Zodiac Academy: The Awakening

By: Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

Narrated by: Bridget Bordeaux

I’m a Gemini. Impulsive. Curious. Headstrong. A twin. Heir to a throne I know nothing about. And it turns out, I’m Fae. But of course, there’s a catch - all I have to do to claim my birthright is prove that I’m the most powerful supernatural in the whole of Solaria. And sure, technically that’s true, as I’m the daughter of the Savage King. But the bit they didn’t put in the brochure was that every single Fae in this Kingdom would claim my throne if they could.

The school they’ve sent me to is both dangerous as sh*t and one helluva party. Vampires bite weaker students in the corridors, the Werewolf pack has orgies in the Wailing Wood at every full moon, and don’t even get me started on the dark and twisted ways the Sirens use their powers on people’s emotions, or how my sinfully tempting Cardinal Magic teacher hosts detentions that leave people needing therapy. Classes are totally interesting if you manage to live through them. And that Gemini star sign I mentioned? It now determines my elemental magic and affects my destiny, so learning astrology is essential if I’m going to beat down my classmates - which is actively encouraged, by the way.

My biggest problem is the droolworthy Dragon shifter who has his eyes on my throne. He and his three psycho friends are determined to make my time here hell. All I’ve got to do is survive. But fate might have other ideas. Dammit, why couldn’t I have gotten a letter to Hogwarts?

This is a dark, bully romance - don’t go expecting a sweet school for magic with friends around every corner. Fae fight for everything they own and Zodiac Academy is a cutthroat school for students aged 18+ where only the strongest prevail. There’s no Dumbledore here to save anyone’s ass, and Lionel Acrux will give Voldemort a run for his money in the evil dictator category. So hold onto your stardust (broomsticks not required) and get ready for a bumpy ride.

©2019, 2020 Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti (P)2024 Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

Eh

I really wanted to love this, with girls that have been through so much they are easily tricked whiny. There is no thread of strength. I had to see if this was written by a man. Nope.. it made me sad that the writers felt the need to make strong women so weak especially when it comes to sex. The story could be so amazing.

Them Plot Holes Do Be Holing

So this is more of a review of the whole series rather than just Book 1.
If you are an ACOTAR or FBAA girly. If you enjoy diving headfirst into an immersive fantasy, connecting the dots, asking the questions, finding all the easter eggs, Beautiful Minding every series an author has written.... THIS SERIES IS NOT FOR YOU!!!
This series is best for an easy listen where you question absolutely nothing. This series is for background noise when you are cleaning, driving, cooking...just background noise.
This series is the Black Hole of Plot Holes. Every single character in this series suffers from random bouts of mass short term memory loss.The ability to understand sarcasm is both gained and then lost from paragraph to paragraph (no I'm not kidding). Abilities or lack thereof changes from page to page (How can you hear a heartbeat in a different room but can't hear a person crawling through leaves and grass 15ft from you?) If you are going to write a series that is this heavily influenced by Astrology, it might help to actually know even just the most basic of key points of knowledge about Astrology (Gemini is not ruled by the Sun it's ruled by Mercury, Virgo is between Leo and Libra they are not next to each other, etc)
With all this said I would like to add that I started listening to this series while home with a serious concussion after a very bad car accident put me on bed rest for a month. During this month of staring at my ceiling, I began listening to the Dark Fae Series by the same authors and this series. Amazingly, the further along I progressed in my recovery the more evident these blatant plot holes became. As a result, I began tracking all of the various plot holes, inaccuracies, hypocrisies, etc. again not hard because they pop up every 5 minutes, but I think I may have actually recovered faster from my concussion simply by listening and taking note with respect to the shear audacity of the number of plot holes in this series that I then turned into a memory game that I will now obviously have to share with the world and the medical field at large that I shall call Book BS, (Patent Pending). Just Wow.

Disappointing

I wanted to like it but I honestly felt like it was a waste of a credit. I nearly did not finish it, but I kept thinking any moment it was going to get better. The story just didn’t come together for me. It felt like it was written for a younger audience. I wanted a series to enjoy, but I won’t continue this one.

Umm

Well I have to admit the amount of bullying and back and forth borderlines on sadistic and at some points I wanted to quit reading but I read a lot of spoilers from reddit and am pushing through. I really can’t wait for people to hook up and these queens to step into their power and kick everyone’s ass because they allllll deserve it.

Intrigued

That cliffhanger though!!!! Wow. Can’t edit to start the second book. There’s a lot of different mystical creatures in this magic system, and many characters. I actually created a little diagram in my notes to keep up, but I like that. Pretty fun read so far.