I spent five years saving up for a European vacation. But instead of drinking champagne on the beach, I get swept into a war of espionage between the humans and the fey.
It turns out, I have a magic power needed to fight an evil fey king. I’m quickly whisked off to an elite spy academy in a hidden realm. There, in the ancient and gothic halls of Avalon Tower, snobbery and brutal competitions are among the oldest traditions.
As if I didn’t have enough trouble, my new mentor is Raphael Launcelot, a maddeningly sexy demi-fey who already ruined my life once. I can’t fall for him again. Romance is forbidden here; a distracted spy is a dead spy. So I need to push his dangerous allure out of my mind as we travel into the Fey realm. If we get captured, we’ll die horrific deaths–and humanity won’t stand a chance.
First Line: Alix glances at the top floor of an apartment building, staring at the couple shagging against the window.
Even though it’s not something I’d typically choose for myself, I had so much fun reading this book with my book besties (highly recommend getting yourself a set of those if you haven’t any) and I’m looking forward to reading the next one with them in September!
I liked the idea of bringing Camelot and the story of King Arthur’s Court into it a bit as I love retellings/reimaginings of tales I am even only somewhat already familiar with. The enemies-to-lovers trope wasn’t done exactly to my liking as I was more annoyed by Raphael and Nia’s constant misunderstandings that could have been easily avoided. There was another common trope I won’t spoil that I did like! I don’t read many spicy books and I used this one to confirm I’m not the biggest fan of M/F spice (especially when their attraction doesn’t have a whole lot of depth – it was extremely shallow for most of the book and even once Nia expressed attraction beyond the physical, there wasn’t much said), so I won’t comment on that other than to say that I think it was probably well done if you like it. I also have to say that I will never, in life or in death, forget how muscular Raphael is.
There were a few details that didn’t make a lot of sense when I thought about it and the last chapter was a bit rushed but when I just let it go and went with the flow, it was an enjoyable experience and I expect I’ll have a similar time with the next book.
Little Vermo Reviews 