparently it’s romantic to call your girlfriend a witchy woman (yuck). And you’re probably thinking why are you mentioning this scene in your review? Well lovely reader, for some reason this is like a big moment for Mercy. So big in fact that Kirk goes around and tells everyone and I mean EVERYONE that they had sex but when Mercy finds out she doesn’t believe it because Kirk wouldn’t do such a thing. Anyway our smart main character decides to cast a spell so the entire school can hear just how much Kirk loves her and ends up getting embarrassed when he admits that he was playing her the whole time. This might have actually have been my favorite part because she was so sure of herself that she would disregard what everyone around her was saying, so sorry sis.

~ The writing felt weird, at some points I felt like I could have been reading a middle grade book if there wasn’t a sex scene and stuff. At other times it felt like a young adult but the characters were written for a bad 2000s movie. Do teens really talk like this? I’m going to say no. Especially Mercy! What the hell is up with her dialogue? She talks like she’s from Europe but she’s most definitely not so I don’t know you guys I don’t know, maybe she’s going through an identity crisis.

~ Also Mercy is annoying. Her best friend’s father dies and she doesn’t even give her time to grieve she’s just blowing up her phone like give her some breathing room. Mercy is pushy. Writing this point I feel like both Mercy and Hunter want to be right but when there’s push back from someone all hell breaks loose and they get so mad and stomp off and have a tantrum.

~ Speaking of getting mad more than 60% of this book is Mercy and Hunter being mad at each other. How are things supposed to get done when there’s so much tension between them? When the girls do there spells they’re supposed to think of the intention behind them but I feel like that’s hard to do when you’re thinking about how you’re mad at your sister.

~ Also there’s a prophecy that was written about why the gates are deteriorating, Mercy thinks its because Hunter chose a God and Hunter thinks that Mercy is wrong so Hunter in the end picks a Goddess but things still go to hell and that’s when we’re left with a dramatic cliffhanger and Hunter running off like the angsty teen she is.

So I honestly did not want to finish this book, but I did because I’m dedicated, and how else would I have gotten all the above bullet points? This book, the characters, the plot, the pacing, everything was a hot mess and I would not recommend it at all, save your time and your money!