Arcana Academy by Elise Kova

 

We love a broken lover boy hiding behind an arrogant mask.

The thing I loved most about this book was the magic system. I thought it was so interesting and cool when I read the synopsis that I knew I had to get an ARC. I find tarot fascinating, so this new take—mixing spells with specific tarot cards—definitely caught my attention. It ended up being my favorite part of the novel. I knew some basics of tarot, and I felt like that helped me during the early world-building, which kept the flow going for me.

This is an enemies-to-lovers story I can get behind. They can’t stand each other from the start, but you can tell he fell first—which is one of my favorite tropes. I liked the FMC because she was intelligent and powerful, yet still had flaws that made sense and added depth to her character.

Since this is an academy-setting book, I was worried it would focus too much on the school aspect and not enough on story progression. But I felt it was really well balanced. There was plenty of time spent learning and studying, but also equal time dedicated to solving mysteries and plotting schemes.

I'm giving this book 4.25 stars—not higher—because I felt the slow burn was just a little too slow. The characters would go weeks or even months without interacting, and the romance didn’t really progress until the last 50 pages or so. It felt like it dragged on longer than it needed to.

Also, the ending ruined me—so thanks for that, Kova.

(p.s. The cover is absolutely beautiful, and I totally would have read it just for that.)

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.