I only finished the first book in the last few days of 2024 and here I am devouring up the second book! This is the first book I finished in 2025 and honestly not a bad one to kick my year off with.
In 2025 I am trying to have a vibes rating and a Dynamic rating that averages out 5 different scores based on characters, plot, writing, world Building and overall enjoyment. This Dynamic rating will help me try and dissect my reading a bit more and ultimately force me to pay more attention to the books I am reading. Honestly, I tend to forget most of what I just read shortly after finishing a book and I would love for that to not be the case. So in my reviews Going forward my ratings may look a bit different and this is why.
“Poor little rich boy, all his pretty things are gone.”
Caroline Peckham, Ruthless Fae
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
Spoilers Ahead!
About The Book
Author: Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Publisher: Dark Ink Publishing
Published Date: August 25th, 2019
Page Count: 475 Pages
Main Genre: Fantasy
GoodReads Rating: 4.22
Format: E-Book
“Well I think I’m talking to an oversized iguana with a superiority complex, wrapped in an expensive suit.”
Caroline Peckham, Ruthless Fae
Synopsis
They tried to break us.
They almost did.
But we’re not going anywhere.
The Celestial Heirs think the stars are on their side. But they don’t know what’s coming. Fighting them one on one isn’t an option so we have to be stealthy. Remaining under the radar won’t be easy, but if we pull it off, they’ll never suspect our involvement when their lives start falling apart.
Besides, they’ve already taken us to the brink of hell, what more can they really do?
Synopsis From GoodReads
“Up there are a thousand reasons why we can’t be together.”
Susanne Valenti, Ruthless Fae
Vibe Rating
Dynamic Rating
Review
Much like the first book this one had some writing and Grammar errors that were clearly noticeable. I feel like this could be due to how quickly the books seemed to be released or what but these two things really brought my Dynamic rating down.
I do think this second book did a great job at building the world and magic system even further which made it even easier to get into and enjoy which really helped my Vibe ratings for this book sky rocket!
In this book we started to get additional POV’s every so often from the four Heirs and Orion which I thought was a nice touch. It helped add some humane aspects to the characters that we had really been missing from just the twins POV’s. This may have done good for their characters but when thinking about characters in my dynamic rating this also hindered them. I think in this second book especially that the characters motives were getting very confused and I understand they are meant to be morally gray and are only doing what their parents told them to do but the believability of their characters went quite a bit down for me. That is till the end with Darius, if any of the heirs have a decent character growth in this book it would have to be Darius. This is probably because we seemed to interact with him more than the other Heirs and got more of his POV and family back story but his motivations and desires didn’t seem to contradict one another as much as lets say Caleb’s did.
Caleb started off strong in this book as being the first POV we get and how he was wrestling with the idea that he in some way caused harm to his source, Tory, Even if he wasn’t the one who actually tried to drown her or even the one who stole her deepest fear, he was there cheering on his buddies and didn’t stop them from causing her harm. This goes against his Vampire code. He seems to truly care about Tory but yet he still goes out of his way to cause her distress at times and because we don’t see his POV often it makes me question his character a lot. I am just not convinced of who this man is and what his true motivations are.
In this book the twins are out for revenge against the Heirs for trying to make their lives an actual living Hell, but because they can’t control their powers they have to resort to spreading rumors, stealing items and burning down one of their rooms, Giving one of them fleas and then last but not least causing severe rashes due to Gryphon poop. During this book I felt this all was pretty childish and didn’t really enjoy their ideas of payback. But the end of the book it all really came together and I didn’t hate it. I just really wished we could have seen them get back with their powers more and focus a bit harder on harnessing their untapped power, like let this nonsense actually motivate you to unleash your birth right.
The first book did a great job of taking us from class to class to learn about their powers but I felt like we were missing a lot of this book. We did see Tory and Darius finally work on her fire power close to the end of the book but I honestly hoped for more active growth and not just situational growth. I want these girls to prove to me that they want to be here!
The romance in this book is truly a slow burn! We did get more spicy scenes but not enough to make me happy lol! I was kicking my feet and screaming when Orion finally kissed Darcy though! But man oh man do these girls have problems ahead of them… Caleb and Darius may just fight to the death over Tory. As for Darcy I think her and Orion are pretty spot on, this thing with Seth will probably blow over real quick, at least I hope.
We finally got to see a pitball match and honestly I love it! I think they did such a great job coming up with such a fun game to learn about! I hope we see them play in pitball soon!
There are somethings in these books that drive me crazy like Faebook (Facebook), Faeonic Plague (Bubonic Plague), or even the teachers names, their names are all pretty obvious when it comes to their element like washer is the water teacher, Pyro is the fire teacher, Astrum was the astrology teacher. Idk I would have liked to see more creativity when it came to these names.
Overall, the vibes were there so I gave it a 4 star vibe rating just like the first. I can get past the issues I have with the books and just see them as fun and laughable. I am very intrigued and am excited to see where the series goes.
“To hate you, I’d have to care about you. And I don’t give one shit about you,”
Caroline Peckham, Ruthless Fae
QOTD: What Elemental power would you want? Fire, Water, Earth or Air?
AOTD: I would probably pick water as I feel like I am a water bug! I always wanted to water bend like Katara in Avatar the Last Airbender.
World of Bai 
7 Comments