Excellent story idea in theory but the execution was lacking for me.

We have to very childish characters that seem to loathe one another for absolutely adolescent reasons and yet can’t reconcile it with even after several conversations, grow up, your Cambridge students I’d expect a higher level of maturity.

There is also far too much telling and very little showing, half way through this book I had no sense is what it was even about it was all just explained via dialogue and didn’t enrich the reading experience.

The villain was unoriginal and felt like a caricature.

The writing is lovely but it all needed a heavy edit.

Thank you for the review copy all opinions are my own.

I've seen so much hype for this release, and it sounded exactly like my kind of thing, so I was very excited to dive in. But unfortunately, this book did not live up to its potential for me.

I thought the first few chapters were strong, and they set up such an interesting premisse, but then everything quickly fizzled out for me. I found myself bored and craving more: more world building, more character depth, more emotional connection to the story. I just didn't feel pulled in as much as I wanted, which was a shame especially because the book is quite long, so all the opportunity was there.

I originally added this book to my TBR because of the absolutely gorgeous cover, however, I can officially say that this book was everything it needed to be. I was obsessed with the autumnal vibes of this book; small town, coffee and bookshops, warm cottages, I felt like i was there in the moment as a spectator with Teddy and Aurelia. Speaking of, they were both great protagonists, and I especially loved Aurelia’s spicy attitude! Although I would say the book dragged in a few parts, I would 100% recommend this to other readers who live cozy fall/magic vibes.

This is a beautifully well-written book. The characters have depth, and you connect with them; the slow burn is well-written. However, the pacing was off, which made me enjoy it less than I would have if it had a better flow. It felt rushed at some points, and other parts dragged so much that I skimmed or skipped multiple pages and missed nothing. It could have gone through another round of editing, but overall, it is a decent book if you like dark academia-type books.

The first time I picked up this book, it was because the boy on the cover reminded me of Kaz Brekker and I was instantly intrigued, but I was never able to get through the first chapter. So when I heard that it was getting republished, I decided I wanted to give it another try since I knew so many who loved this book and I am super glad that I did.

The vibes alone of this book are immaculate, I mean rivalling bi witches at Cambridge university, be still my dark academia heart. Especially when our mmc was not-so-secretly in love with Rory the whole time. (I've read books recently that have attempted to have that level of misunderstood feelings and it has not worked so I was very glad to see a successful attempt here)

Parts of the book were still hard to get through and took a lot more mental capacity to stay focused on than I would like personally, and parts of the relationship near the end I didn't love BUT overall the aesthetic of the book and the ambience of it all were super cozy for winter and were very much up my alley.

The new cover fits the book a lot better, despite how much I will miss the art of the old edition.
dark, moody, and tea; what more could you ask for?

thanks to tor and netgalley for the arc!

Modern Divination is a slow-burn, character-driven academic rivals-to-lovers story set in our world, but with a rich layer of magic woven throughout. While the book centres around students, the academic rivalry is only a small part of the narrative. Instead of delving deeply into their studies or the origins of their competition, the story focuses more on the evolving relationship between the two protagonists. I did find myself wanting more backstory to help establish a stronger connection with the characters, as they sometimes felt a bit underdeveloped.

The magic system was one of the most intriguing aspects of the story, especially its connection to different senses. However, due to the secretive nature of the witches in this world, I found it took a while to fully grasp the nuances of the magic, and the book doesn’t reveal much about it early on, which left me feeling somewhat lost at times. This added a layer of mystery, but also some frustration, as I struggled to visualise and understand the mechanics of the magic.

In terms of pacing, the book maintains a steady rhythm throughout, with a strong emphasis on character exploration rather than action. For the most part, this worked for me, but by the end, I found myself wishing for a bit more momentum. I suspect this was because I wasn’t as emotionally invested in the characters as I would have liked to be, which made the slower pace feel longer than anticipated.

While the main plot didn’t quite captivate me as much as I’d hoped, I did appreciate the overall atmosphere and was particularly intrigued by some of the side characters. I’m hopeful that these characters will play a larger role in future instalments, as they added depth and intrigue to the story. Ultimately, the lack of clarity around the world-building and magic system prevented me from fully connecting with the book, but I do think it has potential. Now that I have a better sense of the world, I’d be open to exploring more books in this setting and learning more about the magic system.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this eARC to review.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I actually previously read the self-published version and got 16% into it before promptly dnf'ing it. I decided to give Modern Divination another chance with this new polished-up version when I picked up the self-published version again and to my surprise kind of got sucked into it for a brief moment. Unfortunately, I did not quite enjoy this, like at all.

Modern Divination has everything I theoretically would enjoy, academic rivals to lovers, a small-town setting, a very sad MMC, and magical abilities. Yet, I found almost all of these aspects of the book the most insufferable elements of my reading experience. The small town lacks any kind of charm or intrigue, the stigma around magical abilities is weakly explained, the rivals aspect feels overblown, and the MMC is just one big eye roll.

While the relationship between the two characters is expertly crafted, and you can clearly see the love the author has for their love, it felt way too at the forefront of the plot at the expense of the murder magic mystery which is pitched as being the heart of Modern Divination. This is compounded by some poetic writing that veers on overly flowery at times with just how much it bogs down the page count. At one point, the writing feels like it smugly succumbs to self-indulgence as it seemingly feels more concerned with demonstrating its own literary prose rather than advancing the plot. By page 300, I feel stuck in the trenches of prose-y prose. The story is also dominated by heavy internal introspection with the characters using one another as a character study, circling one another for some 500 pages and consequently what little stakes are established are brushed aside.

In light of this, the pacing felt a bit too uneven throughout the story, with the narrative dragging in certain parts yet speedrunning through others where the reader would otherwise expect a bit more lingering. For instance, the main villain of this story was dealt with at the 75% mark yet we spend the last quarter meandering around the feelings of the two characters, much to my surprise and frustration.

Other than that, I don't think I will be picking up the sequel.

4.5 (rounded up)

Modern Divination is a character-focused and atmospheric adult fantasy with slow-burn academic rivals full of yearning, and a found family that hits you right in the heart.

Aurelia and Theodore are two witches and long-standing academic rivals at Cambridge, but they suddenly find themselves needing to team up after another power-hungry witch begins threatening their magic and lives. I devoured this one in the span of a night and just need to say that the vibes were immaculate. While I absolutely adored the character-driven nature of the narrative, I do think that it is not without its faults as the plot was not as well-developed as it could be in terms of the antagonist (honestly I wasn’t mad about it because I loved seeing the two characters relationship develop and did I mention the yearning? But if you are someone who likes a plot-centric book, this one is probably not for you).

All in all, I am so excited for the second book and I can’t wait to meet Aurelia and Teddy again!

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing this eArc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

This is for the fans of the slow-burn, the Howl’s Moving Castle tortured-yet-loveable man, and most importantly the yearners. I enjoyed my time spent with Aurelia and Teddy, the academic atmosphere, and the development of their rivals-to-lovers relationship.

Unfortunately, this was the only thing that kept me pulling through the 500 pages. I found that the plot began to drag from the midpoint on, and I was a fair bit confused at the progression of events. If not for my desire to find out if Teddy and Aurelia end up together I fear I would not have been able to pull through. I was left with many questions on the magic and the world building, which felt as if they fell wayside to the development of our characters budding relationship. I did not feel the “life or death” of the story at all, it felt rather secondary and forgettable to the couple (which for me as a yearner, was not enough to put it down). I found myself thinking while they were in Townsend that I wished it was a “cozy” story, that it could just be the pair of academics solving a puzzle of sorts and less an action driven witch hunt.

I enjoyed my time reading Modern Divination and would recommend it to fans of Divine Rivals in particular, for a pair of flawed yet compelling characters. I will be reading the second instalment to see where we go from here! The authors writing is very easy to read and the prose was excellent. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoyed Modern Divination and adored our protagonists, Aurelia and Teddy. This is truly a slow-burn and Agajanian captured their yearning incredibly well. I was fully immersed with the academic atmosphere and the author did an excellent job describing the pressures within academia, especially through Aurelia’s character.

However, after Part 3, the story began to drag and I felt as though it has lost sight of the stakes. While the characters kept emphasizing the “life-and-death” situation they were in, not enough was happening externally to keep me interested. Occasionally, the action scenes can be hard to follow. I found myself having to re-read these scenes to better understand the logistics and overall placement of the characters. I also would’ve appreciated more world-building with lore on the history of witches as well as more fleshed out explanations on *how* the magic worked.

Overall, Modern Divination was an enjoyable read with strong, interesting, and equally flawed characters to keep readers hooked on the story throughout. I’m excited to see where Agajanian takes the next book! Having followed them on social media as well, I also look forward to their future projects!

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you are looking for an academic rivals to something more trope, this is your book.

Aurelia Schwartz green witch who is the top student in the Medieval History program at her University. While in school, she does her utmost to be careful and keep her magic a secret, as people finding out would result in her death.

Theodore Ingram is the dark and tall boy who she is battling for the attention and praise of her professor. Although they dislike and resent each other, they band together and form an alliance following a murder at one of their school parties.

While I really enjoyed the writing and through the prose to be skillfully crafted, I did find that it kind of dragged at times, and the pacing to be extremely uneven. The ending felt unnecessarily long, feeling as though a good chunk of it did not need to be there. It could have benefitted from it being shorter.

Overall, I had a fun time reading it and would recommend it to anyone wanting to dip their toes in the academia genre or for anyone wanting a quick, fun, and intriguing read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of this book and it have beautiful prose with imperfect characters that you come to care deeply about.

I loved this book. It was well paced and I enjoyed the story.
I appreciated how the details of the story were slow to unfold in a way that was exciting (and not irritating). It made me fall for the characters. I would have appreciated more of a description and backstory of the supporting characters, as they did fall a little flat.
Without giving any spoilers, the twist that happens near the end was a little hard to believe and seemed completely out of character. The search was non-existent and that confused me.
I do want to know where the story goes from here though... I'm invested!

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this story. There was too much dialogue and conversations between characters arguing with each other. The witchiness didn't have a clear enough focus or presence in this story with not enough background information about Aurelia at the beginning of the story. The plot felt cluttered with lots of ideas that did not allow the magic to breathe.

I really enjoyed this book, I found myself falling into the universe and being fully emerged into the story. I’m looking forward to more of Isabel’s work!

This book is the definition of a slow burn, enemies to lover romance! It's moody, and Teddy and Aurelia truly yearned for each other. While it took me about 32% to get fully into the book, I was loving the dark academic and magical vibes. It truly fit the colder weather that I'm experiencing in late October and made me feel really cozy. Who doesn't love a good witchcraft and magical story, with some angsty love? Even though it wasn't my favourite book ever, I still enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone that resonated with what I mentioned above!

One of my fabourite books I've ever read and It was so fun getting to re-experience a re-edited verison!

3 stars!

This had me in the first half not gonna lie. It started out so well, with the first two parts being slow on the action but filled with very beautiful writing, well-rounded characters, and a reaaaaally good slow burn romance (and I also really liked that there was no insta-love, and this did read as enemies to friend to lovers, like these two HATED each other for the the first 25% of the book and I liked that!).

However, when part three began is where things went downwards for me. There's this big build up to this confrontation with the antagonist but it's so poorly explained that I had no idea what was going on. Agajanian needs to more on explaining her more "actiony" scenes because it was so confusing to understand their surroundings, what they were doing, and what was transpiring. After that, the story seems to drag on a little too much for my liking, with conversations between our two main characters often repeating themselves.

Additionally, I would have really enjoyed more insight into the magic system in this world and how witches... work.

Other than that, I don't know if I'll pick up the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for an arc in exchange for my honest review!