The Awakening is the first book in the series The Immortal Wizards. The story changes multiple points of view, following a core group of young wizards on their missions, Jen, Clara, Max, Mark, Chris, Kevin and Chloe. We also follow some of the Immortal Wizards stories, which I found the premise of famous people from history being all knowing wizards to be fascinating. I did like the writing as it was able to capture my attention quickly. There is a lot of action in this book and I enjoyed the fast pace. This edition of The Awakening was translated from German to English, and unfortunately there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors along the way. It was difficult to determine if the author repeated information or if it was translated incorrectly.
Overall I liked the first book of this series. There is a good mix of plot and character growth and has LBGTQ+ representation.

it seems that somewhere along the way fantasy and i parted our ways. so, i wasn't as excited to finally read this book as i was when i requested it, but it certainly wasn't bad.

I had never read this author before, but the blurb seemed pretty interesting. I dived in to it, and I have to admit I was confused after a bit. The action was good, the characters were interesting, but the magic and the universe really confused me at first. After I finally got a handle on everything, and while that did take longer than I generally like, the book really became much better. I ended the book thinking I couldn’t wait to try the next one and see what is going to happen, the characters had really engaged me, and I was invested in the future of the group. This is a series-starter, and sometimes that can be the weakest book. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately, I couldn't get into the story and it felt to full of info dumps. I don't mind info dumps, as some one who almost exclusively reads fantasy, if the characters are intriguing. But they weren't catching my eye.

I set it down for a while and tried again, but I had the same issue unfortunately.

The cover drew me in, but, I really had a difficult time finishing this book.
The premise and magic system were great, however, it lacked focus and world building for me. There was too much of an info drop without a good attachment to characters.
I feel like it could be redone and be amazing.

I was bored from the beginning. Perhaps it gets better but I don't get far. I didn't connect to the characters and the writing style seemed off.

DNF at 33%, completed The Aura Fire part.

The story starts with Alex, who’s life keeps getting worse and worse. Until one day he feels a power surges through him out of the blue. He discovers that he became a magician.

The story presents an interesting premises, I enjoyed the magical theme to it (gives a little bit of Harry Potter vibes which is referenced in the story). However I had some issues which is why I couldn’t finish the book.

There was a lot of info dumb in this book which made it hard to get into the story. Unfortunately, I wasn’t invested in the storyline nor the characters and couldn’t connect with any of them, there were simply too many who didn’t seem important or added anything to the plot. Also, the dialogue felt awkward at times.
I feel like the story had potential but I wasn’t a fan of the execution and it could’ve been improved.
By no means am I saying that this is a bad book. Simply I wasn’t the proper audience. I recommend giving it a go if you enjoy reading about magic.

I really wanted to continue the book to give it a full and more detailed review, but I genuinely couldn’t get into the story and don’t believe that forcing yourself to finish a book does any good to anyone.

The Awakening by Andreas Suchanek

The first book of a highly anticipated series! This is worth delving into …

The world as you know it is a lie.

For over a century, the mystic Wall has kept the magical society hidden from human eyes, guaranteeing peace and equality between humans and wizards. But in the shadows a war for supremacy rages.

Jennifer Danvers is a wizard. When her friend and comrade-in-arms dies, a new heir to magic awakens in Alexander Kent, whom she must introduce to the world of magic.

Neither of them suspects that the balance of light and darkness is out of control. An ancient evil is rising. Its only goal: to shatter the mystic Wall and bring darkness upon the wizards and imortals.

Powerful spells, dangerous artifacts, ancient catacombs and secret archives. Fight aside Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein and other immortals.

I highly enjoyed this book, if you enjoyed the Harry Potter series or City of Bones - you will love it.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥.

I loved the book for the magical world created by the author. Even though the book was lengthy and slow to start with, it got interesting throughout.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the copy of the book

This book has such a great premise because who doesn’t love magic and the battle of keeping it hidden from nowiz’s (non-wizard folk)? But in the end, I had to DNF this ARC book after getting to around 65% because I just couldn't get myself to finish it. This book just wasn't for me because there were a lot of distracting elements.
The first chapter though? Golden. It drew me in. The few chapters after that were also interesting and kept me intrigued, but after that, it kind of fell apart.

I knew going into this book that the last names were an unusual choice, but I thought, well, most books usually go by the first names! It was with this logic that I thought I could ignore the touch upon Superman with the main characters names as Kent and Danvers. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The characters actually referred to each other by last names so I found it ridiculously distracting and it constantly pulled me out of the story. I was also distracted by how confused I was throughout the book. There were a lot of moments within a scene where I had to think about what was actually going on. Also, the italics issue greatly bothered me… was that a comment from the character’s mind or from the narrator? I also got confused with some of the worldbuilding elements and some of the scene structuring. There were many moments where I had to think about how it all came together which, unfortunately, also took me out of the book.

While I loved the magic in general, the idea of wands, drawing symbols for magic, the teleportation network, and how sigils work, I was just too distracted by other aspects. I also didn’t find myself very invested in any of the characters except maybe Jen. Overall, they felt too underdeveloped to me. Perhaps it’s a case of trying to include too many characters? There was one that I really liked, but they were killed off quickly.

Overall, I wanted to like this book, I heard it had some Harry Potter elements (and I don’t just mean wands…), but besides that, it wasn’t quite catching my interest as much as I hoped even with the world of Dark Wizards.

You are thrown from one adventure to the next and never know what to expect. The magic system was interesting and the character development was really good. I was hooked from the beginning.
These books have everything and are really entertaining. I laughed, I cried, I felt the suspense. Real page turners in other words.

The premise of this book was so intriguing and the world it built was really fun and detailed. But the writing style was not doing it for me at all, it took me months to get through the book.

I liked this book. I liked this book a lot.

The story is engaging, the characters are appealing, and the pacing is great. The only reason I won't give this 5 stars is because there are some grammar mistakes and some sentences were repeated almost verbatin in the span of 2 pages, which threw me off while reading. Overall I enjoyed it a lot, and am looking for the sequel right this instant.

This review of "The Awakening" by Andreas Suchanek is courtesy of Netgalley.
Rating: 4/5

This is the first book of those I've read as part of reviews on Netgalley where I've finished the book and then immediately wanted to get the next. It's got an magical world with an unknown background that you discover along with the main character.

After searching on Amazon, I did find out that the subsequent book is available as part of Kindle Unlimited so I'll have my chance to read up on what happens next.

I feel like this book has potential.
If it had a little more world building and a little more exploring the other characters I think it would make for a great read. It had an interesting plot and it also was ok for the most part. But I would just suggest more exploring the characters and find a way to include character building into the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This novel had some really well written characters such as Jen and Alex, who felt dynamic and full of potential. Yet in comparison, the rest of the characters paled.

On the whole, the concepts should have appealed to me and yet I felt like this was a difficult read - the author has a very explanatory type of writing style which feels like many scenes are info dumps rather than actual plot movement and, as a result, it does not feel like a smoothly written book.

Overall, there were a few shining moments but there simply weren't enough to save this title, I'm afraid.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't drawn into this story as I would have liked. The story felt a little slow and flat for me. I felt the characters lacked connection. The world building was decent but it often got lost in the details. Just not what I was expecting.

The Immortal Wizards: The Awakening opens on a young man, Alexander Kent, being suddenly gifted with magical powers. What he doesn't realize is that these powers used to belong to someone else. In the hidden world of magic, when a wizard dies, their powers and some of their memories immediately go to another person. Alex is stoked to learn how to use magic, but at the same time, he's met with a group of wizards mourning someone they lost to whom Alex can't possibly compare. To complicate matters, a malevolent being called the Queen of Shadows is trying to tear down the barrier between the magic world and the non-magical one, an event that would cause chaos and destruction around the world if she succeeds.

Some plot points in that summary might sound like woefully worn territory, but there were enough fresh twists in <em>The Awakening</em> to keep my interest for the most part. I liked the fact that Alex's dreams of using magic to better his life are dashed almost immediately. There's very little he can do outside of the magical realm, and anyway, he's going to be far too busy risking his neck to fight against the Queen of Shadows to have much time for fun magical tricks at home.

If I had to fault the book for anything, it would be that I didn't always follow what led a group of characters from one action to another. There's a lot of worldbuilding in this book, which is generally a good thing, but if you latch onto the wrong details (as I have a bad habit of doing), you'll miss the logical leaps in the characters' plans. Nevertheless, you'll be treated to an exciting battle when the characters arrive, even if you didn't quite follow how they knew to arrive there. The author is careful to remind you of who is who, which I greatly appreciated.

The comparison to Harry Potter is kind of unavoidable with these sorts of books, but I'm pleased to say The Awakening stands plenty fine on its own. It's got a different, older and more serious vibe. Potter fans will naturally make a few mental comparisons (Nostradamus to Ollivander, Nowiz to No-Maj, ect), but the similarities end in these tiny details that might have been inevitable anyway. After all, wands have to come from somewhere, and it's quite natural that a community of magic folk would have a general term for non-magic folk.

The villain is still pretty much straight-up evil, at least as far as we can tell in this first book, but the people battling against her aren't exactly straight-up good. In fact, this is one of the recurring themes of the book--that people are complicated and seeing someone in their worst moment doesn't tell you about the whole person, who they were before or who they could be in the future. Overall, while perhaps not fully original in concept, the book is worth a read.

I thought this was a fun easy book to read. There were some very innovative elements in the story it was not the same pattern as many fantasy novels of this type. It has the makings of a good series as the plot and the cahractes are engaging and it clear that te plot can be furthre developed in many ways.. It is not a great work of fiction, I found the language a little simplistic and very little is left to the reader's imagination as it is all spelt out very clearly. That said I look forward to seeing and reading the rest of the series.

The Awakening is the first book in The Immortal Wizards series by author Andreas Suchanek. I came across this book on NetGalley and found the blurb to be interesting. I was definitely not disappointed. The book takes us into a world of magic, powers and characters from history who are immortal and magical! I would never have imagined getting the chance to be around Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci or even Albert Einstein, but this book brings them to life.

The story introduces us to many characters and explains how they get their power, how it works and how to use it. With a threat looming over the magical world, the author dives right in to the plot interspersing the action with background information and details. This was an interesting way to handle the story and trust me, there is a lot of action and adventure! An old prophecy is introduced and some of the key players in the plot to bring down the Magical Wall.

Some aspects of the plot feel like a repetition, considering that there is only so much one can do with this genre, but putting it aside, the story flows well and remains original for the most part. My suggestion is to persevere through, it is worth it! The characters are well thought out and though we do not interact with them as much as we would like, the reader will still enjoy the interactions.

I truly enjoyed this story and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series!