Dnfing at 15%. I cant bring myself to care and im getting the ick. Everyone let out a nice long sigh in remembrance of the money i wasted paying full price for this book. I did not like this one.

Vampires. Dark academia. Queerness.

Slow to start but overall a great story, ticking all of my favorite trope boxes.

I’ve never read a book by this author, but the description of this one pulled me in, and I’m so glad I picked it! One of the best vampire books I’ve read in a while. One of my favorite things about this book is the fact that there was so much representation of genders and relationships. I feel like it made the vampire aspect of the book more real for me because I think those are qualities I’ve always imagined vampires to have. This book was so well written and I cannot wait to read more from this author in the future.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I was hooked from start to finish. Any vampire books, books with vampire themes etc. always capture my attention. They're my favourite kind of books and this one did not let me down. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I do love a good vampire society, and a queer romance that is not what people think of when they usually think of a queer romance? Always a bonus! I am a queer man in a hetero-passing relationship myself and the main pairing between Fin and Gavron was intriguing and often kept me on my toes. Speaking of, the mystery and shadowy intrigue of Courtsheart had me finishing this book in just a few days (I am usually a very slow reader). Not only was the worldbuilding immaculate, leaving me always wanting to know more, but the pacing was exquisite and had me taking notes for my own stories. I genuinely cannot wait to see more from this author, and if we are ever lucky enough to get more of Fin and Gavron, I will be doubly excited!

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This was very fun and exciting to read. I enjoy the plot and thought it was a nice twist on the vampire/boarding school type story. The chemistry between Fin and Gavron was nice. The murder mystery element was good as well. I like that it has a lot of queer characters and everyone is accepted for who they are. Overall this was a really great book that I enjoyed reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy.

I was super excited to read this book having loved Strickland’s previous book “In the Ravenous Dark,” and I am so excited for vampires to be making a comeback. I enjoyed a lot about this book. Number one, I will always love a story about vampires. I also appreciated how queer this was. There were many sexualities and explorations of gender presented throughout. Additionally, I enjoyed a lot of the characters and their relationships with one another. However, I never really felt pulled in to the story. I felt like there was a lot going on, but I was never fully invested or on board with any of the elements. I also found Fin and her actions to be frustrating most of the time. Readers who enjoy vampires, romantasy, and morally gray characters may enjoy this.

Fin doesn’t belong. Never has, never will. Growing up in a small fishing village, she hasn’t amounted to much. Her mother was taken when Fin was young. Her father never really stepped up before his death. So Fin has simply tried to make it on her own, and done a piss poor job of it to be honest.

Now it’s time for their village’s Finding, when the vampires come to choose those who will be taken to learn how to be a vampire, or die trying, or fail and become a thrall. Fin has had a vendetta against vampires since her mother was taken by them in a Finding years ago. She has no wish to have anything to do with them. But when her friend Silvea is almost chosen, Fin steps in to take her place, thinking she’s saving her life. But now she’s destined to become the thing she hates most or die avenging her mother.

Court of the Undying Seasons is an interesting take on the typical vampire novel. Imagine Interview with a Vampire meets The Hunger Games and Harry Potter. The system that A.M. Strickland creates is unique in its own right. However, the novel felt messy and chaotic. It was almost as if there were a million threads of thought and the author couldn’t figure out which ones to include in the book. The ending seemed rushed and thrown together while the characters were difficult to get to know, almost as if their stories hadn’t been completely fleshed out.

I definitely enjoyed bits of the storyline but I feel as if Court of the Undying Season would be better suited as a series. That way it could be given the details needed to make it a truly amazing story.

**I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I received this book for free for an honest unbiased review from Netgalley.

I wish more books were this well written. Characters were witty and the setting fantastic.

[Another mini-review here, as I clear my backlog of books read earlier this year!]

A.M. Strickland has done it again: created a lush, dark world; filled it with complex (sometimes morally dubious) queer characters; and set them off in a story full of tension and twists. It's no surprise that I enjoyed this story, following a demigirl seeking revenge on vampires while slowly becoming one herself...and falling for her vampiric maker/mentor in the process. Here are just a few things you can look forward to in this one:
.
- Vampires!
- Mentor/mentee romance (even though she initially hates him, he is your classic wonderful Sexy Brooding Man Who Still Cares About Her)
- So much romantic and sexual tension
- Queer rep including a pansexual demigirl MC, her pansexual love interest, her lesbian friend, a bigender SC (who literally magically transforms their body to match their current identity), an agender SC, and two aroace SCs, among others
- Relatedly, a queernormative world
- Sorting into various houses based on values and skills (personally, I think I'm Silver Court)
- Magic school vibes, but not childish, more dark academia with high stakes
- A heroine who is feisty but also vulnerable (she cries on-page more than once, which tbh is a very rational response to her situation)
- A fresh take on vampiric tropes--enthrallment, blood connections, healing, supernatural beauty, etc.--as well as a sly nod to werewolves
- Girls with lots of knives
- Have I mentioned the plot twists?? Seriously, there were at least three different points where the story took an absolutely BONKERS unexpected turn, and two of my least-favorite characters at the beginning were faves by the end
- Murder mystery in a creepy old school
- Alllllll the revenge, and so much betrayal!
- Professors who have complicated dynamics with both each other and their students (seriously, awesome cast of side characters)
- A little bit of steamy content, though not so explicit as to take it out of YA

This whole book was a wild ride, and I loved it. If this is what all books in the YA vampire renaissance are going to be like, then I am so here for it.

Nineteen-year-old Fin is plucked from her modest fishing village (sort of in an "I volunteer as tribute" type way) by vampires, and taken to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where her fate is to become a vampire or live enslaved forever. This all happens almost immediately when picking up the book, so we are quickly involved in this new fantasy world, but it is easy to understand and easy to get invested.

I love a strong, female character, and we have that in Fin. She has a motive to kill every vampire she comes across, and yet she finds herself quickly entwined in their world and on the path to becoming one.

We have a bit of everything here: romance, adventure, thrill, fantasy, complex characters, complex relationships. We have twists and turns where you least expect them and villains that may be heroes/ heroes that may be villains. A.M. Strickland keeps you on your toes and turning pages.

All in all, the book was like a captivating murder mystery set in a vampire-filled world. I loved it!

This book was written for you if:
1) You're a Sarah J. Maas fan
2) You love a good vampire story
3) You enjoy a blurry line between good and evil and right and wrong

Thank you @fiercereads and AM Strickland for sending me Court of the Undying Seasons to review! I loved Strickland's In the Ravenous Dark so I was super excited to read this. Although I started it on ebook, I had a hard time getting into it until I switched to Audiobook, then I gobbled it up!

The MC has a true "I volunteer as tribute" moment when she takes her best friend's place as a chosen vampire in training/possible thrall situation. What unfolds is her trying to figure out how to survive when all of the outcomes are bad.

Overall, this was 🔥sexxxxxy🔥(but not that spicy, sorry spicy book lovers haha). It is my favorite kind of spicy, a will-they, won't-they, they really shouldn't slow-burn vibe. It also had some good twists (some were predictable though) and had a great mix of traditional vampire elements while also mixing in more modern themes. I loved the element where vampires in training can learn the magic of "masks" that allow them to shift gender and pronouns.

Overall, if you love classic vampire novels but more modern this is for you!

🔥4.5/5🔥

Ok, I loved this more than I thought I would. This book is like Queen of The Damned meets Underworld but with the feel of the Volturi court workings from Twilight. I loved everything about it. It was dark and brutal, yet glorious and fun.

Fin was a fantastic character. I loved how she always knew exactly what she wanted, yet also allowed herself to see things for what they were and grow with the knowledge she took in. Nothing was an instant switch that was flipped, it was gradual and believable.

I was slightly annoyed with Gavron. I was irritated that he took Fin on, yet left her on her own instead of helping her every chance he got, though this is explained later in the story. I just wish we had gotten more interaction between the two in general. I did end up falling in love with the two of them by the end, as well as many of the other characters.

Kashire may or may not be my favorite character. The chaos that ensues every time he's in the scene is always entertaining, and I just genuinely enjoyed his personality. The way things change and evolve with him and Fin was an adventure all if it's own.

It was really interesting to watch everything pan out with our character group, finding out more about Fins mother and what was happening with the original vampires. I had a feeling and was right about some of it, but fully enjoyed the way the author played it all out.

This is a book I will enjoy time and time again. I just wish I had more of this world and these characters!

A vampire boarding school book that flirts with elder-god-style mythos and teen romance. A lot of positive queer rep, here, too.

Court of the Undying Seasons is a book that I was really excited for since the premise of it is The Scholomance meets vampires. However, the pacing and character development threw me off from enjoying this one as much as I'd anticipated. We had only a brief introduction to the worldbuilding and the reader is immediately thrown into vague courtly intrigue.

Beautiful story about a young person finding their own way in life, that involves magical aspects. I love the world building in this book and how the author created it. I recommend this book to everyone looking for a fun fantasy with discovery of life

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had so many things that I absolutely love in books; morally gray character, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, found family, a gothic castle school, queer rep! I loved that not only was the main character queer (pansexual demi specifically) but that the main male character was also queer. Usually it seems like many books only have one partner being queer, which is good too but I liked that both of them were in this book.

I loved all of the vampire lore in this book. A lot of it was common lore but there were several aspects of the lore that I had never read before, which I loved.

I have enjoyed every book by A.M. Strickland, specifically because of their LGBTQ+ rep in all of their books.

I think of you are a fan of books like ACOTAR and books with vampires, this is a great read you should dive into!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Finn has lost everything....her mother, her father, her very way of life. When the one person she has left is about to be taken from her by a reaping for vampire possibles, Finn pivots to put herself in the crosshairs instead. But learning what it takes to be fully turned is more than Finn bargained for. Will she be able to survive long enough to unleash her fury upon the vampires, or will she find there are worse things to be afraid of?

The story and world building of this novel are an easy 5 stars for me, however I felt like the author did Finn an injustice by keeping her in her female box when she was meant to be so much more. I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't dive deeper Into this complaint but I hope the author and publishers.realize what a miss this was. The world is exquisite, the vampire houses and what they have to offer are such a new take that you don't find yourself rolling your eyes when a vampire feature.that has been overdone is on display. The characters are easy to love and even hate, and while nothing comes easily for Finn you aren't left with that dread of "how will.the author screw this up for her this time" like I have felt in other novels.

4 stars for a world I hope to someday adventure in again. Recommended for.those.who love a good magic school or even vampiric romance. Age recommended for 13+ as there is a little spice, but nothing graphic.