Everyone says once you read book three in this series you will know if you want to DNF the series or continue on. I had some conflicting feelings about book three up until the end and here I am now currently reading the 1.5 book The Awakening: As Told By The Boys. I am following a reading order I found on Tiktok and so far I am glad I am doing that. Who knows if i will read all 20+ books in this expansive world but so far it seems like a trainwreck I can’t stop watching.
“Everyone knows, Karmas a bitch. And today her name was Tory Vega”
Caroline Peckham, The Reckoning
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: Do not read unless you have already read this far into the series!
About The Book
Author: Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Publisher: Dark Ink Publishing
Published Date: October 4th, 2019
Page Count: 561 Pages
Main Genre: Fantasy
GoodReads Rating: 4.34
Format: E-Book
“I watch you and hunger for you and ache for you. It torments me like I torment you.”
Caroline Peckham, The Reckoning
Synopsis
The answer to your question will be revealed on the Lunar Eclipse. But when finding the truth, don’t let the shadows take you.
The week of The Reckoning has begun. And senior students have been tasked with making the freshmen’s lives pure hell as they prepare to take their fateful assessment.
With the Lunar Eclipse on the horizon, Tory and Darcy have more to worry about than just passing their exams. A dark plot is unfolding and the shadows are drawing closer…
Synopsis From GoodReads
“She wasn’t just a girl though. Not to me. She was the one girl I shouldn’t want, the one I couldn’t have, the one I didn’t need. And yet I did.”
Caroline Peckham, The Reckoning
Vibe Rating
Dynamic Rating
Review
I would like to start off by first saying that these first three books could have been one maybe two books. Stretching it through three books was ridiculous. We hardly passed through any time, The world building was added upon but I don’t see why it wouldn’t have fit into two books and also I felt like the character growth was minimal and honestly I didn’t find I was liking one character more than another throughout the three books. Normally in a series I find that the characters grow on me as we go, but I still feel pretty indifferent about each character in this series.
I struggled through the first 50% of this book. Much like my review for the second book I didn’t feel like we saw a lot of growth with them working on their powers, I felt like they just kept getting lucky when the time was needed to use them. This could be due to the small amount of time that seems to pass between the three books, yet they somehow pass the reckoning with flying colors. I want to see the character and power growth and not see them just be lucky cause they are the chosen girls. I did like that they know they are stronger together and can pull more power and control when linked to one another so that was a bit of growth I saw. I am hoping that now that they know their order forms they can actually focus on their powers and we can see them learn more.
Regarding the power and magical system in this book, it feels way to convenient. I feel like these Fae can do really anything they desire with their power and it just feels way too OP. I would like to see some more struggles, but maybe this is only because we follow the perspectives of the most powerful Fae in all of Solaria. It just makes it less fun in my eyes if they can do anything and everything their heart desires with their powers. Like other than the power being drained when being used, what hinders them?
These girls being Phoenixes makes a ton of sense but damn… Can’t they be two different orders? I get that they are identical twins but again I want some difference between the girls! Why have two characters when they are the exact same people besides a few personality characteristics. It would make it much more interesting to follow if we have some more differences. It all comes down to convinces again, probably much easier to write.
The writing and grammar was still not great in this third book either. I seriously hope these errors start getting better or at least less noticeable. It is kinda sad haha.
I gave this book a three and a half vibe star rating so clearly all my thoughts can’t be negative right? Lets talk about the things I did enjoy!
Darius and his family are all dragons except for his brother who happens to be the cutest dang Pegasus to ever live. This was an interesting mix due to his father being so ruthless, everyone bends at his will yet he now has a son who he views as lesser than. This is heartbreaking to see but causes character growth in Darius as you now see some of his motivations to making the girls leave. He needs to protect his brother! The scene where Tory finds out about this was probably my favorite scene in the whole book! She finally let down her guard and had fun and then she acted in the most humane way when she did find out about the Pegasus form and it made me excited to see where this would go in the future.
The love triangles still get on my nerves but I am hopeful for some resolutions. We got to see more chapters from Darius and Caleb and got to hear more of their inner monologues which made the love triangles less annoying. This is a serious slow burn and I think I am mostly annoyed because I am dying to see where this all goes! The boys are truly going to snap soon! Darius has a Temper and he seems to be Territorial!
I guess this is me saying I like the Boys more than I like the girls lol. The boys have the most character growth in my eyes and they are way more interesting as they are all different to one another. They seem to bounce off each other really well even when they are butting heads, they can set aside their issues for one common goal. Even if their one common goal of destroying these girls gets muddled by the interesting lust they seem to have for them.
The ending to this book when we found out about the Dragon Lord’s, Lionel, desires to wield the shadows was what really interested me. I knew he was bad but this actually made sense to me. This made me excited to keep reading the series as I need to know how the girls are going to handle this situation. Everyone thinks their memories were erased but they know everything… This puts them in an interesting predicament and it will be fun to see how they handle it. I think it may frustrate me as well because we finally saw the boys care about these girls and now we might go back to the unwavering hatred. I am exhausted, too many emotions!
I will see you for my next review seeing how I can’t put down these books… Hopefully we see some higher ratings coming later down the road.
“There are countless people who would say I’m not allowed to want you,” Darius breathed. “But you make me want to burn the whole world down so that I can claim you for my own.”
Caroline Peckham, The Reckoning
QOTD: Is there a series you pushed through that you weren’t always vibing with that you were glad you did?
“In Solaria blue means royal. And to me, blue means you.”
Caroline Peckham, The Reckoning
World of Bai 