Not me immediately running to see when the next book in this series comes out. This was fantastic definitely be of my top reads so far this year. First of all the world building and magic system are unparalleled. I have read a lot of fantasy and this tarot based magic system has to be my favorite ever. Clara is my ideal FMC, she is a fighter, exceptionally loyal to those she loves, cunning and witty. The tension between her and Kaelis is off the charts. This is a truly swoon worthy enemies to lovers situation. I love the academy setting. It’s a brilliant way to lay out the rules and intricacies of this tarot based power structure. And of course, no book I love would be complete without that heartwarming found family aspect. Just perfection.

Highlights
✨Enemies to Lovers
✨Tarot Based Magic System
✨Found Family
✨Swoon-worthy Slow Burn
✨Brilliant World Building

Favorite Quotes: “Love me, hate me, but only look at me like my existence sets you on fire …”

“If to bring about a new world—a better world—I must be the villain, if I must do evil things for the greater good, then so be it. I’ll play the part now and be reborn a hero in my next life.”

“I’d rather be queen of the rats than king of the snakes,”

Thank you to the author, Del Ray, and NetGalley for this advanced copy. My opinions are my own.

Add this to your TBR now! This magic system based on tarots cards was the best, so unique and creative! Non stop action, fake marriage, slowburn with a love interest that makes you melt, and fantastic world building, all set around a magical academy. Loved it! Looking forward to book 2.

This is my first book by this author and won’t be my last. I am conflicted on my rating though, I did like it but I also didn’t. So it took a while.

The pacing was a bit off for my liking, it felt all over the place and also very info dumpy which I don’t mind but I felt in parts that it gave me nothing and at some points a lot of these parts felt irrelevant to the story.

I did however, like the magic system. This was the strongest part of this book for me. I loved the concept of the magic system.

The hype for this book is the reason why I would purchase for our readers but this book was just too slow for my liking. I was excited to read about such a u pique magic system but I was just not in love with the characters and the slow burn of it all. I’m a character driven reader and because the pace was not to my standards, I couldn’t fully immerse myself in this book.

I've mulled this one over as I'm conflicted:
This *is* an arguably good book, it has a solid plot with multiple undercurrents woven throughout, a new and original magic system and a full cast of characters. The problem? It suffers from First Book Set-Up. The world and plot is so complicated that it requires a lot of building and the characters suffered for it imo. I liked the FMC and MMC dynamic but the side characters were forgettable and the 'found family' came off as 2D with limited page time. This needed more development but the plot is intriguing enough to keep me hooked to the end - I have a feeling book 2 will flesh out what is missing here but it depends if you're prepared for the worldbuilding long haul to get there, really.
TLDR; A 3.75 star read for those wanting more fantasy in their romantasy and some originality in a sea of shadow daddy, stabby fmc books.

Book Review: Arcana Academy by: Elise Kova

Arcana Academy follows Clara, a super feisty FMC with a dangerous secret. After imprisonment shatters her world, she awakens to a new nightmare-she's not only engaged to Kaelis, the void price but also enrolled at Arcana Academy, a place she was never meant to set foot in.

Clara must quickly learn to survive life as an initiate at Arcana Academy—a school cloaked in shadows, where magic is carved in ink and every trial could be your last. As Clara unravels the sinister secrets of the Royal Family, pieces of her past begin to surface… and they’re far more dangerous than she ever imagined.

Arcana Academy has a unique and captivating spin on magic. The political intrigue is so compelling that you know something dark is happening—but it keeps you guessing about who you can really trust. The story ends on a cliffhanger that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew… 5 stars!!! Cannot wait for book 2

*Please note Arcana Academy is out July 22nd 2025!

Love, love, love! I devoured this book - no criticism at all from me! My attention was captured from the very first sentence and I was hooked, unable to put it down. The word building and character development were flawless and it was clear that great attention had been paid to every detail - no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. This was the first book I have read by Kova, but it certainly won't be my last - I look forward to seeing what else they write.

This was my first Elise Kova book and now I think I need to read all of her backlist titles because I had a great time with Arcana Academy

The characters were perfect! I love the mystery she wove into all characters so that you never really know who is good and who is the bad guy. Everyone seems to have different motivations and they are slowly revealed over time.

I know it’s unfair to say, when toll the first book isn’t even out, but I cannot wait for book 2, I will be stalking socials to see when the next release is because my copy will be living in the naughty corner until then I NEED ANSWERS!!

Thanks to NetGalley for an early review copy

I think I just read the next big fantasy romance/dark academia read of the year. Arcana Academy was such a surprise with a completely unique and new to me magic system. Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and illegal magic. Clara is sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy. After a year she is beginning to think there is no way out when the headmaster of Arcana Academy, prince Kaelis appears and makes her an offer she can't refuse. The prince wants to use her for his own gain and have her ink a lost card forgotten by time with untold powers. To explain her sudden appearance at the academy the prince spins a tale of a long lost heir and claims Clara as his betrothed.

I loved the academy setting and Clara having to navigate in a world that is foreign to her. Even tarot which she has always felt comfort in is different at the academy. She is thrust into relationships and situations that she is unprepared for but her quick thinking and determination always keep her pushing forward. There is a great slow burn, enemy to lovers, push and pull relationship between Kaelis and Clara that will have you ready to scream. Every instinct tells Clara that he is her enemy but her emotions want to pull her in another direction. There is plenty of clan politics, learning about the tarot magic system and unsolved mystery weaved into every page that keep you obsessively reading to learn what comes next. Oh, and let me tell you that the cliffhanger will have you ready for book 2 immediately.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC copy for my honest review. I am off in search of every edition of this that will be coming out.

Reading a book by Elise Kova has been on my list of things to do for a very long time, so I was really excited that Arcana Academy got to be my first impression of her. Although it took me four days to finish this book, it wasn't due to the fact that I wasn't interested or that the pacing was slow. It just so happened to fall on the same week my fyp has been nothing but K-pop demon hunters, and I couldn't resist the urge to cry like a baby and belt along. What I am getting at is, yes, this book is long, but I found the pacing to be super fast and very interesting. I truly love me some dark academia books, so I was having an absolute blast!

I'd say this is a good fit if you enjoyed One Dark Window, and hear me out....this might be an odd reference, but the way they battle in this book 100 percent made me think of Yu-Gi-Oh. This is totally in reference to the fact they cast their magic with cards, and it's usually in a duel-like scenario while at the academy, not that there isn't...unsanctioned battles. My cat is named Kuriboh, I think it's impossible at this point for me not to make a relation to that show in a duel-based book.

This book follows Clara, who has just broken out of what is supposedly the most unescapable prison where the worst of the worst dwell. Except her escape wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Kaelis, the man who just sentenced her to death moments ago, is waiting for her to try and escape. It was all a part of his plan to enlist her for help. Now she finds herself in a fake engagement and as an initiate at Arcana Academy.

What You Can Expect:
📖Fake Engagement
📖Dark Academia
📖Heists
📖Found Family
📖Magic School
📖Tarot Magic
📖Hidden Identity

Thank you Del Rey and Netgalley for the eARC! I'm ready for book two already!

From the depths of a miserable cell, Clara Graysword is taken, filthy and emaciated, to meet the second son of the realm, Prince Kaelis. Clara despises everything Kaelis has done, and wants nothing to do with him - that is, until he proposes (literally) and offers her a chance at freedom in exchange for helping him get a mythical tarot card.

Desperate to find her sister and to not go back to that horrible prison, Clara accepts, and immediately becomes the betrothed of the prince, as well as the latest student at Arcana Academy. Her sister disappeared from the Academy, and the other students are out to get her, but Clara goes through painful tests that test her mettle as she finds more and more secrets hidden within the school's walls.

This is a great beginning to a new series from Elise Kova. Clara is smart, determined, and always keeps in mind that she must never, ever, reveal her real name. Kaelis, meanwhile, is not quite what he seems, and both must navigate the dangers that surround them while figuring out what they mean to each other. Can't wait for the next book!

The unique magic system is one of my favorites of all times. It’s complex, but it was so well-written that it made sense. The beginning hooked the reader immediately, and the way the exposition was woven into the beginning was a master class.

There was so much heartbreak, way more than I was expecting but it definitely pushed the story forward in tons of ways. It wasn’t done carelessly.

The characters have immediate chemistry; there’s something in the way that Kaelis is written that makes you just know that man is our MMC.

Clara and Kaelis are swoothworthy and both fighters. Almost so similar, the tension between the two almost boils over before there is any relief.

There are still so many questions, and no set date on BOOK 2?! With that cliffhanger?!

RUDE!

This is more like 3.5* rounded up. I did enjoy this, but it didn't wow me. I very much liked the magic system, with the inking, wielding and reading of the cards and the skills involved to becoming an accompliched practicioner. I particularly liked how the different cards can be used in different situations such as healing vs. dueling. I also enjoyed both of the main characters a great deal and their chemistry and interactions.

What was lacking for me was, well, I was expecting an academy with classes and students and a lot of the plot revolving around and taking place in the academy and seeing its inner workings and the different trials and tests. There were some of these experiences, but sometimes weeks passed between events and a lot of the story took place outside of the academy. There's nothing wrong with that, it just wasn't what I was expecting so it may have influenced my enjoyment of the story.

I also felt most of the secondary characters were weakly portrayed. The reader is told how much Clara loves her friends/found family outside of the academy, but we get a mention of them at the beginning and then when we finally meet them I never could connect with any of them. The same with her student friends at the academy, though a few stood out more than others. The evil characters were done quite well.

I loved the interactions between Clara and Kaelis, though I thought Clara was a little too hard on him and a bit stubborn in her preconceived assumptions. But she has lived a life or hardship and loss, so holding onto these beliefs is certainly believable. Sometimes its her stubborness that saves her life so I can't really complain when she is acting within her character. But my heart ached for Kaelis at times.

Overall, a solid story with a wonderful magic system, FMC/MMC chemistry, and a twising plot with some unexpected events. I'm looking forward to the next book. My thanks to the folks at NetGalley & Random House Publishing for providing the opportuity to read this ARC.

I’ve really enjoyed Elise Kova’s self published romantasy books so obviously I was pretty excited to see she was launching a whole new series set at a magical school. Arcana Academy is a wonderful blend of subterfuge, tarot magic, and a will-they-won’t-they romance. I guess some might also label it as enemies to lovers which is also kind of accurate.
Arcana Academy follows Clara Graysword, purveyor of fine and very illegal tarot cards, who is introduced to us after nearly a year in a high security prison. Clara has been wasting away because she was finally caught after years of crafting tarot cards without the proper education and sanction from the crown. Now she’s being brought before one of the very men responsible for her imprisonment - Prince Kaelis, headmaster at Arcana Academy - and he offers her freedom in exchange for helping him steal tarot cards from his father, the king. She will enter Arcana Academy as a student with the added burden (or perhaps boon) of being declared the heir to a lost noble house and Kaelis’s fiancee. Though she has a certain degree of protection because of this, Clara still must earn her place in one of the four houses along with the other hopefuls. The penalty for failing to do so is a branding and a one way trip to the magical work houses.
Clara is a likable rogue with a mysterious past that she’s not even certain of thanks to her secretive and now deceased (probably via murder) mother. She has more reason than just her freedom to cooperate with Kaelis’s whims. Her sister joined the academy a year prior and is now missing, she thinks Kaelis may have had something to do with her mother’s murder, and Clara also plans to stop Kaelis and the King from fulfilling their plans to summon the World tarot card, which grants the user a single wish.
Kaelis is the typical dark, brooding black sheep prince. He’s got edgy purplish hair that reminds me of a generic anime character and he’s probably harboring an actual sense of decency behind a prickly outer visage. He has a cat named Priss and that wins him points in my book. Kaelis is also feared throughout the kingdom for reverse wielding a tarot card to destroy Clan Hermit - the very noble house he’s claiming Clara originated from. Frustratingly, I was left wondering if this was true for the entirety of the book.
Let’s get my biggest issue with this book out of the way because other than this, I loved it. Clara and Kaelis are like, twenty-two and are super skilled and worldly, and Kaelis is running an academy and has been since he was a teenager. Because skill at tarot defiiiiinitely translates to skill as an administrator of an academic facility and all the dull administrative stuff that goes along with that. Why, oh why will authors not age up their characters to at least somewhere a bit closer to thirty in instances like this? Clara at least has been sneaking about for YEARS at this point trying to provide for her younger sister and cavorting with the secretive Starcrossed Club in the city.
Overall though? I really had a great time with Arcana Academy after I decided to simply ignore the characters’ ages at the beginning. Clara has a great group of friends in the academy, there are some fun classroom scenes, and I like that Clara actually has to adjust her tarot technique to fit the academic standards since she wasn’t formally taught. Kaelis and Clara have fun rapport even though they spend so much of the book at odds. Now, I do wish they had communicated a little better because the bad communication trope annoys me but real life people communicate badly too! I also thought it was really fun that they definitely didn’t like each other but had to do the whole ‘fake engagement’ thing and make it convincing, while the whole time they both think the other is like, super hot, but they won’t admit it. I’m most definitely excited to get my hands on the sequel!

I was so excited when I got approved for this ARC! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it did not disappoint. I clamor for books with an academy setting, and was instantly intrigued by the premise of a tarot-based magic system. The story follows Clara, who is freed from prison by the mysterious second-born prince, Kaelis, who she hates just as much as the rest of the royal family. I liked Clara instantly; she is such a strong, fierce character who would do anything for those she loves. I’m happy that Clara was so easy to root for, because the majority of the novel is character focused. We follow Clara as she navigates the world of the academy, the nobility, and her complicated relationship with Kaelis.

For being marketed as a romantasy, there is not much romance in this book. I do appreciate that Clara and Kaelis are true enemies to lovers. There is no insta love or insta lust here. One of the reasons I like Clara so much is that she doesn’t let herself blindly trust Kaelis despite her attraction to him. Maybe it’s because we know so little about Kaelis for most of the book, but I was unable to connect to him emotionally. We know he’s dark and brooding and has secrets, but that’s it. He has no emotional depth because we know nothing about him beyond the surface level, which made me not care about him—and by extension, the romance. Even by the end of the book, I had several unanswered questions when it came to him. I hope these questions are answered in the next book.

I will say that it took me a while to get through this book. It was pretty slow, so I didn’t feel as if I couldn’t put it down. The magic system is complex, and I had to really slow down and take my time to understand how everything works. There are honestly still a few things I don’t completely understand. The list of each card and what they do at the back of the book helped clear some things up, though. The last 15% of the book was the most exciting; it was fast paced and action packed. The plans and conflicts that were put into place throughout the book finally come together. And the CLIFFHANGER! I will be eagerly awaiting book two!

This was my first Elise Kova book and it likely won't be my last! I read this after the Shepherd King duology, so I was immediately intrigued by the tarot card magic concept. I will say I didn't think this magic system was as fleshed out as that duology (I read these back-to-back so it was hard not to compare, haha) but I still enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit slow for me so I was zoning out a bit and probably missed some key development in how the cards work, but I just never got a grasp on how the cards worked, how specific spells could be cast and how people learned to cast them, etc. Lo and behold, there was a glossary at the back of the book (which I wish I'd realized at the beginning lol). I liked this overall--the characters, the academic setting, the romance--but I think there was a lot that was up in the air (both on purpose and things I was lost on) that kept it from being a higher rating; I like to get *some* answers and didn't get any, it seemed like, lol

Okay this book was so much fun! Was it perfect? No. But it featured a strong female protagonist, unique magic system, and strong world building. It was fast paced and instantly hooked me from page one. Many times I feel like books set in an academic setting like this end up feeling more juvenile than they are intended but Kova did a great job balancing adult themes against the background of an academy without it feeling like I was reading about a bunch of teenagers masquerading as adults. This story also featured strong and well rounded characters as well as a compelling mystery. The twist and turns throughout the story kept me guessing the whole time. Plus I may or may both have screamed at ending. Sorry neighbors.

I'm excited to see where the rest of this series goes!

Secret Identity
Tarot
Heist
Dark Academia

Reminds me of her A Trial of Sorcerers series but darker and obviously more adult. I really enjoyed this book a lot. I knew at 4% this would be a highly rated book for me. A lot of times with books I can see where a story is going but I genuinely could not with this one. The magic is so unique and I loved reading about the wielding of the Tarot cards. I savored this book and I did not want it to end. This is Elise’s best book to date. Hands down her best. The tension between Clara and the MMC was top notch. Priss was obviously the star of the book (iykyk). You are not ready for the journey this will take you on. I literally screamed out loud when I read the last line!! I need the sequel now!!!!

*Received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review* I have a love/hate relationship with this book. It’s a big book, even in ebook format, and it took me almost a month to get through this book. It took me until about 3/4 to figure out why. I loved the magic system, it was well thought out, unique, interesting, and I wanted to read more about it. I absolutely love the MMC, Kaelis. Morally grey, misunderstood, but also mysterious. I wanted to read more just to learn more about him. I loved all the secondary characters, even those that would traditionally be labeled the ‘bad guys’ were intriguing. Now the MFC, Clara, I was kind of indifferent to her. The mystery to her background was interesting, the parallels between her and Kaelis were interesting, and they’re both morally grey characters but without giving the story away, Clara is very self centered, I give a little leeway with this what she's gone through, but up against Kaelis's past parallels, her reasoning was weak for me which made her hard or me to like. As she is the primary narrator I could only get through a few chapters at a time as she was a very ‘me me me’ character and just not very likable for me. The plot is intriguing and kept my interest but having Clara as the narrator made it a slog, as well as the slow world building with lengthy descriptions. Then at the 3/4 mark the book picked up really quick, there was passion, action, sudden twists and turns and then .... CLIFFHANGER!!!! Ugh. Now I need the next book.

I did not know I could love Elise's books more! I was so pleasantly surprised by the tarot based magic system and it having this degree of depth to build a great story on. This had my favorite tension between romantic leads where we believe Clara when she thinks she's not in love even though we know better. I loved the penultimate scene where Clara thought she'd be slammed for her treachery but that wasn't what seems to be truly happening at all. I would love for book 2 to have Clara being fought for just as much as book 1 and building on this irony where she doesn't understand the depth of the loyalty she has in her corner