Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Spice Level: 0.5 out of 5
Cover Grade: A+
Audiobook Narrator: N/A (read ebook)
Synopsis
In An Arcane Inheritance, a dark academia thriller, freshman Ellory Morgan arrives at prestigious Warren University only to experience disturbing déjà vu that grows more sinister each day. As she navigates ivy-covered halls built on centuries of forbidden magic and exploitation of minority students, Ellory becomes convinced she’s lived this life before. With time running out and her very identity at stake, she must persuade Hudson Graves, a standoffish legacy student, to help her uncover the truth about her past and the university’s deadly secret society before history repeats itself—with fatal consequences.
Strengths: The ending strikes a perfect balance—wrapping up the main conflict while planting seeds for what might come next. I found myself savoring the gradual build-up of tension, which kept me turning pages without feeling manipulated. The memories weave together at exactly the right moments, and the writing itself creates clear mental pictures without bogging down in unnecessary detail. Each character changes in ways that make sense given their experiences. I never felt the story dragging or rushing, and it brought genuinely fresh ideas to a genre that often recycles the same concepts. What will stick with me longest, though, is the richly detailed setting that felt like a real place I’d visited.
Weakness: I got nothing really; there were quite a number of new words to look up, but that’s not a weakness on the story’s part. But it did make me stop and write them down for fun. Since I like doing new-word posts, I pulled like seven new words from this book.
Verdict
This book made me feel like I wanted to punch someone. The highbrow vibe throughout the novel kept you from forgetting where we were. Ellory was so entrapped, I wanted to scream. I didn’t trust anyone; I had no clue who to trust. It was crazy. I couldn’t figure out what her lost memories had to do with it, and the ending made me go, “Ah! Duh! Of course!” The twist had me twisted. (8.5/10)
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Includes depictions of racial discrimination, social prejudice, death-related imagery including human remains, descriptions of severe anxiety, violent confrontations including attempted homicide, disturbing physical transformations, and intimate scenes that occur primarily “off-page.”
Thank you to Kamilah Cole, Poisoned Pen Press, and Edelweiss. I received advance review copies for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Order Your Copy
Aber Stoat Books (print)
Bookshop.org (eBook)
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From the Publisher:
Series: N/A
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (Sourcebooks) / Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781464216909 / 9781464257230
432 pages / 13 hours 26 minutes
Narrator(s): Joy Sunday
Fiction / Romance / Fantasy
Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
Fiction / Romance / New Adult
Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
Fiction / Fantasy / Romance
Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / Paranormal
Description:
A modern-day dark academia speculative fantasy with a romantic twist, perfect for fans of Babel and A Deadly Education as well as current-day romantasy.
Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones—and forbidden magic—of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright, no matter who they must sacrifice along the way.
Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.
Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can’t convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.
Author Bio:
Kamilah Cole is the bestselling author of So Let Them Burn and This Ends in Embers. A graduate of New York University, Kamilah is usually playing Kingdom Hearts for the hundredth time, quoting early SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, or crying her way through Zuko's redemption arc in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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