Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review Reign of the Seven Spellblades, Vol. 1

I don't always get the chance to read a light novel so when one pops up on Netgalley, I am more than happy to download and read the book. I thought this light novel was okay.

In general this book needed some work. The story was stilted and it was really hard to get into. It seemed like 5e localization was off.

Real rating: 2.5☆

Reign of the Seven Spellblades vol. 01 is a short but enjoyable introduction to this world, characters and a perilous magical academy where you can only rely on your friends and wits to make it through the day.

The magic and all the magical creatures were interesting to read about, and the exciting shenanigans the characters get into were fun, but this book is not without its flaws.

The slow pacing of the plot in the beginning and the writing style (or translation, I suppose) were some of the aspects I disliked the most. That and, true to form, whatever beautiful moments and meaningful themes were short-lived, giving way to simple comedic relief.

Overall, it wasn't my kind of book, but it was enjoyable enough and it seems the series will only get more exciting from here, though I personally will not be continuing with it.

First of all, I made a mistake. Maybe for the manga-sque cover I thought this was a manga. This is not. This is a light novel. Even better, I love those.

Nothing to say on the "light"(?) side, I mean about the drawings: beautiful and well done (or, better, I like this art style, I know these sorts of things may be subjective but this is my review and I like them).

What leaves me not very convinced is the "novel" side. It doesn't matter how much the plot tried to be good and interesting, I just couldn't enjoy it due to the writing style. I feel like saying "writing style" is wrong though. English is not the language in which this book was first written, so I'd better say that what I didn't like was the translation (style). It was so "simplistic". Every sentence felt like subject-verb-complement, so "schematic". I couldn't enjoy the story because of how it was written/translated.

I'll give to this average-stars because I liked the illustrations and maybe someone else may like the translation better and I wouldn't want them to not pick this up only because they see low stars, maybe without even reading the review and reason for them.

Not the book for me. It somehow seemed like a combination of a low-grade pastiche of Harry Potter magical boarding school tropes combined with overly dramatic Yu-Gi-Oh! style anime characters. Every decision was fraught with false-seeming drama which wore on me fast. The world building was lush but facts were dropped on you seemingly randomly, including important facts and aspects of the school and magical system. I think there are good stories to be told in this setting but this wasn't the one for me.

I will not lie, I went into this book thinking I would be reading a manga and that automatically made me dislike it. However my reasoning for the low rating is purely because I couldnt get on with the authors writing style. It confused me at times and I felt like I was reading a book in a series. A lot felt like it was left out or unexplained. I only managed to read a few chapters before I DNF'd this. Again not the authors fault, just not something I could get on with.

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/4 stars.

Fast paced action, endearing characters and magic galore.

I really enjoyed the murderous magic school of Kimberley and all the outrageous events that occur in this light novel. I feel that it would make an amazing anime series though, as a lot of the writing was very descriptive of actions, and there were quite a few repetitive sentences, that would translate better to an onscreen adaptation.

But I loved the characters, the fight scenes and the magical creatures. I can't wait to see how this story develops, especially after that cliffhanger ending!

This was really enjoyable and not at all what I was expecting. The first half was light-hearted, but the tone darkens especially towards the end, and there were some unexpected turns that were very well done. A well-imagined plot and world, with wonderful characters that you can't help but fall in love with. This is very much a story that I will be following in future volumes.

When this series was announced to be licensed by YenPress, I had it on my TBR instantly. The cover was so beautiful I was here for the character designs immediately and the little blurb that was shared alongside the reveal had me interested for sure. So when I received the email from NetGalley that I was approved for a copy, I was so excited!

Right away, this light novel wasn’t what I was expecting. Really cute and funny right off the bat, it gave me Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya vibes with how ditzy but determined Nanao was and Oliver’s exasperation with all of his new friends was very much like Kyon. However, the comparison is more of a personal one, and each of the characters is honestly so much fun and I loved all of them right away. Then we get to Kimberly Academy, a magical school where death is damn near imminent at all times and the risk of losing your mind to the darkness of magical studies is a constant threat. As fun and light-hearted as the first half of this book is, it does get dark around the half-way mark as the true dangers of Kimberly begin to show themselves and hidden traits are revealed in the students themselves.

I got entirely sucked into this light novel and, again, I loved everything about it. The ending was such a drastic 180 from the rest of the story but that only makes me more desperate to get my hands on volume two. I can’t wait to see what Oliver does and how his relationship with Nanao develops! Someone give this series an anime deal immediately.

I did not realize that this was a light novel when I had requested this and unfortunately these just aren’t the type of books for me. I am so sorry that I hadn’t looked into it more before requesting! Thank you for the opportunity to read this though, I am still super appreciative!