Wow! Firstly this book and the sprayed edges are absolutely gorgeous. Secondly I need the 2nd book now please! Follow Paisley who attends Weatherstone college to try and find out her witch affinity. She meets Logan who is full of secrets and soon its enemies to lovers.. kinda! I got very Wednesday vibes throughout and I feel there are so many secrets left to reveal.. I hate cliffhangers! Overall I devoured the whole thing!

I LOVE when I pick up a book and don’t want to put it down! The plot in this was just soooo good and addictive!! From the jump you KNOW something is going to happen between Paisley and Logan but ughhh this was soooo good. Him calling her Precious.. don’t even. Discovering Paisley’s powers along with her was so gratifying and so much is set up in this book for a sequel that I absolutely cannot wait, I have sooo many questions that I NEED answered!! Especially with that ending…

Paisley is a young witch who has just come into her powers, shortly after, she receives an invitation to study at Weatherstone Collage for Witches and Warlocks, the prestigious collage all her siblings go to. But studying to unlock her full power isn’t all what she’s got to worry about her freshman year, there’s plenty of things out to get her, one of which is Logan, someone from her past that she can’t seem to remember…but he definitely remembers her! I read it in one sitting, this highly addictive magical read will leave you wanting more. It’s full of enemies to lovers, high stakes, dark academia and elemental magic to die for! I picked this for the fantasy bookclub I run and we all loved it, we can’t wait for the second one as we need to know what happens next! The magical system is truly mesmerising! Thank you to Harper Collins and Mira Books for a copy to review!

You gotta love a book that starts off strong in the prologue with a “Who hurt you?” It might be a back-to-school thing, but this time of year I’m all about dark academia. I had been eagerly anticipating this read, and it lived up to every expectation. Paisley Hallistar has just received her acceptance letter to Weatherstone College. As the youngest of a Weatherstone legacy family, she hasn’t shown the magical aptitude of her older siblings. But it’s finally her time. This is her chance to discover her true power, carve out her own path, and make her family proud. Enter Logan Kingston, one of the most powerful spellcasters alive, a new transfer to Weatherstone College, and the son of the man who swore a blood oath to destroy the Hallistar family and most likely wants her dead. Great! Things get even more intense when dark, undead creatures start appearing on campus, seemingly seeking her out. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Disgustingly Handsome seems to always be there to save her. Rude! Now he’s giving her no choice but to train with him. Is he really trying to help, or just trying to get close enough to finish the job? Paisley and Logan’s relationship was magnetic. Even if she doesn’t want to, she’s drawn to him. She can’t stop seeing his piercing green eyes, which haunt her most delicious dreams. Oh yes! His almost possessive attention, his eyes always on her, and constant hints that he knows things about their past and present that she doesn’t give them a hold on each other that is completely out of their control, and I loved it. This book was pure entertainment. I was fully engaged from start to finish, and the pages flew by. It was funny, action-packed, and full of heart, with both the special family dynamics and the found family elements. So many questions were left unanswered, making the wait for book two almost unbearable, but I’ll be here waiting!

To start, I think this book being described as ‘intense’ is a bit far fetched, much like the writing within the book itself. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good cheesey storyline as a palette cleanser between series but this unfortunately coincided with a poor and shabby writing style. It’s like the book was written by AI in an attempt to recreate the global obsession of Fourth Wing and regurgitate Rebecca Yarros’s success. There were a few points which I thought if I had known sooner, I wouldn’t have wasted a tenner on the book and would’ve waited to find it in a charity shop:1. Incredibly racist undertones. The only two black characters are capitalised to emphasise this and references to “chains”, “leashes” and “master” are only made directly at their expense. 2. I have an older sister and a younger brother. At no point have I ever been so perpetually chipper and proud of them. Sometimes it’s not just mild teasing, it’s outright war. I know this can be said of most people with siblings. This trope of the super supportive family who must protect mum’s emotional state at all costs felt icky and unrealistic. 3. Trying to describe how these 22 year old WOMEN were acting to a friend was insanely hard because they truly were described as 16-18 year olds. Getting drunk on ‘witch wine’ (I rolled my eyes so hard at this chapter I had to put the book down for an evening) and acting like they’d never had a drunken conversation with their mates a day in their life was so forced. 4. There was no set pace or idea where the author wanted the storyline to go. It dragged and dragged without actually building anything. It was only when I was on the final chapter did I realise it felt like I was still halfway through the book. Then it felt like she scrambled to try and resolve questions or storylines but ran out of pages, so left it on the most half-hearted cliffhanger I’ve ever read. All in all, I’d love to hope the second book would be better, but I’m not in a rush to purchase it and drag myself through another 300-odd pages of cringe that are desperately trying to be a recreation of Fourth Wing.