I appreciate what Girma attempted to do here but this YA wasn't for me. I prefer a main character who learns and shows that they are using and understanding what they have been exposed to. Kidan kept regressing for me and that irked me. She approached this vendetta ill-prepared and without enough knowledge of the world that she was entering.

The evolution of the blood and sexual relationship between Kidan and Yos took a path that was unrealistic to me as it was so rife with mistrust and violence. Not the read for me but I can see the appeal.

This was a five star read for me - but I don't necessarily think it should have been published as YA. The world building spectacular and the characters are deliciously unlikeable. Girma does a beautiful job taking dark academia and vampire tropes and weaving them into a compelling narrative that will leave fans of both sub-genres satisfied. Full of unlikable characters and toxic relationships - a true enemies to lovers. I think teens will love this.

This makes me sad to give this book this rating but I have struggled in vain to stay interested in it. It has been difficult to convince myself to not DNF, especially because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. The writing is simultaneously beautiful but confusing. The world building doesn’t have any clarity and I understand that it is completely okay to have unlikable main characters but I thought they were supposed to be interesting?

I feel a lot of this story is underdeveloped and really needed to be worked on. Another concern of mine is when I had seen snippets of this book advertised on social media, I thought it was adult but it is actually categorized as young adult but also simultaneously new adult? I don’t understand this. Maybe I’ll try to revisit this book later but the storytelling has been disappointing.

DNF at 72% — it’s all too exhausting for me. The house magic is cool but can we just stop jumping to conclusions and speaking in riddles? I really wanted to love this, but it felt like an inside joke and I was very much on the outside.

This is one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and I couldn’t wait to dive in. It started a little slow but once it picked up and I got into it, I couldn’t put it down.

I loved how dark and atmospheric it was and I really enjoyed the added mixed media elements throughout.

This book was a dark, intense, wild roller coaster I didn’t want to get off of. It was surprising at every turn, taking us deeper into the uniquely dark and deadly world of Uxlay. This is not your normal vampire story.

This is a well written book, but being part of a trilogy it feels very unfinished. I was not satisfied with where the story ends, and it delves a bit too far into smut to be applicable for my audience at this time.

Slow to start but once I’d gotten to 60% I was hooked. Ended on a cliffhanger so I can’t wait to see what happens next!

This was good, it felt like an upper ya/ new adult read with the writing and characters. It's a dark academia with an all-black cast of humans and vampires. The main character Kidian is trying to track down her sister who's the only family she has left. To get closer to finding her sister she agrees to attend a secret university that's historic and has vampires. When she gets to the school and starts investigating her sister's disappearance, her top suspect is a vampire, Susenyos, her mortal enemy. Susenyos and Kidian served the best type of enemies to lovers who still didn't like each other when hooking up. The characters in this book are morally gray and what is wrong or right in this book lol. I liked the Ethiopian mythology that was infused into the world. I loved the character growth toward villainy and I need the sequel because of the cliffhangers at the end.

Tropes/themes:
- Dark academia
- Black vampires
- Mystery
- Secret society and university
- Enemies to lovers turned enemies with benefits
- Hunted university

Ome of the best books I’ve read in years! The beautiful prose, the devourable plot, the incredible morally grey characters, I mean just everything was TOP TIER

I wanted to like this book SO bad. It truly did give off some Cruel Prince vibes. Like TRUE enemies to lovers. Not just like somewhat dislikes and ends up falling in love but literally despising each other’s existence. But sadly I didn’t get to the part where they maybe fall for each other because I DNF’ed it about 65% of the way in. I just couldn’t do it anymore quite literally lol. I spent three weeks reading it and just couldn’t get into the story? Honestly the magic system was quite confusing? I still that far into the book didn’t understand it.. ESPECIALLY how the house is somewhat sentient? It started to become a big part of the book 60%-ish the way in but I still didn’t understand the magic behind it so I was just confused. I also didn’t really care for any of the characters and the one I didn’t kind of like dies so there’s that. Overall, this obviously just wasn’t for me sadly.

This was such an amazing debut! I loved everything about it and the world was very interesting. I can't wait to see what's in store for the next two books, I'm very excited!

I've been sitting here for quite a while trying to find the words to describe this book.
20 minutes and a melted popsicle later, the only word I can say is - wow. WOW.

I'm trying to love this book in a totally normal healthy way but I am failing - MISERABLY.
For starters, let me say this was my first dark academia book and I was very unsure about what I should expect. That being said, this was the most beautiful, haunting, stunning book that I've picked up in a WHILE and I am so, so glad I was able to experience it. The plot twists, the complicated feelings, the mystery, the Blackness, all of it, I could WEEP. This book was so addicting - and each character was so well thought out and layered, oh my goodness.

Kidan and Susenyos, oh my God. When the enemies to lovers are actually ENEMIES to lovers >>>>
I love them I love them I love them.

In summary, I'm obsessed. I've watched the author's journey on Tiktok progress since 2022 (I believe) and I am SO happy to see this entire tale unfold. Bravo, Tigest Girma! I can't wait to see what's next.

What an absolutely amazing book! It’s such an original take on a world where vampires and humans must co-exist. The human protagonist, Kidan, is strong and intelligent; I appreciated such a powerful female lead. The world-building was perfect and I felt fully immersed. I can’t wait to recommend this to others and I look forward to the rest of the series. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read!

Wow! This was a rollercoaster. I LOOOOVE seeing vampire books making a comeback and this one was so unique! The worldbuilding was fascinating and not something I’ve ever read before. I loved learning about how the house laws worked, and I love the detail about memories being shared depending on where blood is drawn from.

Kidan and Susyenos had suuuuch a complicated relationship! I could never guess what they’d do next. The plot was pretty entertaining, though I did get a little bored around the 70% mark. The ending was intriguing though and I’ll be on the lookout for the sequel!