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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fun and easy read. I love dark academia genres, and this delivers exactly that. The story reads more YA since the female main character is around 18 or so, she is an assassin who was raised to hate anyone with magic.
She infiltrates the Academy of Magic to kill Lucian the Dark Prince, but discovers she possesses magic herself. This leads to both a journey of self-discovery and an internal conflict as she grapples with her assassination mission.
There's an intriguing push and pull between her and Lucian, with her celestial magic and his shadow magic drawing them together.
The story weaves together magic, grimoires, curses, and secret societies into its narrative. As the first book in the series, it establishes the foundation while hinting at more intense developments—including possible betrayal—to come.
I particularly appreciate that Kiara and Lucian's relationship reaches a satisfying resolution rather than ending on a cliffhanger. The next book will focus on a different couple as they work to solve the curse.
The romance remains relatively mild, featuring several intimate kisses and one tastefully closed-door scene toward the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to see how the series develops.
She infiltrates the Academy of Magic to kill Lucian the Dark Prince, but discovers she possesses magic herself. This leads to both a journey of self-discovery and an internal conflict as she grapples with her assassination mission.
There's an intriguing push and pull between her and Lucian, with her celestial magic and his shadow magic drawing them together.
The story weaves together magic, grimoires, curses, and secret societies into its narrative. As the first book in the series, it establishes the foundation while hinting at more intense developments—including possible betrayal—to come.
I particularly appreciate that Kiara and Lucian's relationship reaches a satisfying resolution rather than ending on a cliffhanger. The next book will focus on a different couple as they work to solve the curse.
The romance remains relatively mild, featuring several intimate kisses and one tastefully closed-door scene toward the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to see how the series develops.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I received this as an ARC, and this is my honest review.
I liked this, the concept was great. The magic system started out amazing but towards the end felt a little cheesy with the names of the spells. I liked the story though, it felt like Hogwarts meets Percy Jackson. I love a mythology retelling, and the little Easter eggs that were sprinkled in from Greek mythology was a nice touch. I'd gladly read book two.
I liked this, the concept was great. The magic system started out amazing but towards the end felt a little cheesy with the names of the spells. I liked the story though, it felt like Hogwarts meets Percy Jackson. I love a mythology retelling, and the little Easter eggs that were sprinkled in from Greek mythology was a nice touch. I'd gladly read book two.
Edit: 2 stars
A romantic fantasy with an interesting premise. I did enjoy some parts, like the scene where Kiara receives her first incantations, the concept of heartstrings, Lucian and his friends figuring out puzzles w/ the keys, Secret Scrolls (kind of like Gossip Girl), and the trials. I also found the general school setting to be quite fun.
However, the writing was too overdescriptive for my tastes, as I often felt it added nothing to the story and made me want to skim. This also made it take me longer to finish the book than I would have liked. There is potential here, though! I'm sure things such as the Raven Society will be more touched upon in the sequel, so I won't comment too much about the many ideas being introduced to us.
Thank you to StoryOrigin and the author for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
A romantic fantasy with an interesting premise. I did enjoy some parts, like the scene where Kiara receives her first incantations, the concept of heartstrings, Lucian and his friends figuring out puzzles w/ the keys, Secret Scrolls (kind of like Gossip Girl), and the trials. I also found the general school setting to be quite fun.
However, the writing was too overdescriptive for my tastes, as I often felt it added nothing to the story and made me want to skim. This also made it take me longer to finish the book than I would have liked. There is potential here, though! I'm sure things such as the Raven Society will be more touched upon in the sequel, so I won't comment too much about the many ideas being introduced to us.
Thank you to StoryOrigin and the author for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Rate : 5
In a kingdom where darkness almost consumes everything. The evil king expands his territory to gain more power brutally. More blood, more life needed to sacrifice his wicked desire. Kill parents, take their children and train them to become assassins, become weapons that he could conjure everywhere and anywhere according to his will. This curse needed to end, thought Kiara, one of the assassins, and she was sent to the magic academy for a mission and this is where her life began to change.
This book is my first ARC. I’m surprised how good it is. Yes, I can understand some people say it was inspired from another story, but hey, I think every creative thing has been inspired by its predecessor, right? I have no problem with that. I really like Kiara (FMC). She is so damn fierce. The story itself is already tense from chapter one. I’m not expecting that. The characters themselves are presented beautifully. I can see and understand the characters so well. Also, I could feel especially's Kiara and Lucian (MMC) character development in each chapter. This book is light to medium fantasy, full of adventure and mystery in it.
In a kingdom where darkness almost consumes everything. The evil king expands his territory to gain more power brutally. More blood, more life needed to sacrifice his wicked desire. Kill parents, take their children and train them to become assassins, become weapons that he could conjure everywhere and anywhere according to his will. This curse needed to end, thought Kiara, one of the assassins, and she was sent to the magic academy for a mission and this is where her life began to change.
This book is my first ARC. I’m surprised how good it is. Yes, I can understand some people say it was inspired from another story, but hey, I think every creative thing has been inspired by its predecessor, right? I have no problem with that. I really like Kiara (FMC). She is so damn fierce. The story itself is already tense from chapter one. I’m not expecting that. The characters themselves are presented beautifully. I can see and understand the characters so well. Also, I could feel especially's Kiara and Lucian (MMC) character development in each chapter. This book is light to medium fantasy, full of adventure and mystery in it.
I was pulled in right from the beginning. Started off really well and had me invested in the characters but then the pacing became inconsistent. Parts of the beginning were rushed, not much was seen of the characters in the academy. Multiple flash forwards of weeks at a time so the fmc's progress was happening behind the scenes. Then there were parts that I wish did move along a little faster.
It's meant to be enemies to lovers but the enemies part felt very one sided since the mmc was so nonchalant about her trying to kill him and easily moved on. It was more enemies to somewhat intrigued reluctant allies to insta-lovey. About the 70% mark is where I didn't feel as invested in the story anymore. I felt like every obstacle in their way was pretty easily resolved with not much resistance from the villain or other forces at play.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
It's meant to be enemies to lovers but the enemies part felt very one sided since the mmc was so nonchalant about her trying to kill him and easily moved on. It was more enemies to somewhat intrigued reluctant allies to insta-lovey. About the 70% mark is where I didn't feel as invested in the story anymore. I felt like every obstacle in their way was pretty easily resolved with not much resistance from the villain or other forces at play.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
This has a lot potential. The story has a lot of uniqueness to it and overall I liked it.
I would have liked a bit more of a why they start to like each other. And I think that’s a big part of why I can’t rate this higher.
But as I said, overall a nice story. If you like YA and trials give it a go.
I would have liked a bit more of a why they start to like each other. And I think that’s a big part of why I can’t rate this higher.
But as I said, overall a nice story. If you like YA and trials give it a go.
New Indi author alert!
Wow! I really enjoyed reading this book. It was like a more adult Harry Potter with other romantasy tropes added in. It was easy to understand the world and I loved all of the nods to greek mythology! It is an upper YA romantasy and I am eager to read the second!
*Thank you NetGalley for the gifted copy!*
Wow! I really enjoyed reading this book. It was like a more adult Harry Potter with other romantasy tropes added in. It was easy to understand the world and I loved all of the nods to greek mythology! It is an upper YA romantasy and I am eager to read the second!
*Thank you NetGalley for the gifted copy!*
DNF 20%
I wanted to like this really bad but unfortunately I couldn't connect with the characters or the story. I'll may return to it another time but for now I'll leave it unfinished.
I wanted to like this really bad but unfortunately I couldn't connect with the characters or the story. I'll may return to it another time but for now I'll leave it unfinished.
Ohhhh this was a good one! The author was generous enough to grant my request for a copy on @netgalley (even though the book came out in Oct 2024) and I hate that I *just* now read it. We have magic, we have grimoires, trials, gods, curses, secret societies and more. It had so much going on and I just wanted more 😅 I wish it was longer so that we had more world building, more of the history of the curse, Kiara coming into her power, more yearning and relationship building between the MMC and FMC. The second half of the book felt a bit rushed trying to get all the info we needed to prepare for book 2 in this series. But overall, I'm a fan and will definitely read the second book!