I've been hearing about this book for awhile. It's popped up in my various feeds and recommendations a bunch of times, so I was excited when I saw it was available on NetGalley.

Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The writing's decent enough for the most part and the premise was interesting. The beginning seemed really promising to me. It didn't really hold my attention after that though. I just didn't connect with the characters or the plot. It wound up being a skim read for me.

That said, there is a lot of promise here. The sequels could be interesting, especially if the writing's tighter.

I read a copy of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Quell has spent her life on the run, running from the magic that hides in her blood. She thought her secret was safe, until she catches a mysterious man on her tail. She flees to the only place she knows to be safe - her grandmother’s home. What she quickly learns is that her grandmother is actually the matriarch of a secret magical society and Quell has just fled to a magical boarding school. Can she hide her secret between the magic and etiquette classes? More importantly, can she hide her secret from her grandmother and her very handsome shadow-wielding mentor?

This was a a bit of a disappointing read for me. The premise captured my attention - Fourth Wing meets Bridgerton, but it quickly fell flat. The only similarities with Fourth Wing were the boarding school and shadow almost-daddy (sorry Jordan, you had no personality). There were even fewer similarities with Bridgerton - just that they curtsied and drank tea. The etiquette classes were boring, and I felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over again. No momentum. The last three pages were more interesting than about half the book. I really wanted to love it, but sadly could not. I did, however, really appreciate the diverse cast of characters and the magic system in this story.

Thank you for the e-ARC!

House of Marionne by J. Elle

This eARC was provided by NetGally, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Razorbill. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

After living her entire as a nomad with her mother, to hide the magic that lives within her, assassins discovered the FMC—17-year-old Quell—while picking up her paycheck in a bustling market. Now on the run, she travels solo to meet her maternal grandmom, Marionne, (leaving her mother behind to fend for herself) and joins her society of magical elites, called the Order, by mastering their proper form of magic and passing three tests.

If the assassin catches her, she will obviously die, but at least she trains with an assassin in training—Jordan—who is the obvious choice for the love interest.

If like YA books with both first person POV for the FMC and a third person POV from another guy you barley get to know; academia setting; cotillion balls; high society; etiquette lessons; dark, forbidden and shadow magics; and a dash of forbidden romance this may be for you. The publisher marketed this book as enemies to lovers, but I would say it appears to be dislike to like at the most. It is very much an ‘angsty girl meets boy who just wants to help.’

If you require descriptions of settings and people, or of anything at all, this book will not be for you. If you want the romance to sweep you off your feet, this book will not be for you. They don’t even kiss until after the 70% mark. If you don’t enjoy learning in a classroom setting, this book will not be for you.

The first thought I had while reading this book was why wasn’t Quell homeschooled? Her first worry is about her high school graduation two weeks away, but why would she ever risk a public education in a building full of those that may be hunting her because of her inherent magic—her toushana—and she’s worried about the small bit of freedom a high school education can offer?

I’m not going to go into any more of them, mostly because they weren’t that big of a deal overall, but real life consequences and questions such as this riddled me the entire book.

Anyway, the book starts off with a POV from a young man named Yagrin. You have no idea what’s going on, no reason to care, but he murks someone in a pink beanie (off page).

If I’m honest, this book would have been better served told from both Yagrin’s and Jordan’s POV. Quell almost has nothing to offer other than going to classes and being extra good at learning to use her magic, which, oddly, isn’t really explored in a satisfying way. Nor is Jordan/the Dragon’s (the group name of the assassins that work for the Order) that uses Quell’s type of magic, toushana.

But Quell, as in many YA fantasy novels, is the very best underdog you could have hoped for. She gets into this school, and hardly stumbles before she starts passing all the classes and tests other students have been preparing for their entire lives. As she blossoms into her magic, she grows the biggest, most fancy diadem out of her head that anyone’s ever seen. So impressive.

I think this is one of the most unique parts of the magic system. Once the student starts developing and harnessing their “proper magic,” they can choose to grow a diadem or a mask out of their head, and the fancier it is, the more power the student has. Quell’s is large and impressive, so beautiful… but it’s black. It’s not explained very well why this is a bad thing, but she basically goes to her friend that works for the black market of magic and gets him to turn it to rose gold, and don’t worry, the spell will last forever.

I feel like I am typing a lot of words, but I’m not saying very much, and I have to say, this experience of writing this review feels similar to reading the book. There are a lot of words, but not a whole lot happens. In the end, I felt the characters were flat, the descriptions were lacking, and the story had a lot of promises that it didn’t fulfill. I will not be reading the second installment of this book.

House of Marionne was a compelling dark and twisty fantasy story. Quell and her mother have been on the run throughout her childhood to hide her magic. Quell, sick of moving around every few weeks and frightened by an experience with a Dragun, finds herself at the illustrious House of Marionne run by her grandmother. She decides to enter magical society in order to learn to control her magic. But, Quell has dueling magic, both the conventional kind and forbidden toushana. The reader, like Quell, will not know who to trust as they try to determine whether she should debut at House of Marionne or strike out on her own. I thought that this was a compelling story with likable characters and am very eager to read the next book!

I had a hard time with this one.

Main character: somehow the most powerful magic user of them all, to the point where she's passing tests and classes other people have been prepared their whole lives for (or at MINIMUM a year in classes) within about a month that she mostly spent pining after a guy.

Plot: hard to follow, partly because the main character doesn't know what's going on at any given time, she's practically dragged from one plot point to another while not really noticing them because she's trying desperately to hide her deep dark secret that'd get her killed. Clearly it'd be better for everyone in and out of this cult if magic truly were destroyed, as well, since they don't seem to do anything but serial-kill other magic users.

The book was hard to stay invested in, full of uninteresting characters, and for some reason southern cotillion flavored, but with a really hand-wavey, unexplained magic system-slash-religion. Also, it would seem the more interesting subplots and intrigue happened way too off the page, with our protagonist too clueless to notice, like the would-have-been-heir who dies on nearly the last page without a second thought from Quell, or whatever's going on with Headmistress Grandmom.

I think there's potential for improvement in the second installment - I was interested in the backstory with her mom and grandmom, and I was disappointed that didn't come to fruition in this book. If I saw a lot of positive reviews for book two, I might give it a chance, but I'd really need to hope the author got into the meat of it now that Quell's out of all the school distractions.

This is an “ok” read. The storyline is a decent one. A girl who possesses a dark magic finds refuge in an estate, ran by her grandmother, who uses good magic and kills those with the bad magic. Unfortunately, the book is drawn out with a lot of descriptive words and most of the dialogue is internal conversations of the main character. This leads to poor building of the other characters and their relationships. The book falls a little flat as an adult reading it.
That being said, I do think that this book is a good read for my 13 year old niece. It’s wholesome without any spicy scenes and I think she would likely connect with the characters more than I did.
In addition, the book was good enough that I will be starting the second book in the series.

This is a book that I feel didn’t get nearly enough attention nor the attention that it deserved. I was enthralled throughout, on the edge of my seat in anticipation for when Quell’s secret would finally come out. For her to own the truth of who and what she is. I rode the waves that was her relationship with Jordan and nearly died at the ending and cannot wait to read Shadows of Perl.

I was not sure what to expect when I read this but it's a wonderful story of a young woman trying to find herself and learn what she's capable of. The world-building could have been better, but I suspect the sequel will fill in some info to answer the readers' questions. I am very curious to learn about Jordan's older brother Yagrin and how he helps/uses/hinders Quell in his quest for revenge.

My only issue was Quell's budding romance with Jordan as I felt their trope hindered Quell more than helped the story along. A bit too quick for him to flip from distrust of her and his missions for his work on top of how he treated her, too much of a "if a boy picks on you he likes you" for my tastes. Still looking forward to Quell's adventure and search for her mom.

I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this, and I appreciate the opportunity to read it for free! For the mystery about her magic, and the world building were all so good! I look forward to the sequel!

This had a lot of potential but didn’t quite get there for me. The plot and the magic system were pretty good, loved the boarding school aspect. But the characters were a little bland and fell flat for me. A little more work on them would have bumped my rating up

This book sounds amazing. Debutantes and magic and secrets with a touch of romance. However I was confused for a good chunk of the book. The beginning jumped in too quickly where it took some time to figure it out and then the ending also left me confused. I will still probably read the second book to see if I can get a better understanding.

Overall I really liked this book! The storyline was unique and kept me wanting to read more. The only two things that I found were not consistent with how the character was built up were 1) her allowing herself to be absent from her mom for so long without questioning it more 2) the development of the male lead didn’t play out as well as I thought he should have in the end. These were minor though, and I really enjoyed the book overall! Loved the twist at the end as well!!

This book has been on my TBR for a while and I’m kinda mad I just got to it. The magic system is different which I loved. I love the dark academia/Harry Potteresque vibes this gave. I will definitely be continuing the series and recommending it in my back to school reads!

"Some things deserve to be destroyed."

High society meets dark academia in this captivating tale of a young woman with dangerous magic forced to hide in plain sight. An enemies-to-lovers romance, a cast of intriguing characters, and a shocking, twist-filled ending kept me hooked. Though the YA style isn't my usual preference, it worked surprisingly well here. The magic system, while initially confusing, draws inspiration from various sources and ultimately adds to the story's depth. I can't wait to see what's next for this protagonist!

Loved loved loved this one as it put me in the mind of a updated Harry Potter (who I love) so this was a breath of fresh air

What an amazing story! For those who enjoyed The Selection, Harry Potter series and books like them, this is the novel for you. Young men and women from magic families or who develop magic attend schools to either develop their abilities or not. Every page shares new challenges. Five stars to a most excellent novel…I can’t wait to read the 2nd novel in the series!

Words cannot express how much I love this book down. Following Quell on her journey into figuring out her magic after being on the run was so interesting. There are so many layers to this story with uncovering the dark secrets behind the order. The story kept a steady pace and had me anticipating each chapter. The slow romance build between Quell and Jordan to have it ripped away at the end had me in shambles. The ending was crazy and I did not see it coming. I can’t read book 2 fast enough!

This has a gorgeous cover and I enjoyed the author's Wings of Ebony series, but sadly this book just didn't work for me.

The plot progression was really slow and confusing. The writing would alternate between enjoyable and cringe.

Mostly I felt confused by the magic & world building and only at the very end were things explained, which still felt like a let down for me.

Thank you, Netgalley for the ARC!

Very interesting! Like the vibe, the story and the worldbuilding. Perfect for back to Schoole and
spooky season.

Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group! 

3/5 ⭐️

For the majority of her life, Quell and her mother have been hiding from assassins who are attempting to assassinate her because of her dark power. Quell returns to the world she left behind to be with her estranged grandma in an attempt to keep safe. Within the magical realm, being a member of high society entails rigorous coursework, customs, and skill development. Quell honed her craft while attempting to discover what was concealed behind the walls and appease her evil magic.

The magic system was fascinating. The concept of using diadems to highlight someone's ability and competence was amazing. It was really unique. The educational lessons brought back pleasant memories of Harry Potter. It seemed like a lot of consideration had gone into the background and workings of the magic.

Quell was a fascinating figure. I had the impression that the timid, modest lady wasn't actually her. I wasn't particularly fond of the brief instances in which she appeared weak because she looked to be rather strong and sharp—it might have been the writing though, as it started to bother me. There also seemed to be a lot of supporting characters, some of whom I lost track of. I wasn't clear why Yagrin's POV was necessary. When the plot finally came together, I was particularly appreciative of his chapters. I'm really curious to see what happens next!

All things considered, this is a great book for readers who appreciate sophisticated magic, dark academia, enemies to lovers, and high society!