I started off thinking that this was another entry of ‘books that did not achieve the potential of their parts’, and honestly I maintained that opinion throughout most of the book but I definitely saw the vision by the end. The first 70% of this was a 3 star read with the last 30% or so being a 4 star ending. I feel happy settling on 3.5 stars (rounded down for exposing me to another main character who makes me want to commit violence).

This book features an interesting magic system based on lunar cycles of the moon which I found to be fairly unique. I know that this is marketed as being dark academia, but in my opinion it’s really more dark academia adjacent given the heavy presence of secret societies in the plot and its setting in a college. However, the actual classes and academy itself doesn’t really play a major role in the plot.

The actual writing craft of this book is pretty well polished and I have no complaints about the pacing or dialogue. Every now and again I would get glimmers of being sucked into this world but inevitably something would happen that would make me roll my eyes and pull me out of it. I’ll be honest, I found Bas’s POVs to be significantly more pleasant to inhabit and his storyline more interesting.

Unfortunately, finding Emory to be a pretty insufferable character ruined my time with her and her story. Emory is cut from the cloth that a lot of female YA protagonists are- it’s giving Bella swan. Emory is also meant to be 19 but read significantly younger and kind of felt like it’s included just to allow for a very mild sex scene. It became tedious with how often she refers to herself as mediocre or plain or a wallflower or reserved or shy and yet somehow we are meant to believe that she has all these love interests following her around? Emory also presented with this kind of immature victim mentality and rampant insecurities causing a doozy of an inferiority complex of her own abilities and for her to be jealous and covetous of other people’s powers, which I did not enjoy at all.

Emory also did that thing, which I’m coming to realise is a cardinal sin of character work for me, where she emotionally manipulates, hassles and cajoles a more experienced character into helping her AND THEN IMMEDIATELY starts complaining about how they help and starts trying to push the boundaries to get her way. Absolutely Infuriating.

Also the way that Emory just intentionally engaged in emotional manipulation and leading Bas on just gave me the biggest ick and was pretty irredeemable for a character. If you can’t tell by my little rant she was just TRULY THE WORST and I hope she wakes up to soggy socks every morning.

The book seemed to be trying to sell me a love triangle that I struggled to buy into from the get go. In part because the chemistry between Emory and Baz came so much from telling the reader about their attraction, rather than letting the reader feel it and just relied on REPEATEDLY mentioning how often Bas blushes around her and his childhood crush on her. However the biggest factor that lead me to not buy it, was because Baz was very clearly in love with (or at least infatuated with) his friend Kai (and for the record he has significantly more emotional chemistry with him than Emory). So I guess like, they hooked me in with a love triangle but it kind of feels like the wrong one lol. Kieran-Emory-Bas, couldn’t care less, Kai-Bas-Emory, I will chuck an almighty fit about

I listened to this by audiobook and thought the narrators did a great job. Every book I’ve listened to narrated by Gary Furlong has been done so well and I think he was a great fit for Bas. The narrator for Emory also did a fabulous job and it’s not her fault I couldn’t stand her chapters lol.

Somehow, despite my numerous grievances and near ocular dislocation caused by all the eye rolling I did at Emory’s constant references to how mediocre she is whilst actively being an idiot, I find myself wanting to continue on the story. Which even I’m confused about. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen and review this audiobook.





(Once again, If they make Emory and Bas end game I will literally throw a riot. Give Bas the hot shadow boy he deserves.)

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this Audiobook.

I can see why people were interested in this when it first came out. It holds a unique world that is governed by the lunar cycle of the moon. Fan of witchy vibes would absolutely eat this up.

The reason I gave it such a low rating is because I felt confused a lot. Terminology is simply thrown about with little to no explanation before going into the next one. Thus leaving little time to process what is happening.

I’ll be honest here and say I definitely expected more from this one. I see it around a lot on social media and it had a fair few great reviews.

Unfortunately I spent a lot of time wanting the plot to progress, and found it extremely slow paced right up until almost the end of the book. The ending was not what I expected at all, and I did find myself a bit disappointed in it. The characters were great, they were very in depth characters, but I think this genre is a bit of a miss for me.

I listened to the audio and the narrators did a fantastic job at portraying these characters and their emotions, I would definitely listen to the narrators again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity on this one, I am a bit down that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped!