I read this book a while ago, and have reread it. I love Rue's work and there is not a book that I wouldn't autobuy from her. The characters are well developed, the plot always moving forward with little nuances as you go. I just love to read and get lost in these books.

I reccomend Rue all of the time to other readers.

Cute, YA paranormal romance about: a school for necromancers; a human girl’s unwieldy powers; & her instant love/hate with a mysterious boy named G. Also, her adorably cranky (un)dead cat!

The worldbuilding was interesting, although I wish it had been more fleshed out. A fun read for any teens who are into magical academia or fantasy romance!

I really couldn’t connect with this unfortunately and didn’t like the writing style. I loved the premise but it all fell a little bit flat for me.

I tried to read this book, I really did. It should have been my jam...spells, mentions of pagan holidays, magic powers....but the writing style just would not let me continue. I understand that this was young adult...but I've read middle grade to my children where the writing style was more engaging and just....better. It read like my attempts to write a book when I was 10 years old. Too many descriptions of characters, one after another after another. Not even flowery prose descriptions either. I think one page alone had 8 different color descriptions describing hair, socks, boots, glasses, etc. I couldn't get past it long enough to focus on the story. It's a shame too, the premise sounded so good.

I received a free e-ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am so disappointed to say that Hemlock fell completely flat for me. What promised to be an amazing story about a young female necromancer going to school for necromancy turned out to be a tepid instalove story with a super predictable plot.

That was awful. Truly awful.

I know we're only in March, but I can already tell that this one will be a contender for my worst reads of the year. I think the reason that I hated this so much is because it had SUCH potential and it felt like it *chose* to crash and burn.

This book is pitched as girl who is a necromancer who is sent away to a school for necromancers because of the trouble her powers could bring in the human world. She is the only person in this school with human blood as all the other students have some other type of paranormal upbringing - witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. And honestly, this book started off so compelling with Rook bringing her cat back to life. I was excited to plunge into a good paranormal YA with kids in a boarding school. I love the Crave series by Tracy Wolff and I loved the Winx Saga on Netflix. This trope is my JAM.

But no. No. This book was terrible. It was so terrible and I am just so angry.

Here we are with a super interesting premise and the author chooses to go down the route of instalove with two ridiculous names: Rook Dagger and G Gianni. I was reading an ARC I got from Netgalley so I legit thought the "G Gianni" was a typo every time it was printed. It wasn't until her friend made a big deal about "G" revealing his first name to Rook (which happens towards the end of the book) that I understood "G Gianni" was how people referred to him and that "G" was not just a nickname for "Gianni." Good lord. How ridiculous.

Hemlock didn't focus on the magic or the different realms or the Forest of Emma Green or anything that would have kept it remotely interesting. It focused on Rook falling in love with G at first sight, how he dated new girls every day, and how Rook was gonna make him jealous by looking good and making him want her. Any ounce of potential this book was had was squashed for instalove with no reason. Here is a girl who brought her damn cat back to life as a kid and is going to a SCHOOL FOR NECROMANCY and we're only gonna focus on the boy who's too dreamy for a personality.

Major fail of epic proportions. I hereby bestow onto you one star for the sheer anger you have given me.

A really good book though it was slow paced in my opinion. Still very interesting and well executed though!! Overall, solid 3 star read. Though I did get bored during reading it during some points.

This dark academia tale is an enticing entry into the world of Hemlock Academy. The next installment is highly anticipated!

This book had a lot of potential with the story but the author fell flat for me on this. It was very juvenile and the writing definitely needs work.

This was...not good. I feel like there's a lot of potential for this book. However, it defaults to all of the standard stereotypes and read like any other YA novel. The characters were flat, and any plot that existed was predictable, including the "plot twist" ending.

What an interesting and effervescent story! I could tell right away that the main character was special, which piqued my interest for most of the read. Different, but good!

Unfortunately I was unable to download and Review this book. I have thus given this an impartial 3 star rating for this book review.

Every bit of the story is like typical YA tropes that I've known such as the 'chosen one' heroine falling for the bad guy in the school. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the history of necromancy in which its setting set in the academy. Sounds cool!

3 stars. I didn't finish this, the writing style just wasn't for me, I couldn't get into it. I loved the premise, and the character glossary made me laugh. Overall it looks like it is interesting but I felt like there was a lot of over-explaining/ over describing for me to really enjoy what was happening.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was super confusing, it seemed all over the place. I did finish it, because I don’t believe in DNFing a book. I will give it a two star rating because overall the world building and supernatural part of the book was good. But the actual plot was just too confusing.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

this was a great start to a series, I enjoyed the characters and thought the plot was a great start. I look forward to more in the series.

Thanks you to the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t even finish this book because it was so confusing and really boring. I had a hard time picking out the actual plot. I thought, going into the book, that it was supposed to be about necromancers. It wasn’t. There was barely any backstory on any of the characters. Plus the author threw in the other popular supernatural characters just as an added feature. There was no reason for them to be there, and if there was, we were not told about it.
The whole necromancy aspect took a backseat for the drama that unfolded between the characters. The main character, Rook, was too young and naive for me to connect to her issues and I found her just plain annoying.
Overall, this book was not for me.
Rating: 1 star
Status: DNF’d

HOW OLD IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK?? Not old enough. This book had THE GREATEST premise. I love boarding school books, magic, boys with crazy hair?? I am IN. But this book was ridiculous. The most cliched, juvenile writing/romance/setting. Ugh.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hemlock had so much potential to be a great book but in the end, it was meh. I was honestly excited to dive into a school full of necromancers because it sounded completely interesting. Yet, it bombed for me.

In it, you will meet Rook. She is like the Harry Potter of this book because she's the chosen one and has so much power and potential to do great things. Blah blah blah. Been there and done that. Why does this book sound so familiar to all the other books I've read already? Ugh, such a disappointment.

Back to Rook, now this girl was not my cup of tea. Nope, she was so freaking shallow, annoying, and frustrating to root for. Unless I was rooting for her death. Other than the girl, nothing else really held my interesting. The romance was beyond boring and I wanted nothing to do with it.

In the end, I was very happy that I finished the book with a glass (or two) of wine.

ARC given by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I really wish I could give this book a higher review.

This book, as much as I hate to say it, really let me down. It started off really interestingly with all the talk of necromancy and vampires but afterwards, it died down to almost nothing! All of a sudden, teenage (and highly unrealistic) drama became the forefront of this novel which I believe was an attempt to appease to the Young Adult market. Now, teenage drama is not necessarily a bad thing in books but only if it is done right. Teen drama is a slippery slope that absolutely needs to be well-written and purposeful in the text. As much as I wish not to say it, this book attempted teen drama but unfortunately, backfired to epic proportions. It was completely unnecessarily and I believe that if the original fantasy/paranormal storyline was followed closer than the fortified teenage drama then this book would have been more successful and enjoyable.

But it wasn't just that. The storyline was meant to follow Rook Dagger as she navigated her way through necromancy school. The whole prologue (which was hands down the best part of the whole book) was setting this all up from the start. The idea of "a life for a life" could have provided for a terrific book idea and an even better story but it just wasn't explored. I wanted to scream at the author for setting up such a great storyline but the end result was something completely other than what I was sold at the start.

On top of all that, Rook Dagger was a character I thought I'd grow to like. As it turned out, I started to get extremely frustrated by her characterisation and her fixation on love interest, G Gianni which proved to be highly insta-lovey and very much possessive. I was absolutely thrown off liking him (which was pretty hard to do since he was said to have blue hair which is a pretty likeable quality) simply because of descriptions like :

“But it was much more than that. He was a hurricane. My hurricane. And I hate how I feel when he’s this close to me.”

Which made me want to do anything BUT like him.

All in all, so much potential but poor execution, as much as I would hate to say it.

ACTUAL RATING: 1.4 STARS