Zodiac Academy: The Awakening

So imagine that you and your twin sister are struggling to find ways to pay the rent for your crappy apartment. Then a man shows up and tells you that you are Fae. Your parents who died left you lots of money, but you must enroll in Zodiac Academy and graduate to get all of the inheritance.  You will have a stipend the whole time you are enrolled so it beats struggling.  Then after you get there you find out your parents were the last King and Queen of Solaria and you must graduate from Zodiac Academy in to take over the throne.  However, the Four Heirs, who were suppose to take over, isn't going to make it easy for you. 
The bully thing doesn't turn me off, it just makes me root for the good guys a little more.  The twisted sisters created a perfect recipe with this one.  A little dark academia, a little bullying, a little competition, and some cute fae, and poof now I'm screwed because I can't wait to read the whole series.

I like the world that this is set in. I think the magic etc is interesting. However, nothing happened in this book except for realllllly bad dialogue and exposition. I think the whole 400 pages took place over a week? Two weeks? I'm not sure.

I will likely read this whole series in a similar way that I read 50 shades. Which is to say with equal horror and enjoyment.

actual rating: 3.5/5 stars

a lot of people either love this book or hate it. i really am in the middle where i enjoyed my time but there are definite problems and I'm not obsessed. my main two complaints are the world is interesting but needs a lottttt of refining and i want more romance which ik it is a series but still. the characters were fun but i would like to see even more distinction between them. this book kinda felt like watching a show like teen wolf or the vampire diaries so take that for what you will.

I tried reading this in January and just couldn't get into it... but I tried it again a few days ago and WOW. I ate it up. it was SO good. when people say it's a bully romance, they really mean it's a BULLLLLYYYY romance. but it was so good. I can't wait to start the next one and see more of the characters. my favorite so far is definitely Caleb. I love him so much?!?! I keep wanting to look up fan art but I'm so scared of spoilers so I will just wait

2022 - second read - Thoughts on a re-read are fairly similar to my original review, there were definitely parts that felt very immature, especially now I've read all of the other books and know how the story evolves. On the first read, the twins read very similarly but as I'm so used to them, it's much easier to distinguish them going back to this first book - Darcy is softer and more empathetic, whereas Tory is harder and more hot headed. I did enjoy seeing the little nuggets of detail sprinkled throughout which don't become important until later books, so whilst I'm not increasing my rating I did enjoy this more on a re-read.

2021 - first read - Really liked this even though some of the pranks were a bit immature but it is a magic school of 18 year olds so expected it really. My main issue was that even by the end I was still getting Tory and Darcy mixed up! I had to keep reminding myself who was who and just feel like they could have been written to stand out a bit more.

3.5 Stars

2024 Reflection Time: My feelings are so conflicted. It wasn't as awful as I first remembered but it wasn't great either. Dunno. Need time to think. Leaving my original review up for transparency and also because it's iconic as fuck.

2022 Review:

Buddy read with Kayla!

I normally don't rate books that I don't finish but this completely deserves it. This was extremely disappointing. But honestly, I went in expecting something like this.

This book was written by two popular sixteen year-old parents-are-Republican preppy-cheerleader-type girls and you can't convince me otherwise. I think that the authors's goal here was to get me to never say another bad thing about Michael Waldron or Chris Chibnall's writing ever again (and it nearly worked). It's cringy, it's poorly-written, and it's a shitty Harry Potter/Winx Club/Victorious fanfiction. With typos and grammatical errors galore, I completely understand why this was self-published. If I was a publisher and was offered this, I would laugh in their faces and kick their asses to the curb. This read like something I would find in the depths of thirteen year-old me's Wattpad library. It literally has me wondering how this series is so popular.

I have been told by many (including my bookish group chat friends who have been pestering me to read this for weeks) that this series gets better in later books. However, I would rather stab myself multiple times than force myself to read any more of this. Honestly I wanted to get a bit further in this book since it was my first buddy read but I just couldn't continue torturing myself. Sorry to my friends who like toxic aLpHa males but I'm done. I'm so fucking done. Cope.

And the true queen of Solaria is my girl Stella thank you very much.

TL;DR this one should've stayed in the Wattpad drafts besties.

Original Rating: 1 Star

Edit: I found this on YouTube and it's my new favorite video on the internet. <3

I really struggled with this book. Definitely not a fan of bully romance and the hazing drove me crazy.

The writing read like this was their first book, but I don't think it is. And I wish they gave Tory and Darcy stronger characteristics from their time as mortals. Also Fae-book? They couldn't come up with something better?

But it ends with cliffhanger, so I'm gonna have to read the next one.

Took all my critical thinking and morals, wrapped them in a shiny box and launched them out the window. (Recommended course of action before starting this)

I loved that the magic system took exactly 2 brain cells to understand, so it was really just a fun time with no effort.

Yes this is addicting and yes i’m going to immediately jump into the next one.