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i was hoping id love this but ill be honest, it was really hard to care about any of the characters😭 i felt absolutely nothing for them and if i cant care for the characters, it's not getting more than 3/3.5 stars🥲 (but a lot of people love this book, so this could totally be a "me" thing!)

Arcana Academy's biggest strength had to be it's magic system. genuinely adored every aspect of it and learning about how it worked and the different cards/what they did was so so cool!! i loved picturing the fight scenes as i read them, it really gave sorcerer-like vibes and felt intense. and seeing the conditions that came with using Major cards compared to Minor cards was soo interesting, i could definitely see how much thought was put into this world and its magic system!

now the characters... for one thing id have to say that there were honestly too many side characters (especially at one point i swear it was like within 2 chapters we got 10 different names) who were pretty much around the FMC, clara, so there'd be moments where they appeared and id forget who they were completely😭 although eventually i got used to the more important side characters but i wouldn't really be able to say much about them except for alor, luren, silas, and eza honestly. the starcrossed club were just... there, which is disappointing considering how important they were to clara.

which brings me to clara! im sorry was i the only one who did not really like her?? the first quarter-ish of the book, i actually was enjoying her POV and loving her & kaelis! and i dont know when it started but she kind of started annoying me? some of her rationale was certainly interesting is all i'll say, but she did have some great moments i liked. otherwise, i was kind of bored of her character. (i was actually more interested in some of the side characters over her??)

and im sad to say i didnt really care for kaelis either😭 again, i felt like i was obsessed with him in the beginning and his potential but it did not hit at all?? he was kind of boring. honestly he's not even evil (tbf ive seen worse from MMCs in e2l fantasy romances AND also maybe i was just comparing him too much to my love aldrik from air awakens) so i guess maybe thats also why i felt the enemies to lovers here wasnt really that good? it IS slow burn which i do like there but i also didnt even care about either of the characters, so that probably affected the romance for me.

also this is 100% a me thing, but i got so bored around the halfway mark, i genuinely had to push myself to finish this because it felt unbearably slow and never-ending🥲 the last 10% was something exciting at last for me but oh wow i was very tempted to DNF.

i can definitely see the potential this series has and i'll probably be in the minority with how i felt towards Arcana Academy (it's happened before LOL see heartless hunter/crimson moth), so if you see this review, dont let this discourage you from reading this book!! i might continue the series depending on how im feeling when book 2 releases. definitely sad that one of my most anticipated releases this year flopped for me😭😭 (magic system is amazing tho, dont forget that)


Thank you Del Rey for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!