prettylittlewriter

 I can't believe that I'm lucky enough to be taking part in a blog tour for such a highly anticipated book! Thank you so much to Black Crow PR for allowing me to participate!

Synopsis
'The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.
When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.'
I find it difficult to review fantasy books that are so incredibly lyrical and beautiful, as I feel like my review won't do it justice, however, I will do my best!

Olivie has created a clever dark academia novel with brilliant characters that are so incredibly detailed, with shining personalities and absolute epic skills. 

There was a lot going on within this book, with each chapter from a different characters' perspective; we got to see into the heads of each of them, which gave us a beautiful and raw insight into how they were different, but also the same. 

As soon as the characters arrive at The Society, they are thrown into a competition which puts them in danger from the beginning, with members of The Forum trying to use them to destroy The Society from the inside. 

Out of all the characters, Libby and Tristan were my favourite. Libby being incredibly down to earth and probably the most normal out of them all, with the clearest moral compass. Tristan, although he seems to be quite clear cut and to the point, is also the most complicated and definitely has a few secrets to tell. 
I also really liked the character of Reina, her powers impress me the most. 
Callum is my least favourite; he seems to only care about himself with no sense of compassion or empathy for anyone else (considering he can feel what others feel, you'd think he'd have A LOT of empathy).
I found myself craving more romance than we actually got, but I'm hoping this gets explored more in the second novel.

I did find however, that this book was a VERY slow burn, as in, not a lot happened for the first 3/4's of the novel (apart from character interactions and power experimentation). It wasn't until about 70% of the way through the novel that the storyline really piqued my interest and the action started happening. 

The ending was great, definitely a cliff hanger, so now I desperately want to read the next one! 

Overall, I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend for any fantasy fans that don't mind a slow burn!

4/5 stars