Thank you to Nelle Nikole and Mikayla D. Hornedo and NetGalley, for the amazing opportunity to read : Kuxtal Academy: The Beginning as an ARC.

Key words : fae, magic school, found family
These are my thoughts during and after the reading.

The big map of the academy makes me glad I don’t study there—I’d be lost. Pinterest boards are a big yes, and the pronunciation guide is helpful, but I don’t think the magic guide is necessary since it should be explained in the book maybe just as a reminder for book 2. The start is promising, with bad parents but a good sibling dynamic, making me want to read more. Koa and Sienna are definitely endgame. Wren’s first appearance left me unsure, but now I love him. There are too many powers (20!!), and I’m confused most of the time, but Wren has that “bad guy with a pure heart” vibe that I like. Koa being at school and having a club is impressive time management. The beginning was hard to get into and a bit long, but it gets much better. Orange and green as favorite colors scream Katniss and Peeta to me. I’m tired of the parents they are so annoying !! and it took me a while to understand the relationship between Iris and Celeste. The fated mates and tattoos felt a bit too much like ACOTAR, but I still liked how it was explained. I’m excited to read the rest—I wasn’t expecting much from the book but was pleasantly surprised by its blend of magical realism and fantasy.

I simply cannot resist a magical academy story, so I was really excited to get this ARC and die into another world of fae school. What really stood out to me was the character development of the main group – I really loved these characters and their relationships with one another. I especially loved the brother/sister bond between Koa and Mila.

Something that I struggled with, however, was the worldbuilding as a whole. I feel like I still have a lot of unanswered questions about the governmental body and the soul-driven magic that all fae in this world possess. I would have loved to get more detail and a deeper download of the various magics early on in the story. I found myself flipping to the reference pages at the beginning a lot to try and understand all the different branches of magic. I did still enjoy the story, and will read the next book in the series (because I need to know what happens after that cliffhanger).