As a fan of the Twisted Sisters, I knew I needed to read this.

This definitely has the same vibes as their world, but a spicy RH that heats up almost immediately. There is sword crossing as well as multiple interactions with the FMC, which is refreshing in RH. This is definitely more spice over plot.

The timeline is very compact, and there is a lot more I wish that we were able to see. We never see Zara truly come into her powers and the plot feels a bit rushed in that way.

If you enjoy RH and can handle reading about lots of super steamy hot s*x (MF, MM, MFM, MMF, MMFMM, MMMMF), this book is for you! I know this says a standalone but I think and hope it will turn into a series. It definitely started getting going toward the end and I want to find out more on what will happen with them all. Fingers crossed we get another book!

I got this arc and I really enjoyed it loved the story and all the characters it was a super fast read for me and definitely recommend

Gemini Queen
A Dark Witch Academy Standalone
by Laura Navarre

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

This is a paranormal polyamorous new adult high steam open door romance. Themes of magic, shifters and zodiac related traits. This story runs parallel to the author’s previous books in the astral heat series with a hint of being in the same universe but no definitive crossovers. This one is a standalone with HEA. No cliffhanger

We have one heroine and 4 hero’s. We have themes of age gap, mentor/mentee, enemies to lovers, fated mates, found family. Everyone that matters is bisexual. The book starts with bang literally and figuratively. Immediately the chemistry and tension between the characters as they each meet and interact with the heroine is palpable and compelling. This one is a page turner but be careful those pages may singe your fingers because this is H-O-T, hot!

5/5

If you like spicy academy romance, this book is for you. It has many of the most popular tropes today combined in a really fun read. It is a standalone, so it is really unlikely we will get to read further adventures of these characters, which makes me a little sad.

I'm a fan of academy romances, especially in the fantasy genre. This one was so much fun to read and is pretty spicy. This is not a book for those under the age of 18. Sex is early and frequent, and love is a bit of a slow burn while sex is not. I also appreciated that the heroine didn't want to attend the academy, but totally makes the best of it after planning an escape. Zara is a take names and kick ass character and you will love reading about her and her love interests!

There's so much I love about Laura Navarre's Sci-Fi/Paranormal books. There's action/adventure and steam right from the start! Zara is young, but strong and independent. The description of the characters was so vivid, I could picture each one with their own unique characteristics and appearance. I loved how the relationships developed among Zara and the 4 men who would become her harem, including their own relationships with each other. I really love reverse harem and variations of F+MM when done right and Laura Navarre is definitely in my top 3 of authors who write this genre.

There's so much I love about Laura Navarre's Sci-Fi/Paranormal books. There's action/adventure and steam right from the start! Zara is young, but strong and independent. The description of the characters was so vivid, I could picture each one with their own unique characteristics and appearance. I loved how the relationships developed among Zara and the 4 men who would become her harem, including their own relationships with each other. I really love reverse harem and variations of F+MM when done right and Laura Navarre is definitely in my top 3 of authors who write this genre.

Purtroppo il libro non mi ha convinta del tutto.
Sin dalla prima pagina è stato come ricevere un pugno dritto nello stomaco per lo stile di scrittura completamente soffocante che l'autrice usa per tutto il romanzo.
E' uno stile decisamente giovane e che mi ha fatto subito pensare all'America e al loro uso di slang e vari modi di dire (di cui non ho la più pallida idea cosa vogliano dire). Per non parlare di alcune parole mai sentite prima. Ma non è solo quello. Purtroppo ogni pagina è costantemente ricoperta di una valanga di aggettivi e descrizioni non necessarie per ogni singola parte del corpo dei personaggi, del loro abbigliamento o del movimento di qualche sopracciglio o altra parte del corpo. Decisamente mi ha resa insofferente a questo tipo di scrittura.
Altro punto negativo sono i continui riferimenti alla realtà e a personaggi famosi o tratti da libri. E' una cosa che mi dà altamente sui nervi. Avere bisogno di mettere li un nome della persona o personaggio a cui ti sei ispirato per creare il personaggio, vuol dire non essere capace di descriverlo e dare spazio al lettore di avvicinarsi all'idea che avevi nella testa quando hai scritto il personaggio (per non parlare che a me Adam Driver non piace e non puoi rovinare Severus/Alan Rickman in quel modo!). Ora, io non sono una cultrice di erotica, ma non sono nemmeno al mio primo libro di questo genere...ho letto parecchi libri della Ward (che purtroppo viene nominata anche lei) e della Hamilton (credo che anche l'autrice l'abbia letta, visto come tratta la creatura che verso la fine del libro inizia a immaginarsi dentro di sè, molto simile agli animali mannari con cui è stata infettata Anita Blake), ma il loro stile è di tutt'altro livello!
La storia e l'ambientazione è quasi inesistente e in molti punti sembra siano state cancellate delle scene (ad esempio la protagonista sembra aver conosciuto questa professoressa Agrippina, che purtroppo viene anche lei accostata alla McGrannitt, ma non c'è alcuna scena nel libro in cui accade), ed è praticamente ovvio chi sia il villain della storia.
Ma veniamo ai punti positivi ora: i personaggi sono ben costruiti nel carattere e li ho trovati molto interessanti (sebbene quel fastidioso e ricorrente accostarli ad altri personaggi/persone esistenti), i conflitti e rapporti tra di loro son ben sviluppati e han saputo mantenere il mio interesse fino alla fine. Sebbene nessuna scena hot mi abbia in alcun modo coinvolta, ho trovato interessante vedere i quattro personaggi maschili interagire tra di loro. Se la storia si fosse concentrata maggiormente sullo sviluppo dei personaggi caratterialmente e non solo sessualmente, il libro sarebbe molto più interessante e potrebbe coinvolgere un pubblico più ampio. Lo sviluppo dei loro rapporti tra diversi generi sessuali è stato trattato in maniera assolutamente fantastica. Nessun dramma, ma accettazione, comprensione, condivisione. E' un ottimo modello da dare a chi legge questo libro.
Il capitolo che ho preferito è il numero 35 in cui i ragazzi si ritrovano per andare alla festa della scuola. In quel momento erano tutti vulnerabili e aperti l'uno all'altro e ho adorato le loro interazioni, senza alcunchè di sessuale, ma solo tanta dolcezza e affetto l'uno verso l'altro.

Sebbene questo libro abbia tantissimi difetti, non lo voglio cestinare del tutto. Ci vuole parecchio per abituarsi allo stile di scrittura decisamente poco ricercato, ma è stata una lettura piacevole e i personaggi mi sono piaciuti. Spero che il seguito migliori decisamente l'intreccio narrativo.

Ringrazio Netgalley e l'autrice per avermi permesso di leggere questo ARC.

-------------------------

Unfortunately, the book did not completely convince me.
From page one it was like getting punched right in the stomach for the completely suffocating writing style the author uses throughout the novel.
It is a definitely young style that immediately made me think of America and their use of slang and various idioms (of which I have not the faintest idea what they mean). Not to mention some words never heard before. But that's not all. Unfortunately, every page is constantly covered with an avalanche of adjectives and unnecessary descriptions for every single part of the body of the characters, their clothing or the movement of some eyebrow or other part of the body. It definitely made me intolerant with this type of writing.
Another negative point are the constant references to reality and to famous people or characters from books. It's something that gets on my nerves. Having to put there a name of the person or character you were inspired to create the character means not being able to describe it and giving the reader space to get close to the idea you had in your head when you wrote the character (not to talk that I don't like Adam Driver and you can't ruin Severus / Alan Rickman like that!). Now, I am not into erotica this much, but I am not even in my first book of this genre ... I have read several books by J.R. Ward (who unfortunately is also named in the novel) and Hamilton (I think the author has read her books, looking how she treats the creature that towards the end of the book Zara begins to imagine inside herself, very similar to the werewolf animals with which Anita Blake was infected), but their style is on a completely different level!
The story and the setting is almost non-existent and in many points it seems that scenes have been deleted (for example the protagonist seems to have known this professor Agrippina, who unfortunately is also compared to McGrannitt, but there is no scene in the book in which happens), and it is practically obvious who the villain of the story is.
But let's get to the positive points now: the characters are well built and I found them very interesting (although that annoying and recurring approaching them to other existing characters / people), the conflicts and relationships between them are well developed and have been able to maintain my interest to the end of the book. While no hot scene involved me in any way, I found it interesting to see the four male characters interact with each other. If the story had focused more on character development and not just sexually, the book would be much more interesting and could engage a wider audience. The development of their relationships between different sexes was treated in an absolutely fantastic way. No drama, but acceptance, understanding, sharing. It is a great model to give to those who will read this book.
My favorite chapter is number 35 where they get together to go to the school party. At that moment they were all vulnerable and open to each other and I loved their interactions, without anything sexual, just a lot of sweetness and affection towards each other.

While this book has a lot of flaws, I don't want to trash it entirely. It takes a long time to get used to the very undemanding writing style, but it was a pleasant read and I liked the characters. I hope the sequel definitely improves the narrative plot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I picked the book because I love the cover. I did not look into what it was truly about until I started to read it. The relationships were good and the FMC was strong and did not back down. But I do have to say I don't care for the teacher-student relationships in books. Just not something that I enjoy. Nothing wrong with it as far as I am concerned. I did enjoy the world-building and that academy was not a huge place and it made for better interactions of the main and side characters.

I must say I was really excited to read this book. I'm a sucker for reverse harems and fantasy books, so when I saw this one had both and I was like "count me in!". With that said, I was truly prepared to love it, but what I received was a crushing disappointment. To be fair, it could be that the book got better, but in all honesty? I couldn't make it through even the first part.

I felt like this book's potential was wasted on an over sexualized female lead, and while you may try to sell that to me as empowerment, I didn't buy it, maybe because of the way it was carelessly thrown around from the very start. There was this line in special that really yrked me off, and I'll leave it here for yall:

My chic best friend/business partner/occasional girl toy has the connections to land the invites. (Yeah, I'm bi. It's the 2020s. Get over it.)

and then, it goes on to:

And Xiao, who's hot as fuck and hung like you wouldn't believe it, handles the tech. When he isn't handling my body. (...) Did I mention I'm bi and poly?

I mean, I don't know about you but, to me, that felt like a really poor representation. There were so many better ways to introduce Zara as being bisexual and poly amorous then to just make it about her f*cking every hot person around, boys and girls alike... Also, this book includes multiple POVs, but as far as I went, it seemed like none of the characters could look at another person without sexualizing them and wanting to f*ck with them (not even have sex or make love, but literally f*ck).

I don't know, maybe this book just wasn't for me or I'm being too demanding for a book that was meant to simply be a hot/erotic read (although I don't even know if that's the case here), however, as someone who enjoys and have read plenty of said hot/erotic books, I'm not so sure about that.

All that said, if you are looking for one of these hot reads, to simply enjoying some sex scenes with somewhat of a plot behind it, go for it. But if you, like me, enjoys well built stories and your representation well done and portrayed, then I would say to not waste your time with this one. It's not really worth it.

Zara's heist life is interrupted when two mages from the dark witch academy catch up with her on a job and whisk her away to a school she cannot escape. Now Zara's going to have to master her powers amid a bevy of males who are not adverse to sharing her attention or her bed, while trying to avoid being crowned queen of the magical universe.

What I found refreshing about this book was that Zara knows the score going into it. She's in a polyamourous relationship at the start of the story, she has clear boundaries for her partners and she is actively looking out for her own well-being. I also appreciated that this is a standalone title with a complete plot that exists alongside the descriptive sexual encounters. Some of the language was a little cruder than I like, but that may not bother other readers. As always, your mileage may vary but I would read other titles by this author.

I really enjoyed how I got to see Zara grow into her role as a queen, and I was super excited to see a M/M, F/M representation in this book. I think the author did great with exploring sexual identity (Vasilis) and curiosity (Neo).

However, this felt more like an all over sex book rather than sex and plot. There wasn’t a plot to it, other than Zara acclimating to her new world and confidantes. There was maybe one or two challenges, but nothing that kept me on the edge of my feet. I love steamy books, don’t get me wrong, but only when there is a plot that can be followed along while said scenes are written. But this was pure sex.

If that’s all you want in a book, then this is absolutely the book for you.

I give this book a 3 of 5. It is a RH romance, with a magical aspect set on a dark academic collage on a island, we have shifters witches and warlocks. The book starts out with our main girl Zara trying to do one last heist than plans to go hide in a safe house as she is hiding from her dad. But the members of the academy know she’s the last in the Gemini line and she is meant to be their queen. But she doesn’t want it and tries to fight it all the way. But she can’t help but feel connected to her captors. And honestly this book had a good premise but it feel flat, I think it should of been labeled as erotica not romance. The plot like just feel flat with all the sex, and instead of her becoming queen and learning her powers (she does a little, but very small parts) they are over shadow by all the sex lol. There was literally a sex sene 4% in lol. And I thought the spice was really well done! And I enjoyed reading those parts but as a book as a whole it feel flat!

4 Stars (I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

Think Zodiac Academy but way less harsh bullying aspects (I could barely get through ZA without getting triggered), and starts off with some smutty times. You've got a mix of a scrappy independent heroine, entitled rich pretty boys, a shifter professor and lots magic with smut. This is a reverse harem story but kind of ends with a poly-group situation. I don't want to say too much about the story and plot because it's interesting and quite a lot of smut/sexy times. Just go read it, right now!!! (less)

This book has so much potential. We have a hiding queen and a whole lot of bi men. The spice was definitely A+, but the story itself was a bit jumbled. Granted, there’s a lot of hot spicy moments that make you forget about the plot holes. Some of the men were a bit eccentric for my taste, but still seemed exciting.

Honestly, the writing and plot of this book is not fleshed out well. It’s hard to follow, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

However, this book is horny af. While the language at times was VERY juvenile, with way too many references to pop culture in a single sentence that anyone actually uses in real life, and the weird amount of interest in virginity, it’s spicy.

I’m not gonna lie and say that I didn’t finish this book purely because I had to see the spice through.

If you’re wanting a really good plot based book to read, this isn’t it.

If you just want smut, you can probably get through the writing to enjoy yourself

I started reading this because I truly believed some different version of Hogwarts will be here in this book. But I'm totally disappointed by the way story went down.

Hotness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spicy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Smut: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

But other than that: the plot, the storyline or general description of different witch species is totally not there. I'm not into poly, so I don't had any interest in that area either. I didn't DNF because I really thought the story will begin atleast after 50% of the book, but no.

This is so not my cup of tea and general writing way is not upto level. To say there is no story or plot at all, is the apt description of the book.

Laura Navarre has produced a great adult romance. The amount of detail in the romantic scenes are remarkable! The storyline itself is quite exciting and has me craving more.
However, the storyline is not as spread out and detailed as I would like. I think that Laura could have made this a series with a lot more storyline included.
I also believe that the ending was a bit of a cliffhanger when adding that new power of Zaras at the end. It desperately makes me want to know more.

Thank you for allowing me to preview this title. I was unable to connect with the story and didn't finish it. This just wasn't my cup of tea I guess. I wish you all the best and much success!!!!

𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀: revers harem, forced proximity, fantasy, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, MMFMM

All I have to say is that I loved the spicy scene. There is barely a plot, but the smut is good 😏

Thank you NetGalley, Ascendant Press and Laura Navarre for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.