Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by hszentim
Academy of Villains by Ever King
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley for the Advance Readers copy for an honest review.
Sigh.
This book has all the right ingredients. Enemies to lovers. Dark academia. Forbidden magic. Political intrigue and strife. All the major ideas to make this a banger. Unfortunately for me it fell completely flat.
Our main character Kiara believes herself to be a mundane and is a part of an elite group of assassins owned by the king. She is tasked to kill the prince while he is at a magic mage academy and somehow in the process gets sorted into a house at the school and is awakened. She is a rare and thought to be extinct starmage. I can't express enough how great this premise is. It's like a mix of Harry Potter meets Zodiac Academy.
Getting through this book was difficult, the pacing was hot and cold, there were parts that lingered that were fairly unimportant while the big moments were written very fast. There were moments I wanted more information of for more time to pass between plot points that could have really benefited from more detail and explanation. The relationship between the 'shadow daddy' and the FMC also fell quite flat for me. There was a very insta love 'my magic is drawn to her' direction in the romance and they quite literally know nothing about each other before the irrational pining starts. I want them to be true enemies and learn the grit about each other before that happens.
Overall it feels like I was watching this book from far above using a pair of binoculars. I couldn't get the full scope of world building. I wasn't able to see the full scope of character development. There were no moments where the view expanded from those tiny binocular lenses and allowed the mind to picture our characters in time or space. I felt as though there was a lot of telling and not showing.
I think that this book would be SO SO great with more rounds of edits and more well rounded character development. I want them to banter. I want them to learn each other's vulnerabilities and subtle intricacies before they head off on a quest together. I just want more.
Sigh.
This book has all the right ingredients. Enemies to lovers. Dark academia. Forbidden magic. Political intrigue and strife. All the major ideas to make this a banger. Unfortunately for me it fell completely flat.
Our main character Kiara believes herself to be a mundane and is a part of an elite group of assassins owned by the king. She is tasked to kill the prince while he is at a magic mage academy and somehow in the process gets sorted into a house at the school and is awakened. She is a rare and thought to be extinct starmage. I can't express enough how great this premise is. It's like a mix of Harry Potter meets Zodiac Academy.
Getting through this book was difficult, the pacing was hot and cold, there were parts that lingered that were fairly unimportant while the big moments were written very fast. There were moments I wanted more information of for more time to pass between plot points that could have really benefited from more detail and explanation. The relationship between the 'shadow daddy' and the FMC also fell quite flat for me. There was a very insta love 'my magic is drawn to her' direction in the romance and they quite literally know nothing about each other before the irrational pining starts. I want them to be true enemies and learn the grit about each other before that happens.
Overall it feels like I was watching this book from far above using a pair of binoculars. I couldn't get the full scope of world building. I wasn't able to see the full scope of character development. There were no moments where the view expanded from those tiny binocular lenses and allowed the mind to picture our characters in time or space. I felt as though there was a lot of telling and not showing.
I think that this book would be SO SO great with more rounds of edits and more well rounded character development. I want them to banter. I want them to learn each other's vulnerabilities and subtle intricacies before they head off on a quest together. I just want more.