Gather The Awakening (Zodiac Academy, #1) Composed By Caroline Peckham Version

so I have a lot of thoughts, But let me start by saying these books are definitely for pure enjoyment, I wouldnt recommend this if youre look for amazing writing, great character development, etc, I didnt expect much reading this book and I didnt get much BUT I would be liar if said it wasnt entertaining, I would also be a liar if I said there isnt a part of me that wants to read the rest of the series spoiler alert: I probably will.
Nevertheless, this first book is a little on the rough side but I see why people enjoy them to a certain degree,.Stars

First, this is a bully romance, That being said, everyone should go in expecting the main characters/potential love interest to not be great nor likeable however, this book takes it a step further which is probably going to put a lot of people off.
The bullying is relentless and downright cruel and even I thought there was a chance for redemption until I got to the end and became completely disgusted.
Its hard to see them as being any sort of love interests when they are all so damn cruel, I wasnt invested when Darcy and Tory decided to give these assholes a chance because in my mind there is no way I would be attracted to anyone that was so cruel.
Was it like watching a train wreck Absolutely, Could I look away Absolutely not, And thats what makes this series so captivating, Its downright horrible and wrong, yet theres something about it that makes it addicting,

Speaking of Darcy and Tory, they arent really developed. In fact, in a lot of parts of the story its difficult to tell the difference between the two characters, Their voices are echoes of each other without distinctive qualities that make them stand on their own, Theyre also extremely naive. If someone treats you like garbage, then your best bet is to probably not trust them going forward no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise.
Especially when this people are currently engaging in a power struggle for their right to maintain their claim to the throne, For two girls who had been through so much in the foster care system who grew up learning to trust no one but each other, I was shocked by the sheer dumb moves they made during the course of this book.
It was like they forgot everything they had been through and trust me when I say it comes full circle in the end,

In addition, there were some issues that I had with some of the magical abilities and representation of characters, The coercion “spell” rubbed me the wrong way a little bit because it doesnt respect the autonomy that characters should have over their bodies and that can definitely read as assault.
There isnt any diversity in this so dont go in looking for any, One character is coded as Latinx but at the same time he felt like a caricature,

So, if I had so many issues with this book why would I continue THE DRAMA, This book doesnt have great writing, but the drama is addictive, I was literally aching to figure out what happens next and even though its poorly written the world was intriguing, I was invested in learning more about the school and how this community of Fae functioned, Plus, there is a subplot of some sinister darkness coming into play and I feel like its going to play a big role in the rest of the series.
Is the character development great No, Is the writing great No no no, But this book is like sitting down with a bag of chocolate covered pretzels saying youll just have a few and then you end up eating the whole bag.
Is that good for you in the long run No, but it was a hell of fun ride when you ate each and every pretzel.


Overall, I think that youll find varied feelings about this book, People are going to enjoy for what it is while others are going to see it as having too many problems, I personally fall somewhere in the middle, I dont know if this is something I would recommend to everyone either, okay so when i first read this i just thought it was OKAYish but now reading this i really like it, i think i read it way before its time, im keeping this at abecause although it was good, i was really fucking bored, it didnt need to bepages but i digress, ive recently gotten into astrology and tarot cards so now that i know some stuff this book really hits for me, i also think the first time i read this book i went in for the romance and because it wasnt much i was bored,

now that i know it doesnt have much romance i could focus much more on the world and i love it, it is a lot going on but i like that its like not your typically paranormal book and i like that theres more depth to it.
i also like how they have things like sirens, vampires and werewolves, those are my favorite kind of paranormal creatures so that was something i enjoyed my first read,

when i first read this book i couldnt understand why theyre bullying the girls because clearly theyre powerful and special but upon my reread i realized its because theyre intimidated and because theyve ruled for so long and these two random “mortal girls” come out of nowhere to steal their throne.


side note this book is like a carbon copy of harry potter just more updated and tweaked about, i dont really care that it was like harry potter, its fine i guess but damn the similarities were getting crazier the more i read.


lastly, i DONT like teacher student relationships but yall, . this book got meeee. Darius. Max. Seth. Caleb.

I will chop off your fucking dicks and feed them to my goldfish, God, what a bunch of assholes,

rage buys the second book



It's time to find out if this is going to be another obsession or if I end up wanting to strangle every single person in this book

I have the indistinct feeling that I will need a lot of patience for these boys.
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This has been on my radar for a while but I've avoided reading it because I thought it was set in a high school and I don't really like reading romances set in high school and because the people who were shipping it generally shipped other fantasy authors whose works I didn't like, and contrary to some people's beliefs, I am not a hatereader.
When I pick up a book, it's because I genuinely want to like it, The onestar review is a reflection of my disappointment,



But I kept seeing people picking up this series and loving it and then I found out that it's set in university and not high school, so it felt like the literal were conspiring against me, taking away my reasons for not reading this book one by one, and I was like FINE UNIVERSE.
I'LL READ YOUR STUPID SMUT GOD, And guess what I. LOVED. IT. I really fucking loved it, I read book one in one day, in just a few hours, Even though it was almosthundo pages, W H A T.



Here's the thing, When I was a teen YES I AM OLD there was this magical site called Quizilla, And one of my favorite things to read on that website were harem paranormals where the girl could end up with any one of an entire Pokemon booster pack of men with different supernatural powers.
I would stay up untilam reading those trashy stories and every once in a blue moon, I'll come across something selfpublished that has that same addictive, cracky qualia of just being impossible to put down, gratuitously selfindulgent, and resplendently fun to read.
And for me, THE AWAKENING, was that book,



I almost didn't make it through the beginning because the desperate edginess of their normie setting almost put me off, TWO police chases before themark That seems excessive, MA'AMS, But then Professor Orion barged into the scene and things got really good, I loved the descriptions of Zodiac Academy and the worldbuilding was genuinely amazing, The opulent dorms and dining hall, the enchanted "pegasus" meadow, the classrooms named after planets IT WAS SO MUCH FUN, But even though it looks and quacks like a fairytale, . . it's not. Darcy and Tory Vega find out that they're the heirs to the fae kingdom and even though they have ALL THE POWERS, they don't know how to use them.
And people resent them for having the power and for upsetting the status quo, and so basically everyone bullies and fucks with them except for a small contingent of royalists who stan their family the way people used to stan the Queen of England.
Which actually made a lot of sense,



Fuck those interlopers,



The new rulers who have stepped into the void of their fae parents' deaths are called the heirs, There's Darius, the dragon. Seth, the werewolf. Caleb, the vampire. And Max, the siren. Like everyone else in the school, they've each specialized in a single element fire, air, earth, and water and like everyone else in the school, they have a bone to pick with the interlopers.
A lot of the bullying takes the form of sexual harassment, which is typical in bullymances, I personally am not bothered by this honestly, if you've read Hana Yori Dango, some of the stuff that happens in that book is way worse but it's something to think about if you have triggers.
Personally, I liked the distinction about it being all about power it made sense that the fae would brutalize each other like that to show animal dominance.




As big a part as the romance is when it comes to setting the stage, a lot of the book is also about the sisters struggling to develop and control their powers, while also trying to take in this whole other world they didn't even know about.
At first it's disorienting trying to take in all of these names and descriptions, but that translates to the characters' bewilderment as well, and it's really well done.
We learn about the world as the characters do and whether that's brilliant writing or a happy accident, I don't even care because I loved it and didn't want it to be over.
These classrooms are way more dangerous than the ones in Harry Potter and the teachers are just as cruel as the students, There's also a sort of romance with one of the sisters and their hot vampire professor, Lance Orion, He's actually the love interest I liked the most, because even though he was an asshole, he was an asshole to everyone, This is a man who will crack someone's head against

a desk for backtalking him, Although if I'm pressed, I'd say that my favorite of the boys was probably Caleb just because I'm a sucker for vamps,



I ended up really liking Darcy and Tory, I do agree with the criticisms that their POVs are pretty similar and it was easy to confuse them but they ARE twins so I guess it makes sense that they'd be alike I also liked how they simped for each other and always had each other's backs.
The girl on girl hate was also pretty minimal for a bullymance, I liked how the girls were kind of disgusted when the guys slutshamed other women and how some of the girls weren't treated as rivals but as friends.
Nothing was perfect, but it felt more realistic and less a reliance on gross gender stereotypes, even though the word "alpha" was used in here about twenty times too many, and I began eyerolling at the mention of a muscled chest because of course, it happened every time something with a dick walked on stage.




I've developed a bit of a reputation on this site for being a picky snob and that's probably true, but my standards are actually pretty low.
All I ask is to be entertained, This book more than served me up in that regard and I've already got book two on standby, I'm wildly jealous of the authors for thinking up this delicious, slutty hodgepodge of Vampire Academy, Harry Potter, and Cruel Prince, and now I guess I have to read thousands and thousands of pages of this selfindulgent fanfiction to find out how it ends.




BYE



to,stars.