3.75 ⭐️

Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an ARC copy of "Celestial Academy: Essence" in exchange for an honest review.

Seeing this book compared to Crescent City and Zodiac Academy, I was like… “is this going to be my next obsession?” It’s still pretty early to answer this question since this is just book 1.
The same thing happened with Zodiac Academy, I fell in love with the series halfway through book 3.

I think a lot of people will appreciate this book’s tropes:
- Enemies-to-lovers
- Supernatural creatures
- Sassy female characters
- Dark Academy
- Morally grey characters

Very fascinating world! A little bit complicated at the beginning. I had to force myself to continue the first chapters.
Wen’s attitude toward everyone and everything had me cackling. But at some point, her inner monologues started to bore me. They could have been cut and the story would have been the same.

I hope we are going to get the dual POV in the next books since I loved Godric's chapter.

Already bought my physical copy and I can't wait to get my hands on book 2!

The mention of Zodiac Academy is what immediately grabbed my attention and made me want to read this book!

This book gets the enemies to lovers trope down perfectly, being both believable and arousingly infuriating at the same time. The interactions between Wen and Godric always felt genuine but never had the true feel of hatred, which I absolutely adore.

Reading the book felt like an uphill battle, for the most part, it was unnecessarily wordy and repetitive without furthering the plot until around 60%.

Well, that was a Hell (or a Heaven?) of a ride. I had the possibility to read this thanks to Netgalley.
I was intrigued by the references to Crescent City (read) and Zodiac Academy (not read) and the general dark academia vibe.
I am really a fan of angels, Demons and other Supernatural creatures (like the actual Supernatural show).
English is not my first language, and sometimes I had to search some words, but I did like a lot how it was written.
Wen was an absolute piece of shit, and I loved it. The only think I wanted more was a deeper dive into her slavery trauma.
I still have to decide if I like Godric, because sometimes I myself would punch him.
The last character introduced in the plot twist was obvious since the beginning, but I didn't dislike it.
I want to read the second one, and I want more of Jinny, absolute demon queen.

(I apologize if my English is not perfect, English is not my first language)

This book was really good?
If you are a fan of crescent city you will love it

The enemies to lovers hit in a different way here no point saying anything less

World building was well done and I have high hopes for book 2

Celestial Academy: Essence is the first of five books in the Celestial Academy series and you'll want to read it immediately!

This book is so much fun to read and you may be able to read it in a couple of sittings if you are an avid reader. The writing pulled me in from the first page (rather unusual for me) and kept my attention even when I had to take a break to do things like eat and sleep.

Olivia Pharos has created a gritty and believable post-apocalyptic world where angels rule and the heroine has to deal with not just the challenges of surviving, but everything that comes at her from being sent to the Academy as well. Suspending disbelief was super easy, the worldbuilding was excellent, and I looked forward to turning every page.

Whenever I start a new fantasy book, I tend to jump into them with low expectations as I struggle with world buildings and languages (if they have any) and picturing the characters in my head. BUT, I found the world building so easy to follow and the characters were amazing too! I’m not going to lie, I was confused at the start of the book, but I am always confused whenever I read a fantasy book.

I love to read about post-apocalyptic worlds - being transported to that place allows me to completely scrap my idea of reality and look into the world within the book with more detail. By having a first person narration, the story is much easier to follow, while allowing you into the thoughts and perspectives of the characters.

I love Wen and how sarcastic she is. Sometimes with characters I don’t find them very relatable at all - saying that, I haven’t been bound to a demon - but Wen’s POV is absolutely perfect and made the book a lot easier to follow.

I am being a bit picky here but as an English literature student, the SPAG mistakes really threw me off and impacted this rating. But if you’re able to move past that, then it should be ok for you. Who knows? They may even have been done intentionally!

I am ready for book two right now, please and thank you. I NEED a physical copy of this in my hands.

Would you like to live in a world with angels, nephilim, demons and other celestial beings? I totally would! But as exciting as it might seem, this post-apocalypse world is a dangerous world where those celestial beings have great power over the humans.

This story follows Wen and Godric.

Wen is a human captured by demons. She is determined to free herself and her best friend and she found the perfect way to do it, she made Angelesence, a substance only she can produce, and everyone would kill, or die for. She sold it and so she made a great amount of money until one of her deals went wrong and she got caught by the most powerful Nephilim in history, Godric, the Heaven’s most ruthless soldier and assassin. He is determined to do whatever he can to find out how she can capture Angel Essence. Until he realized that her power would make her the most dangerous creature on the planet, he had fallen for her.

This is a captivating fantasy story, that kept my interest to the end. It was easy to read and I liked the enemies to lovers trope, who doesn’t?

Celestial Academy: Essence is the first in a series of five books and it is a really well written story that definitely made me to want to read the rest of the books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Seventh Wonder Press for this ebook copy!

Imagine if the Apocalypse happened and instead of wiping out all of humanity, we lost roughly 1/8th of the global population. Oh, and those that survived had to learn to adapt to their place at the bottom of the hierarchy thanks to the arrival of angels, nephilim, demons, fae, and all the other beings we didn't know were real. Heaven and Hell are now on Earth, literally.

Wen has spent her entire life a slave, demon-owned and unable to escape the confines of the existence she was forced into, unless she miraculously comes up with the unimaginable amount of money it would cost to buy her own freedom. So what does she do? Your girl decides to start a side hustle stealing what is essentially bodily fluid from angels and making it into a drug only she can, opening her up to a world of danger as the Archangels find out what she's peddling and embark on a mission to find out how.

What to expect?

🗡Enemies to lovers
🪄Awakening magical powers
😡Grumpy but lovable MMC
👯‍♀️Found family

This was an absolute ride from start to finish and I am so excited for the sequel to be released. There are definitely some issues with the execution, mostly in relation to Wen's OTT snarkiness and excessive inner monologue, which is why I'm considering it a 4 ⭐️ read instead of a 5, but I see a lot of potential in both the plot and overall world building.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, but you can also find this book on KU!

The premise of this book intrigued me. Angela vs humans vs devils. The whole heaven and hell hierarchy.

The book takes a while to get into it, quite a bit of world building, politics etc. But once we’re in the characters quickly develop form setting relationships among each other. The feeling of lust and tension is palpable.

For me the action in the book tended to feel a little rushed with lots of really long vocabulary at times. Overall I really enjoyed the book and will continue reading the series

So I'll be honest, I totally thought this was going to be a Zodiac Academy rip-off, and I was ok with that cos I love that series.
But what I read was an excellent fantasy world where angels and demons (and other assorted supernatural beings) have made their homes on earth, and the humans have just had to deal with it as the immortals are constantly on the edge of the final apocalypse. We meet Wen, who has the questionable power of being able to collect what appears to be Angel sweat, which turns out to be a highly effective hallucinogen, and she has the only supply. Her only concerns in life are keeping her best friend Sarah safe, and escaping the yoke of their demon owners to live freely.
Her priorities change somewhat, when she is caught dealing Angelesence by a powerful (and super attractive) Angel and ripped from her home to face trial and judgement in the Celestial Court. I love Wen. Her snark and sassiness get her in a whole lot of trouble, but it makes her so entertaining.

While this book could definitely have used a final edit for some grammar, it was an advance copy from Netgalley, so I'm sure most of it has been fixed. I'm very keen to read the next book after all that was revealed in this one, and I want to see certain relationships develop, because Wen will certainly need allies with all that is to come.

The story is set in a post-apocalypse world where celestial beings have supreme power over the humans.

I was interested from the first time I read it, at first the pacing was fast but at around 25-30% the pacing turned slow so I started to lose focus on reading. The story where Wen started at the academy actually made me lose my reading mood even more. The plot focuses heavily on Wen's dislike of Sarah having other friends. I think Wen's obsession with Sarah is starting to get a little odd here.

Regarding the characters, at first I enjoyed the jokes given by Wen. She's so sassy, and has an interesting comeback answers, she makes me laugh. But after I read more it seemed that Wen could only throw verbal attacks and those nicknames given by Wen become annoying.

Am I the only one who feels Godric's role is very minimal? The plot focuses around Wen's activities, and Godric only appears a few times when he is mentioned, as well as the other characters.

The part that I like is the worldbuilding of this story it was actually well-built. I just hope that the existing glossary can be added with made-up words and their meanings, because so many new words are popping up that they become easily forgotten.

I hope for the second book Wen and Godric's dynamics and interactions can be further improved.

Thank you NetGalley and Seventh Wonder Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, I want to thank Netgalley, Olivia Pharos, and Seventh wonder press for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

In general, I liked this book.
I was a little lost at the beginning of the book because we get directly into the action of the history, without necessarily having an introduction or description of the world created by the author, which is a very large and complex world.
So it took me a little time to understand the context, but from the moment the author gives us a little more information about the history of the world, and the different species existing, we dive completely into the story.

I loved Wen’s humor. I really spent a lot of the book laughing while reading his lines.
The closed book that is Godric really intrigued me throughout the book, and the suspense at the end of the book about it made me scream.

the slow burn of the book tortured me and I am really looking forward to reading more to see the evolution of characters and this romance

I received a copy of #CelestialAcademyEssence from #NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. The first quarter of this book took me the longest to get through. This is often the case with a new world that is being explained and detailed. I had to concentrate on the humans, angels, demons, demon owned, archangels and nephilim. Once I got my head around it I started to read faster and got engrossed in the story line.

Wen is the main character, a human that is demon owned and trying to get freedom for herself and her best friend Sarah through selling a ‘drug’ she has created called Angelesence. One of her deals goes wrong and she finds herself in a whole new environment and under the wing of Godric and contemplating what she really is and what she can do.

There is a sexual chemistry between Wen and Godric but it is very slow burning! Most of the time they are insulting each other.

I loved both Wen and Godric. Wen is tough with a no nonsense attitude although I think her never ending ability to ask questions would fray on my nerves. Godric is strong and moody and a total anti hero. The supporting characters are also interesting and I can’t wait to read more about them and to see how the plot develops and what Wen is capable of!

Celestial Academy: Essence takes place in a world where the Earth is taken over by angels and demons and humans are now the lowest of the lowest. The story is told from the point of view of Wen, a human enslaved by a demon who somehow discovers a substance she calls "Angelescence," which allowed her to quickly earn large amounts of money in a relatively short amount of time. That is, of course, until she is caught.

There are three main problems I had with this book. First, I really, really just find the female lead's personality too much and too forced. I can't really say if her snarky personality is a way for her to deal with her past trauma, but I cringe at literally everything she says out loud. I cannot comprehend how anyone found her forced humor funny or simulating.

Second, I just could not finish this book completely. I definitely had to force myself to continue to read and that really drained my liking of this book. I can't say that it will be the case for everyone, but I personally just wasn't feeling it. The world-building is definitely better than many other book series, but I cannot bring myself to actually want to understand it.

Thirdly, I just feel like much of the romance and overall plot structure is very cliche. I cannot count how many times I went "I knew it!" when something I expected occurred. I won't get into details since that would be spoiling, but the enemy-to-lovers troupe was executed terribly for me.

Lastly, I do want to note that this book contained more graphic romance scenes than I had expected, and honestly, I didn't really like that either.

Really though, to conclude, I would say to give this book a try if you find the blurb interesting and read around 50 pages to consider if you really want to finish the book. Don't be like me who literally had to set up a 50-page-a-day minimum goal for myself just so I can finish this book.

All in all, this book is good, but definitely not to my taste. Thank you to NetGallery and Seventh Wonder Press for allowing me the chance to read this book for review.

Celestial Academy: Essence is the first in a series of five books. Taking place after the apocalypse, angels and demons have both made Earth their home, permanently interfering with the lives of humans. The story follows Wen, who has been enslaved by a demon. As a slave, she doesn't make much money, so she turns to selling drugs on the side for extra cash. Specifically, Wen sells Angelescence, a drug that only she can make that becomes so popular she struggles to keep up with demand. Her luck runs out, however, as she's caught during a drug deal-staged-stakeout, changing Wen's life forever in an instant. She get conscripted to Celestial Academy with her captor, Godric, as her mentor because she has the impossible ability of harvesting Angel Essence. Her time at the Academy and with Godric make Wen realize that she's far more than a regular human being, just as the world around her seems to be returning to chaos. The impending war is the least of their worries, however, as Godric begins to understand Wen's true power, possibly making her the most dangerous thing on the planet.


I did enjoy this book, it reminded me of Shadowhunter's but slightly darker, and a lot gorier. I enjoyed the in-depth worldbuilding and the premise of a post apocalyptic world instead of trying to prevent the apocalypse. However it was slow in a lot of parts with Wen's inner monologue and there seemed to be a lot of filler with nothing really happening which I felt could have been cut out of the book because I felt myself getting slightly bored in these parts. But I feel like I would like to check out the rest of the season and I'm really intrigued to the truth behind Wen and Godric.

I enjoyed reading this book, first book in series so its a slow burn with a lot of world builders, character building and a budding romance. I am looking forward to future books in the series.

DNF at 40%.

I was really excited to get started on reading this book, because the blurb looked very promising, containing a lot of elements I would normally enjoy. However, this book just wasn’t for me.
I really struggled with the writing style and the main character being way too snarky for me (all her inner dialogue was also too much for me to handle). These elements kept me from getting sucked into the story. I had to force myself to keep on reading. On the other hand, the academy still looks like an interesting place, and certain characters such as Lorcan and Godric were the main reason I tried to push through this book (but these positive elements just didn’t outweigh the less positive ones). So I can definitely see why other people enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Seventh Wonder Press for sending this book for review
consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book had it all, Angel and Demon, academia storytellings, friendship, enemies to lovers, trials, magic etc.
The world building was superb, characters perfect and the ending left me wanting more.
I need the next instalment ASAP.

Firstly, I’d like to say how much I adore this cover! It’s so lovely and I couldn’t stop staring at it while reading the book.

Secondly—this book! I was nervous because this has been an anticipated read of mine but I had no reason to be. I enjoyed the main characters and their relationships. Olivia does such a beautiful job curating these endearing and wonderful characters with seemingly real personalities and ambitions. I absolutely busted out laughing so many times! This book was so fun, witty and honest!

Seeing this book compared to Crescent City and Zodiac Academy, I was immediately intrigued. Unfortunately, it was not nearly as emotional as the former nor as entertaining as the latter.

I felt like very little happened in an otherwise long book - half the time we were stuck inside the main character's head and were forced to listen to her inner monologue for multiple pages, even in scenes that were supposed to be fast-paced and high stakes. At least 150 pages could've been edited out, the story would've stayed the same, and it probably would've kept my attention more. The pacing was weird, the first 40% of the story was incredibly slow and spanned over only a day basically, then when it finally got more interesting, and we arrived to the academy, we jumped weeks into the future and missed out on all the magical school aspect that I was looking forward to.

Characters besides our heroine and her love interest felt very one-dimensional, especially the best friend, who our main character spent half the book worrying about even though her only personality trait was being nice to everyone.

I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more had it been dual POV; Godric's one chapter in the end was more interesting than a lot of Wen's chapters combined. As it turns out, there's such a thing as a too snarky main character. Being witty should not come at the expense of me wondering how the hell this girl is still alive when she's determined to be bratty to everyone and constantly speak her every thought without even being aware of it.