Hemlock has everything I can think of to make a great YA paranormal romance! There are witches, Fae, cyclops, necromancy, lycan, vampire, boarding school and legends of forbidden love!!

Rook Dagger is a 15 year old who’s going to attend Hemlock Academy for the Dark Arts, for the first time, and this is her first experience with all things magical and mystical.

It was a fantastic quick read and totally gave off a siren call to my 16 year old inner self!!!

Totally called that cliff hanger though, and I’m not even mad about it!!!

Before I begin my review for Hemclock by Rue Volley I would like to personally thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest opinion.


Romeo and Juliet and Twilight meets The Ten Things I Hate About You in the engaging first instalment of the Academy of the Dead series. Hemlock, by Rue Volley is amazingly well written with a relatable, socially awkward protagonist in a unique world of supernatural beings and magic. Volley will make you laugh with the main character and pine for the boy with her incredible writing skills.

Hemlock features, but is not limited to, the following themes:
○ Supernatural academy
○ Teens
○ Teenaged love
○ A popular bad boy
○ Necromancy
○ Curse
○ Supernatural creatures
○ Magic
○ Resurrection
○ Cliff hanger

My overall rating for Hemlock is…

4 stars!

I just LOVED this book! I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’m going to say it again, supernatural academy’s are the sugar to my tea! I enjoy feeling like a teen again and pining over the popular boys. Hemlock is a fast and engaging read with a PG rated love affair. With an ending like that, I’ll be counting down the days for the release of book 2.

I was given this ARC by NetGalley and the author for an honest review of this book. My first impression of this book, it was a cross between The Twilight Saga and Harry Potter both of which I enjoyed however that wasn't the case for me. I found there was an over abundance of detail and not much storyline, however this first book might be the setting the stage for the series and it will get more intriguing as the story continues. This series is definitely for young teens and they might be more envolved and enthusiastic with the storyline than I was.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book is an interesting gothic take on the magic school and paranormal romance story. This story is unique with Rook being a necromancer and the characters, particularly the MC being cute and quirky. The introduction to Hemlock and the necromancer world was interesting, I wanted more of it! More details about the world would have given greater depth to the novel and expanded to the book beyond the classic tropes seen with it.
However, the pace varies throughout the book so some parts are quite slow and detailed but later the book's pace becomes rapid and it feels like there is not enough context given throughout these parts.
The writing is young and the tropes are somewhat predictable, however I feel like it would be a good read for those in the middle grade to young YA age group so the writing and plot would be suited to them.
On the whole a nice book.

Rook is a human necromancer - a rarity in the magical world she lives in. To hone her skills, Rook attends Hemlock Academy and meets Gage, a boy who is seemingly more connected to her than she can ever realized.

Hemlock is in a weird place of being between a middle age and a YA novel. While I think this book would be best for a younger crowd, I enjoyed the book and read it in one sitting. I think the author obviously has writing skills and I was entertained by the book and Rook's thoughts the entire time. Volley definitely captured the essence of a teenaged girl.

Some things I would love to see: more development of the characters and more development of the world they live in. I think the world Hemlock Academy is in is very interesting and would love to hear more about the backstory and history. I think that might also help drive the characters. I also think the relationship between Rook and Gage could use more development, although the pace is pretty typical for a middle grade novel.

Overall, this book was entertaining and a quick read! I would recommend it for a younger age, but am interested to see where the story goes!

Hemlock is a book about a girl who travels to the preeminent Hemlock Academy, a school for necromancers, in order to foster her powers and to find a place where she belongs. Hemlock has a lot of things going for it. I love the main character, Rook Dagger. As cheesy as the name is, she is really endearing, quirky and adorable. It made her interesting to read about. I also appreciate how this book is set in a perspective of a younger teenager, as that is a voice missing from YA Lit. Being in Rook's mind as she struggles to fit in at Hemlock and as she deals with her feelings for a certain boy illustrates how confusing teenaged love can be. I found the lore behind the Emma Green legend to be fascinating as well.
On the other hand, the pacing for this book left a bit to be desired for me. I felt like there were really good portions of plotting, don't get me wrong, but there was a lot of info dumping in places and parts where it moved so slow that I felt like I got lost in what was going on. I also would have liked seeing the world-building and magic system fleshed out a bit more.
So Hemlock has some really good parts to it, but it also had its issues. A unique concept about a girl finding who she is, I honestly felt okay about this book. If you like books about boarding schools and magic, this may be a good read for you.

This was a great, and hauntingly beautiful story about 15 year old Rook. She embarks on a journey in her life by attending the Hemlock Academy. There, supernatural beings of all kinds learn their crafts in order to, ultimately, be placed in one of the seven magical kingdoms.

Rook is a necromancer with exceptional abilities. But exceptional may not necessarily be a good thing, considering her balance of giving life and taking it away isn’t always in her control. There she meets her roommate, Nadia, an instant friend. Nadia helps her maneuver through her days at Hemlock Academy. Who to get to know... and who to stay away from. But the one person she is warned to stay away from is the one boy who has instantly captured her heart.

G Gianni is elusive. He always has a different girl in his arm. But he gives Rook his secrets and she knows deep down that the way he looks at her and the way he touches her means something. Something MORE.

Aside from meeting new people, Rook is completely drawn into the lore behind a princess, Emma Green and her tragic love story that ends in death. Rook shares a very unique connection with the history of the Forest of Emma Green.

This was a very fun read. I enjoyed it so much. I loved the characters and what they all individually bring to the story. I love the history that is talked about and how events at the school are completely tied in to that history. The only thing I didn’t love was the fact that the writing was slightly juvenile in some aspects. But, when you consider that the story is about a 15 year old girl, that is definitely acceptable. I also wish that the ending didn’t happen so abruptly. I was enjoying the plot so so much and then it ends leaving me wanting more. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
1/5 stars.
This book was definitely not for me. I really didn’t like it at all. I’m not sure what the plot was, but based on the synopsis I felt like there was so much potential for it to be amazing! It fell really flat in a lot of ways for me.
This is supposed to be a book about necromancers. The whole necromancy aspect is what really intrigued me about this book, and yet it’s barely in the book at all! I thought it was going to be this major part, and yet we learn almost nothing about it, and it takes a backseat the needless and annoying “drama” between the characters. Amidst the necromancers, we learn that there are also werewolves, Fae, witches/warlocks, and vampires as well as other types of mythical creatures. This could have been cool if we’d been given any kind of explanation about the different types of creatures, and why exactly they were there. Instead it felt as if the author threw them in the book because those are the kinds of creatures that populate YA fantasy.
One of the parts I had the most trouble with, was believing in how the characters acted and interacted. Rook is our 15-year-old narrator, and she was so annoying. I felt like the author was trying too hard to make her realistic, and it backfired. I felt that rook was one-dimensional and completely unrealistic as a teenage girl. Her mom was also unrealistic, as were all the other students that she encountered.
With my confusion over what the plot even was, I was more confused at the end of the book when something (finally) happened. However, what happened was completely predictable and I knew from the first time the characters involved were brought up that that was how it would go. Rook spent a lot of time whining about G, and I found the whole romance thing boring, predictable, and incredibly forced.
Overall, the premise of the book felt like it had a lot of potential, but the execution fell totally flat for me. The book was full of typos, constantly switched tenses for no reason, and it all felt forced and fake.

This was a cute YA novel. I enjoyed the story pretty well. The characters were likable and there were parts that made me giggle. The main character is geeky and adorable.

My issue with this book is mostly with the writing. The verb tense kept changing and it drove me nuts. It's a little awkward and needs some work in that department but I really see potential in this series and this author.

A really fun and interesting read. I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day! I enjoyed every page and thought that the plot/story was very unique. Would recommend to anyone!

Ok, I think this is geared towards a way younger audience than me. I enjoy YA, but this was maybe middle grade. The writing seemed juvenile, which may work for a younger demographic. Also there were a lot of errors. Finally pacing seemed off. It was rushed and not a lot actually happened. This just wasn’t a good fit for me

Hemlock is such a fun take on the 'magic school' thing. Our protagonist, Rook, has known she's a necromancer since she was 5 years old and at 15, she finally arrives at a school for magical creatures. The twist? Rook's parents are both human and almost everyone at her new school is some kind of magical creature. It's not unheard of (about 1 human attends the school every 5 hundred years), but it definitely makes her and the cat she killed then revived stand out.

Following Rook as she makes friendships and maybe possibly falls in love, Hemlock also focuses on the history of the school and a doomed love story that happened in the forest on campus. It's a little rushed pacing wise and I'm fairly sure it's targeted towards younger YA/middle grade readers, but it was all in all a quick, fun read!

Hemlock is an original and gripping novel that is really hard to put down. It has everything that makes YA books amazing, romance, mystery and supernatural elements. A great read.

I loved the idea of this book so much: Necromancer at magical school. It was a quick read. Definitely pitched to the younger YA audience. Wished more had happened in the plot.