Thank you NetGalley and Razorbill for blessing my shelves and imagination.

This YA urban fantasy (J. Elle's specialty) is about a teenaged MC named Quell.  All she has every known is a life on the run with her mom. Anytime her mom senses the block getting hot from assassins they pick up and move. The "safe" option preventing Quell's death is to become a debutante in a secret magical society, think boarding school. 

The author left plenty of room for the reader to imagine the ethnicity of most, if not all of the characters. The physical locations of places is even up to the reader to decide. It kind of reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a child. In my mind a majority of the story took place in New Orleans. 

The last chapter felt rushed and ended with an unsuspecting cliffhanger. However, I'm invested and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I wanted to love this book so much. Not only was the cover so so beautiful, but dark academia?! Dark magic?! Count. Me. In. The premise for this book was so promising: a girl with dark magic is being hunted, so she joins a school for magic as a means of protection from being hunted.

I was hoping to give this book at least 4 stars, but there were a few times where I almost DNF it and I only kept going because I wanted to keep seeing if it would finally suck me in. The interesting drama didn’t start until about 80% and even then, there were so many things all crammed in that it got a bit confusing. There were a few things that happened that weren’t really explained- it was just assumed we’d know, which I don’t love in a fantasy book. Ultimately I rated this book 3 stars because the story was interesting and I want to know what happens to her, but I don’t think the writing and storytelling were enough to live up to my expectations.

The premise of the book sounds strong, but it completely falls flat throughout the story. The lore behind the magic system was hard to understand and juvenile. The book seems to have some merit, which will hopefully fill the sequel, but everything else fell flat. The romance aspect made no sense to me and I kept cringing when the love interests would interact. Overall, I do think middle school/high school kids might like this book, and I hope that the sequel turns the series around.

Quell is a 17 year old girl who has spent much of her life fleeing. Why? Because she has a type of magic that others will kill for. In her efforts to escape those trying to harm her, she ends up in her grandmother's care. Her grandmother is one of the major leaders in their magic society. She wants Quell to learn the ways and join them. That is if she can keep her magic under control.

I love the various stories going on in this dark academia, magical society book. It has great character development, mystery, and not to mention some great romance as well. This is a great fantasy story leaving you literally on the edge of your seat hoping for a volume two!

I enjoyed Wings of Ebony so I was really looking forward to this next series from J Elle. Unfortunately it ended up being all glamour and no substance, and if I never have to read another sentence where Quell drools over Jordan it'll be TOO SOON. What started off as an urban fantasy devolved into cotillion classes which were honestly so boring to read. There was a confusing magic system, a brooding love interest with no personality, and a bunch of side characters who only existed to tell Quell how special and powerful she was. Also it was really weird how the other characters were pushing her to complete her Season so quickly, even though there was a high likelihood that she would fail if she were rushed? It would have made way more sense if she was pushing to finish and others were telling her to slow down.

The only parts of the book where I felt truly engaged were the ones where Quell had to hide the effects of her toushana (or dark magic). Those moments felt high stakes, but they were quickly swept away by the repetition of going to etiquette classes, being super good at magic for no apparent reason, and falling for a guy who is super rude to her. I probably would have liked this book if I had read it when I was in middle school, but I expected so much more from based on my past experience with J Elle and the levels of promotion this has been getting from Penguin Teen.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill for an eARC of House of Marionne! The description drew me into the story about dark academia, debutante balls, magic, fantasy, etc, however, it is a YA fantasy that is hard to get into at the beginning and is slow to draw you into its work. It was an okay read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, J Elle, and Penguin for my eARC of this book. I did end up listening to the audio after release due to the unformatted kindle file, and I think the audio was really well done! All opinions on this story are my own.

3.75 stars

Ok. At the beginning of this book I was very much

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but by the very last line I was 100%

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While the beginning of this book was off to a very rocky start - we don’t even meet Jordan, he just tries to kill Quell, and then suddenly he’s just referred to by name like an introduction happened somewhere - and the insta-love was a bit much, I actually had a good time.

I really enjoyed the idea of a magical debutante. I am a little confused as to why all the magical people chose this particular House to debut, but maybe I missed that somewhere? I liked the underdog tones we were getting from Quell and ultimately the power she ended up learning to wield within herself.

Overall, this was a decent read but I am definitely very excited for the next book! Everything about the last 15% has me so excited to continue the story.

I had high hopes for House of Marionne, especially after a few good reviews from trusted friends but unfortunately, I don’t think this one was for me. The magic and history of this world did not make sense to me, and the timeline of the story left me very confused. There were elements that I enjoyed: I love a boarding school setting, and there are SO many secrets.

I do see a lot of potential in this series, especially after a few secrets are revealed towards the end of the book. Overall, was a bit confused by the magic system and the romance felt a bit bland to me. I do hope we get more explanation about the magic and this world in book 2.

This book was intriguing, and mysterious. I loved the idea of the houses and the southern debutante idea. This book caught me and held me until the end!!

I'm not sure about this one. I think it has a lot of potential to get a large following but I'll admit it was a bit of a struggle for me especially in the beginning (though that was partly a formatting issue and I did not take off any stars for it as that is not the books fault). By the time I finished, all I could think was "it was okay". The characters were okay. The writing style was okay. The story itself was okay. This is just a middle ground book for me but I'd be interested to check out what the author does next in the future!

Absolutely beautiful. A tad slow, but flawless story telling And the ending was magic. Didn’t see any of those twists coming. I listened to J. Elle talk about the second book on a podcast and she said who we consider the hero and the villain may change and I CANNOT WAIT.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
I loved the magic in this book, especially Quell's magic. I loved the side characters. What I really struggled with was the romance. I just wasn't feeling Quell and Jordan's chemistry. The book is clearly going for a broody mysterious boy vibe which I'm usually into but I found him more off-putting that intriguing. And so much of this book is romance so I kept finding myself bored reading the chapters that were focused on him.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I feel like there's been an increase in boarding school stories that have a new student who needs to prove herself/doesn't belong. It's getting old.

I preordered this one strictly because it's just gorgeous. But the premise was what caught my eye initially. Dark academia, magic and morally grey characters... count me in. Overall, this was not what I was ready for. Part of me expected a villain origin story and another part thought this fell along the lines of Mortal Instruments. However, it's really neither of those. It's an MC (Quell) whose trying to do the right thing to protect her and her mom. On the run from those who want to eradicate her type of magic, she runs to the only safe haven around, House of Marionne, her grandmom's school. There are multiple elements that are left open ended that could use a little more depth (magic system, character bonds) but it also kept an element of surprise waiting around the corner. This is a slow build that takes a bit to hit the drive forward. The cliffhanger was well done and leaves a lot of possibilities for the next book. I'd recommend the audio read by André Santana and Kate Simses.

I received an arc via Netgalley, and am leaving an honest review about the book. I’m thankful to the publisher and the author for giving me this wonderful opportunity!

I don’t know what I was expecting going into this book, but this definitely wasn’t it. I had such a hard time getting into it, and I still couldn’t fully immerse myself into it. After trying to read it, I dropped it halfway because I understood nothing. The plot had so much potential, but it wasn’t executed even remotely well.

THINK SOUTHERN HIGH SOCIETY MEETS MAGICAL SECRET ORDER!!

When I say I could not put this book down, I genuinely mean it!

The main character, Quell, is on the run and ends up going back to her family’s estate and finds it to be a sort of magical summer school for the rich! Where students train their skills and work at one of the branches of magic in hopes of being able to debut to the community.

(A very fascinating structure of magic, I might add.)

I’m not a huge romance reader, but the relationship within the story was well-paced and did not seem rushed or forced, which I appreciated. It allowed a slow burn of two people learning and meeting each other!! So, kudos to the author for creating fantastic subplots.

The one negative I found was there were maybe 4-5 chapters that threw in another perspective throughout the book that I didn’t find to enhance the story or give any further illumination to the plot.

I had a difficult time getting into this book in the beginning. The writing and characters didn't grab me but the premise of the story is interesting. The writing does feel more YA if that makes sense so if that bothers you this one may not be for you.

Loved this book! The whimsy and darkness, the magical tiaras and dark societies. Definitely buying a physical copy after that twist!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Quell has lived her entire life on the run with her mother. When someone discovers the secret about her dark magic she heads to the one place she might be safe...the school her grandmother is the headmistress of. While there she begins to learn more about her magic and decides to enter the Order, a secret magical society that will afford her choice and power. Still, danger is everywhere and she doesn't quite know who to trust.

I enjoyed this book. I did find it a little repetitive and too long. It could be streamlined some and still be a good story. I think this is the first in a series, and it held my attention enough that I would definitely read the next book.

this story was not very predictable but when she was jumping to another place after having to leave her new "friend" space I was like well what next?!?! I didn't know who to trust and who not to trust t begin with but that was part of the fun.