House of Marionne by J. Elle is a novel that started generating buzz a year before its release date. With its posh boarding school setting, forbidden magic, and enemies-to-lovers tropes, there was no doubt the YA fantasy fan base would swoon. While I can't say that it made me swoon, I can say that I enjoyed it despite its flaws.

Quell is an interesting character. She is so needy and lonely that she should be a repellant character. Instead, regardless of what her grandmother says about her and her inner monologue, I find her almost stereotypical for a teenager. After all, that is the age where everyone feels alone and yet needy for acceptance and love, stability, and community.

The world of the Order remains as mysterious at the end of House of Marionne as it is at the beginning, something I cannot discern whether Ms. Elle did on purpose. We know what Quell knows, which is frustratingly little. While one of the narrators is a mysterious person who appears to be a member of the group of assassins Quell spent her life avoiding, we still know very little about the world of magic, the politics of the Order, its origins, and its purpose. We know the party line as the headmistress presents it to Quell, but we also know there is more to the story than anyone shares. Whether it was by design or accident, the lack of information regarding the outer magical world is disappointing. It keeps Quell's world too narrow and undeveloped.

House of Marionne is a fast read, but that speed comes with issues. One of those issues is the lack of worldbuilding. The other is the speed at which Quell moves through the school and passes the three trials. Ms. Elle informs readers several times that students take years to pass the second trial, yet Quell passes that same trial less than a month after first arriving. To me, I feel that pacing took priority over story and character. I still enjoyed the story, but the lack of development is concerning.

Despite all that, I enjoyed my time with Quell. House of Marionne is an easy read and lends itself well to finishing in one sitting. I always love when stories turn dark, and House of Marionne does not disappoint there. The story takes an unexpected turn towards the end, one that makes the sequel a must-read.

This is sort of like, All For One meets A Deadly Education. That being said, it feels even younger than All For One did. I think this would've benefitted from being written darker in theme and aged up to adult. This is the same issue I had with Lobizona, actually. They remind me a lot of each other. I think if you like Lobizona you will enjoy this, but this isn't going to be a favorite for the majority. I think the masks and crowns idea was cool but it felt so very young in how we grow to understand how this and other magical elements work. This isn't supposed to be whimsical like harry potter's approach to magic, and it just felt sort of imbalanced.

The premise of House of Marionne sounded so amazing and while I did enjoy it, I didn't love it like I thought I was going to. It was more of a younger YA than I was anticipating based on some of the advertised plot elements. I also felt like some of the characters were a bit underdeveloped and the world building was a bit chaotic so I was often confused about why things were happening. I was left with a bunch of answered questions, so maybe there is going to be a follow-up novel that will answer some of them? Despite all that, I think I would probably read a sequel.

Filled with intrigue and magic, House of Marionne is dark academia meets finishing school stories. While the end had a crazy twist that left me wanting more, I found the characters a little flat and the pacing to be somewhat off.

This was a fun read!! The ending was such a reveal! I cannot wait to read the second book. The magic society in this book, ahhhh!!

Ahhh this was magical and incredible! I savored every moment. Magic, secret societies, dark academia, fantasy, romance. This was so much fun and unputdownable til the very end! 5 stars from me for the enjoyment factor alone. Thank you SO much to #NetGalley and #PenguinGroup for allowing me to read this one in return for an honest review.

I ended up DNFing this book. It just wasn't for me, though it was highly anticipated. I think the target audience was younger Young Adult? I found it boring and uncompelling. Hopefully others like it. Thank you for the early copy, Netgalley!

"I used to believe that magic was glittering, fanciful pretend. Then I realized magic is real. But it is dark and poisonous. And the only way to hide from it is to not exist at all."

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for sending me an ARC of House of Marionne in exchange for an honest review.

House of Marionne is about a 17-year-old girl named Quell, who has been moving around the country with her mother all of her life with no explanation as to why they can't stay in one place long enough for her to graduate high school. After a chance encounter with an assassin at a convenience store, Quell is thrust into a magical world and a life that she never knew existed.

I really enjoyed all of the magical aspects of this book, from the setting at a boarding school to the in-depth look at the classes that Quell attends. I really got to experience and understand the magic that all the characters possess, which is something special because readers usually get a quick explanation of the magic system and then the story moves on. I also really enjoyed the characters in this book, especially Abby. She was a super sweet girl who could also hold her own with her magic. Jordan was also an interesting character because I spent a lot of the book trying to figure out what side he was on. The plot twist towards the end of the book was super surprising.

One of the only things that I didn't really enjoy about this book was that I felt that sometimes the story slowed down a little too much to explain things that didn't really need explanation. Also. I felt that the secondary viewpoint used throughout the story wasn't really needed or could have been used by another character more central to the story.

Overall, I would give this book a solid 4/5 stars and would definitely read the sequel!

This book was so hard for me to stay focused on for some reason. I don't know why, because it has all the things that I normally enjoy. I may do a re-read at some point, because I'm sure there are things that I have missed. It could just be that I'm not in the right mood for this one.

That's my opinion, but definitely give it a try and see if it checks all the boxes for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for allowing me to read an E-ARC of this title.

Underwhelming. I was so excited by the synopsis for this book and the hype online. Unfortunately just about everything in this book fell flat for me. I didn't love the characters, I found the plot to be lacking, and just wasn't excited at all to keep picking this book up and reading it.

I really, really wanted to like this... and I just did not. I was bored from the very first chapter and confused about the magic system and lack of world building.

It read very young (even for YA) and I didn't feel particularly strongly about any of the characters.

The beautiful cover first caught my attention, and I’ve wanted to read this author for a while.

Quell has been on the run with her mother for most of her life because toushana, a deadly dark magic, runs through her blood. It’s highly destructive and something she can’t control. When they’re found and nearly cornered, Quell’s mother sends her to her grandmom, the headmaster of a magical school and someone who’s been out of their lives for many years. Now, Quells finds herself in a debutante society full of magical elites and learns there’s more to her family than she ever knew.

I liked Quell. Being on the run for so long, she’s a pretty good judge of character and does what’s required to survive, giving her time to accomplish her real goals. She works hard to control her magic and make her grandmom proud, but soon finds herself in dangerous situations. Jordan, her mentor, assassin in training, and love interest, is brooding, angsty, and hiding secrets of his own. I knew something was up with another character whose name I won’t mention, and when the twist came at the end it wasn’t completely shocking, but still a nice one.

Pacing is a little uneven in the first half of the book, but the last quarter finds a faster stride.

If you enjoy dark academia, forbidden magic, and angst-filled romance, this could be your read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was definitely excited to read the House of Marionne. We were introduced to Quell on the run with her mom and her seeing something mysterious and it was so exciting. I thought we would get an explanation really on why she was on the run with her mom and what her magic really was and why her mom left considering what we learned about the Marionne family. I was left with more questions than answers while reading this book. I felt like once Quell arrived at the House of Marionne the history of her type of magic and what was going on with her mom became like a side story and the tension building romance was the main story, which i didn’t mind but I felt really lost on the reasoning behind everyone’s motive and what this society or Order really was. Even though i still have questions about everything I am intrigued especially on how things ended with Quell, Jordan and Yagrin. Because of that I am looking forward to reading book two. .

Thanks to NetGalley and the Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review.

Quell is on the run with her mother because he has a secret. A form of dark magic, called Toushana, that has a group, the Draguns, are hunting and killing.

Two weeks before her school graduation, she runs into some Draguns and she has to separate from her mother. Who does she turn to, but her grandmom, the headmistress of one of five magical houses, House Marionne. There she decides to stay and perform the three rites, emerging, honing, and choosing her "job". But keeping her secret to herself isn't easy when it wants to come out and she has Jordan, her mentor and love interest, is always around.

I enjoyed the story building of this book. You really can feel and see what the author is trying to portray to the reader.

This was an enjoyable fantasy! The plot felt a little unoriginal in predictable, but not so much that it took away from my enjoyment of the story. The main character was compelling, though a little naive which annoyed me. The writing was good but not anything special.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

3.5/5 stars

I think this was a very middle of the road book. I loved the magic system, I think it was very interesting how the different magic manifested and was used, it’s definitely a novel idea.

I did get lost with the plot and it didn’t feel like it flowed very well, it felt clunky and definitely needed more refinement. I also started to lose a grip on the characters and their motivations and personalities. It wasn’t so much they started to mesh together, but it started to fall flat. Mixed that with the plot and the book wasn’t as memorable as I really wanted it to be.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This book was pitched as a touch of Bridgerton with a drop of Shadow and Bone and no pitch has been more accurate. If you are like me and love the glittering, old school social elite/noble houses vibes but also love a good dark fantasy with an insanely intricate magic system and a slow burn enemies to lovers romance subplot then this is the PERFECT book for you. The concept of this book was striking and dazzling. It felt glittery and glamorous but also dark and twisted. There’s balls (think ballgowns and debutante season) but there’s also forbidden magic and assassins, an addicting combo. Also the visuals were just absolutely INSANE, I was wholly immersed all throughout reading it. There’s also a magical school type setting (I’m assuming this is the ‘ripple’ of The Atlas Six which I haven’t read) and for all the academic vibes lovers- this was just perfect. I mean the vibes were vibing, what more can I say?

MINOR SPOILERS HERE ⬇️⬇️⬇️

And with that being said I also want to touch on some things I think could’ve been layed out or developed better. There were multiple plot lines happening in this book and while I enjoyed them all, it felt like the author jumped from one to the other too quickly in the beginning and then there was a stagnant pause in the middle where Quell was learning to hone her magic, which is understandable but it was loooong and I would find myself putting the book down during those moment and losing internet in picking it back up. The moments I was interested in were when her mom was mentioned or details about the sphere or the dragun after her but they were rare and far in between. Overall everything was tied up really well and set up for the next beautifully but it definitely dragged a loooot in the middle for me.

I received an ARC of House of Marionne from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Here I sit, again, filing another book away as one I will not be finishing, and the reason is that I am so utterly confused.

House of Marionne has an intriguing premise. I mean, okay, if it didn't, I wouldn't have picked it up. A magical society of debutantes? It's a curious mix. The execution, however, was not doing it for me. I'm honestly unsure of how far I made it into this book because I kept going back and rereading paragraphs of information, trying to understand what in the world was going on. There was so much telling happening but no showing, leaving me utterly confused. There are people with masks that fade into their faces. What kind of mask? I don't know. What in the world does "fade into their face" mean? I don't know. The scene when Quell finally shows up at the gate at her grandmother's house was ... I don't even know how to describe it, and I think I read those paragraphs four or five times just trying to understand.

I genuinely don't know what else to say. Tell me why Quell and her mother have been running for years, and Quell only decides now that she wants to understand why. Or why her mother calls the bad guys chasing them "Draguns" once, and then, for some reason, every single male after that is a "Dragun" in Quell's mind. Is that right? Is that what all of them are called? How does she know that if her mother only talked about it once? The mask thing. The magic. I thought this was high fantasy, but we start our story in the good old US of A. Wouldn't this be urban fantasy, then? No? It's not high fantasy, so I'm not sure why it's being called such. The logic wasn't logic-ing for me, and that nearly always ends up bothering me, as you can probably see.

I know I didn't get particularly far into the story, and perhaps all of these issues will be resolved later. Or things are explained better. I can ignore some things if the story pulls me along enough to get me to the point where things are explained. But I wasn't interested in what was going on, nor was I interested in these characters, which unfortunately means the book was a "no" for me.

Absolutely loved this book!!! J. Elle has created a lush, beautiful, and dangerous world and readers will be left wanting more!!! I highly recommend this book for readers of fantasy, dark academia, and romance. The cover of this book is just gorgeous - again, beautiful and deadly! I can't wait to read the next book in this series.