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katiemdelee's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful read if you're into vampires. Absolutely loved this book would definitely reread it. Content rating I would say 14+ only because I know how some parents are in my opinion I would allow my 10 year old cousin to read this.
glowfish36's review against another edition
3.0
I struggled with this book almost immediately: the beginning felt rushed and unbalanced. I don't quite understand why the story couldn't simply start with the girls at the academy. The escaping plot-line seems unnecessary.
Somewhere along the beginning the book became a little less painful to read, but I had strong feelings of reliving high school/an uninteresting version of Harry Potter: constant gossiping, lots of secretive behavior, boy crushes everywhere, emotionally unstable/volatile teens.
The main thing that slightly redeems the book is the bond between the two main, female characters. It was intriguing and makes for very interesting story development. They shared a very unique, not-romance-based bond that is not often seen in novels and I would have enjoyed seeing the author dig further into what that meant for the two girls. Downside of the bond: frequently, the two girls ended up sounding like the same person.
What I could have done without: the constant boy crushes and especially the one with the older, wiser, godlike, but forbidden guardian...
Conclusion: Mean Girls meets Harry Potter meets Vampires... I was not a big fan of this concoction, but also maybe I need to stop reading YA...
And no, I will not be reading the sequels.
Somewhere along the beginning the book became a little less painful to read, but I had strong feelings of reliving high school/an uninteresting version of Harry Potter: constant gossiping, lots of secretive behavior, boy crushes everywhere, emotionally unstable/volatile teens.
The main thing that slightly redeems the book is the bond between the two main, female characters. It was intriguing and makes for very interesting story development. They shared a very unique, not-romance-based bond that is not often seen in novels and I would have enjoyed seeing the author dig further into what that meant for the two girls. Downside of the bond: frequently, the two girls ended up sounding like the same person.
What I could have done without: the constant boy crushes and especially the one with the older, wiser, godlike, but forbidden guardian...
Conclusion: Mean Girls meets Harry Potter meets Vampires... I was not a big fan of this concoction, but also maybe I need to stop reading YA...
And no, I will not be reading the sequels.
evaxo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Re read this after 5 years or so, loved it as much as the first time. Very quick read, intresting take on vampires, well written characters and intriguing plot, highly recommend!
specialkayreads's review against another edition
4.0
I absolutely love this book. The world around the vampires and everything. The magic and stuff behind it were just so much fun. Even to this day I still enjoyed it.
blowp0p's review against another edition
4.0
Content warnings: mentions of sex, mentions of drugs, alcohol use, coersion, kidnapping, torture, forcing someone to do something against their will, slut shaming, girl on girl hate
So after seeing numerous people saying to read this instead of Jennifer Armentrout's Covenant series (which I did actually read in full) I 100% see where people say that the two series are the same. Because they are. And they aren't. There's enough differences that you can't make a case against plagiarism (like another popular series I could name but won't) but there's enough similarities that you can definitely say she was either trying to re-write this or write fan fiction that she published on this and/or try and improve on things that she found lacking for herself in this and this was just REALLY STRONG inspiration for her series. Whatever it was, I don't really care (but since I made the disclaimer in the other series about not reading this one yet I felt I needed to make a comment about this series).
I liked this. Not a whole lot of sex going on. In fact none happened other than mentioning that one character had sex with her boyfriend and that two people were under a compulsion spell to have sex with each other but they didn't get farther than one character getting more or less naked and a lot of kissing before the other character realised what was going on. And then there was the other time where kissing was happening but the guy told the story that sex happened (as a result of aforementioned girl on girl hate).
I get the girl on girl hate reason. I think it's kind of stupid. But it's at least a better reason than other books have given. The slut shaming bothers me. But it doesn't bother me quite as much as the kidnapping and subsequent torture that happened. The reasoning behind it is selfish and inconsiderate and assholeish.
Apart from all that, this was more enjoyable to read than the Covenant series. A LOT MORE enjoyable. I also like the fact that the author worked religion into the story very nicely without it feeling like she was trying to convert or shove beliefs down the readers throats. Due to my own upbringing I'm very sensitive to both of those things and both of them will take away any prior enjoyment of a book/movie. I appreciate it when it's a "hey these are my beliefs and this is how I worship/etc" type thing which is how this was presented. I also like how she made the vampires able to set foot in churches and on holy ground but not the ones who have turned on themselves. And made the "good" vampires more mortal as opposed to immortal. It feeds in with my own theories about vampires.
All in all, good book and will definitely be looking for the rest of the series at my library to read.
So after seeing numerous people saying to read this instead of Jennifer Armentrout's Covenant series (which I did actually read in full) I 100% see where people say that the two series are the same. Because they are. And they aren't. There's enough differences that you can't make a case against plagiarism (like another popular series I could name but won't) but there's enough similarities that you can definitely say she was either trying to re-write this or write fan fiction that she published on this and/or try and improve on things that she found lacking for herself in this and this was just REALLY STRONG inspiration for her series. Whatever it was, I don't really care (but since I made the disclaimer in the other series about not reading this one yet I felt I needed to make a comment about this series).
I liked this. Not a whole lot of sex going on. In fact none happened other than mentioning that one character had sex with her boyfriend and that two people were under a compulsion spell to have sex with each other but they didn't get farther than one character getting more or less naked and a lot of kissing before the other character realised what was going on. And then there was the other time where kissing was happening but the guy told the story that sex happened (as a result of aforementioned girl on girl hate).
I get the girl on girl hate reason. I think it's kind of stupid. But it's at least a better reason than other books have given. The slut shaming bothers me. But it doesn't bother me quite as much as the kidnapping and subsequent torture that happened. The reasoning behind it is selfish and inconsiderate and assholeish.
Apart from all that, this was more enjoyable to read than the Covenant series. A LOT MORE enjoyable. I also like the fact that the author worked religion into the story very nicely without it feeling like she was trying to convert or shove beliefs down the readers throats. Due to my own upbringing I'm very sensitive to both of those things and both of them will take away any prior enjoyment of a book/movie. I appreciate it when it's a "hey these are my beliefs and this is how I worship/etc" type thing which is how this was presented. I also like how she made the vampires able to set foot in churches and on holy ground but not the ones who have turned on themselves. And made the "good" vampires more mortal as opposed to immortal. It feeds in with my own theories about vampires.
All in all, good book and will definitely be looking for the rest of the series at my library to read.
shizbizz's review against another edition
5.0
BEST EVER OMG I CANNOT HELP BUT FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CHARACTERS
WHAT IS LIFE
WHAT IS LIFE
wivixa's review against another edition
5.0
Do tej książki zbierałam się LATA, na półce miałam x czasu, zaczynałam czytać chyba z 3 razy ale nie podchodziła ale po obejrzeniu serialu (który mimo zmian i różnych zawirowań naprawdę mi się podobał) sięgnęłam ponownie i tym razem lecę dalej, koooocham
„Największe rewolucje zaczynają się w ciszy i w cieniu.”
„Największe rewolucje zaczynają się w ciszy i w cieniu.”
hannah__kilburn's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
I’ll admit I read this book thinking I’d downloaded the Zodiac Academy lol. Really fast paced easy reading adventure
jlynnpaperco's review against another edition
4.0
Reread after a long, long time. I still love this series and I wish my library had the rest of the series available. Age gap still doesn't bother me.