Audiobook Review – The Witch Haven (The Witch Haven, Book 1) by Sasha Peyton Smith, Narrated by Piper Goodeve (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 13 hours and 31 minutes
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: August 31, 2021
ASIN: B093QNFYRG
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Witch Haven Duology
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In 1911 New York City, 17-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress, mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior. Everything changes when she’s attacked and a man ends up dead at her feet – her scissors in his neck, and she can’t explain how they got there.
Before she can be condemned as a murderess, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to inform her she is deathly ill and ordered to report to Haxahaven Sanitarium. But Frances finds Haxahaven isn’t a sanitarium at all: It’s a school for witches. Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic is dangerous. Frances has no interest in the small, safe magic of her school, and is instead enchanted by Finn, a boy with magic himself who appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what truly happened to her brother.
Frances’s newfound power attracts the attention of the leader of an ancient order who yearns for magical control of Manhattan. And who will stop at nothing to have Frances by his side. Frances must ultimately choose what matters more, justice for her murdered brother and her growing feelings for Finn, or the safety of her city and fellow witches. What price would she pay for power, and what if the truth is more terrible than she ever imagined?”
Series Info/Source: This is first book in The Witch Haven series. There are two books in this series. I borrowed this ebook through Kindle Unlimited.
Thoughts: This was okay but not great. It reminds me of too many other YA historical fantasy books out there. There really wasn’t anything special here that grabbed my attention, I almost stopped reading it a number of times because I found the main protagonist pretty annoying. The side characters aren’t strong enough to redeem her.
The story follows 17 year old Frances who is a seamstress in a sweatshop. Her brother mysteriously dies months prior and she is set on solving the mystery of his death. When her boss attacks her, she ends up using a strange power to save herself and suddenly finds herself whisked off to the Haxahaven Sanitarium, a secret witch school. At first she loves it there but then she starts to uncover some secrets that show the school’s true colors.
Everything about this book was just so mediocre. The premise has been done many times before and the characters all felt bland to me. Frances in particular bothered me. She constantly pushes a “girl power attitude” in her head but then is constantly seeking approval from the boys and men around her, it was a bit nauseating. She is also one of those heroines that just makes a lot of bad decisions that the reader can see are bad decisions from a mile away…I found her irritating.
Some of the side characters are okay, but they are very much left on the sidelines. None were interesting enough to distract from Frances’s lameness.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. I felt like the whole story was a bit overly dramatic and couldn’t figure out if it was the narration style or the writing that was causing that. There is no humor in here and I found it to be generally overly dramatic and dry feeling.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay, I just didn’t find myself really enjoying this…it seemed too similar to so much other YA fantasy I’ve read. Everything in here was just kind of..well..blah. Technically the writing is fine and if you want a typical YA fantasy to read and don’t mind “girl power” heroines that cater to the men in their lives, you might enjoy this. I won’t be reading the second book in the series.
