Category: Uncategorized

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If you’ve made it to book three in Zodiac Academy, first of all, congratulations. You’ve survived the emotional whiplash, the insults, the chaos, and the utter madness that is being a student at Solaria’s most dangerous university. Give yourself a gold star. Or, you know, a stiff drink.

The Reckoning is where everything really starts to burn — sometimes literally. The trials crank up to eleven, the secrets start tumbling out like candy from a busted piñata, and everyone’s loyalties get messier than my kitchen when I “try” to bake macarons. (Spoiler: the macarons do not survive. Neither did my sanity reading this book.)

What I Loved:

• Character growth (and regression… looking at you, Darius): Some characters finally start peeling back those frosty walls, while others double down on the jerk energy. But it’s progress… kind of.
• The drama: I’m talking soap opera-level twists. At one point I literally yelled “NO THEY DIDN’T” at the page like I was watching reality TV.
• The trials: High stakes, high magic, high amounts of me gripping the book so hard I left fingernail dents.

What Drove Me Slightly Bananas:

• The back-and-forth with certain relationships. I swear, these people could solve 70% of their problems if they just talked to each other instead of brooding in dark corners.
• The cliffhanger. Oh, the cliffhanger. I had to resist immediately buying the next book at 1 a.m. (Spoiler: I failed.)

My Mood Reading This:

50% “I am not okay.”
30% “Oh my gosh, finally!”
20% “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!”

Final Thoughts:

The Reckoning is like eating spicy food: you know it’s going to hurt, but you keep going back for more because it’s just that good. If you’ve made it this far in the series, you’re already hooked — so buckle up, buttercup. The drama’s not slowing down.

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Zodiac Academy: The Reckoning — Survival Kit

Reading this book is an experience. And by experience, I mean you’re going to need emotional support snacks, caffeine, and possibly a weighted blanket. Here’s everything I recommend having within arm’s reach before you crack this bad boy open:

Snacks for Stress-Eating

• Dark chocolate-covered pretzels — sweet, salty, and perfect for when Darius is being infuriating but also hot.
• Gummy bears — to rip apart during tense scenes (yes, it’s aggressive, but so is this book).
• Popcorn — easy to eat in giant handfuls when things get real during The Reckoning trial.

Beverage of Choice

• Orion’s Midnight Latte (decaf optional): espresso (or strong coffee), oat milk, honey, and a dash of cinnamon. Cozy enough for Vega twin downtime, strong enough to keep you awake through the chaos.

Playlist for Maximum Drama

• War of Hearts — Ruelle (for Orion & Darcy angst)
• Enemy — Imagine Dragons (for the heirs)
• Bury a Friend — Billie Eilish (for the darker Reckoning scenes)
• Believer — Imagine Dragons (for the “I am powerful” moments)

Comfort Items

• Weighted blanket
• Your favorite hoodie for when the tension gets chilly
• A notebook to jot down your theories… and the curse words you scream at certain characters

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Final tip: Do not — I repeat, DO NOT — read this book in public. Unless you want strangers to watch you gasp, yell, and maybe tear up like a total maniac.

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Happy Reading!

Taylor

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Spoiler Review Ahead- You’ve Been Warned…

You know those books where you start reading at 8 p.m. and then suddenly it’s 1 a.m., you’re in the kitchen stress-eating cookies, and you’ve got about fourteen theories spinning in your head? Yeah. That was me with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

It’s dark and dreamy and just a little bit cruel—the kind of story that makes you question which parts are love and which parts are possession. And spoiler: in this book, they’re often the same thing.

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Spoiler Corner (You’ve Been Warned)

Here’s where we dig our hands into the dirt.

Sabine isn’t just passing through these women’s lives—she’s the thread connecting them. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice all fall under her spell in different centuries, and none of them truly escape.

When Alice meets Sabine in Boston, there’s this sharp moment where you realize history is repeating itself. It’s unsettling and a little heartbreaking, because you want to believe Sabine could be different for her… but she’s not. She’s the same: alluring, controlling, hungry.

One of the most chilling moments for me was with Charlotte. She thinks she’s broken free from Sabine, but instead she’s just shifted into a different kind of cage. That realization—that the freedom you’ve been chasing is still wrapped in someone else’s shadow—stuck with me long after I closed the book.

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Why It Stays With You

This isn’t a fanged-and-sparkly vampire romance. This is the kind of love story that makes you feel like you’re standing on the edge of something deep and dark, knowing full well it will swallow you whole—and leaning forward anyway.

V.E. Schwab’s magic is in how each timeline feels alive in its own way. You can almost smell the garden soil under Maria’s fingernails, hear Charlotte’s floorboards groan in the night, and feel Boston’s icy wind against Alice’s cheeks. The tension never lets go, and neither do the characters.

Absolutely — that comparison fits perfectly with this book’s atmosphere.
Here’s a paragraph we can weave into your blog post right before the “Why It Stays With You” section:

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For Fans of Interview with the Vampire

If you’ve read Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, you’ll feel echoes of it here. Not in plot, but in mood — that heady mix of beauty and decay, love tangled with cruelty, and immortality as both a gift and a curse. Like Rice’s Louis and Lestat, the relationships in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil are dripping with obsession and power imbalance. Sabine, much like Lestat, is magnetic and dangerous, a creature who offers love but delivers control. And just as Interview lingers on questions of morality, hunger, and identity, Schwab’s novel burrows deep into what it costs to belong to someone who will never truly let you go.

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Got it — we’ll add a spoiler-marked section that covers the vampire rules and origin lore in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil so your readers get that extra layer of worldbuilding insight.
Here’s how it could fit right after the “Spoiler Corner” section:

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Vampire Rules & Origins (Spoilers Ahead)

Schwab’s vampires aren’t glittering immortals lounging in castles — they’re bound by their own set of rules, most of which are more about hunger and control than beauty.

Where They Come From:
In this world, vampirism isn’t romantic — it’s an infection of the soul as much as the body. It’s passed through blood, but it also seems to take root in moments of desperation, pulling in those already half-lost. Sabine’s own origin is shrouded in mystery, but what we know is that she’s been moving through centuries, weaving herself into the lives of lonely, hurting women, offering connection that comes with a terrible cost.

The Rules:

• Hunger Above All: The need to feed is constant. You can deny it for a time, but the longer you wait, the more it takes from you.
• Invitation Matters: They can’t cross a threshold without being asked — but once invited, they’re bound to you in unsettling ways.
• Memory Fade: Those they feed from often lose pieces of their memory, making the truth slippery.
• Immortality Without Change: You’ll live forever, but you’ll never grow beyond the person you were when you were turned — your wounds and flaws frozen in place.

It’s a system that makes these vampires less about brute force and more about psychological entrapment. The danger isn’t just the bite — it’s the way they dismantle you, piece by piece, until you’re convinced you can’t live without them.

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Books & Bakes: Midnight Edition

Recipe: Black Forest Midnight Cupcakes
These are rich, messy, and just a little bit dangerous—perfect for this book.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup hot coffee
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cherry pie filling
• Whipped cream for topping
• Dark chocolate shavings for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add egg, buttermilk, and oil—mix until just combined.
4. Stir in hot coffee (the batter will be thin—don’t panic).
5. Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full and bake for 18–20 minutes.
6. Cool completely, then use a spoon to scoop out a small center of each cupcake.
7. Fill with cherry pie filling.
8. Top with whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings.

Best Enjoyed: during a thunderstorm, with low light and a blanket you can hide under when Sabine starts acting too charming.

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Final Thought:
If you like your vampire stories gothic, queer, and dripping with atmosphere, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil will leave bite marks. It’s not about happy endings—it’s about the way love and danger can feel the same when you’re in the middle of it.

This read was a solid 3.5 /5 for me, as I tend to go for more plot based novels, while this was a character driven novel all the way!

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Happy Reading!

Taylor

Okay. Let’s talk about Zodiac Academy: The Awakening.

Here’s the thing — when I first picked this up, I was ready for a deep, intricate, well-crafted magical fantasy that would, you know, make sense. Instead, I got… bullies with superpowers, completely unhinged plot turns, and more drama than a reality TV reunion episode.

And at first? I hated it. I was annoyed. I kept thinking, why is this so messy? I wanted to DNF.

But then… somewhere around the 30% mark… I realized my fatal mistake:
I was taking it way too seriously.

Because here’s the truth — Zodiac Academy is not here to be high literature. It’s here to serve maximum chaos, magical trauma bonding, enemies-to-lovers tension, and a very unhealthy addiction to fictional bad boys.

And once I accepted that? I was in. Like, all in.

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What I Ended Up Loving:

• The petty, ridiculous fae drama (it’s like Gossip Girl, but everyone can turn into a lion or start a fire with their mind)
• The unfiltered banter — sometimes cringey, sometimes gold
• The fact that literally every character is probably plotting something
• That feeling of, “Okay just one more chapter—oh wait it’s 2 AM”

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What Still Makes Me Side-Eye It:

• The bullying is… A Lot
• The pacing is sometimes bananas (we went from “I hate you” to “let’s emotionally destroy each other” in 0.2 seconds)
• Half the time I couldn’t tell if the plot was brilliant or completely made up on the fly (jury’s still out)

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Zodiac Academy Survival Kit

If you’re going to dive into The Awakening, you need to prepare yourself — emotionally, physically, and snack-ily. Here’s my recommended kit:

• Snack of choice: Something you can eat angrily while muttering “I can’t believe they just did that.” (I recommend popcorn or gummy bears.)
• Beverage: Caffeinated for the first half, herbal tea for when you need to emotionally recover at 1 AM.
• Lighting: Cozy fairy lights or a dim lamp — you’ll need the drama.
• Blanket: Not just for comfort, but to scream into.
• A notebook or Notes app: For documenting your theories, favorite insults, and every time a character makes a terrible life choice.
• A warning to your household: You will yell “OH MY GOD” out loud at least twice.
• A morally questionable book boyfriend wishlist: Because you’re going to have one by the end whether you want to or not

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Final Thoughts:

If you’re going in expecting A Court of Thorns and Roses levels of polish, you’re going to be disappointed. If you go in expecting a spicy, chaotic, slightly toxic magical college soap opera, you’re going to have the time of your life.

I’ve decided this series is like Taco Bell — you know exactly what you’re getting into, it’s a little messy, it’s not gourmet… but when you’re in the mood, it hits.

Rating: 3/5 for entertainment value

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Happy Reading!

Taylor