Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job goes awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards-a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.
Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape-for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.
In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.
Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems.
But can she risk giving him power over the world-and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?
I finally finished Elise Kova's Arcana Academy and it was quite the read! It was a well-detailed fantasy read delving into the world of tarot, which I always find fascinating. Kova's take on it was fresh and invigorating. The pacing did tend to bog me down at times and with the sheer size of the novel, I kind of expected that to happen, but overall it was still an entertaining and intriguing read that did keep me turning the pages.
For the past year, Clara has been in prison for using tarot cards which is an elite sort of magic that only trained Arcanists are allowed to use. She also has the talent to ink the cards which is a rare gift as well, since she has never been properly trained. But then a rare opportunity comes to her when the second prince, Kaelis offers to get her out of prison if she will help him. He essentially wants her help in obtaining the rarest of the rare cards, the World. It's so rare, it's rumored to not exist and it is no easy feat in obtaining it either, but Kaelis thinks with Clara's help and skills, that it could be possible.
In order to get her out, he presents her as from a lost clan and poses her as an initiate to attend Arcana Academy to basically fight for a chance to attend the school. It's very The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter in a sense as everyone is fighting for one of the few spots available in the houses so that they can further their tarot education.
Meanwhile, Clara and Kaelis continue their engagement ruse and making their plans to obtain Major Arcana cards that will be needed in order to go after the World card. The pacing to this one was a little on the slow side in my opinion. I feel like that's almost the expectation when you have a 500+ book or even a 400+ page book. All those pages, there's bound to be lots of downtime in between and that's what we get. Clara makes friends and enemies among her fellow cohorts. It's hard making friends really, when you're all fighting for a space to attend the school that will determine your fate. Those who fail to get accepted into a house are basically branded and sent to work in factories, a fate worse than death some say.
Naturally, we have some heated chemistry brewing between Clara and Kaelis as well. But it's a very slow burn kind of buildup. Yes, there's fake engagement tension happening between them but also some real tension as well. Although, it does take an exceedingly long time for things to actually develop between them. Longer than I anticipated happening, but it also checks with how long the book is.
The ending was phenomenal! This is where everything goes chaotic all at once and everything happens here and there and it's an endless round of "what is happening?!" It was chaotic bliss and then naturally, it ends with shocking jaw-droppers and quite the cliffhanger. But to be honest, I saw that very last thing coming! I even made a note on it when it happened! Got to love a victory call like that! Lol. Thankfully the next installment isn't too far away, so the wait won't be too torturous. Whether I'll have time in my schedule to read it right away is another thing entirely! Lol.
Arcana Academy was a unique take on the magic of tarot and I loved seeing what Kova did with it! This is an exciting start to what I believe is a trilogy and I cannot wait to see where these characters will go after all the chaos we just endured!
Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars
