If you loved the first book “the ravens” I bet you’ll like this one as well.
I love myself a good witch book (plus the sorority, which is a trope I enjoy) so I was really excited to read this sequel.
I recommend everyone to read it!

This book was really fun. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one but it was a good sequel that gave us a lot more character development for all of the sorority girls. I love the dual pov in these books and find both pov's interesting which isn't something I always like in books. Overall this was a really fun sequel.

If you enjoyed The Ravens, chances are you'll enjoy this one too.
The Monarchs is a super fun, fast paced read with a good balance of Sorority style bitchiness, Witchy vibes, and a sprinkle of horror elements.
Not the best book I've ever read but definitely a great time!

I loved this book as much as the first one - maybe even more, it gripped me a lot quicker and the story got me so invested. I loved the development in the characters too.

It was great to get back into the world of Kappa once again. The story was just as good as the first and kept me interested until the very end and I hope there is more to come from the girls in the future

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley for giving me early access to this book it is greatly appreciated!

So book one may have had some plot holes as particular storylines weren’t resolved but the Ravens wrapped up pretty nicely so I was a little surprised to see that it was getting a sequel. However I enjoyed the first book (it was a quick read) so I was intrigued what the 2nd book would be about.

Let’s start with the title of this book - I like when a title actually has something to do with the books content but I feel like this one was chosen to keep in theme with the first book (Animal Names). The monarchs are the parents of the ravens who make a council coven and are mentioned at the beginning of the book but don’t have anything else to do with the rest of the plot… Just a little Meh in my opinion.

I think once I started this book the intrigue swiftly left as the majority of the book is the same as the first book with like a sprinkle of change. New characters were brought in for convenience but it just felt very repetitive to the point where I just really didn’t care that much, the stakes weren’t as high as they were in book one!

Then we move onto the romance plot line that was so plutonic you couldn’t root for anyone…. There was no chemistry between anyone - I mean Scarlett’s romance was the best out a bad bunch it was cute at the end.

I feel like I should also mention that the people in this book although the same names felt like different people, don’t know if this is down to the fact I read the first one physically and then listened to the audiobook of this one but it just didn’t make sense and I could have lived without it to be honest.

Overall this book was ok - it came out at 3.5 stars in CAWPILE.

I think if you loved the first one you will love this one too but for me I could have lived with the first one being Standalone 🤷🏻‍♀️

I absolutely adored this book! I loved The Ravens and was so excited for the sequel and it definitely did not disappoint. I loved the characters, setting and plot and it flowed really well from the first book.

Author: Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: E-Book (ARC)
Published: 11th January 2022
Pages: 434
Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis

In this thrilling conclusion to New York Times best-selling authors Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige’s The Ravens, the sorority witches are tested when a rival threatens to usurp their place on campus and the forces of hell come knocking on their door.

The sorority girls at Kappa Rho Nu—the Ravens—are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they’ll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly’s most powerful coven of witches.

Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she’s always wanted: the Kappa Rho Nu presidency. After the disaster that killed the sorority’s last president, Scarlett is determined that no sister will fall under the sway of wicked magic ever again. But the powers of the presidency have their own pitfalls—and Scarlett has big shoes to fill.

Vivi Devereaux, a freshman, finally knows what it feels like to belong. For the first time ever, she’s got it all: her Kappa Rho Nu sisters and a sweet (and hot) boyfriend. When Scarlett assigns Vivi the coveted role of social chair, Vivi is determined to live up to her Big’s expectations—even if that means dabbling in a new form of magic.

Unbeknownst to the Ravens, new rivals and ancient evils lurk on Westerly’s campus. With Kappa Rho Nu’s future on their shoulders and their pasts still haunting them, will Scarlett and Vivi be able to save their sisterhood once again?

Review

Trigger Warnings: Blood and Death.

This review may contain spoilers.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, however, this in no way influenced my opinion. Thank you to the publisher Hodder and Stoughton for providing me with a copy.

The Monarchs is the second and final book in The Ravens duology, I read the first book back in December 2020 and I loved it, it was such a fun read with great twists. I was quite curious about what was going to happen in this as the events of the first book were pretty much wrapped up at the end. While I found this to be a quick read and it had a great twist, I have to say that I enjoyed the first book more. My main problem was that I was quite often frustrated with one of the main characters, Vivi. I thought she acted quite out of character a few times and made some frustrating decisions. One aspect of this that I enjoyed was the plot twist of Tim being the demon, I honestly didn’t expect that, and I was intrigued to learn more about his character before the reveal.

Overall, this was a decent YA Fantasy novel with a great twist however I found myself quite frustrated with one of the main characters.

The Monarchs by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige is the sequel to The Ravens and takes place directly after the end of the first book, so be sure to read The Ravens first.

After the turbulent end of The Ravens, the Kappa Rho Nu sisters are faced with a lot of changes and obstacles and one of them is literal hell.

Scarlett fulfills her legacy and becomes the newest president. This was her dream, but now this reality demands everything from her and even puts her magic in danger. I love Scarlett and she is such a strong character who also wants to be a better person each day and motivates others.

Vivi has found a family in her sisters and Kappa Rho Nu is a place she belongs to and she gets more responsibility with being the social chair. She dates her crush and gets an amazing college experience. Her studies in witchcraft are so fascinating, but soon they get a little too close to the real world and chaos wreaks.

The Monarchs is such a good conclusion to this story and characters and I enjoyed it a lot. It could keep me intrigued and interested and I binged the book in one sitting. 4 stars.

(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

I genuinely wanted to love this one, but it would not mesh with me. When reading this on it's own didn't work I tried mixing in other genres, other age brackets, other reading mediums...but to no avail. I think I'll go forward with The Ravens being a standalone and this as a fever dream that never happened.

The stakes were as high in this as the first and yet our main characters did not show a sense of urgency expected of a group that underwent such life and death experiences a few months prior and I could not push past that. Maybe in a few months time, when I have blocked it out, I can try to read this as a standalone and maybe then the actions of the characters would make more sense to me.

Teenage Witchy Drama part 2. Vivi and Scarlett are back at Kappa House with the other Ravens for another round of frolicking with magical powers. Scarlett is now president and Vivi becomes social chair, with several high profile events she needs to organise.

However it’s not all fun and games as it turns out that when the girls broke the talisman in the last book, they released something/someone that had been imprisoned in it, and of course hates witches. Throw in a rival sorority that’s gunning for their number 1 position, boy drama for both the girls, family pressure and issues cropping up, as well as their magic being blocked and getting fritzy (risking exposure several times) - and we have a hell of a time for the girls.

As with the first book it was a fun read - if you like teenage drama. I kept trying to guess who the baddie would be so was pleasantly surprised at the reveal. Some of the actions/decisions were unbelieveable - Vivi seems to have digressed to be a total idiot with a lot of angst. Scarlett seems to have grown and deals with her problems in a more evolved way.

Overall a very enjoyable 4 stars.

Thank you so much for my ARC!

This book was absolutely phenomenal. While I did enjoy The Ravens, I felt it wasn’t quite as developed as I would have liked. Forward to this masterpiece and I can see just how much Morgan and Paige have developed in their writing styles.

This was extremely engaging and such a quick read. I can’t wait for more from these authors! What a duo they make!

After 'The Ravens' wrapping up quite nicely, I wasn't too sure what to expect from this book but the premise sounded interesting so I was excited to read it after enjoying book one. Unfortunately, I felt that this book was completely unnecessary and I could've lived with the few unresolved plot threads remaining unresolved. It was very obvious that the authors didn't really know how to continue the story so they pretty much just rehashed the plot of book one with the Kappa Rho Nu house being tormented again by some unknown being. This made the book feel extremely repetitive until the 50% mark when something very different occurred. As for the books plot twists, I could tell that the authors wanted them to be shocking. However, the foreshadowing was all over the place so there was very little tension building up to these plot twists which left me very emotionally disconnected for the story and not really caring about what happened to the characters.

Speaking of the characters, they were wildly different in this book. It felt like there was zero continuity in their personalities. I do understand that after the events of the first book that they would be acting differently, though this was to another level. At times I felt like I was reading a book about completely different characters because their dialogue and actions made absolutely no sense. Vivi was the one who changed the most for me, one second she loves the sorority and the sisterhood she has formed, then a little while later she changes her mind and decides she doesn't like the sisterhood dynamic and that they argue all of the time. It made no sense whatsoever.

As expected, the characters also had various romantic subplots, and they were handled so poorly due to the characters not acting like themselves. To keep this spoiler-free for both books, Vivi and her romantic interest felt extremely forced. There was no chemistry between them that they had in the first book and Vivi was constantly making decisions that she would never have made previously. I am also upset about this because it made my favourite character barely appear in this book However, I do believe Scarlett's love interests were much more believable as they were directly linked to the plot, but due to the messy foreshadowing, the relationships didn't live up to their full potential.

Lastly, I'd like to say that the title of the book is mostly irrelevant to what this book is actually about as 'The Monarchs' are the parents of the current witches that used to attend Westerly College and have formed a witch council-type thing. It was probably chosen to stick with the animal theme so that it matched book one, but it did not fit the story at all.

While I did not like this book, it did have the potential to be a really good book but due to bad authorial choices, it fell short for me.

The Monarchs picks up right where The Ravens left off. Vivi is assigned the role of social chair for the sorority and is finally feeling like she belongs. Scarlett is taking on the big responsibility of president and is optimistic about changing the way The Ravens do magic. But the chances of their true identity as witches threatens to come to light to the whole campus, and the sisters must work together to protect their coven.

This duology is just a ton of fun and this instalment was even darker than book one! I absolutely love the vibes, the general theme of sisters and the platonic friendships, and of course, the magic!

The Monarchs was a fab sequel to The Ravens and brought even more mystery, dark adventure and college drama that made a really entertaining YA read.

The writing is accessible and the book is fast paced and easy to read (which is also true for the first book!).

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Buzzwords: coven, sorority sisters, tarot magic, mystery

Trigger warnings below…


















TW: Death, cutting

Thanks to Holder and Stoughton and the authors for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Having read the first installment, The Ravens, I was excited to see where the story would go in The Monarchs. I wanted to see what the Kappa Rho Nu girls would face this time around and I wasn't left disappointed.

We pick up at Christmas break, with the girls coming back to the sorority house. Scarlett is now the president, and she invites Vivi, her Little, to take over the role of Social Chair. But things start to go wrong very quickly and the girls start to wonder if someone is trying to sabotage them. Add to the fact that Theta house have really ramped up their efforts to take over the planning for this year's Spring Fling, Vivi discovering she has a half brother, and Scarlett's regrets over Jackson, and things are all just a bit chaotic.

I really enjoyed the plot twists in this book. A lot of the time I thought I could see where the plot was going, only for my thoughts to be derailed by a twist I didn't see coming. The character development was great to see, and I loved the way that the book ended. Although this was the conclusion to the duology,I think the authors have left it open to the possibility of more books, which I would be happy to read!

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, more so than the first book, and can't wait to read more by these authors.

Great and gritty, you had me at sorority and witches! This book (and series) is unputdownable! This was a serious binge read for me and I am sad it is over.

Can't wait for what they bring out next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

After thoroughly enjoying The Ravens, I was looking forward to reading the sequel - and I wasn't disappointed. I love a good dark academia novel and The Monarchs trundled along at a good pace, with the characters being just as engaging as before. I'd have liked a little more explanation of the magic and group casting, but all in all it was an enjoyable romp.

The Monarchs is the sequel of The Ravens, a New Adult (but completely clean and suitable for YA audiences) urban fantasy novel set in a college campus. The books focus on a coven of young witches sort of masquerading as a normal sorority, but really keeping a long history and heritage alive through the education of the new generation of Ravens, while also maintaining their standing as the most influential and prestigious sorority on campus.

In The Monarchs, the sisters are still reeling from the events of the first book, and the story continues from there and revolves a lot around the effects of those events on everyone involved; because of this, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book without having read The Ravens first.

Scarlett and Vivi are once again our MCs, and the chapters switch from one POV to the other. The book is written in third person and delves a lot into the state of mind of the protagonists: their fears, their uncertainty, their emotional scars if you will — all this while trying to lead the coven into a new year and very important events with extremely prominent guests.

I really enjoy school settings, particularly when they are used to impart a dark academia vibe to a novel that benefits from a bit of a dark, mysterious atmosphere, like this one. I appreciated the vivid descriptions which helped me imagine the sorority houses, the cafes, and the campus in general.

Where this book let me down a bit was characterization. The MCs aren’t well fleshed out for most of it, and for a long stretch they feel like little more than plot devices, only there to push forward whatever events will work as catalysts for the rest of the story. I was very disappointed because I had found Scarlett especially a fairly compelling character and I was looking forward to hearing more about these two girls who managed to form a bond through some very trying circumstances in the first book.
What we did see of them painted them in a fairly unflattering light, with them somehow losing all the character growth that had been achieved during the first book, and instead being a big too self-absorbed, shallow, and overly focused on outward appearances. This of course contributed to things getting really bad, so unfortunately when things start falling apart, as the reader I had a hard time feeling bad for them as they hadn’t been the most appealing nor the most relatable characters.

The narrative also felt a little unfocused and the pace was frequently a bit off, which affected how much suspense and sense of urgency we could feel during specific sequences.
This made a perfectly reasonable 400-something pages feel like a much longer book, and added to the characterization issues to sort of make me want to give up on the duology as a whole, unfortunately.

I did finish this but I cannot give it more than 2 1/2 stars I’m afraid, as it made me want to unhaul the first book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The sorority girls at Kappa Rho Nu—the Ravens—are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they’ll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly’s most powerful coven of witches. Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she’s always wanted: the Kappa Rho Nu presidency. After the disaster that killed the sorority’s last president, Scarlett is determined that no sister will fall under the sway of wicked magic ever again. But the powers of the presidency have their own pitfalls—and Scarlett has big shoes to fill. Vivi Devereaux, a freshman, finally knows what it feels like to belong. For the first time ever, she’s got it all: her Kappa Rho Nu sisters and a sweet (and hot) boyfriend. When Scarlett assigns Vivi the coveted role of social chair, Vivi is determined to live up to her Big’s expectations—even if that means dabbling in a new form of magic. Unbeknownst to the Ravens, new rivals and ancient evils lurk on Westerly’s campus. With Kappa Rho Nu’s future on their shoulders and their pasts still haunting them, will Scarlett and Vivi be able to save their sisterhood once again?

Scarlett definitely sees character development in this book compared to the first. She’s more open and determined than before and clearly wants to do some good. Despite the pressure she’s put under to follow in her family’s footsteps, she does a good job. I liked getting to see a range of emotions from her character in the different scenarios, but also getting to see her struggle was refreshing. She could have just been some “strong” young woman who let nothing get to her but she was more realistic than that.
Vivi once again felt off to me compared to Scarlett’s character. I don’t entirely know what it was but I couldn’t gain a connection with her character as much. She was closed off to everyone - both the characters and the reader! - which made empathising and understanding her difficult.

The romance fell flat in this story which was a shame. It initially seemed promising but then became rather … meh. I’m a lover of romance being embedded into a story - doesn’t need to be in the forefront but I’m a sucker to see it - but it didn’t really do it for me in this story. Unlike it’s predecessor, the storyline felt rather all over the place. It wasn’t difficult to follow but it felt like moments popped up out of nowhere - as if to say SURPRISE! - but then wasn’t entirely addressed and I was left wondering whether there was any significance to what had happened or not. The twist at the end was nice but I did suspect it would happen so sadly didn’t feel like much of a surprise - I need a good plot twist in my life. Because of all this, I’d say it’s a 6.5 out of 10 overall but I do feel that may also be a little generous. Of course, this is my opinion and others may really love this book. Just not my cup of tea.

Overall, The Monarchs is a book that shows magic is not all that it seems.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on 10th January 2022.

I loved 'The Ravens', consuming the thrilling story in a day and writing an enthusiastic 5 star review. 'The Monarchs' had a lot to live up to! Danielle Paige and Kass Morgan once again throw us into the lives of the Kappa Rho Nu sorority who are still hurting from the death and drama of last semester. Of course, these girls get no break from the threat of evil as it becomes apparent something is lurking to bring Kappa down... Scarlett's legacy as president and Vivi's development as a witch are in jeopardy as we follow the race against time to keep Kappa, and the Westerley campus at large, safe.

Some of this story treads familiar territory from the first book as we see these characters navigate a new semester. Vivi is increasingly discovering her powers and learning new magic, particularly throwing lavish parties in her new role as social chair, and Scarlett is stubborn as always in her pursuit of Kappa supremacy. We still get the romantic element as both girls are trying to get a relationship to work, despite not being honest about their magical abilities. There are some truly gripping moments in the narrative, particularly both narrators being haunted by chillingly real visions of the events of the last semester as they try to work out who is responsible for the new threat to their safety.

However (SPOILER ALERT) the Kappas are stripped of their magic for HALF OF THE BOOK. For me, this is when the book lost some of its spark for me. I understand that Morgan and Paige were trying to help the Kappas understand what living without their magic is like, and bring down their arrogance, but I missed the exciting spells and magical discoveries which were lost at this moment. I thought this is where the 'Monarchs' would support and embrace the novel's title... this did not happen in any way! (END OF SPOILER)

Overall, this was still a great story with plenty of twists. I would read more about Kappa Rho Nu (maybe a time jump this time? Give these girls a break - world ending evil every semester? Even they cannot be that unlucky). 4 stars. and more sequels please!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.