One of my most anticipated books of 2024 that I have been eyeing for months!
It's a dark academia setting with the story following 4 scholars who join High Realms. Life here is guided and the new bees find it difficult to fit in due to several reasons but one in particular is about to strangle them in dark corners.

The book had me hooked from page 1, the plot is totally gripping and it felt absolutely perfect. The pacing is fast enough for a thriller, and the way the pupils guard their dark secrets, and how they manage the activities at the premises are what got me 100% invested in the story and I couldn't help but keep reading nonstop until I knew how this ends. This was devastatingly good.

Thank you @netgalley @ellieclarekeel @harpercollinsuk for the ARC.
Genre: #darkacademia #mystery #thriller
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, HQ and Harper Collins UK audio for my ARC of this book.

Follow The Four scholarship students(Marta, Sammie, Rose and Lloyd) as they navigate the toxic environment of High Realms boarding school. The Fours friendship is tested to the limits when one of them is accused of a horrific crime.

I would describe this one more as a young adult read. It is however very dark as it does not shy away from some very graphic bullying scenes. At times it is very harrowing but the author really skilfully develops the characters. We see the intricacies of the “Fours” friendship and what so tightly binds them together.

I’d seen this book all over the internet and it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. However I feel it fell a little short of my expectations as unfortunately at times it felt quite slow and I felt that it may have benefitted from being told from multiple perspectives rather than just the one perspective. It definitely hasn’t put me off reading more of the authors books in the future though.

I both read and listened to the audiobook of this one. The narrator did a fantastic job of encompassing the characters.

**Listened to the audiobook as well as reading an electronic text**

This book started well for me - I love a thriller set in a school. However, the more the book went on, the less it felt like a dark academia thriller, but a YA school drama! It felt VERY YA! (Not sure if it's categorised as that?)
I think this book was far too long too - i think it would definitely benefit from having 100 or so pages cut from this.

Overall this book was just OK - it's not one that will stay with me, and not one that I would necessarily recommend. However I enjoyed the reading experience at the time. Just not one to rave about!

Didn’t do anything for me I’m sorry. I felt like I was listening to YA book with way too many posh kids names a way too much OTT drama.

My kind of book! Narrator, excellent. Absolutely loved everything about this. I couldn’t stop listening. Ellie Keel is definitely on my author list. Thanks NetGalley and publishers for the audio arc. 5 stars.

Four scholarship students’ dreams come true when they are accepted into an exclusive boarding school, but they will soon be bound by a dark secret that could save one of them… or destroy them all… This cover and title got me intrigued… and I loved this!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me listen to this book in exchange for my review. Impossible to resist, impossible to predict, impossible to put down . . .