Review - 4⭐️
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this on NetGalley, thank you!!!

I recommend this for people who like The Atlas Six or Ninth House!
Dark Academia, Magic, and a Secret Society.

A college where magic is practiced finds itself in the midst of a mystery with a murder and a student now in a strange state.

The main character, Cella, finds herself unwillingly drawn back to the college to assist with the investigation of these strange goings on. While investigating she must deal with some trauma in her past that led her to leave school.

This was interesting from start to finish though some of the scientific talk could be a little dense at times. Thankfully there is a glossary to reference that really helps.

2.5 Star Rating, rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Kensington Publishing for the ARC of The Book of Autumn by Molly O'Sullivan.

I think the concept of The Book of Autumn is really interesting, but something was lacking in the overall execution. Our main character, Cella, returns to her alma mater, Seinford and Brown College of Agriculture, a school that secretly teaches magic, when a student is murdered and something strange is occurring with the accused murderer. Cella is meant to investigate with her dimidium, her magical half, Max, to figure out what is happening before anyone else gets hurt or anyone outside the school looks too closely.

I think what ate at me while reading the story is that I couldn't at all figure out the magic system -- Cella and Max don't seem to use any magic in their investigation, and they are not investigators. It made things really confusing as to what their purpose actually was and it dimmed the magical aspect to the backseat, until it comes back at 150 mph the last 25% of the book. Cella has not given up magic, as the description states, she is still working on papers - she just doesn't want to be anywhere near New Mexico or Max because of her own trauma.

The investigation itself doesn't make any sense because Cella and Max aren't investigators, and because no one on the Council actually wants to cooperate and people are constantly just saying no -- it felt like a way to try and raise suspicions about people, but if people wanted to protect their school and Cella and Max are supposed to be members of the all-powerful council, you'd think people would listen to them. Everyone's motivations in the story seemed really misaligned from how the description of the book reads, which was frustrating. The description also says that Cella and Max are the best, perhaps only, chance to intervene with the mystery and the murder, but they actually seem like the least qualified.

Cella's investigative prowess includes heading out to frat parties, as if that is at all appropriate, and I found her thinking she had been slipped something/being slipped something in her drink to be a really problematic and unnecessary scene in so many ways (though I loved all the Third Eye Blind flashbacks, 10/10 for that). It's just...Cella as a character is so damaged and is obviously trying to work through her trauma and her past, but either that muddies the investigation she has no place investigating, or it completely takes away from any actual magic things that made me interested in the book in the first place.

When the book does pick up in the last 25% it is A LOT in a small space and I really wish the story had been better balanced to that because THAT is what justifies Cella's efforts - I think that would have made a huge difference in my reading experience and that that was more of what I had anticipated from the book as a whole.

I also really struggled with understanding how the school worked. They're an admittedly no name school flying under the radar so people don't realize they're secretly a magic school -- and yet the students are all graduating and fighting over PhD roles at the ivy leagues? Physics is their main degree at a school of agriculture? There are frats and sororities? As someone who has worked in higher education for over 15 years, none of this made any sense to me.

I really wanted to like this book--it seemed like an interesting take on magic in our world, and those books are my jam. This didn't do it for me though. Cella returns to her magical university to solve a crime, and she's reunited with her magical partner (too hard to explain right now) Max, and they try to solve the crime. Lots of suspects, not a lot of evidence. Finally, they start to look for the Book of Autumn to help them solve the crime. I couldn't get engage in the story, and there really wasn't a lot of magic going on except for the very end. Too many side quests with the story of Max and Cella's relationship and Cella's brother. There was so much Greek philosophy for a light read. I was so hopeful but loving this book was not meant to be.