A review by liralen
Nightworld Academy: Term One by LJ Swallow

2.0

I recently stumbled upon a big stash of books that look and sound exactly like this one: witch (or other supernatural creature) doesn't know about or can't access her talents; possibly she goes to some kind of magical boarding school; there are three or four Hot Boys™ of various shapes and sizes ready to compete for her affection; the covers are all blue-purple-pink; I'm probably going to read a whole host of them and be completely unable to tell them apart even as I'm reading. Oh dear.

Some minor points:
-It is in fact possible to both reference Harry Potter every five minutes and overtly rip it off. They're not mutually exclusive.

-We're deep into the book before Maeve realises that there's something...unusual...about the school and that supernatural stuff (so eloquent, I know) is real. I get it: Maeve's ignorance allows the book to explain the world to Maeve, rather than to the reader, and thus avoid talking down to the reader too much. It does slow things down somewhat, though, and leaves Maeve looking like not the brightest little duckling ever.

-Already I have trouble telling the various Hot Boys™ apart. Helpfully, they all have different backgrounds: shifter, vampire, maybe other vampire, witch. Less helpfully, the chapters regularly shift between POVs, and then I really can't tell them apart.

-But...really...are half these books secretly published by the same people? Or at least all using the same cover designer?