Zodiac Academy is a series that seems to be on everyone's mind. Even though I was not actively blogging, it still kept popping up in my feed. And as someone who loves a school setting and loves supernatural creatures, I couldn't deny that I was intrigued.
When I was setting up what I wanted to read for 2026 I wanted to put the book Never Deep down, but after doing some research I found out that it would be a better read if I read the books these authors had released previously. There are a lot of them, but I do like being thoroughly read in whatever series I'm checking out. So The Awakening has a lot of pressure to live up to. Mind you, it's been the first book since the beginning of all these series started, so I suppose this is nothing new for it.
So, did this have me howling at the moon, or did it just plain bite? Read on and find out.
The Plot
(Summary from GoodReads)
You have been selected to attend Zodiac Academy, where your star sign defines your destiny.If you're one of the Fae, elemental magic is in your blood. And apparently it's in ours. As twins born in the month of Gemini, we're a rare breed even in this academy of supernatural a-holes.Changelings were outlawed hundreds of years ago but I guess our birth parents didn't get the memo. Which means we're totally unprepared for the ruthless world of Fae.Air. Fire. Water. Earth.No one has ever harnessed all four of them, until we arrived. And it hasn't made us any friends so far.As the rarest Elementals ever known, we're already a threat to the four celestial heirs; the popular, vindictive bullies who happen to be some of the hottest guys we've ever seen. It doesn't help that they're the most dangerous beasts in the Academy. And probably on earth too.Our fates are intertwined, but they want us gone. They've only got until the lunar eclipse to force us out and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.We never knew we had a birthright to live up to but now that we do, we intend to claim our throne.We can't expect any help from the faculty when it comes to defending ourselves. So if the dragon shifters want some target practice, the werewolves want someone to hunt or the vampires fancy a snack then we have to be ready. But we've been looking after each other for a long time and fighting back is in our blood.Today's horoscope: totally screwed.
My Thoughts
For me, the jury is still out on whether it made sense here or not. When Orion told the girls they had an inheritance to claim, he did not explain the risks. A choice made without knowing its cost is not a real choice. And if the people of the Fae realm were already majority content with the four houses running things, Orion should have likely left the twins where they were as the changelings they had become.
But then we wouldn't have a story. So... Yeah.
I actually quite like the twins. I appreciate that they are very distinct from each other, giving each a unique voice and set of personal strengths and weaknesses. Of the two, I think I relate more to Darcy. Here more vulnerable personality, and the way she has learned to guard herself, resonated with me.
Tory is more outgoing, a bit of a bad girl, and more directly confrontational. She's the more typical type of personality that I expect to see in a story like this. I do like the fact that she and Darcy always seem to have each other's backs despite how different their personalities are. And I like how their distinct characters are leading them down different paths socially and romantically.
Which leads us into the romance in this book and... folks, it's deader than a door mouse. Do I get that this is on purpose? Yes. Do I feel ethically obligated to let other readers know? Yes. The Awakening is something called a Bully Romance. Which means that while there may be romance later in the series, right now we're just dealing with a bunch of magically gifted asshats.
With the four heirs, my ranking goes Caleb, Seth, Darius, and Max.
While Caleb is a pushing asshole vampire, the main thing he does is feed on Tory. That's par for the course in their culture in this story world, and for the most part he does not go out of his way to seriously harm her. But when she is in true danger, he does nothing about it and plays into the status quo. His moral compass has all the rigidity of a limp noodle.
Seth is an emotionally manipulative asshole who is two faced, too touchy feely, and too full of himself. What he does to Darcy isn't as bad as what Max and Darius do to Tory, but he's still on my shit list. The level of betrayed trust on display here was really nasty.
I'll give Darius this, he has the coolest transformation out of the four. And its typing makes his resistance to what the twins represent--whether they want to claim what they are or not--the most believable of the bunch. But the diry, underheaded tactic he uses against Tory, which sounded way or female high school bully than it did fierce Fae prediter, was...lame?
And finally we have Max, the Siren, who feeds off of fear. It sounds like a fantastic premise--and it can be! I've written a character like this before--but I did not like how it was handled here. Max likes to get hold of people's secrets and use them to create public humiliation rituals. There was just something extra scummy about the way that he did this, and I'm gonna be REALLY surprised if I ever like this guy.
The one guy I did like was Orion. While I did criticize him for bringing the twins into this world, his character stayed consistently interesting throughout the novel and he and Darcy were the main thing that kept me turning the pages. Since Darcy is 18, I don't give a crap about the fact that she's his student. I'll be interested if the story world throws consequences at them, but I won't. I was okay with this in Losing It by Cora Carmack back on my old blog, and that still holds here. They had the best chemistry in the novel hands down.
Purchase or Pass
Zodiac Academy is a huge series, but I see no harm in someone checking The Awakening out to see whether it is for them. This was a pretty good intro, though I see some big, messy love triangles and a bunch more bullying bullshit on the horizon. The Awakening isn't the best thing I read this year, but it did have me eagerly tapping my kindle to see what would happen next. Plus, it's available on Kindle Unlimited, so if you want to give it a go there's very little risk in doing so.
My Rating
💜💜💜
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