I had no desire to start this series. I had mostly heard negative things regarding this series and if I am being honest the covers were just not pulling me in. I decided to pick this first book up only because one of my favorite book sellers in Utah, Lovebound Library, Posted that their owner picked it up and really enjoyed it. I was influenced by her recommendation and honestly, I am so glad that I was! I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would have.
“The most important thing I’d learned in life? You can’t trust people. And you especially can’t trust boys with wicked smiles and equally wicked intentions.”
Caroline Peckham, The Awakening
Other Zodiac Academy Reviews
Origins of an Academy Bully: Book 0.5
The Awakening: As Told By The Boys: Book 1.5
The Big A.S.S. Party: Book 5.5
About The Book
Author: Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Publisher: Dark Ink
Published Date: July 13th, 2019
Page Count: 436 Pages
Main Genre: Fantasy
GoodReads Rating: 3.84
Format: E-Book
“He was dangerous in all the right ways and I knew without doubt that the fire in his eyes would burn me up if I strayed too close.”
Caroline Peckham, The Awakening
Synopsis
You have been selected to attend Zodiac Academy, where your star sign defines your destiny.
If you’re one of the Fae, elemental magic is in your blood. And apparently it’s in ours. As twins born in the month of Gemini, we’re a rare breed even in this academy of supernatural a-holes.
Changelings were outlawed hundreds of years ago but I guess our birth parents didn’t get the memo. Which means we’re totally unprepared for the ruthless world of Fae.
Air. Fire. Water. Earth.
No one has ever harnessed all four of them, until we arrived. And it hasn’t made us any friends so far.
As the rarest Elementals ever known, we’re already a threat to the four celestial heirs; the popular, vindictive bullies who happen to be some of the hottest guys we’ve ever seen. It doesn’t help that they’re the most dangerous beasts in the Academy. And probably on earth too.
Our fates are intertwined, but they want us gone. They’ve only got until the lunar eclipse to force us out and they’ll stop at nothing to succeed.
We never knew we had a birthright to live up to but now that we do, we intend to claim our throne.
We can’t expect any help from the faculty when it comes to defending ourselves. So if the dragon shifters want some target practice, the werewolves want someone to hunt or the vampires fancy a snack then we have to be ready. But we’ve been looking after each other for a long time and fighting back is in our blood.
Today’s horoscope: totally screwed.
“My deepest fear is being cast aside, my heart crushed by trusting blindly again. So I’ll never let anyone in again.”
Caroline Peckham, The Awakening
Rating
Review
In no way was this book perfect. I found many grammatical errors and I am not someone who is really great with grammar in the first place, so it was clearly pretty obvious.
The writing was fun and kept me really engaged in the story line but I wouldn’t say the writing was good. I honestly struggled having the two girls POV’s as I definitely liked one more than the other and honestly I didn’t know the different between the two girls for half the book. Especially cause they have mortal names and Fae names which got used interchangeably.
With those main concerns out of the way I would like to point out that I had a great time reading this book! I think the world is fairly easy to grasp. It would be even easier if I, myself knew more about the zodiacs and star signs but even without that I can grasp the magic system which is great! I really love how each person gets an elemental power based on their Zodiac and a specific order based on their blood lines that comes with its own power. It does seem like a lot is going on in this magic system but not overly complicated.
I think the twins, Darcy and Tory, are decent characters, but honestly I am more interested in the outside characters such as the Heirs, Orion and even their friends Sofia and Diego. I think the girls have a ton of growing to do and I would just like to see more of the outside characters POV’s so I can better grasp what’s going on around us. I guess it is a good thing that we have many more books left to go in this series haha.
With what I mentioned above, there are so many characters to keep track of. Not only are you learning everyone’s names, you also have their star signs, order forms and elemental powers all thrown at you and it feels near impossible to remember all of this information. You do get reminded about them as the story goes but man oh man is it dumping a ton of info into our brains!
I feel like I can easily predict what is going to happen next in the books which I thought would bug me but honestly it is making the book move faster as I am excited to get to the plot twists. This is especially true with the love interests. I feel like I know exactly who these two are going to end up with but it is giving slow burn vibes all while trying to throw us off of that track. I am dying to get into the romance in this book but I can tell that the slow burn is going to pay off!
I feel like this review felt negative in nature but honestly I had a blast reading this book, so much so I finished it in two days! It reads really quickly and kept me engaged. The way the book ended had me dying to pick up the second book as well which I think are all good signs! If you can get past the not so great writing I think you’ll enjoy the book!
“Tears never did anyone any favours, but sometimes they just needed to fall.”
Caroline Peckham, The Awakening
QOTD: Have you read these books?
World of Bai 
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