I knew from the initial chapters that Arcana Academy was going to be a favourite read of mine this year and it was easily a 5 star book.

Arcana Academy is a longer book but a great setup for the series. It is an atmospheric dark academia romantasy with a decent amount of intrigue, betrayals and secrets to be uncovered. I loved the academy setting, it is one of my favourite settings to read. The whole structure of the curriculum, description of the academy and dynamics of the student body are really immersive.

Arcana Academy has a very unique magic system built around tarot but I felt like this story really explained each facet of the that system well without overloading the reader with information. It slowly evolved as the story progressed and as new cards were introduced those details were reiterated. There was a glossary at the back of the e-arc, which would be great to refer to during reading.

Clara and Prince Kaelis had great chemistry. Kaelis manoeuvres Clara into a fake engagement which forces the two to be in greater proximity in addition to them already working together. They were a delicious slow-burn, enemies to lovers couple. Clara’s feelings towards Kaelis were conflicting and a lot for her to navigate.

I am heavily invested in this series.

Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for gifting me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Clara doesn't just survive; she claws her way through life using guts, illegal magic, and just enough luck to stay one step ahead, or so she thought. When she is captured, her rare ability lands her in the worst hellish prison. Until a dangerous offer from the headmaster of Arcana Academy, who happens to be a Prince, changes everything.

Prince Kaelis offers Clara freedom if she helps him steal a legendary tarot card from the king to resurrect a long-lost power. He brings her to Arcana Academy disguised as a first-year student and his betrothed. A masterful spiral of secrets, deception, and sizzling tension follows. It is also the last place her sister was before she was reported missing and possibly dead. Clara is determined to use this deal to her benefit and find her sister.

I loved this book. From the first page, it's packed with tension and never lets up. The magic system is fresh and intriguing, centered around tarot cards and clever trials that test the characters' abilities and reveal how the magic works without info-dumping. While worldbuilding stays focused on limited locations, it serves the story well, creating a pressure-cooker environment where every decision matters.

Clara is the kind of main character I root hard for: bold, brave, and never backing down, even when the odds are stacked against her. She's a fighter in every sense, both magically and emotionally. And Kaelis? Let's say the enemies to allies to something else vibes are off the charts. Their chemistry sizzles, and the romantic tension builds over time, delivering a true slow burn.

What I especially appreciated was how unpredictable every character felt. No one's motivations are crystal clear, which keeps you guessing and second-guessing. It is a fantasy with high stakes, distinctive magic, morally gray characters, and forbidden alliances. Clara Graysword will steal your heart and maybe more. Do not skip this one!

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing, Del Rey/Inklore/Random House World, for the opportunity to review and provide my honest feedback.

Arcana Academy by elise.kova
netgalley , thanks you both for the opportunity to delve into this always intense, never knowing what's going to happen story. I'm still not over that cliff hanger.

How long will you let old wounds, continue bleeding till you let go?

Clara and Kaelis what's between love and hate. The intense desire of wanting but knowing they want to hate each other but can't. They play a dangerous game of survival. I love that fuck it moment.

Clara has been through hell back, lost everything she loves dearly. In search of her sister, she'll do whatever it takes. Do whatever needs to be done. Clara is special and needed.

Found family
Enemies to Reluctant Allies to lovers
Dark Academy
Badass FMC
Pretend Engagement
MMC dark Headmaster ( Prince )
Magical Tarot Cards
Trials and Heart break
Loss

5 Stars ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨
Spiciness 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️

Thank you delreybooks and netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book was such a great read! I definitely see this becoming a popular one. It definitely goes very well with the tropes and plots that are popular nowadays, but in such an unique way!

The story is very well written, and while the magic system is very complex it is explained in a lot of detail (but maybe sometimes a little to much, which took my out of the it for a little bit so now and then).

The book’s strongest point are the characters and they drive the story further. Clara is a FMC like we see more often, and maybe she is a little over powered, but I wasn’t to bothered by that. The only thing that sometimes bothered me is that she was both very suspicious but also still very trustful and taking every other character for their word, except the MMC who she hate but also not to get in line with the enemies to lovers trope (but as I am a sucker for that I don’t mind hahaha).

The relationship between Clara (FMC) and Kaelis (MMC) and chemistry is so intriguing! Really Love how it is a bit different then what I read before. But I am frustrated by how we were left on this aspect by the end of the book, but I hope/assume book 2 will give us a bit more.

Lastly, the story has a cat, Priss, that totally acts like one of mine? What’s not to love? 😍 (if she dies I will riot and burn the book 😭😂. Spoiler: in this book she didn’t die🥳).

I said it before and I will say it again at the end, this story has a few minor flaws but is such a good read and I can only recommend it.

✨NetGalley ARC Review✨

Arcana Academy
By Elise Kiva
Pub Date: 07/22/25

If you love a slow burn, enemies to lovers, fake engagement romantasy with a unique magic system, in this case tarot cards, then Arcana Academy is the book for you.

Clara escapes a hellish prison only to find herself engaged to the man she hates the most, Kaelis. She finds herself an initiate at the Arcana Acedemy and she must downplay and hone her tarot abilities. Kaelis needs her skills to overrun his father and brother and bring change to their world.

Along the way, Clara finds out devastating information, builds unlikely friendships, and plans a heist like no other. Will her secret plan work out? Will she be able to keep her distance from the man she once hated?

Book 2 will be a must read for me because I HAVE to know what Clara does next!

I dont even know where to start with this review...

Let me start by saying YES! I loved it. I need more and this book can consume you! From the first line to the last, it was pure magic and dark and gave my major Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book vibes. Obviously, it's very different, but the 4 houses and the trials (tournament as I call them).

The tarot card magic was unique. I loved that. I never ever read anything like that. the world building was superb, and I instantly fell in love. Clara is so impulsive at times, but she keeps a good head on her shoulders.

The spicy scenes! oh, the SPICE WAS beautiful. I can't wait for book 2!

Excellent! I can't wait to purchase a copy for my shelf. Arcana Academy by Elise Kova kicks off a fresh magical series full of secrets, spellwork, and slow-burn romance. Set in a world where magical bloodlines determine power and privilege, the story follows a determined heroine thrust into an elite academy where danger lurks beneath every enchantment. With sharp twists, lush worldbuilding, and a hint of rebellion, this one’s for fans of A Deadly Education and Throne of Glass.

Arcana Academy

Thank you to Del Rey Random House and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I DNF’d @ 35%

I recently read a book with a tarot based magic system and loved it so when I read the description for this one I was intrigued, but unfortunately this one fell quite short.

My main gripe with this book is the way everything is waaaaaay over explained MULTIPLE times. We are told instead of shown over and over again about the same things, and that’s ultimately what led me to DNF. The repetitive nature and the over explanation completely took me out of the story every time it happened…and it happened often.

Additionally, the entire set up was very rinse and repeat (chosen one, hidden identity etc etc) and the facing felt…off?? I love slow burns so i hesitate to say it was slow. It just felt like emphasis was given to bizarre and obvious things and important information was glossed over.

The world building showed potential but nothing was explained well and things that had me intrigued were treated as if they were unimportant.

*spoilers*
Clara is attacked with magic by another student, who some how knows that she had been in prison despite the prince creating a cover story for her, and the next time she sees him (presumably within an hour of the attack) she doesn’t really react? Like she doesn’t like him but she doesn’t once question how he knew who she was, why he attacked her etc. she just gives him some snark and doesn’t even *think* about their former interaction. It felt bizarre. In this same chapter, instead of having anything regarding that particular scene explored upon, we get Clara explaining to us the MMC’s motivations for saving her…even though we were already shown and told the reasoning maybe 2 chapters earlier.

Personally, I hate when a book treats the reader as stupid or lazy and that’s what reading this felt like.
Idk, I hate to harp on it but this book really frustrated me.

2 stars.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC of one of my most anticipated reads of the year!

Unfortunately, and it PAINS me to admit this, but Arcana Academy might be my biggest disappointment of 2025. The writing style is repetitive, over explaining every detail. It makes the book feel unpolished, unedited, and entirely longer than it needs to be. Instead of portraying a strong, resourceful character in Clara, she sounds like a whiny child. Either that, or Elise believed her readers lack the reading comprehension to draw inferences, and that is rather insulting.

Another problem? I only made it 10% into the story and already had encountered 3 scenes heavily influenced by Throne of Glass, Harry Potter, and Fourth Wing. Once Clara assists a fellow initiate before her festival trial, much like Violet swapping a shoe before the parapet, I decided it was time to call it quits.

I loved being dropped right into the action, and I adored the academic setting and set up for a vivid, unique card-based magic system. However, I wasn't expecting this to lean so heavily into the romantasy genre, with the typical unedited writing, fierce FMC with a broody, misunderstood MMC, copycat nature, etc. If you're looking for the bingeable, easy typical romantasy read featuring the enemies-to-lovers formula heavy with tropes, look no further! If you're here for the academic setting, more depth of characters, and a bit more of an epic feel, I'd look elsewhere.

With fast-paced twists and relatable characters, Arcana Academy delivers an exciting, heartfelt adventure that will appeal to fans of fantasy and school-based stories. A must-read for anyone who loves magic with a modern twist!

Eek! This was so much fun. What an awesomely constructed world and amazing characters. I really loved the intrigue and the magic system. Clara is such a badass and I was so happy to see we will get to see her story continue in another book. I will be recommending this one to all my fantasy and romantasy readers.

Arcana Academy blew me away! This is true enemies to lovers at its finest - the tension, the banter, and the slow shift from hatred to something deeper had me completed hooked. Clara (mfc) and Kaelis (mmc) are everything you want in rival main characters: fierce, stubborn, complex, and impossible not to root for.

The magic system which is rooted in tarot, is incredibly detailed and unique. The world building is so rich, it felt like I could walk the halls of the academy myself.

The characters are complex, each hiding their own secrets, which kept me guessing the entire time. Every interaction felt layered with hidden meaning and I loved peeling back each later as the story unfolded.

As I was finishing the book, I came to the bittersweet realization that I’ve been reading an ARC and the official release isn’t until July 22, 2025. Now the wait for book two might actually kill me!

If you love deep world building, intricate magic systems and a perfectly executed enemies to lovers romance, Arcana Academy needs to be on your radar!

This is one of those books that I just KNOW everyone is going to be raving about when it comes out, and that it is going to be the next viral booktok book.
For good reason too. First and foremost, I loved the magic system in this book. The use of Tarot cards was so interesting. I also loved the setting, who doesn’t love a good academic setting. The romance was *chefs kiss.* We get a fake engagement, slow burn, tensions filled romance, which is some of my favorite tropes.
Some things I didn’t like as much was the fact that even though I loved the use of tarot magic, it could be a bit hard to understand and follow at times. The FMC, Clara, was an okay character, I didn’t connect with her as much as I would have liked. You are in her head the entire time, which was unfortunate. I wish we would have gotten at least one more POV in the story. That way we would have been more exposed to other characters and settings. I also just felt like the author bit off more than she could chew. There seemed to be too many plot points going on, and I am unsure if the rest of the series will resolve them.
Overall, I think its a good start, and I will continue to read the rest of the series. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads and Netgalley.

Superb storytelling and world-building of a dark academia world based on tarot cards. It was smart to base the magical lore on existing tarot cards, yet making it more intricate, as the cards can be inked to be used in the future, wielded for battle, and read to predict the future. Arcana magic is only meant to be used by nobles or to serve them only, leaving the rest of the population destitute or working for powder mills which generate materials for arcana magic, so there’s a lot of interesting and relevant social commentary between the haves and the have-nots.

The heroine, Clara, is an expert inker of arcana magic cards but does not have any formal magic education and comes from an impoverished background. She’s also part of an illegal, underground society called the Starcrossed Club whose activities directly opposes the royals and nobles. When she is captured for practicing illegal arcana magic, she is given the chance to enroll in the arcana academy by Prince Kaelis. Clara is a very competent and complex character, and her missions are both high stakes and personal (infiltration and finding out what happened to her family), so it was exciting to read how she would get herself out of seemingly impossible situations.

The romance part is the weakest part of the story, and part of me feels the story would have been better off without it. There is also two much whispering and murmuring by the leads, which contradicts with how I imagine they would speak certain lines of dialogue, so it was an awkward shift for me.

Overall, a stellar start to the series.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey/Ink lore and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest, independent review.

4-4.5⭐️
This book has one of my most favorite magic systems ever, tarot magic and the most complex world building! I loved it (for the most part).
You will love this if you like -

Complex well developed world building
Romantasy heavier on the plot than romance
*it actually read like an urban fantasy
Fake engagement
Hidden identity
Secrets and politics
Slow burn
Academic setting
Tarot magic
Trials, training, mind games and power plays
Deceit
Secret societes

Arcana Academy captured my interest imediately when I got the email so I couldn't wait to dive in! I'm already so excited about all the possible special editions, the potential for artwork is amazing!

My only issue is that while the world is very interesting, at times it felt too much and too convoluted and it lost me lol. So it felt a bit draggy. It's one of the most interesting plot and magic system ever, but sometimes I felt like I needed to take notes and go back and check them when some character did something (for example, wait, what magic had the user of this card again?) Because of that, I got distracted and lost. I also felt like the MCs connection was missing something but like I said, the romance was not the main plot.

Loved the action, the suspense, the mystery and most of all, our FMC who was so badass and didn't fit in this academic world but worked her hardest to blend in, learn, grow, make connections, all to save the people she loved or revenge the injustice on her family. Despite the draggy parts, I would read it again and again just for the world and the MMC. And to unravel all those plot points that had me shook by the end! THE CLIFFY OMG Dellrey pls I need book 2! 🥹

This is a really great premise, and the writing is better than some of the Elise Kova books that I've read before so it's always nice to see authors honing their craft more, I just feel like maybe it felt too much like other things I've read?

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I thought this was generally ok, it did not particularly stand out to me. I thought the magic system was interesting, and I would have liked the book more if there had been more focus on this. I think the side-characters could have been more fleshed out. Overall, a typical romantasy offering that will I would recommend to fans of the genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Elise Kova for the arc.

This was my first book by Elise, and to say I was surprised would be an understatement. The Arcana elements were really confusing at first, and even though I tried to push through, I just couldn’t get into it. Unfortunately, I had to stop around the 25% mark—it just wasn’t clicking with me.

Dark and atmospheric academic studies book! It was spooky and fun at the same time. I loved the characters and the setting so much that at times, it felt real. Another hit from this best selling author

3.25 stars!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

I really liked the magic system in this book, if you liked one dark window then you would really enjoy this.

I enjoyed the main characters and the very long slow burn this book had.

Some things for improvement: occasionally info about the academy and how the school works was confusing as some points. I also think some pacing could use some work.


Overall, I really enjoyed this and can’t wait for the next book !