This book was a great read! Very engaging throughout. The mystery and fantasy blend lead to a great build up of intrigue in the world and kept me hooked. I would definitely recommend this book.

Title: The Raven Scholar
Author:
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ / 5
Release Date:

Let me start by saying that the reason it took me so long to finish this book is entirely my fault. The author made me fall in love with Yana within the first few chapters—I was immediately invested, already picturing how her story would unfold, even eyeing her potential love interest. And then… I realized she wasn’t the main character. So, I got mad and stopped reading for a bit.

But once I got over myself and gave the book another go? I was hooked.

The Worldbuilding:

Absolutely impeccable. The world was immersive, well-developed, and introduced seamlessly. The political system and religious structures were intricate yet never overwhelming, striking the perfect balance between depth and accessibility. This is some of the best worldbuilding I’ve read in a long time—it’s detailed without ever feeling overcomplicated, and I was fully captivated by it.

The Writing:

For some reason, it took me a second to adjust to the writing style—not because it was difficult, but because of the sudden shifts in perspective. The narration is always in third person, but it occasionally jumps between characters within the same paragraph, which threw me off at times. (That said, I read this as an e-ARC, so it’s possible the formatting is smoother in the final version.)

I especially loved whenever we were following the raven and its perspective, it was really cleverly introduced in my opinion, and I loved how it added another layer to the narrative.

The Plot:

From page one, I was completely invested. The political intrigue and mystery were chef’s kiss—so well done. I’ll admit I’m still a bit sad that we didn’t get to follow Yana and her story line because I feel like that could have been a great alternativ story.
But the story we did get? Perfection.

There was fantastic foreshadowing throughout, and while there were moments where I thought I had predicted what would happen, I usually only got half of it right—there were always more layers to uncover. It kept me on edge in the best way, and now I’m desperate for more.

The Characters:

This is where the book truly shines. Every character—no matter how major or minor—felt incredibly well-developed, with layers of complexity and deeply rooted motivations. No one was one-dimensional, and no one was purely good or evil. Every single character had done terrible things at some point, whether in their past or over the course of the story, yet I still found myself rooting for them.

Even the supposed antagonist had such a compelling backstory that I understood him. The emotional depth this added to the story was phenomenal—it made every choice, every conflict, and every moment of tension feel so much more intense. I honestly can’t put into words just how well-crafted these characters were.

The Romance:

It’s a minor subplot and largely pre-existing, so if you need romance to be central to a story, this might not be for you. But for those who enjoy a strong focus on political intrigue and character dynamics, the relationships (romantic and otherwise) add an extra layer of depth without overshadowing the main plot.

Final Thoughts:

This was easily one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, and I will be recommending it to every single person I know. If you love immersive worldbuilding, complex characters, and a gripping plot filled with political intrigue, this is an absolute must-read.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape and Antonia Hosgon for providing me with an eARC of The Raven Scholar.

3.75 stars

The Raven Scholar is a fantasy book with murder mystery, political intrigue and many, many twists.

It’s very atmospheric, with worldbuilding that is informative, but not overwhelming. Although, I do wish the Guardians had been explored more and I wish we had more descriptions of the characters overall, as I found it hard to imagine a lot of them outside of Neema and Cain.

I loved how unique the trials were and the system in how the new emperor/empress was chosen, and I loved the elements of wit and humour throughout. I loved the twists and I enjoyed the religion in the story too. I found the magic in the story very interesting, but I don’t think we saw enough of it - and Houndsight is a huge example of this.

The story did start a little slow for my liking, and I feel that the first chapter, although important to the rest of the story, should’ve been a prologue as it felt a little detached for me. There were also a lot of formatting issues with the ARC (which should be fixed by release), but this made it difficult for me to distinguish the POV a lot of the time (outside of Neema). The ending was fantastic, even though I found it a bit rushed.

Overall, despite this, I found the story incredibly interesting once it got going and the twists kept me on my toes. I’ll likely pick up the rest of the series to see what happens.

First of all, thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for approving an eARC of this book.
I am very sorry to say that this was a DNF for me. The promise sounded very promising to me, but unfortunately the book failed to hook me from the first pages due to the constant descriptive digressions that took me away from the narrative. In the middle of a dialogue, there would be a digression about a character's clothes or a description of the interior of the palace. When the description was over, I had to go back to the question in the conversation because I had forgotten what it was about. When new characters are introduced, we get a digression about their past, present and future intentions. I found this to be tedious and unnecessary.
Also, I couldn't connect with the protagonist, Neema, who I didn't find very well portrayed, because of the over-telling; we're constantly told who she is, how she should behave to fit in with what people expect of her faction, how she should dress. I also found the dialogue uninteresting. I pushed myself to read a chapter, but I was not curious to read on, I closed the book and picked it up the next day and pushed myself again, with the same results, until I reached 30% and decided to abandon it because there was nothing left to keep me going.

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!
I don’t know what I expected from his book, but I’m sure it wasn’t this! I ended up really liking
this story and I cannot wait for the sequel.
The Raven Scholar is an epic fantasy and yes, it was fantasy not romantasy! I didn’t know
how much I missed non romantasy till now. It was so refreshing that the main focus wasn’t
on the romance between characters! Don’t worry, there is some romance, but the
tournament for the crown, an investigation of a dead competitor and many deep buried
secrets are the main focus of the story.
The book was very well-written. The style fit so well to the story, it was informative, but not
too condescending, funny, but not trying to over-do it. I laughed so many times at Neema’s
comments, her sense of humour was spot on. Speaking of Neema, I really loved her
character, I can’t wait to see where she ends up later.
I loved the world building, it was clear that the author spent time carefully creating
everything. There were so many twists and turns, and I admit, I did not see most of them. It
was such a well-developed story, no gaping plot holes, incomprehensible descriptions, it was
all clear without infodumping. The mythology was well explained, and it made sense that
some believed in it while others didn’t.
The only thing I did not like and the reason why it was only a 4-star for me, it feels too long. I
mean, it’s over 600 pages, it is long, but towards the end I constantly thought “okay, now this
is the end” and no, it still wasn’t over. So many things happened at the end, and while I was
reading, it was too much. Now looking back it all makes sense though!
Overall, it was really good (shall I say magnificent?) and seriously recommend it to everyone
who wants a well-written epic fantasy!

Thank you netgalley for this arc I fear this is my favorite book of the year.

The Raven Scholar is an epic fantasy taking place in a city where citizens can enter into the service of one of the 8 guardians in their respective monestarys upon their 16th birthday. All of which value different characteristics and traits. it is from these monestarys that the candidates for the rulers are chosen every 24 years. The book opens up with a brief pov from Yanara, a girl with an important lineage that continues to haunt the narrative. We then meet our main character, Neema Kraa, a raven then working as a low level official. We follow her rise and then involvment in the next competition for the throne, and the murder among the contenders.

I loved this book. It has clever writing and manages to be humourous while weaving an incredible mystery. The characters are all distinct and manages to suprise you in their depth. The early pov shift is utilized perfectly and managed to make me feel betrayed in the worst way. The book constantly makes you think that the mystery is solved, only to hit you with another mystery to solve. My only critisism which in hindsight was not a huge issue was that no other nation is mentioned. No external political rivals, trade partners, or allies in other leaders anywhere. and the map only shows the nation this book takes place in.

The Raven Scholar was a fantasy steeped in political intrigue, with a well built world and magic system, a wide cast of characters and, while I enjoyed it, there were a few issues that stopped it from being a 5* read.

I think one of the main things this book suffered from was the pacing. It was long, like soooo long. For the most part I didn't notice it because the story does sweep you up, but there were just too many parts where I found myself loosing interest and noticing just how long I still had to go. Hodgson does break all of these up wonderfully with plot twists, but there was so much I felt could have been chopped out to make this a much more entertaining read. And this is where my second issue comes into play. The story is told mainly from the POV of Neema, whose great, we love her, but it's also interspersed with thoughts from some of the other competitors, and these are some the bits I felt we could have done with loosing. Normally I love this kind of thing, give me all the character exploration, but the thing is, they didn't really add anything to the characters that we didn't already see from Neema's POV. I think they were meant to give us some insight into them, something to relate too, especially with the more morally grey characters but, for the most past, it didn't really give us anything new, or fresh, simply a scene from their POV that we didn't necessarily need.

Now, this isn't true of all of them. There were certain scenes that absolutely needed to be there, that added to the tension and the intrigue. But for the most part, we get all the relevant information from Neema herself. I knew from the first introduction that I would like her, would want her to succeed. As a Raven, she has spent her life studying the history of Orrun, someone more at home in a book than in a room full of people, but don't take that fear of the spotlight as a lack of drive, she wants power, wants to show all the people who claim she is nothing better than an orphan just what she can do, and that leads her to make some dubious decisions, but to also come fall into the trap of being a little naive. One of my favourite things about her though, and something that absolutely added some humour to the story, was her inherent need to correct people, or explain about something if anyone asked a question. It puts her in some truly hilarious situations, and I just loved the different ways people reacted to it. It's a book full of ambitious characters, but it's their decisions regarding those ambitions that show us their true colours, and Neema constantly regrets the decision she made to place her in the position she finds herself currently.

The strength in this book though? The world building. Hodgson really feeds us when it comes to the history and current politics of Orrun. The people worship eight mythical beings who each embody their own attributes and ideals, and when they come of age most members of society will pledge themselves to one of these beings. Hodgson really delves into these different orders, giving us insight into each, and showing us how their followers choose to embody the being they pledge to. There are so many moving parts in The Raven Scholar, we have the mystery of the murder of Neema's Raven colleague, the competition for the crown as well as a further mystery that starts to show itself around half way through the book and Hodgson does a great job at weaving all these parts together.

The narration added a wit and humour to the story, which brought some much needed levity at certain points, but also helped the story feel less bogged down. Hodgson's choice to narrate it in the way she does, having multiple POV's was both a good and bad thing... I mentioned the bad above, but there were certain parts, certain POV's where it just worked. The way she writes specific POV's makes it read almost like a voice over, like someone is telling you to 'watch there... that bits going to be important,' and I really enjoyed those parts, whilst others bring something extra to the story, a missing piece in a puzzle we had been looking for. She also breaks the story up with some truly brilliantly placed twists. Some I guessed at, but others that completely blew me away, and these really help propel the story, especially when it slows down in certain parts.

It really does feel like a throwback to old style fantasy's in a lot of ways. It has that humourous and adventurous style plot, a great blend of characters from obviously evil, to obviously good and everything in between, and so many moving parts you easily find yourself lost. If it wasn't for those pesky pacing issues that really slowed the book down in parts, I could easily see this being a 5* read, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it as a whole and I'm eager to see where the story will go in the next book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This is honestly the best fantasy book I have read in a very long time. The world building was perfect, with a lot of detail given to the mythology of the world. The characters were rich, diverse and complex, and although the cast is reasonably large everyone felt distinctive. The plot was developed masterfully with multiple twists and turns, but handled so well that it never became confusing at all. What I loved most of all was the writing style, it worked SO well and the moments of humour shone out perfectly. To sum up, one of my favourite reads of all time, so go read it.

This is making my favourites list of 2025 and it’s February.

I don’t know how to even describe this book. I went in blind and was pleasantly surprised and in for a wild ride full of chameleon and talking raven friends. Political intrigue, a murder mystery and cover-up, and action-packed trials. Incredible characterisations and funny wit.

I have to mention the narrative style. I cannot pin it down. It changes focalisation, style, form. This was third person internal focalisation most of the time, fairytale adjacent at times, other times told in the first person plural. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. INCREDIBLE.

You start by thinking too much is going on. Too many characters, too many threads, too much. However, the page count fleshes out the story and continues to throw surprises and twists at you.

The characters are smart, all hiding their own agendas and motivations, most pushed and pulled by love.
There is romance, but it is sound background that it is barely worth mentioning - expect I ate every crumb.

I cannot gush about this enough and I haven’t even touched on the easy representation - LGBTQ+, Black representation, neurodivergence.

Arc gifted by Hodderscape.

This was an incredibly satisfying read. After reading and enjoying Antonia Hodgson previous historical mysteries I was expecting The Raven Scholar to be good but I was amazed by just how much I loved it.
It’s quite a long book at over 600 pages but it didn’t feel that long and it includes everything necessary for a brilliant fantasy story. There are fantastic memorable characters, an fascinating world and political system, magic, gods, dragons and above all, a brilliant plot. I expected it to be a murder mystery in a fantasy setting but The Ravan Scholar is so much more than that.
The book begins with a brutal exile that takes place eight years before the actual story starts but those initial events are integral to every thing that happens next. The dual plot of the trials to choose the next emperor and the murder mystery is intricate and full of surprises but it all fits together perfectly.
The world building is excellent but the best part of The Raven Scholar has to be the characters. Neema is our protagonist and is an unwilling contender for the throne, thrust into the spotlight when her fellow Raven is murdered. She is socially awkward and unpopular and many people believe that she committed the murder and even Neema herself wonders if she could have done it. She is determined that she will find out the truth of what happened though as well as perform creditably in the trials as she is determined not to disgrace the Ravan temple.
All of the other characters are just as well written even if we don’t get to know them as well as Neema. There are the usual mix of courtiers, politicians and fighters but they are all vividly portrayed and memorable. Even though there is quite a large cast of people, they all stayed distinct in my mind.
And then we have the Ravens. The Ravens have taken it upon themselves to look after Neema even though she doesn’t believe in them. I just loved the chapters told from their POV and the humour that they added to the story as well as the extra insights into what was happening.
This was easily the best fantasy book that I have read so far this year and I’m really grateful to Net Galley and the publishers Hodder and Stoughton for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

If I could give this more stars I would as 5 doesn't seem sufficient! This was a LONG read but it never felt like a struggle and I was hooked the whole way through. I lost multiple hours of sleep to this book!

As soon as Neema was introduced I was all in. Never have I related so much to a protagonist in a book like I have with Neema. It was refreshing to have an FMC that was in her 30s and not an impulsive stabby hothead. I genuinely enjoyed Neema's love of precision and her methodical nature.

The plot was well paced, and the world building was really well done. The trials were good (I can't resist a book with trials), but the underlying murder mystery was brilliant.

It was also refreshing for the love interest to not be a brooding, smirking ball of repressed rage. Also, on a small side note, I would go to war for Sol.

The only issue I had with this book is... I didn't realise it was a trilogy, and now I have to wait for the next part. Everyone should be talking about this book.

This is the first in a new epic fantasy and when I saw ‘competing for the throne’ I was interested!! This is definitely more of a fantasy than a romance, but if you like epic fantasy, this one is for you!

3,5/5 stars

This was an interesting read. It just at times sadly felt a bit too long for my taste which made me skim through some parts of the book.

What I liked about this was the combination of trials and a murder mystery. It felt really unique and I appreciated that a lot. It also felt like it worked well together.

I liked the characters. I just felt that there were a bit too many of them and that's why I didn't get to know everyone as deeply as I would have wanted to.

I felt that the trials were interesting and they were varied to keep things interesting. What was missing for me was that the trials didn't have enough high stakes.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was lucky enough to get both the digital and audio arcs and alternated between the two. I absolutely devoured this book.
It's so lovely to read something that feels fresh and exciting. We've seen trials/tournament structure before, but I really enjoyed it paired with the interesting pantheon and world building. I would have liked some more physical descriptions of the characters, as the book is very character-led, yet I found myself mostly making up how they all looked. The FMC is older, in her 30's, which is refreshing, and the romance is more of a structural element to the story rather than the driver. I did not see the mystery twist coming, and it was wonderfully set up through the book. Overall this was a lovely trounce through a new world, and I would likely pickup a sequel if it comes.

First of all i want to thank Netgalley and publishers Hodder and Stoughton for giving me an arc of this book. This is my honest review.

I loved this book and rated it 5 stars, it is the 1st book in a series and if this is just book 1 then i have high hopes for book 2. We start with an important backstory and some immersive world building which gives the book a good starting foundation.
We then time jump 8 years and are given drama, action and political intrigue as tension starts builing for a competition to select a new emperor or empress.
I loved the FMC and enjoyed her interactions with other characters which i felt were well written and i liked that there were funny moments in there too.
There are a few twists along the way which i didnt see coming but they definatly add to the...dynamic of the book.
Highly recommend this book and im looking forward to the next one whenever that comes out.

Thank you, NetGalley and Hodder&Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was surprisingly good. A very interesting and new epic fantasy. Information on the side – this really is more of an epic fantasy than a romantasy. There is some romance sprinkled in it, but it’s very much not the focus of the story.

I really enjoyed the beginning. When I realised that the first chapter was actually more of a prologue, with a different main character than the rest of the book, I was a bit disappointed. I really enjoyed that first character and I kind of wish it had been her story to be told. But I got used to Neema quickly and I really liked her. I also appreciate that the beginning was quite straight forward. I was dreading some random reveals later in the book, and I’m glad to say that they didn’t come.

The story itself is summarized pretty well by the blurb. The emperor is getting ready to abdicate and seven contenders get together to fight in a tournament for the throne. When one of them is murdered, Neema has to take her place and find the killer. Simple, straight forward. Of course that’s not all there is, as the blurb suggests, the Raven waits in the wings and there is more magic behind the scenes.

I’ve come to dislike tournaments like this, but I actually enjoyed this one. The different tasks were interesting and sometimes quite different from what I expected. It wasn’t just about strength or magic, and I really enjoyed seeing the different aspects of the monasteries. The murder mystery of this story was also done quite well, with many different pieces coming together. I didn’t quite expect the answer and I’m happy that I didn’t.

The characters were awesome. Probably the best part of this book. First, there is Neema, scholar turned contender for the throne. She’s smart, disliked by most people at court and she has an important history. I loved seeing her stand up for herself. Even though she seemed to be so much weaker than the other contenders, she was a worthy opponent. Sometimes that felt a bit unrealistic to me, as she hadn’t trained for as long as the others had, but in a way all her wins made sense.
Next, we’ve got Cain, the fox. Oh, I loved him! He was fierce, sneaky, proud and simply sly. I always had fun with his scenes.
I’m not going into detail with the other contenders, but I enjoyed all of them. I really had the feeling that I knew them and even though it can be difficult to write so many characters at once, all of them were characterised very well and got enough time on page. All of them were way more layered than I would’ve thought.
And apart from the contenders, there are so many other interesting side characters! Easy to keep apart due to their quirks, without everything seeming too over the top. And all the different relationships were great. While Neema is obviously the main character, we get a handful of scenes from other POVs which really helped with understanding all the others.
The scenes with the Raven confused me at the beginning and I’m not sure whether I like the way it was presented. It seemed utterly unreliable, which is something that often frustrates me, but it did kind of fit the character, so I’m not gonna argue.

Something I have to criticize though is the world building. I do like the whole concept of the gods, and I adore the abilities of the different orders. I wish we had seen more of that! Houndsight sounds so useful - why didn’t Shan use it more? What about the magic abilities of the Visitor? And Cain’s abilities barely get explained at all and I have no idea whether it’s some kind of magic, or if he’s just trained very well. So while I do love the ideas, I wish there had been more magic in this book.
But the main thing to criticize is the actual world. I have no idea what it’s like. And this is a fantasy book, where world building is essential!
There is a map at the beginning of the book. It’s a pretty one. Looks similar to the continent of Asia. And overall, I would say that it fits. We’ve got an emperor and palaces, the orders are Dragons, Monkeys, Tigers, Foxes, which works for Asia as well. Hounds and Oxen fit everywhere, Ravens kind of as well, and Bears to the North sounds like Russia. And the empire is big enough that travel from one side to the other takes months. So far, so good. But if I’m right - why don’t we get more proof of that?
Look at a map of Asia. Russian culture is entirely different from Japanese culture. India is a very diverse country. While the culture is similar due to the prominent religion, people will still look different, dress differently, depending on whether you are in the tropics, or in the highest of mountains. Same for China. Looking at this book - sure, if it’s one empire, one religion, many things will be similar. That’s fine. But people will still eat different things, look differently, dress differently. And we barely get any descriptions of all those incredible cultures. I appreciate that we don’t get a stereotypical Russian character, or someone who’s very clearly Middle Eastern, but I would still appreciate at least some nod to all the differences on the Asian continent.
But it’s all the same. They all eat the same food, which barely gets described, but fits to no specific region and especially not Japan. There are mentions of almonds and nuts. Joghurt. Shrimp. Pretty little cakes. Coffee, tea. Whiskey. Keep in mind that this is still a kind of medieval world without modern trade.
I have no idea what the characters look like. I think Neema’s POC? And Cain is definitely white with red hair. Another girl is described as white and blonde, if I recall correctly? I honestly have no idea what everyone else looks like, except perhaps their stature. It might’ve been mentioned once, but if I get introduced to multiple characters at once and their looks never get mentioned again, I can guarantee you that after 700 pages, I won’t recall anything. No idea who they are. And the clothing does nothing to help. The workers wear overalls. Neema herself is described as wearing pretty dresses a couple of times. Some wear uniforms. One character wears a kilt at some point? I’m so confused. That’s just a huge mixture of cultures. Look, I don’t care if a book isn’t inspired by anything specific, if the author takes from a hundred different cultures. But I just want to know what I’m looking at. I really enjoyed this book, but I couldn’t describe anything at all.

The ending was pretty good. There were some twists that I really enjoyed as they properly took me by surprise. Some parts were a bit confusing at first, especially since I’m not entirely sure about the consequences of everything. But it was actually not as confusing as I expected. The ending was rounded enough that I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book, but I am curious as the bigger story is definitely starting up! Looking at the title of this one, I am curious whether it’s gonna have a different main character, or if we’ll continue to follow Neema.

Overall, even though it wasn’t perfect, I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to continuing the series!

What a delight to be back with Antonia Hodgson's writing. LOVED The Raven Scholar. Rich, original, enthralling, and often humorous. Both a fantasy novel and a mystery, with a wonderfully complex magical world. Can't wait for the second in the trilogy.

Epic fantasy is well and truly back - this is the perfect book for fantasy readers who are looking for fully formed intricate world building, royal betrayal/political intrigue with mythological gods. We also have epic trials and games the protagonist must overcome as well as murder mystery! This book covers all the amazing fantasy tropes and more. All I can say is I was hooked from the first page - it’s brimming with history and lore that I could picture on my head as I read! Just fantastic

this world and these characters have a lot of potential but this needs a lot more editing.
it could have been a bit shorter too

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for approving me to read this early. I’m rating this book 4.5 stars.

I am a massive fan of this story, it had political intrigue and trials mixed with some religious aspects. I thoroughly enjoyed the level of dedication the characters had to their chosen paths, some felt self righteous, but some characters really grew along the way. The way the story grew so naturally from a simple murder mystery to something so much more, linking the past and the present with dire potential consequences for the future.

Also for the 1st time in ages in fantasy I was genuinely shocked by the twist, it was well thought out, so brilliantly strategic and slightly cruel. There’s also some light romance included which just added a nice deeper connection amongst the characters.

I cannot wait to see what happens next!