Do I want to spend my summer with my vicious classmates at Bloodstone University—better known as Villain Academy? No, thank you. But I’ve got to find a way to tackle my enemies before they try to destroy me again, and the trail to potential answers starts there.

I’ve had it with taking the high road, though. Come at me, and you’d better believe I’ll hit you back just as hard. Maybe that’ll mean I have to tap into my dark magic instincts more than I’d ever have planned to, but I’m not letting one more person I care about get hurt.

That also means I’ve got to steer clear of the one guy I completely trust, or I might ruin his life too. With two of the other scions vying for my attention and the last shifting his campaign against me in an unexpected way, I’ve got my hands full as it is.

I can’t say whether I’ll survive everything this summer has in store. All I know for sure is it’s going to be a hot one.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 | 🌶️

Kindle – 31 Chapters | 334pg

I resumed reading at Chapter 7 and have completely forgotten what is happening in this book. I think I probably made it halfway through and then needed a break from reading this genre. I had been immersed in crime thrillers for the last couple of weeks. But I felt ready to come back to this read. I should state that I’m reading this on kindle, and it is a boxset of the first 4 books in the 8-book series. Sometimes I end up feeling a lot of adrenaline and intenseness when I read books by Eva Chase, and having a break is the only thing that helps.

There is a lot of emotion in this book and the characters aren’t as straightforward as expected. I knew that having already read the first two books in the series, but it’s always startling to process. Books by Eva Chase are more than just spicy ‘why choose’ books, there is real narrative in them, real character development and world building.

I feel largely sorry for the four scions. The concept behind the fearmancers* is complex and deep but the atmosphere and the history that the four scions have grown up with families that have very twisted values and morals. To have the four scions even as fully formed as they appear is quite remarkable considering all we as the reader have learned about their upbringings.

Rory, as ever, shows a level of strength and resilience that is hard pressed to be found in a character. She has flaws of course, and weaknesses, but she has a determination to continue moving forward. At the beginning of the series, I imagine the plot to follow Rory as she goes from enemy to friend and watch her build a future with the other scions but now, I realise that the plot is way more complicated than that.

The Baron parents aren’t giving up their seats anytime soon. There is a secret sect or cult of people working behind the scenes. No one, it seems can be trusted in terms of adult characters. Rory has made a sort of tentative truce with Jude, Connor, and Declan within this book that has me hopeful for what more could be accomplished between them while they all work on the same page, but I am unsure how they will come together within the growing danger of multiple factions.

Malcom, in the first and second book, was a character I completely loathed. I didn’t see him as having any redeemable qualities and saw him as a bully of the worst kind. He changes slightly in this book, and I found that put me on edge. For a while I couldn’t decide whether his change was genuine or not and the more, I read the more I argued with myself that there could be some hope where he was concerned.

This kind of book, from genre to structure, word to character, works perfectly in a book setting. In the real world it would be a nightmare to consider, and a film would never do it justice. Reading this sparked many emotions: anxiety, anger, worry, adrenaline, fear, lust, curiosity…It takes a lot to provoke so many emotions and I wouldn’t be able to experience them all if all the elements of the book weren’t so synced.

So, the ending was…chaotic. Adrenaline mixed with a little nausea. Not what I was expecting but I suppose it fits with the over all plot focus. I suppose it hit me suddenly as I’d been expecting a different trajectory or rather a change of path, so the ending caught me unawares with a disbelief I wasn’t expecting.

I feel like the ending to this book leaves the characters on a precipice. I can see the plot going in many directions so it will be a matter of seeing who will make it down the mountain in one piece, and who will fall at the first hurdle.  

*I keep wanting to call them fearmongers instead of fearmancer. (Send help!).