Young adult paranormal/fantasy. Fin is a human who is drawn into the vampire world as a foundling. She must learn how to navigate how to be a vampire while still alive and essentially attending classes. This novel has great world building.

This book sucked me in! (Pun very much intended). This is the vampire book I wish I had when I was binging them back in high school. These characters are so much more. They are three dimensional and have agency (which I feel lacks in the vampire genre). Immortality and vampire books in general always have a bit of power dynamic issues for me, but this was much less so than other stories I've read. We start off with the main character actually being 18 and we get to know that the love interest is relatively close in age.... not someone who's been a vampire for 100s of years! I very much enjoyed the dynamic and banter between the main couple. I was engaged with the plot the whole time and enjoyed the twists as they came. A couple could be considered predictable, but I was just along for the ride and not trying to figure everything out before it happened. This book also has a magical school setting which I love. We get to learn the lore and politics of the vampire's society along with our main character. There's classic YA coming of age themes that I think are done well and integrated seamlessly with more normalized queerness. I very much recommend!

COURT OF THE UNDYING SEASONS was a fun and fresh take on vampires that incorporated plenty of unique elements. I adored the academy setting and the seasons, which are similar to semesters at regular schools. The plot was engaging and I liked the inclusion of a murder mystery, which offered plenty of twists and turns. The characters were endearing, the addition of a romance was perfect, and I loved the LGBTQIA representation. 4 stars and I’ll certainly be picking up more books from this author.⁣
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Pick this one up if you’re a fan of: ⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣
➽ vampires⁣
➽ dark academia ⁣
➽ gothic boarding schools ⁣
➽ slow-burn romance ⁣
➽ lgbtqia representation ⁣⁣
➽ murder mysteries

A.M. Strickland is back with another gripping stand-alone fantasy, and Court of the Undying Seasons delivered everything it promised it would!

I absolutely loved In the Ravenous Dark when I initially read it, so I was thrilled when I saw that A.M. Strickland was writing a deliciously queer vampire book! This story delivers the reader an MC who is vicious and driven by her desire for revenge, and I absolutely loved seeing the way her character developed over the course of the story as her motivations changed and her abilities blossomed. Court of the Undying Seasons is filled with unpredictable twists and turns, making it a real page turner as I kept trying to figure out how each element would be approached and resolved.

As always, I loved the approach to queerness in this story! As it's a fantasy setting, there's not really labels on page, but it never felt like anything was lacking or superficial. Fin's journey with gender is subtle, but it resonated with me so much in so many different ways. I also loved the casual queerness of the other vampires and the way that certain relationship dynamics were approached! Without spoiling anything too detailed, there were some minor characters that had a dynamic that I really enjoyed, and it was cool to see the way sexuality and gender interacted for said characters!

As far as the plot itself goes, I was pulled into this story from the start! It was great to read a fantasy-vampire-school story that was as loudly queer as this one was, and it was enjoyable and fast paced. I do wish that the book was perhaps a little longer. My only criticism of this book is the way that some of the big reveals were approached, and I think it would have worked better if there was more space. There were a few scenes that ended up being pages of dialogue of characters explaining every detail of their plans and what they had been planning, and I definitely found my eyes glazing over a bit during those sections. Overall, that's more of a personal preference and nitpick, but that is the main reason I didn't give this a whole 5.

I liked seeing how everything was resolved, and I liked that the ending was open ended enough that it could be built upon, without leaving anything unsatisfying if it stayed a stand-alone. I know some people aren't huge fans of more open-ended stories, but I personally enjoy it a lot more!

Anyways, I loved this story and I look forward to reading more by A.M. Strickland! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“Family is what you carve out with your teeth.”

I received an eARC of Court of the Undying Seasons by AM Strickland from Feiwel & Friends in for an honest review. Here are my thoughts!

🩸 Fin lives in a dark and demanding world, where vampires are able to claim humans as their own. Despite her deep and personal hatred for vampires, Fin makes a decision that ends up with her becoming one of their novices - destined to become a monster, their dinner, or dead. As Fin’s humanity grows dimmer she learns more about herself, her desire, and her new powers. But will that be enough to keep her alive?

Somehow I felt like this book was both too repetitive but also should’ve been expanded in to a series? I suppose I felt that the parts that were repetitive were mostly related to the romance whereas I often felt like the overall plot was rushed, specifically in the last third of the book. A decent read, but it took me a long time to finish because I got bored a few times.

Overall I gave this one three stars and would recommend it for folks who want queer vampires who are morally gray, violent, and just a tad bit feral. 🩸

Who doesn’t love a good vampire book? I loved the dialogue and the directions from the book, especially the illustrations of all the clans.

This book had great potential— the fantasy romance genre is behind a lot of other genres in queer representation, and I was really excited for what CotUS promised. Unfortunately, the writing, pacing, and characterization were all immature. I dnf’d around ~50%.
I really appreciate Strickland’s aims, but sadly I must keep looking for trans rep in this genre.

DNF at 25%

I wanted to like this so bad, but I put it down one day and just didn't pick it back up. The beginning was rather slow, I couldn't understand the courts, the school, or the requirements. The representation was great, but I don't understand how these kids can be half vampire but half not and that this school is the only determination of who gets to be a vampire? The world building in the beginning just didn't make sense to me.

I'm never really sure what to expect when it comes to vampire novels these days (thanks TWILIGHT), but I was pleasantly surprised by how original this one was. The world was fascinating and the whole process of becoming a vampire was fresh and new (at least to me, although I do admit I don't read an enormous number of vampire books). I also applaud Strickland for how she integrated queernees into the world; it was natural and it made perfect sense. Haters eat your hearts out. I also loved Fin's journey to finding out who she was and what she wanted. My only real complaint with the novel was despite being billed as a murder mystery the first murder didn't occur until almost the 50% mark. Up until then it was all laying foundation for the world which, while necessary, still meant one of the main billed plot points took quite some time to really get going. That being said the rest of the story was really great, and even though the ending was somewhat dramatic it still seemed to work, and the characters really made it all worth it in the end. With a rich atmosphere and fantastic character development I will be more than happy to recommend this book to older YA readers and adult readers alike, because they are all sure to find something to like out of this book. I'll certainly be checking out Strickland's backlist titles in the meantime and I'm eager to see what she comes up with next.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Let's start with why I requested Court of the Undying Seasons in the first place. Reason 1, I really enjoyed A.M. Strickland's other book, In The Ravenous Dark so I was interested in reading more from her. Reason 2, the plot of Court of Undying Seasons sounded like a gothic adventure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Fin, our protagonist has great character growth. Not only does Fin fight to find her place in the vampire society, she fights to find herself within her own skin. The gothic setting was lovely and enriching. Strickland did not stray away from the darker fantasy elements that comes with writing vampires. There's gore, enthrallment, sword fighting, shifting, and more!

I loved Gavron, our morally grey love interest. Come to think of it, every character has morally grey qualities. There is also great representation among the characters which is always a plus when written as well as Strickland has.
I think the end was well wrapped up, but I could also see Strickland writing more stories within this universe. If she does, I'll certainly pick them up.

Are dark academia stories with murder mystery happening in a vampire academy something that interest you? then you’ll have to check this one out!

I like the concept of the world building – a vampire academy with different houses that specialize in different skills which kinda reminds me of those Harry Potter houses.
The difference is in here they have to learn the skills to be a vampire first before being accepted later into the house they wanted.

Not only an immersing world building, the plot is also added with a murder mystery happening in the academy which is a nice touch to the story. It keep me interested in figuring out the truth until the end.

The characters are diverse and likeable. The author did a good job writing about the queer rep in this vampire society.
I also enjoy seeing Fin’s character develop throughout the story as she learns and accept her new reality with the vampires.

I like a few twists in this story that manage to surprise me and the ending is wrapped up pretty nicely too albeit a bit too rushed.
I would’ve like it more if this book becomes a series because there's so much more to explore.

Overall, it’s a pretty good vampire story. It’s unique, quite enjoyable and entertaining as well.
I’m looking forward to read more books from this author in the future and hoping this one might get a sequel!

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Blood, abandonment, toxic friendship, murder, death

Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tour, Netgalley, author and publisher for giving me an e-ARC of the book and for having me on this book tour. I’m leaving this review voluntarily!

Court of the Undying Seasons
A.M. Strickland

⭐4⭐

“Because, as you should know by now, family is what you carve out with your teeth.”

This book was given to me as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this to me.

Themes: found family, dark academia, magic, queer romance, friendship

Court of the Undying Seasons follows Fin, a human, who volunteers to take the place of the woman she loves in the Founding. Although being selected in the Founding results in her worst nightmare; becoming a vampire. After her mother was taken in the Founding years before, never to return, Fin has grown to hate vampires and wishes for their deaths. While joining their ranks will ultimately take away her humanity and her beating heart, it will give her something else that she desires; an opportunity to enact her revenge.

While Fin learns the ways of the vampires in Courtsheart, a dark and murderous plot begins to unfold. Fin works with friend and foe in order to unearth the truth behind the plan and its end goal. Becoming a vampire seemed impossible at first, but not becoming one may result in an even worse fate.

I enjoyed this book very much! It was an easy read apart from the somewhat confusing magic system at times. It felt very heavy on explanation at the end of the book and I had to read twice to fully understand. This could have just been an issue for me, so others may not have this issue! I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the mentioned themes and topics!

Fin may not have a great life in her little fishing village, but at least she has her friend. When her friend is about to be selected to become a vampire, Fin tries to save her friend by taking her place. Before arriving she is introduced to the viciousness of vampire kind when she is almost killed by one and saved by another. With her savior's mark the two are forced to bond together as Fin begins her lessons in vampire courts. Lessons may not be easy for someone who never wanted this new life, but things are even more complicated by a series of murders that hint at something more sinister about to happen. With clear nods to her inspirations, Strickland is able to craft a unique take on modern vampire lore. She twines all the horror and decadence while keeping the characters compelling. A combination of vampires and dark academia should appeal to many YA readers.

From the beginning I was hooked! I needed to understand Fin and this world.
I very much enjoyed Court of the Undying Seasons! I previously loved Strickland's other works so I was not surprised when this one was no different! I found the magic system to be really unique and not like anything I have read before as well as loved the characters and the relationships we see played out in the story. There was great LGBTQ+ rep which helped to give the story something else special.

I have been on the search for a good queer vampire book since the dawn of time. I don’t know what it is but none of the ones I’ve read gave vampires the justice they deserve. Morally grey vampires is all I’ve wanted. Along with good plot, good characters, something that makes my brain feel at peace. It feels like I was asking for a lot but I truly was not. When I saw court of the undying seasons I was ready to be hurt again. Thankfully! I wasn’t fully hurt!

Will start off and say the first half was really strong. The storyline was extremely fascinating and off the bat I loved how dark/gothic the story was. A creepy castle filled with vampires? Say less! Everything was up my alley. Learning about the world was a little rough at times. There were so many characters and history that felt important and trying to keep that straight broke me a little. That is a common characteristic of high fantasy, there’s so much to remember. It didn’t bother me but it was tough at times trying to recall who belong to what section and that sections history. History did get a little muddied in the end in my opinion. Some things felt very repetitive.

I very much enjoyed the side characters. Kashire has my heart and soul for real. I’ll be honest if there was no Kashire I don’t know if I would’ve made it through the story. He was everything to me. I’m extremely offended we didn’t learn more about him and Gavron. And I’m a Kashire’s apologist so I fully believe Gavron ruined their relationship.

Okay, now diving into the second half where everything went up into flames. I wanted to full on throw Fin onto the moon far from me. It’s drastic I know but I can’t help how strongly I disliked her. She contradicted herself so much that my migraine was never going to go away. I deeply feel like so many things could’ve easily been resolved if she just had used her critical thinking skills for at least two seconds. She genuinely had the survival instincts of a walnut. There would be times that she did something and I’d be like okay good direction I can get with this then she’d ruin any progress we made. I really tried to not want to throttle her but it didn’t work out.

I was happy with Gavron until towards the end. I felt like his character development was really lackluster. Started off really strong then just fizzled out.

Overall, that first half really was excellent and I felt like the second half didn’t meet that energy. It genuinely had everything I could want but didn’t quite execute it. I highly believe this book will do well and wouldn’t doubt there being a sequel. I am already prepared for people to call me a hater. If we could get a book solely about Kashire I would be the first in line to buy that up. Kashire deserves nothing but the world.

The comp for this book - Sarah J. Maas meets A Deadly Education - almost truly put me off from reading it. Perhaps unfairly, as I've never read either of those myself, but I've come to realize that magic school settings are generally not my thing. The drama that I hear is inherent to SJM absolutely can be for me, but as I said I've never actually read one myself to be sure, and I don't really plan to. So, why did I still decide to read this? Well, mostly because I've enjoyed A.M. Strickland's writing before, but also if anything could get me to buy into a magic school full of drama, it would be vampires.

And indeed, this was quite a fun read! Though to be honest, there's somewhat less messy relationship drama than I might have expected and more an extensive slow burn. Not that I'm complaining. If you're super sensitive to fostered codependency and power imbalances in relationships you might want to steer clear, but honestly it didn't go as far in that direction as it could have. It seems obvious that there was more interest in giving us somewhat healthy relationships we can root for than a toxic mess to keep thing entertaining.

Every section of the book begins a new season or what you could think of as a semester at vamp school - a place where humans are gradually train to be able to handle the power of being a vampire, so that when they're eventually turned they won't go on a rampage. As you might expect, some of Fin's teachers and peers are quite cruel and she, of course, makes a number of stupid decisions. I do appreciate, however, that the narrative didn't leave me too far in front of her in terms of reveals and mostly justified her idiocy. (Though there were certainly still times where I was begging her to just stop and think for two seconds.)

Of course, it wouldn't be enough just to worry about passing weapons class and keeping your body from tearing apart while teleporting. No, additionally pulling at our concern are the various murders that keep popping up which, despite her youth and myriad of responsibilities, Fin takes it upon herself to solve. The concern around these happenings grows larger and larger until at the end we start flying through giant events and grand reveals. Really, though, what else would you expect of a vampire court.

Speaking of, this was a more expansive take on vamp powers and society than I've often seen, giving them a variety of powers and priorities based on what house they align with. In the end, I found myself interested to read another book in this world, not so much to see more of Fin and her cohort, but rather to see more of what's possible with this version of vampires.

If you're looking for queer vamps, and a violent YA magic school setting doesn't turn you off, then look no further.

I would like to thank Feiwel & Friends for providing me with an ARC.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I don't think this was necessarily for me. Many other reviewers have already loved this book, but I personally only thought it was okay. The writing is great and Strickland has a great voice. Unfortunately, I just couldn't be fully drawn into the story. The world building is interesting and the characters are just as interesting. However, it just felt like it was slow paced and very little was going on at times.

Vampires are in vogue again! Excellent! (Though I don't think they completely disappeared.) Strickland has created a world where vampires rule and every year some 17-19 years old humans are "chosen" to attend a school to learn how to be a vampire, be approved by a particular House and changed or fail and become a thrall. Fin takes the place of her secret love and save her and hopes that she will find a way to kill vampires because they killed her mother when she was young. However, becoming a vampire turns out to be more alluring and dangerous than she ever believed. Someone is killing vampires-in-training and humans and if she isn't careful she will end up being the next victim without the hope of eternal life...

This does luxuriate in the life of the vampire. It is somewhat dark, there is blood, murder, and mind control. But not all are vicious or backstabbing. Some actually specialize in healing.

At times it is a bit slow but the action picks up in the end and there are plenty of twists in this story. It is labelled as a queer fantasy novel. I'm not sure I quite agree. There are a number of queer, trans and pansexual characters but the main love interest is heterosexual. I would probably qualify it as the whole gamut of love and attraction. A bit like real life. I did find it a compelling read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Ienjoyed In the Ravenous Dark a lot, so I was excited to see what the newest novel, Court of the Undying Seasons had to offer. While each novel is a standalone, I loved how the author’s unique gothic style carried through each. This story follows pansexual demigirl Fin who volunteers to take her secret love’s place in the Finding. This is an event where vampires come to a village to pick recruits who will attend a vampire school, Castle Courtsheart, where they either pass and become vampires or fail and become a thrall. Her character is initially driven by survival before expanding into more based on her circumstances. When she arrives at the academy, she is sponsored by the mysterious Gavon, who is a complex morally grey character. Throughout the story the reader not only follows Fin on her journey, but also is introduced to the vampire world and the four great Houses.

The story is full of a lot of diversity and a wide range of personalities with the characters. There are a few characters to track, such as, Kastire, Revar, Marai, Jaen, and Claudia. Some of them are more likeable than others, so I did have my favorites for both the individuals and the relationships between them. Even though I did not care for each character throughout the whole story, they were still well-written and felt like they had a place in the journey. There is a mystery in the novel that adds to the tension with plenty of twists and turns. The pacing is a little slower in the middle as the writing works on establishing the relationships more, but the ending does bring it back to create a good ending. The story is currently a standalone, but there seems to be room to expand this into the series in the future. Overall, this was an enjoyable story filled with vampire lore in a fun academic setting.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Feiwel & Friends, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Dark romance? check. Vampire finishing school? check. Queer characters? check. This was a solid read that was well developed with interesting characters and a curious and unique plot.