This was everything I like about a fantasy! I fell in love with the characters and every element of this world building and I already can’t wait till the next one in the series!

Very unexpectedly but not that surprising, this book made it to the top books of the year for me! This was the most pleasant surprise!!! This book was equal parts entertaining, gruesome, heartbreaking, shocking (I mean those plot twists PLURAL were insane I have barely processed them!) and I can think of a million other ways to describe it. It was so intricately written, the author had the most fascinating and amazing way of giving us new and different perspectives to cover all the events that occurred in this almost 700 page high fantasy novel. This book is fantasy at its finest where has it been all my life! You’ll hate and love all the characters, become very suspicious and frustrated and entertained at the main and side characters and I just know this is just the beginning! The vagueness of the review is purposeful, you need to know boring going in except that it some how uses fantasy, mystery, political intrigue, and those tiny magical hints of romance (mind you this is nowhere centred around that so please don’t go in saying that this book has romance because it not even the centre of this magnificent story) into this beautiful combination and honestly, read it! I loved it with my whole chest! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!!

A superb fantasy action adventure, set in a magical world, that will have you on the edge of the seat right from page one. A must read that is highly recommended.

4.75 ⭐

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book. I was not paid to write this review and all opinions are my own.

The Raven Scholar is a captivating mix of political intrigue and psychological complexity, crafting a narrative that stays with you long after you’ve turned the final page. Central to the story is the powerful, though physically absent, presence of a character whose influence is deeply felt. This haunting absence imbues the book with a gothic atmosphere, transforming it from a simple historical mystery into something hauntingly atmospheric and emotionally stirring.

Hodgson’s writing is lush and immersive, pulling readers into a world where the boundaries between past and present blur, and where obsession and sorrow become intertwined. The novel thrives on its rich character relationships, particularly how the lingering absence of a key figure continues to affect the lives of those left behind. The story explores themes of intellect, obsession, and the consequences of knowledge, making it an engrossing read for those who enjoy mysteries with an eerie twist.

As someone who has experienced the loss of both a close friend and a family member, I found myself deeply connecting with the novel’s exploration of grief.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton (Hodderscape) and Antonia Hodgson for the advanced audio and ebook copies of The Raven Scholar via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.
The Raven Scholar is a richly imagined fantasy tale filled with intrigue and great amounts of detail. The world-building is well done – complex and plentiful, but clear and easy to understand for the most part. Characters are well-rounded and developed and all contribute well to the plot overall, although I did at times forget names/get characters confused, due to the sheer number of them.
This is a VERY long book, and the first in a series, judging by the ending. The pacing isn’t massively fast, and in my opinion this book could have possibly been split into two smaller volumes, as I found it difficult to keep my attention to it for so long. At times, it felt a bit like a slog.
I enjoyed the divisions of the population by personality and skill, and definitely identified as a Raven myself.
The obvious ‘different’ nature of the protagonist, Neema, who I read as autistic-coded, was a welcome read, as this is an under-represented group of people in fiction. Thank you, Antonia Hodgson!
I absolutely adored the narrator, Daphne Kouma. Although I had both the ebook and audio versions of this title, I preferred to listen to it, simply due to Daphne’s superb voice-work. She employed a myriad of voices in spectacular ways throughout the work and really brought everything to life in the most wonderful way. I will definitely be seeking out more of her narration work.
Moods: adventurous, challenging, mysterious
Tropes: loveable rogue, opposites attract, peril
Pace: slow
Character development: medium
Plot or character driven: plot
Diversity: medium
Spice: 1/5
Trigger warnings: Amputation, Blood/Gore, Death, Death of a family member, Murder, Poisoning, Violence
Rating: 3.5
Rounded up to 4

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing with an arc copy in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 ⭐

Every 24 years, in the Empire of Orrun, chooses their new emperor or empress through a series of brutal trials. One for each of their guardians. But what happens when one of the seven contestants gets murdered before the start of the Trials? Chaos, secrets, drama and a mystery (or two) to solve.

Wow, just wow.

It took me a while to get into this because there's a lot of setting up too do in order to reach the heart of the story, but once you have enough detail you'll start to understand and you'll want to know more and more. The Raven scholar is a magnificent story, filled with historical elements and folktales. But it's not just that, it's a murder mystery and the story of an epic competition for the throne, and also a love story, while being filled with prophecies and mythology. There's everything an even more, honestly, I find it quite difficult to pinpoint all the things you can find in this, but I can tell you the mix is perfect. It's captivating, funny, emotional, witty, and at times infuriating.

As for the characters my favourite was Cain, he is witty, charismatic and I couldn't help but fall for his charm. I love him and I can't wait to see what's next for him. But this last point applies to all characters. I can't wait to read the sequel!

I can recommend this book to anyone who thinks that they would like The First Law trilogy, but aren't brave enough to start it. Or liked it and want something that has a little bit of it, but isn't as hopeless.
The best way i can describe this book is a car crash in slow motion. It had parts that were great, but sadly this book is perfectly on the line thst divides the "love it" and "not for me". It had parts I loved. I always like a good mystery with my fantasy, and the romance sublpot was cute as hell. But after reaching 50% there was a constant feeling of wrongness while I read it. That could've been intentional, but I don't like feeling wrong while reading a book.
I liked the characters, the writing style, the fantasy setting. But luckily I'm a reviewer and not a critic so I can rate this book lower because I simply did not liked it. Heres why: my biggest problem with the book is the plot. While reading it I felt that it smashed so much plot ideas into one book and because of that it was way too long and it couldn't decide what it was. I don't want to go into spoilers, but another problem I had was the twists. It's the make or break in a murder mystery novel, which this felt like at times. And the twists themselves were good as far as plot goes, but the reveals just ruined them for me.
But it was certainly an interesting experience and I'm glad that I got to read it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. Wow. This might be one of the best books I've ever read? I'm in love. Everything about it was wonderful. The world building, the characters, the brilliant and witty prose. FMC Neema is the excellently executed neurodivergent rep I needed in a fantasy book. There's so much political intrigue, alongside courtly schemes; there are dangerous, deadly trials that actually carry on for the length of the book, too. There were so many twists and turns, some I worked out and others that had me shocked! Among all the mystery and the murders and the brilliantly written god-like guardians, there was even time for a sweet romance. I loved every single multifaceted character. My only complaint it that I need the next book very desperately.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. This is absolutely a contender for book of the year already.

A solidly enjoyable first fantasy series instalment that had all the bones of beginning a new stellar series. This was a little slow in places but the characters glued the story together for me. I thought the trial element would take more of a centre stage, as that is what drew me to the book in the first place, but I had fun in this world, regardless.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Raven Scholar is easily one of my favourite books this year!

This book is so unique and I can’t even really begin to explain what I liked about it because I’m scared it’ll just be me lovingly narrating the entire book.

The narrative in this book was excellent. Never did I ever think I would be experiencing this story through a flock of pesky ravens but there’s a first time for everything I guess. The Raven Scholar has somehow perfectly balanced political intrigue, extensive worldbuilding, and high-stakes trials with humour that quite literally had me cackling.

This book was just so smart. All of the characters had plots inside of plots and I loved being constantly surprised, and very rarely guessed the direction of the story!

The ravens were, of course, quite magnificent indeed and I must say that I resonate with Anxious Raven With Piercing Alarm Call on a spiritual level.

The romance in The Raven Scholar hit the sweet spot of just enough to keep me interested but little enough to make me hang onto every word searching for scraps in every interaction.

OMG 🐦‍⬛ THIS 🦊 BOOK 🐉 IS 🐒 SO 🐻 FREAKIN 🐅 GOOD 🐂

I honestly don’t even know where to start. This book is so different, so refreshing, so intriguing, so imaginative I cannot even begin to tell you how hooked I was.

Welcome to Orrun, an empire devoted to the Eight deities - the Tiger, Monkey, Raven, Fox, Hound, Ox, Bear and Dragon. After the emperor’s 24 year term is over, a representative from each of the temples faces a set of deadly and devious trials in order to earn the throne. But after the Raven representative is murdered the night before the festival begins, the emperor’s High Scholar Neema is thrust into the unwanted position of contender. But behind this long-established routine of power change, political machinations are in motion, and the Eight - who have saved the realm 7 times - promise to destroy Orrun if they have to return again.

UGH. This story is delicious, I really could not put this down. There’s a murder mystery, prophecies, courtly intrigues, spies and assassins, games and trials, just EVERYTHING.

The characters are so complex and interesting I found myself caring about every single one of their journeys rather than just focussing on the main storyline.

That brings me to the writing - my god this blew me away. At first you don’t know what perspective this story is told from, is it a narrator or another character? The story seems to jump in perspectives and tells the overall plot through so many different characters that it just feels so rich and complex that I could just squeal about it for days. Aside from that the characterization of the Eight, the way their voices are woven into the story is just incredible.

I would give this 10 stars if I could. I’m begging for book two and this isn’t even out yet!

This is one you NEED to pre-order. It releases on 17th April and trust me you must must MUST add it to your TBR.

Thank you so much Hodderscape, NetGalley and Antonia Hodgson for the absolute privilege of reading this ARC!

Absolutely amazing story! The first chapter had me hooked instantly and I couldn’t stop reading. What an amazing book. I adored the realistically flawed characters and the world building in this. The story centers around a competition for the throne and a murder mystery, which I love! I would recommend this to any fantasy lover. PLUS, it has a romance subplot.. aghhh it couldn’t be more perfect

What a fun and gripping read!

I almost have no words to describe how much I love this book, perfection, barely seems to cover it. The Raven Scholar is simply magnificent!

Deadly trials. A murder plot. An ancient prophecy and so much more.

Hodgson's writing is so immersive I could barely put it down. The world is rich and intriguing, the characters are unique and imperfect. The plot is gripping and every time I thought I'd worked it out there was another thrilling twist. I am devastated that it is the beginning of a trilogy and I have to wait for the next installment!

This was such an incredible read.

The complexity of the characters, the world-building, everything was so intricately written/ I felt completely immersed in this world from the beginning. It's the best fantasy without making you feel like you're missing something or not understanding. The details throughout the book let you perfectly visualise all the scenes, and I absolutely adored it.

The plot was amazing! The competition for the throne - every aspect of the competition was laid out, there were no skipping over chunks or time skips which was so refreshing. We got to live through the competition along side the contenders which really gripped me in the book. The interweaving murder mystery throughout was so incredibly written, adding even more to an already amazing book. Alongside all the political intrigue, this book was jammed packed with everything you could ever want, in the best way possible.

The depth we got from each character was perfect. Every character was completely fleshed out, their flaws, their strengths, everything - which made them all so much easier to connect with and care about. A lot of the books I've picked up fail to truly embellish their characters with anything more than surface level descriptions which flattens the story, but The Raven Scholar is nowhere near close to suffering from that fate. Not only are we seeing the characters evolve throughout the book but we get details from their past, from others that truly flesh out who they are, showing their drive and passion.

The pace of this book is so great. There was never truly a moment where I thought it lost its luster, I hardly wanted to put it down because every page kept me engaged and wanting more.

The ending was absolutely amazing!! I need the next book ASAP!!

If you enjoy fantasy in any shape or form, enjoy any sort of murder mystery, any sort of political intrigue, you're going to ADORE this book. Oh, I forgot to mention, there's a pantheon of gods.. I feel like that speaks for itself.

So initially I requested this as an audio book but like with most fantasy the word building was fairly intricate and 20% in I couldn’t understand exactly what had happened. So I came back to net galley to check if there was a digital arc and there was so swapped over to that.

I’m so glad I did because I really enjoyed this book!

This is a fairly long fantasy at 700 pages for book 1 but I loved the authors story telling and there were some twists and turns I didn’t see coming.
In a kingdom with 7 animals houses, people choose which house to pledge themselves too based on their interests, morals and characteristics. So the main character Neema is part of the Raven house, as a scholar and her diligence to the raven way makes her make a pretty questionable decision at the start.

Fast forward 8 years later and the time has come to choose a new emperor, to do so one chosen participant from each other the 7 houses compete in trials. However at the same time Neema is tasked with uncovering a mysterious murder of one of the participants.

I loved the concept of the animal houses, how their personalities lifestyle, and trials reflected the traits of each of the animals. I’m not sure if this was loosely based on the Chinese zodiac

It was definitely a unique experience having a PoV from these animal guardians. There were plenty of laugh out loud, shocking and tender moments, Absolutely loved Cain, the cunning fox contender.

The audiobook felt a lot more juvenile compared to actually reading it on kindle so whilst I enjoyed the option of continuing the story throughout the day I preferred ‘reading’ the story, it made the romance more believable especially as these characters were mid to late twenties the audiobook didn’t present them in that way.

Overall this is a story I’m so glad I persevered with, was really cleverly written and I’m interested to see where the story will go.

Absolutely superb! Engaging from the start, well written with an excellent plot. One of my favourite reads of 2025 so far. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel.

Now this is what modern fantasy should be! I absolutely loved it. I don't really want to summarise it at all, because I think this book is best experienced going in completely blind. There's deadly tournaments, murder mystery, ancient spirits, power struggles, romance and rebellion. There are so many elements you'd think it shouldn't work, but it does!
While it was initially a bit slow, I think the plot did need that bit of worldbuilding and set up before it got going. And when it did get going, it didn't stop! I loved how the plot just constantly kept me guessing. I felt like pulling out the red string board at multiple points and, though I did actually guess quite a lot of the twists, it didn't feel predictable and instead like I was being rewarded for my detective work! There were also some moments that took me completely off guard. I was just so invested! I stayed up late reading 'just one more chapter' and sped through it in only a couple of days.
The characters were also wonderful. Our protagonist Neema was smart and down to earth (if a little oblivious sometimes) and all of the other characters really stood out too. Everyone had their own motivations and complexities and flaws and loveable aspects (except for maybe Gaida). The dialogue was funny and sharp (particularly from the non human characters) and I just loved seeing all of the dynamics.
I also really loved the variety of narrative voices. I wasn't initially paricularly won over by the writing style, but it developed throughout the book and I loved the experimental aspects of some of it. The humour woven in was also a really nice touch and it was just so much fun.
The worldbuilding was fun and unique, though I think it could've been fleshed out a bit more. The world was described as an 'empire' but we never really got a sense of that given the majority of the story was set only in one place. Some more information about the rest of the world would have been cool. That said, this is already a chonker of a book so I can see why it was omitted!
So overall this was a really fun ride. There's something for every kind of fantasy reader here, and if you liked books like Six of Crows with a diverse cast of characters and a mixture of romance and action then you'll definitely love this. Keep an eye out for it when it hits the shelves in April, you won't be disapppointed!

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Net Galley for a free DRC of "The Raven Scholar" by Antonia Hodgson.
A highly entertaining Political Fantasy that reuses some fun older tropes such as trials in order to become emperor, sacred animals, each with it's individual group of faithful followers, corruption and power plays.
I did have a lot of fun reading this first instalment of a trilogy, besides of the author's tendency to describe absolutely everything in minute details, even twice sometimes, characters repeating themselves and almost everybody described as absolutely gorgeous (except a corrupt politician that of course is depicted as plus size).
The characters while distinct enough, felt theatrical for most situations, so I did not felt they were in any real danger during challenges or at turn of events.
So while I was entertained reading the book, the more I think about it the more some flaws become obvious and I don't believe the many anecdotes, time jumps or tangents will stay with me for long.

thank you to Hodderscape and Antonia Hodgson for giving me the e-arc & audiobook of The Raven Scholar!

Antonia does an AMAZING job at world building as we’re taken into a world where there are eight gods, based off animals and the people that pledge in turn take on the traits of their patron god which was really interesting to read!

THE POLITICAL INTRIGUE one of my favourite parts of high fantasy novels with The Raven Scholar having a mix of murder mystery involved too.

There were different POVs throughout the book, with the story beginning with Yana then shifting over to Neema (I love them both. The Raven being an omniscient narrator was so cool.)

The length was definitely intimidating at first, but it’s SO worth it for a high fantasy, and it does have a romantic subplot. I love all the characters, but pink-pink the chameleon is an actual icon, also the part with the fox god manifesting into a physical form but then complaining about his alter not having chickens was hilarious!

I absolutely recommend this book and I’ll be sure to read the sequel!!

This book was incredible! I have never read a book so unique yet so brilliant. It had everything you could possibly want out of a fantasy book. Political intrigue, intricate magic system, rich world building, high stakes, mystery, trials, gods, subplot of romance.
One thing that really stood out to me was the narrative voice of the book. Hodgson cleverly chose on omniscient narrator in the form of The Raven to tell the story. You follow the story of Neema predominantly, but the narration allowed for important perspectives from some of the other characters.
Considering this book is so long, I could not put it down.