You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
slow-paced
1.5 Stars
One Liner: Man, this was boring!
Lucky St. James lives with her grandma, Stella, and is desperate to find a solution to their various problems, including the eviction from their little apartment in Toronto. However, when she burrows through a wall to find an old spoon with SALEM etched on it, she sets things in motion.
Myrna Good has been looking for Lucky to complete the witch’s coven. While Lucky knows about her witchy ancestors, she doesn’t know the spoon links her to a network of witches in North America. Now, with a short deadline, she and her grandma have to go on a hunt to find the last spoon.
Meanwhile, witch hunter Jay Christos is on their trail, determined to prevent the witches from forming a coven.
The story comes in the third-person POVs of multiple characters.
My Thoughts:
So, I picked this for one of the GR challenges for May-June 2025 (something about travel of some sort). The book was already in my TBR, so I figured I could at least tick it off.
The premise has potential, and I like books about witches. It was supposed to be a win-win. But… honestly, this was such a pathetic attempt at writing a supposedly powerful story about women, witches, patriarchy, feminism, capitalism, and whatnot!
After finishing the book, I read a couple of reviews and agreed with them on most aspects. One reviewer (Emma D) said this is a girl boss/ girl power story and not about feminism. Yeah, that sums it up so well!
Everything in the book is superficial at its best. You have three powerful but not powerful women (Crone, Mother, and Maiden) who run the global VenCo that hires women for various roles and blah blah. I think this was supposed to give bad-ass vibes, but it was so immature! A woman in power sexually using her male employee should be something I should cheer for? No thanks!
Then, we have a half-coven with diversity and tragic backstories that didn’t make me feel anything. They don’t know what they are supposed to do except that forming a coven will somehow solve all the world’s problems because, hey, girl power rocks!
Next, we have this all men are bad and all women were hunted as witches nonsense. Flash news. Men were also killed for being witches. Not as many as women, but they were also victims. Moreover, the Salem witches were hanged to death. I did a quick Google search to confirm this.
Apart from the slow pacing, the lack of dynamics between the characters, and a sprinkling of gratuitous sex scenes, did nothing to help the book. The only ones who marginally made an impact were Lucky and Stella. In fact, I felt sad for Stella so many times! She is constantly exposed to dangers despite her health condition.
All that drinking wasn’t helpful either. Why do some authors think having characters drunk until they are useless is going to help them function like pros? When they should actually be discussing important aspects and planning, they are busy getting drunk.
I’m sorry, but nothing in the book highlights that the author is indigenous. I didn’t even know until a reviewer mentioned it, and I googled the tidbit. But the book doesn’t have any such roots. Where is your heritage? Where is your love for your culture? All we get are snippets that barely elevate the plot.
For a book about witches, the magic system is vague, underdeveloped, and dull. No one is truly talented, but they are all supposed to be witches destined to change the world? Lucky is somehow powerful and can do something no other witch did, though she hasn’t known about her witchy identity for more than a week or two? Right!
The villain is such a caricature that you can’t stop rolling your eyes each time he is in the frame. The last section is still interesting compared to the rest. But honestly, this was a slog I could have done without.
To summarize, VenCo is a slow-paced and boring book with an ambitious plot and poor execution. I tried my best to enjoy it, but when the only way to marginally like a book is to speed-read it like a robot, you know nothing can save it.
One Liner: Man, this was boring!
Lucky St. James lives with her grandma, Stella, and is desperate to find a solution to their various problems, including the eviction from their little apartment in Toronto. However, when she burrows through a wall to find an old spoon with SALEM etched on it, she sets things in motion.
Myrna Good has been looking for Lucky to complete the witch’s coven. While Lucky knows about her witchy ancestors, she doesn’t know the spoon links her to a network of witches in North America. Now, with a short deadline, she and her grandma have to go on a hunt to find the last spoon.
Meanwhile, witch hunter Jay Christos is on their trail, determined to prevent the witches from forming a coven.
The story comes in the third-person POVs of multiple characters.
My Thoughts:
So, I picked this for one of the GR challenges for May-June 2025 (something about travel of some sort). The book was already in my TBR, so I figured I could at least tick it off.
The premise has potential, and I like books about witches. It was supposed to be a win-win. But… honestly, this was such a pathetic attempt at writing a supposedly powerful story about women, witches, patriarchy, feminism, capitalism, and whatnot!
After finishing the book, I read a couple of reviews and agreed with them on most aspects. One reviewer (Emma D) said this is a girl boss/ girl power story and not about feminism. Yeah, that sums it up so well!
Everything in the book is superficial at its best. You have three powerful but not powerful women (Crone, Mother, and Maiden) who run the global VenCo that hires women for various roles and blah blah. I think this was supposed to give bad-ass vibes, but it was so immature! A woman in power sexually using her male employee should be something I should cheer for? No thanks!
Then, we have a half-coven with diversity and tragic backstories that didn’t make me feel anything. They don’t know what they are supposed to do except that forming a coven will somehow solve all the world’s problems because, hey, girl power rocks!
Next, we have this all men are bad and all women were hunted as witches nonsense. Flash news. Men were also killed for being witches. Not as many as women, but they were also victims. Moreover, the Salem witches were hanged to death. I did a quick Google search to confirm this.
Apart from the slow pacing, the lack of dynamics between the characters, and a sprinkling of gratuitous sex scenes, did nothing to help the book. The only ones who marginally made an impact were Lucky and Stella. In fact, I felt sad for Stella so many times! She is constantly exposed to dangers despite her health condition.
All that drinking wasn’t helpful either. Why do some authors think having characters drunk until they are useless is going to help them function like pros? When they should actually be discussing important aspects and planning, they are busy getting drunk.
I’m sorry, but nothing in the book highlights that the author is indigenous. I didn’t even know until a reviewer mentioned it, and I googled the tidbit. But the book doesn’t have any such roots. Where is your heritage? Where is your love for your culture? All we get are snippets that barely elevate the plot.
For a book about witches, the magic system is vague, underdeveloped, and dull. No one is truly talented, but they are all supposed to be witches destined to change the world? Lucky is somehow powerful and can do something no other witch did, though she hasn’t known about her witchy identity for more than a week or two? Right!
The villain is such a caricature that you can’t stop rolling your eyes each time he is in the frame. The last section is still interesting compared to the rest. But honestly, this was a slog I could have done without.
To summarize, VenCo is a slow-paced and boring book with an ambitious plot and poor execution. I tried my best to enjoy it, but when the only way to marginally like a book is to speed-read it like a robot, you know nothing can save it.