Zodiac Academy: The Awakening

“His face was cut from my very own personal fantasy, as if someone had delved into my deepest desires and drawn them into strong angles and perfect temptation made just for me.”

Brief Synopsis:

Tory and Darcy haven’t had it easy for years. Twins that lost their parents when they were babies, they’ve drifted through the system time and time again. They’re finally 18, and they’re ready to start living their own lives. Even if it means barely getting by and committing various crimes just to share a dinky apartment together. Their story begins with Darcy trying her best to break into their last foster father’s home to steal back the $2,000 that they had left hidden in the wall of their room. He had kicked them out so quickly they didn’t have a chance to take it before. She breaks in just fine, but the cops know she’s there, and while she’s on the run she drops the money.

All she hears is a deep voice telling one of the cops to let her go, and then she sees big hands scoop up all of her money. Frustrated beyond belief, she goes back to her sister with her tail tucked between her legs to tail her that she failed. Tory’s not about to also fail, though, and she goes back on her old standby of stealing vehicles/bikes/etc and taking them to a guy that basically runs a chop shop. She successfully steals a beautiful bike but he gives her an awful deal for it because he’ll have a hard time pushing such a rare, custom-made piece. She’s annoyed, but she knows there’s not much else that they can do about it. She goes to the bar that fronts this guy’s business and there’s this clean-cut huge looking dude that seems pretty insistent on talking to her.

What’s weird about him is that people just seem to obey his commands, no matter what, even Tory. When his attention is turned on someone else, she says she’s out of there and talks one of the biker guys into giving her a ride home. It isn’t that easy, though, and big dude’s outside of their apartment waiting for her. He uses his power to talk her into letting him in, and he tells the twins the unimaginable: they’re actually fae, their parents were never their parents, and he’s pretty much not taking no for an answer so they’re coming with him to this elite magical school that he keeps calling the Zodiac Academy. He tells them that they have a sizable inheritance from their real parents, but they won’t get it unless they complete their schooling. They figure, what do they have to lose?

So, they leave with this guy, Orion, and are whisked away to a field with like 200 other students. Some magic is worked so that each student can see what element (or two) responds to them. This will tell them what their magic ability is: either air, water, fire or earth. The girls are automatically thrust into the unwelcome spotlight when they discover that they have an affinity for all four of the elements, which is completely unheard of. Upon entering The Orb, which is this gold dome-sphere place, the principal finds them and drops another huge truth bomb. Their parents were the freaking king and queen, they’re the lost heirs, and they’re supposed to try and take back their rightful places on the throne against the four other heirs once they’re done with school.

These other heirs… they’re all male, they’re all devastatingly beautiful, and they’re all total dickheads. As a matter of fact, pretty much everyone in the academy is, and the girls quickly learn a number of things. The first is that they shouldn’t trust anyone. The second is that not only were their parents royal, but the girls themselves are supposed to go by their given Fae names. They refuse on principle, which is one of many things that they refuse. The girls definitely do not have anything close to an easy time starting out in this magical world they’re meant to be in. The students are awful, especially the Heirs, and the girls are pretty much tortured and sexually exposed or ridiculed at every turn, with absolutely no help from any of the faculty or staff. Instead, they’re told they have to figure out more about their powers, who they are, etc, so that they can fight back against these students, and it’s pretty frustrating to sit and read.

Tory takes to the whole sticking up for herself thing quicker than Darcy, and it’s harder on them because they were forced to align with different houses to “even out the power” so they have dorms in different houses and pretty much get separated a lot of the time. They also find out that something sinister is going on, and has been since their royal parents’ death, which may not have been any sort of natural disaster or mistake after all. The girls do seem to have made a couple of friends, though I’m loathe to watch them trust anyone just yet, and there’s a group of students that believe they’re the ones that are supposed to reign and swear themselves as loyal subjects. This embarrasses the Vega’s, but honestly, at this point they’ll take any sort of help they can get.

As if all of this doesn’t seem bad enough, Tory ends up inadvertently spying on the Heirs one night and after they break apart, she overhears Darius on a phone call that sounds pretty intense. She follows him all the way to the staff housing, and sees him in a debate with Orion, the teacher that picked them up and brought them to the academy in the first place. They’re talking about needing to kill someone and Darius just wants to jump the gun and get it over with, but Orion is telling him to have patience. It sounds a lot like they’re talking about killing Tory and Darcy, and somehow, she makes it back to campus and to Darcy’s room without being caught. The girls have also been getting anonymous messages from someone that seems to be trying to help them. They decide to use this time to ask this mystery person for more information on Orion, and end up finding out that many believe that Darius’s parents had a hand in their parents’ murders.

Now, the girls know that trusting anyone in the academy is pretty foolish, though their two friends Sofia and Diego have proven to be nothing but nice thus far. However, the Heirs really are just some handsome dudes, and Darcy can’t help but feel a pull toward Orion (I know, the teacher trope really?). The torments, the gross teachers and all of the confusion have the twins feeling pretty cooped up. When Friday finally arrives, Diego tells them that he has a vehicle that can take them downtown. The girls are ecstatic, and get dolled up for a night out, vowing that dickheads won’t mess it all up. For the most part, things begin well and they’re enjoying a bite to eat, accompanied with some drinks. However, unfortunately, Orion is also at this restaurant/bar and when Darcy overhears him talking to a woman about murder, he follows and confronts her.

Thankfully this is only a little blip, and they’re determined to still enjoy their night. Sofia gets too drunk too fast, and Diego has to take her back to the academy. The twins just so happen to receive a message that their anonymous tipster wants to meet up with them in the alley behind the bar. What’s worse, they actually GO. Lo and behold, they’re attacked by some creature that seems to suck their powers. They manage to break away, and pretty much run headfirst into the well-toned laps of the Heirs. Using a bit of their delicious looks and a bit of their magic, they persuade the girls to stay for ‘a drink’. As soon as the drink arrives, Tory downs it and they try to break free of the Heirs by going inside to convince some other schmuck to buy their drinks while they dance.

The Heirs are a pretty possessive bunch, though, and they take over on the dance floor. The girls have had a bit to drink, and for once they just give into it, dancing with the boys. I know, how delightfully awful. Darius disappears with Orion for a while and then suddenly all of the students are being ushered back to the campus for a major reason: someone got attacked. This someone is actually the over-boisterous leader of the A.S.S group that is backing Tory and Darcy as their queens, Geraldine. Though nobody knows for sure what happened, Orion is placed at the scene of the crime. He claims that he was the one that helped her and nothing more. He drains Darcy of her power (I did mention he’s a vamp, right?) and when he says that he can drive the Vega twins back to the campus, they refuse and hop on one of the buses with the Heirs, though Darius is still conspicuously missing. The next morning, the girls hasten to breakfast, determined to try and find out some more information on Geraldine and how she’s doing.

They’re briefly confronted with the girls that are ‘dating’ Seth and Darius, Kylie and Marguerite, but they work their way out of that tight spot and hurry to the hospital building, or Uranus. They’re able to confirm with a barely-awake Geraldine that whatever was trying to attack them also attacked her, but ended up being a lot more successful. She’s too tired to say much more, but she’s so grateful that the twins deemed her worthy of a personal visit. Now… things get really interesting from here on out. While trying to hide from Marguerite and her crew, Tory kinda sorta ends up hooking up with Caleb. They don’t have sex, but it is plenty steamy and he pretty much said that he didn’t expect that to be it. She’s wondering if maybe he doesn’t hate them so much after all?

What also happens: it becomes obvious that Diego and Sofia have feelings for each other, there’s a dance everyone is preparing for, Seth begs Darcy to let him earn her trust, and Tory confronts Darius in his bedroom about lessons he was supposed to be teaching her and finds out that his Order is dragon. You know, like Seth’s a werewolf, Max is a Siren and Caleb is a vamp. Every Fae has an element, or elements, that call to them and fuel their magic, but they also have an Order. The kicker here is just that Tory and Darcy haven’t been able to discover there’s yet. While trying to see if they’re Sirens, Max coaxes their biggest fears out of both of the girls. Through a broken heart, Darcy has pretty symbolically come to love her hair. Tory’s is more straightforward: she’s terrified of deep water because she almost drowned following a car crash.

Well… the Heirs use this to their advantage during the night of the dance. Though Caleb had tried to persuade Tory to ditch it and spend the night rolling around in bed with him, he also doesn’t try to stop what happens next. Seth woos Darcy within an inch of her life, just to grab her while they’re making out and literally just slice all of her hair off. Tory’s is awful, with half of the school watching as the Heirs do their absolute damnest to drown her in the academy’s pool. They damn near succeed, too, but Orion and Darcy hear Tory scream and Orion races to her rescue. He’s livid beyond belief and berates the Heirs for probably the first time in their entire lives. The others take it pretty well, at least on the surface, but Darius goes stomping out like a petulant child.

While it seems like that’s the worst a night can get, it’s worse than that: a dead body is found still burning to a crisp on campus. Orion puts out the fire and the girls use some sort of power to pull something from the charred body. They had found out who their anonymous ally was, but now it seems that the old tarot teacher is the one that was murdered, and it was because he was helping them. I guess nobody promised that tangling with the Vega girls wouldn’t be dangerous.

My Rating:

Solid 10/10. This book lived up to every second of the hype that Booksta has given it. My only real clincher here is the Heirs are awful and I know I’m supposed to be more attracted to them than I am. Also, wtf CALEB?!

Devastation Rating:

4/10 so far. I can only imagine where it’ll go…

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Until next time <3