Eléa Deniz is a shadowcrafter from a family with a long history and dark secrets. She'd managed to escape with her brother, but returns when she hears her mother is ill. She arrives to find the family chateau is now an elite academy that will test her power and will to the limits. Destiny is calling . . . and it demands a price.

My one complaint is that the ending feels very rushed. I love that Randall ties up every single thread and resolves everything from this book and the one before. I just wish the way it happened didn't feel slightly anti-climactic. After so much buildup and dark portents, everything gets resolved depressingly quickly. I would have enjoyed more battle and less talking.
That said, it's a solid magical story that gives the main character room to breathe as it slowly builds up the enormous task before her. Eléa knows that she's going to have to eventually face her dark past and a dangerous future, but she's surprisingly positive through most of it. It helps that she's surrounded by people who want to see her succeed, not just becuase it will make a better world, but because they want her, the individual, to find happiness.
The not-quite love triangle almost lost me, but props to Randall for how she spun that into a very creative resolution. It's a magical solution that I was not expecting, which doesn't happen often.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the magical read!