The Archer Princess

*ARC Review*

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for having this available as an ARC.

I was instantly drawn in by the cover as I thought “looks like an awesome warrior princess”. I didn’t realise that this was a sister series to the warrior midwife trilogy, so now I have to backtrack and read those also. Luckily on Ektaa’s website, she mentioned that this could be read as a standalone.

This follows the story of Altara who flees her kingdom with her maid Geravie to escape her evil step mother. When they arrive to Ellythia, Altara must keep her magic hidden so that she is not found out and go to a school to blend in. When she gets to the school, she finds that it’s just a school for women to be married off. The suitors are actually shifters of a demon clan Daanav that currently rule over this kingdom. Apart from this, her very presence wakes up four slumbering men referenced as the “Old Ones” who want to reclaim their kingdom after being placed under a curse. A goddess tells Altara that she is the one that can break the curse in which the leader of the Old Ones Zale can be freed from his cruel heart. What makes her so special?

The opening two sentences had me like woah! It engaged me from the beginning and I loved where the story took Altara. She’s a fierce, independent, strong individual who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to get it. It does get her in trouble as we saw in her double marriage.

The situation at the bride school was a bit messed up but I liked how Altara, Malika, Rani and Pia all supported one another. The Old Ones are hot and although we should hate them, we don’t! Kai is just an all round lovely person, so they aren’t all bad.

Can I just say that spicy scene at about 57-58% was one of the most hilarious scenes I’ve ever read! I was just like OMG OMG OMG WTF NO NO, NO WAY! I loved all the humour that came after with the girls in this very unique situation that Altara’s magic got her in.

I loved that this had so much going on - there’s magic, curses, prophecy, shifters, demons, god like men, goddesses, friendship, adventure, mystery, humour and fun. I’ve probably missed some too! Loved that the MC was POC and it’s mentioned on Ektaa’s website that Altara is biracial - it’s awesome having representation in books! It’s the first that I’ve read of Ektaa’s work and now I want to read more! Can’t wait for book 2&3!

Do check your trigger warnings on this.

Zodiac Academy - The Awakening

3.5 stars

I wanted to read this book because of the hype on TikTok. It’s a bit of a mixed bag for me.

The story follows Darcy and Tory who are two broke 18 year old girls just trying to survive. A mysterious man follows Tory home after she had stolen a motorbike and sold to her regular dealer. This mysterious man named Orion advises that they are heirs to a throne in a fae magical kingdom called Solaria and they were once thought dead until their magical presence was highlighted with them being in the mortal realm. If they follow him, they will have food, shelter and enough money to not worry about… as long as they past whatever tests are being held at the Zodiac Academy. They will need to prove their worth and also face the challenges that come with being an heir to a throne they know nothing about.

Definitely loved the fae world that the twins Darcy and Tory have been thrust into, though not much specifics were given about their personal history and why they were sent to the mortal realm. I would have liked someone to go over the world in which they’ve entered, the history of where they came from and more about their parents. If I was them, I would have wondered about this myself and gone to the library or just asked someone to spend time with me to explain how it all works… like really thoroughly. The fallen star towards the end offered a specific piece of the history.

The celestial heirs… we’re supposed to hate them right? Even though they’re hot? They are cruel and bullies. In fact, pretty much the whole school are bullies besides Diego, Sofia and the A.S.S group. The story really displayed the strength these girls continue to show and they take everything in their strides. That ending with the pool and hair was just so traumatic and it’ll be interesting to see how they soldier on in the other books.

I did get confused by the timeline until about 260 pages in, I think it mentioned a week had passed, so I was like wow so much is happening! Totally understand that they are in this academy learning about their powers and trying to get a hold on that, but there is much repeated dialogue of them not knowing how anything works. On repeated dialogue, I don’t know how many times the heirs kept repeating that their throne was threatened and in response the twins saying they didn’t want it.

Definitely enjoyed the magical system, the different orders (in which people could shift), the description of the world they now live in, the MCs are balanced in personality, the side characters are great, I was engaged the whole time and it did leave me wanting more. I am going to continue on reading through the series because I’m intrigued!

Do check your trigger warnings!

Georgia Goes Broke

I loved this novella as I found it very relatable to my own experiences in life.

Georgia is strict with her money, coming from a family that wasn’t overly good with it and is saving up for her wedding. Her fiancé Basil is in another city working as part of a post-grad internship, not earning too much and asks to be placed on Georgia’s credit card as another user. She goes to pay for lunch one day when her card is declined to find that Basil has racked up charges on her card. Basil says he’ll pay it back and doesn’t want to be one of those couples that talk about money, so tells Georgia to increase the limit to avoid any doubt. In doing that, it creates more worry and consequences.

This was definitely a creative way to tackle the subject of finances. It was done in a humorous way, but also explores the relationships we have with money. Depending how you’ve grown up, you can easily pick up bad habits or be wiser with your money.

I definitely empathised with Georgia’s situation. Having someone else spend your money or that of your credit card, when you’re supposed to be saving would be stressful. She was made to feel bad whilst Basil was living it up without a care in the world. Even though her friends had expressed to Georgia that Basil was no good, I think she wanted to see the best in him, even though they seemed to be not on the same page for most of their time together.

This book also highlights the time we go against intuition/instinct when there are clear red flags fluttering in our face that we choose to ignore for people we love. If we don’t follow those signs, it can get us into tricky situations.

I adored this read and look forward to reading the other books in this series