I really enjoyed the tarot-based magic and the dark academia setting—the atmosphere was spot-on! I can see why this book is compared to One Dark Window and Harry Potter.

The slow burn didn’t bother me; I actually like that. But I struggled to connect with the characters. I just didn’t feel anything for them, which made it hard to fully immerse myself in the story.

Still, I see a lot of potential in the series. The magic system was unique and really well done, so I’m curious to see where it goes next!

Loved this!! Arcana Academy has a unique magic system and Kova builds an amazing world! The romance is slow burn and builds in this story where the FMC truly has the most legitimate reasons to hate her fiancé.

Let's start with the good. The magic in this book is interesting - it comes from tarot cards, which Arcanists can read, ink, and wield. The idea of an academy for those with powers is also intriguing.

The actual execution of these things, though? Less great. I had a lot of questions and confusion throughout. About the Academy, about the relationship between Clara and Kaelis, about the Star-crossed Club. It was likely intentional, to be mysterious and encouraging you to keep reading; I found it annoying. Some of my questions will probably be answered in the next book, but I'm not sure if I care to wait that long.

4 stars for the ideas, 2 stars for the execution.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review

The dark academia x tarot card love child I didn’t know I needed! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this advanced copy. Not only is the cover gorgeous, but the magic was compelling and intriguing. This is one that will need to be added to my shelves.

This book consumed me from start to finish! I loved learning the magic of this world throughout the course of the story. Very unique and different from the magic in other fantasy series. Sprinkle in a misunderstood prince, dark academia, and a woman who just wants to protect her family - you’ve got an epic story you won’t want to put down!

I felt this book would be better if I knew about tarot cards. I know absolutely nothing about them and I feel I didn't get much of an explanation for almost a quarter of the book.

Elise Kova’s latest novel is like if your favorite dark academia had a love child with a deck of tarot cards, and that child was full of tension, secrets, and ✨vibes✨. I came for the magic, stayed for the banter, and now I need book two immediately. If you love fantasy, romance, and a little bit of academic chaos, you need Arcana Academy in your life.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh to fall for an unreleased series! The woe. This is a fun fantasy romance dark academia, with a tarot twist that was inventive and engaging. Tropes abound with enemies forced into a false engagement, and this plucky FMC falls into every trap the dark mysterious MMC (who has purple-black hair so you know he’s an edgelord)….but I liked reading it? Could I pick it out of any other academic romantsy lineup? Maybe not. But the tarot was memorable, it was easy and fun to read, and I’d go for the sequel when it comes out.

I found the magic system very interesting and enjoyed the uniqueness of it. However I’m not sure I actually liked any of the main characters? I enjoy that fantasy’s love to have a quest aspect, though this one seemed partially fleshed out? I know we aren’t suppose to get all the answers but I found myself mostly confused the entire time.

<spoiler>I found the sisters plot line to be kind of weird? When her “body” was found I didn’t believe it so knowing that she is in the prison is interesting. I feel like the king isn’t actually the one in power and is being controlled. I think the world was changed that moved the king into power and that Kaleis is from a previous world. I am interested to learn who Clara actually is as I don’t believe she truly knows. But with Bursiata dead I’m not sure if we are ever going to figure it out. I’m not sure how Clara and Ariana are going to get out of Harvana in the next book. I feel bad for Silas and wish he would have made it out. I did not really find Clara and Kaleis relationship as believable. Unless they had connections in a previous world? I feel like he knows her from some previous experience. I would like to learn who Clara’s father is since House Tower was responsible for her mother’s death. Which part of me believes her mother isn’t dead but that’s because in fantasy I never believe someone is dead because cards can always be used to fix this issue. But we shall see if that’s true or not. </spoiler>

I will probably read the next book just to get answers but this most likely won’t be one of my favorite fantasy books.

I absolutely loved and devoured this book.
It was superbly written and the world building was fantastic. I absolutely loved the magic system in this book and how beautifully intricate it was.
The characters were really well written and had a good depth to them. I loved the dynamic between our two main characters and how their relationship develops throughout the book. I loved the secret longing and how they genuinely started to care for one another by the end of the book.
The plot was fantastic and I loved all the twists and turns that the book threw at me. I liked how there was constantly something brewing or developing or happening.
This book had me going through a multitude of emotions through the whole book but that end scene had me shocked!!
I absolutely cannot wait for the next book in this new series, having read from this author before this one did not disappoint!!
This has been one of my favourite reads of the year so far!! It’ll be so hard to beat!!

Arcana Academy follows Clara who has been given a second chance out of prison to attend Arcana Academy in exchange for helping the headmaster Kaelis steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time. I loved the tarot card magic system and learning about what each cards power was. The romance did have to grow on me but I enjoyed the found family aspect in this novel. I liked the academy setting and felt like the author put a lot of thought into the worldbuilding.
Thank to you to Netgalley and Del Rey for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’m completely obsessed with this book! The only downside? Now I’m left eagerly awaiting the next installment—it’s that good. The story has the perfect blend of Hogwarts College meets Basgiath vibes, and I am 100% here for it. But instead of wands, they wield magical tarot cards, which is just chef’s kiss. Elise Kova does not disappoint.

The world-building is phenomenal—rich in magic, with complex characters and twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. The relationships are so well-developed, and they pull you in every time. The plot keeps you guessing, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, it throws in a curveball. If you're a fan of magical worlds laced with mystery, this one’s a must-read! I can’t wait to see where the next book takes us!

Elise Kova is PHENOMENAL.

This book is in my top ten favorite fantasy reads for 2025. The magic system is refreshing and very different from the usual. It’s hard to change from the usual magic system and still make it understandable.

The fight scenes? WOO. Intense and left you sitting on the edge of your seat. The romance? WOW. It was meshed into the book so well. There was always something in motion so having the ability to slip the romance in. SKILLS.

Elise Kova has a fan in me after finishing the first book in the Arcana Academy series! As an avid romantasy reader, this book had all the elements I sought. The female main character is a vigilante who begins in a prison known for dark, decrepit cells. The Halazar prison is known for not allowing one to leave with their life. Clara is met with a dark prince who runs the magical school/college that requires anyone with a proclivity for magic to enter at 20 years old. Prince Kaelis is a master manipulator who orchestrates Clara’s escape from Halazar in order to use her for his own ends. The prose in this book really brought to life the fantasy world and I could picture the vision board filled with dark academia, tarot, and mystic imagery. The magic system with the tarot cards was unfamiliar to me, and I found myself intrigued by the inking of cards to be wielded or read. There were some confusing elements in the history of this world, but many of my questions were cleared up by the end or revealed to be more complex than I originally thought. When I finished the book, I was absolutely hooked and already can’t wait to read book number two.

In the end, I enjoyed this whole book. However, the pacing of the plot did not make complete sense to me. Clara’s first day at the academy felt like an eternity. Followed by many jumps in the story where we missed weeks. I do feel like the necessary information for the world building and magic was appropriately revealed, but perhaps could be adjusted to different points in the plot to feel less bumpy.

I am very invested in the characters, I thought the magical school was so fun to be a part of, and the slow burn was perfect for the avid romantasy reader. I certainly will be recommending this book when it is released in July!

I have been such a huge fan of Elise Kova since the Air Awakens sage on KU! I am so happy she is getting her flowers with this big splashy book deal. ARCANA ACADEMY delivers on everything we love from Kova's writing: intrigue, killer magic system, and a swoony romance.

Thank you the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
I I really wanted to fully enjoy this book as it has a very interesting premise and a strong start but in the end found it a bit dense without the room to fully connect and care for the characters. I've found the magic system and the world-building quite interesting but there were moments when the exposition felt a bit awkward.

Elise Kova never misses with a book, and let me tell you — Arcana Academy is going to be ✨that girl✨when it gets published this summer!!

An absolutely incredible, immersive magical world built around tarot card magic. Romantasy tropes we all freaking love woven in naturally, like:

- slow burn romance, tension & YEARNING
- fake engagement with a dark prince!!
- magical academy (with hidden passages!!)
- trials & battles
- found family (Elise always nails this)
- mystery, politics & plotting, oh my!!!

I also feel like romantasy often follows a specific formula, and plots can be predicted more or less.. but this book had me guessing and guessing wrong multiple times. Which I enjoyed immensely!! This just goes to show how well developed this book was.

Mark my words this will be the book everyone’s talking about this summer!!

I didn't know what to think about this book going in. I absolutely loved this book. It was so unexpected from me, but I can't wait for the next book in the series.

2.75 stars!
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Thank you so much to NetGalley and DelRey for the Advance Copy! As always this review is completely honest and all opinions are my own. Im going to try to give as spoiler free of a review as possible since this book has not been released yet, but if you’ve read it and want to have a discussion on any of the things I pointed out I would love that! I’m going to split this review in to 3 parts. World building & Magic system, plot & writing style, and characters & motivations; and I’ll be saying what I liked and what didn’t work for me in each section! I always want to preface this by saying just because I rated it lower stars doesn’t mean I think it was a bad book at all, there were just certain things that I’m not a big fan of as a reader, but I’m sure many others will absolutely love!

World building & Magic system: I want to be very clear that I think Elise created an amazing world and a very intricate/unique Magic system. I can definitely tell how much thought and care she put in to developing both!! I think my main issue was how big and complex both of them were. This is a big book, and a huge chunk of it was spent info dumping and explaining every minor detail of both the world and magic system. There were so many details and histories that at some points it felt like I was reading an encyclopedia or magic instruction manual. Also, a lot of the world building that was explained had absolutely nothing to do with the plot or story, it was just there. I completely understand that Elise planned everything about this world and wanted to have all the details included, but when you dump all this information that’s not relevant to the story at all it’s sort of overwhelming and unnecessary. I think it would have been way better to space out the world building and introduce the history and facts as they become relevant to the plot, even if that’s a few books down the line. Especially because the magic system was so complex as well, I think this book should have focused on either the world or magic and then later books could develop more on the rest.

Plot & writing style: I think the plot was really well thought out in this book. There were lots of reveals and twist that were well executed! I did guess a lot of the reveals ahead of time, but the foreshadowing was done very well! I think my main issue with the plot was that it felt almost too big. There were a lot of sub plots and side quests and secret missions and it sometimes felt like there was no closure or resolution to them. Almost like loose ends where you’re left wondering why that was included or what impact it will have on anything. On top of the world being so massive, there were also a lot of times when I felt like the timeline made no sense at all. Especially in regard to when Kaelis founded the academy and the events leading up to that. A lot of times I was questioning how everything fit together because the puzzle pieces didn’t quite fit. Another issue I had was how the world building was integrated in the story. There were massive info dumps that took up big sections of the book, which really took me out of the story. Especially since the book is written in first person so all of the info dumps are essentially internal dialogue in the main characters head. It also didn’t help that these massive info monologues would happen at very odd moments, like in the middle of action sequences. It’s hard to stay immersed in the high stakes action happening when all of a sudden you stop mid sequence to read paragraphs/pages of history on the kingdom. I wouldn’t imagine that’s what the main character was thinking about in that moment. I’m a huge fan of quite a few of Elise Kovas books and this one definitely hit its stride in the middle when a lot of the world building had been explained and the plot was in its swing. She’s amazing at writing dialogue and making you feel like you’re a part of the story!

Characters & motivations: This is where I’m super torn in my review. I really did love all of the characters except for the main character, Clara. But while I did love all of the characters, I still think there were way too many. There was an unbelievable amount of side characters who all play such minor parts in the story, it would have been so easy to cut the number in half and still have all the same events happen. Instead we’re focusing on keeping track of all the different characters and their individual back stories/desires instead of what’s happening with the plot. It also made the story feel a little hectic because those characters didn’t always act in ways that fit the way their character or personality had been described, in short it was just way too many people to keep track of which made a lot of the different side plots feel very incomplete. Especially the star crossed club, that whole club always felt very random and not fleshed out at all. They owned a night club and were also masters at heists and stealing but also smuggled people out of the city? I absolutely loved Kaelis as a love interest. He was written so well and was a very intriguing character, unfortunately I liked him way more than Clara. She felt very selfish and immature in the decisions she made. While I completely understand her motivations and the reason she was so angry, her internal reasoning was awful. All the reasons she would list to not trust Kaelis felt more like reasons she should trust him; and I didn’t like how much she toyed with him. When he was always upfront and honest with her. He’s only a few years older than her and she was blaming him for things that happened when they were both young, as though he had the capacity to orchestrate it. Also he has even more reasons to hate his father than she does. I really wanted to like her, especially because of how strong she is, but her character always slightly irritated me so I was not invested in her story. Im interested to see where the characters go after the cliffhanger!

This novel was my first by Elise Kova but I have heard many great things about her other series. As a dark academia and romantasy fan I found this book to be an excellent mix of both! This story had a very unique and interesting magic system and I always find myself enthralled by a magical school setting. The romance was to die for and I will definitely be checking out more of Kova’s work.