Another book that wasn't really what I expected. I was sold on the idea of this being about someone who was trying to steal magic from witches, but that isn't really what the book is about.

Really, this is a book about two people learning the shape of each other, facing danger together and learning to look beyond all of their preconceptions. It is about being bold, admitting you are wrong and agreeing to try to be better.

The magic stealing part forms a slightly disappointingly small part of this book, always hovering in the background, but almost never being at the forefront of the story.

The relationships in this book felt real, and it was very interesting to see how multi-faceted they all were.

I don't know whether this book hopes for a sequel, or whether I missed something towards the end, but what happened to Gemma?!

I really wanted to like this one, because the premise is so intriguing - a woman with a gift for free magic, a secret university and hidden witches. However I think that the plot overall was way too complex and convoluted for it to work. Add in the overly flowery writing and I found the plot meandered too much to hold my interest. A lot of plot threads are never resolved either, which is a massive bugbear of mine. I'm still mad that we don't get any resolution about Gemma.

I liked the overall dynamics between Teddy and Aurelia. They're true rivals to lovers with a lot of chemistry, with all the bickering and banter that goes with it. Their relationship was well done, and to be honest they definitely carried the story somewhat. I just wish more happened plot wise, because the pacing just wasn't there.

Great chemistry but the plot needed to be puncher and the writing just wasn't to my taste.

I love this book so much! I love the addition of the prologue chapter compared to the self published version of the book. I will be buying a copy and reccomending this book to students.

The story is interesting but I unfortunately found the writing to be too clunky and a bit all over the place. It reads more like a first draft than a finished novel. I do think that the author shows promise and I would try one of their other books, but this one sadly just wasn’t for me

I'm gonna be honest, I struggled with this book. A friend of mine read it too (the self published version though which comes with a lot of editing and different. The author said it's best to read the new version). That being said, I don't think this was for me. I love realism magic so I was a bit dissapointed because I thought I was going to love it but nothing is explained (which isn't a problem but here ; nothing made sense to me). I wanted to know more about the magic. But what threw me of the most was the characters which I didn't like very much and once you don't care for a character it's hard to get through it. Now I see why people would love it and I'm sure a lot will. The writing for example is really beautiful!

I absolutely loved this book! I discovered it a bit late and decided to wait for the traditionally published version, and I’m so glad I did. The academic rivals to lovers trope is one of my favorites, and this book captured it perfectly. It's an ideal read for December, with its winter vibes.

The romance between Teddy and Aurelia was remarkable—I adored their characters and their dynamic. Everything about this story was wonderful!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to review this book <3

I was desperate to read this as it's been compared to A Discovery of Witches which is one of my favs, unfortunately this didn't quite work for me and I ended up DNFing, I found the writing too flowery and it felt complex for the sake of it? I liked the characters and general mood but it was hard to keep engaged

Brilliantly dark and witchy with the best kind of atmosphere that gave me so many A Discovery of Witches vibes. Loved it!

DNFed at 10%.

The prose in this was absolutely tortuous. I kept having to double back and reread sentences to understand what was actually being said. It was full of weird metaphors and similes that made no sense and added little to the descriptions. The dialogue was incredibly stilted. Characters swung violently from one emotional extreme to another in the space of a couple of sentences at a time. Very unejoyable, couldn't keep reading.

Title: Modern Divination
Author: Isabel Agajanian
Pages: 418
Rating: 2/5

"Make no promises,
Tell no one what you are,
and
Never stay the night."

This seemed like an incredible slow burn read. The fire between the two characters was intense. I did struggle though, as I felt there were lots of gaps at the beginning causing a lot of confusion on my side. (That could have been me, reading in my tired state between feeding the baby)
The plot had so much potential and picked up after the 70% mark. But I did finish with more questions than answers like I've missed something.

I can see why it's being described as a howl/Sophie dynamic, but for me it didn't land.

Maybe my old age leaves me little sympathy to a full book on wallowing.

The intimacy scene was divine though.

I can see why people enjoyed it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. (And that's ok!)

You'll love this book if you like
- slow burn romance
- found family
- enemies to lovers
- academic rivals
- Howl's moving castle

I adore this book. I read the self-published version a year ago and was pleased to see that this version had very few changes. The Dark academia witchy vibes were immaculate but the romance was the creme-de-la-creme for me - the slowburn, the yearning 🫠. I am very much looking forward to the conclusion of this duology and I'm glad that more people get to enjoy Isa's lush prose.

I really enjoyed this book. It's actually my second time reading it - I purchased and read it a couple years ago when it was self published. Its been a while since I first read it so my memory could be off, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it much unchanged, maybe a few tweaks and tighter writing. I loved the characters and the atmosphere its very moody and cozy and mysterious with the barest touch of horror. And who doesn't love academic rivals to lovers, he falls first? Delicious. There is just something missing that I can't quite put my finger on to make it to 5 stars. I kinda remember this being my take away the first time around too. So close to perfect. Just at times I had a hard time connecting with the story or understanding the stakes or the motivations of the characters. But for the most part, extremely compelling, a solid 4+. Recommend!

I’m grateful I was able to read this early, I enjoyed this story.

I need to state for the record that academic rivals is becoming a new favourite trope. Mixing this with an enemies to lovers vibe and magic is superb. This story had some darkness to it, the villain of the plot Leona actually creeped me out a lot.

This isn’t an ordinary story of magic, it was unique and layered with so much more to say. I really look forward to a continuation of the story and our characters hopefully.

I feel very conflicted about this book. On the one hand, the romance EATS. It has the most immaculate yearning and the characters are fleshed out so incredibly well they feel real.

On the other hand, this didn't even feel like it had been edited. I have so many issues with the pacing and I found myself having to reread sentences constantly to try and puzzle out what Agajanian was trying to say. Some of the language was beautiful but near nonsensical.

Saying that, I loved the ending and it does a good job of getting you excited for the sequel. Rory and Teddy have my heart, but I can't give this book more than 3 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine and are freely given.

3.25/5 stars

I think this book will work really well for readers who love character driven stories, flowery prose, and tortured MCs. Based on everything I had seen about this book, I expected it to be exactly what I wanted to read, but unfortunately it didn't work for me basically from the beginning. I went in expecting a wonderful found family/romance book with witches, a murder investigation, a Howl coded MMC, and more. And while technically it had all those elements, they all felt forced and stilted and I had a really hard time getting through this book, let alone enjoying it.

The prose throughout the entirety of the book, but especially the first 30% felt way too flowery/overdone and it made it feel longer than it should. It also made everything the characters said to each other feel out of place/almost disingenuous. I didn't feel connected to the characters through the majority of the book, especially Aurelia. She held everyone, including the reader, at arms length. In doing so, her connection to the other characters felt lacking. I believe part of this is purposeful, but it's never really explained. One of the main plot points that's spoken of in the blurb of the book is that witches aren't supposed to tell anyone that they're witches, and that there's grave consequences for doing so, but that also maybe that's wrong. We are told that covens exist, but we never see any. The main characters have basically zero witch friends, and there appears to be no way to actively seek out any fellow witches when you move to new places, or really at all. So we get the knowledge that the covens *exist* but in this nebulous aspect where the main characters don't have access to them in any way. It was just one of many instances where it felt like a gaping plot hole that could have resolved so many things had it been fixed.

The found family was lukewarm at best. Everyone seems to dislike each other and keep each other at arms length until the end of the book, when suddenly they're all super close knit? The romance felt both too slow and too rushed. We see Aurelia's thought process, but the author "shows" us Teddy falling through Aurelia interpreting his glances and words, rather than us getting any real substantive information from Teddy himself. We only get I believe 3 chapters from Teddy's POV, and they don't give us a lot to go off of. Instead we get the author telling us Aurelia's interpretation of his actions, words, and glances, and are made to feel like this is supposed to be enough/be FOR SURE Teddy's feelings. At the end I do feel like we got to see how much they cared for each other, but it felt like too little, too late, and it also felt like we had had all this build up, angst, pining, and tip toeing around each other, only for them to sleep together one night, and then leave each other rather than trying to do any form of "long distance" even though they really aren't that far away from each other and could likely see each other frequently.

The Leona plot thread didn't feel urgent throughout any of the story, and then got wrapped up at an odd point in the book, while also leaving so many unsolved plot threads. There were so many things that happened that should have resulted in consequences, but we as readers are never shown them. It's definitely being set up for a 2nd book in my opinion, but literally nothing is concretely wrapped up in this book except Leona, which felt so rushed, and also felt like it isn't totally wrapped up either.

There were also a lot of dialogue heavy moments where things ran together and made it difficult to distinguish who was speaking. Aurelia would say something or be spoken to and would respond out loud and then have a secondary inner response and I frequently had to reread to make sure I didn't misread things. The book also uses ' instead of " for dialogue which was just confusing to me but I was able to get used to it. There were also quite a few tense changes that I'm assuming will be fixed before release date?

Overall I'm honestly really disappointed in myself for not liking this book more, and wish I'd gone in with lower expectations. It had so many elements that I liked, but none of them were executed in a way that made sense to me. I will be interested to see how the final version ends up, and may try getting through the library/Libby, but don't think I would pick this up otherwise.

Finally!! Real yearning for your nemesis is back.

Modern Divination is the dreamy, witchy, autumnal slow-burn academic rivals book of my dreams. From the start I was absolutely enthralled by Agajanian’s gorgeous and evocative prose and wanted to do nothing else but live in this beautiful world they have created. The characters feel extremely real - they are flawed and raw and messy - and I adore it. Aurelia is a fantastic protagonist, and I love the time and effort the narrative takes in allowing her to develop at her own pace. This then being paired with Teddy Ingram (and his own development), one of my favourite love interests for SUCH a long time results in the most scrumptious yearning and hauntingly beautiful relationship!!!! I could talk about them for hours. Their banter!!!!!!!!

Do yourself the biggest favour and read this book when it’s dark outside and you're under a blanket with a hot drink. It is how it is meant to be read.

Excited doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel about book 2. I can’t wait for this book to be [traditionally] published in Jan 2025 so we’re one step closer to returning to these characters.

Thank you to Tor, Pan Macmillan, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.

I first read Modern Divination about a year and a half ago when it was indie released, and have thought about these characters regularly. I literally squealed when I found out it was picked up by Tor for traditional publishing, and immediately contacted everyone I could think to about an ARC because I was that desperate to read it again. I finished it last night, and I think I loved it even more than I did the first time. This book is the most prime example of slow burn and pining. Teddy and Aurelia are the moody couple of my dreams. And that is all on top of an excellent, enthralling plot that will keep you guessing. One of my favorite books growing up was The Magic of Reason by Justine Larbastier, and the magic system in Modern Divination is the closest resemblance to that I have found. I absolutely loved this book, and I hope that it garners all of the love and support it deserves. I can't wait to read the sequel when it releases. Out in the UK January 30th. Out in the US May 6th, 2024.

This is a slow burn story of academic, rivals and magic. At times I did feel it was a lot and quite confusing but ending with the potential of a second book.

ahhh!!!! i was exactly in the mood for a book like this, so this perfectly delivered on all fronts. the elements of the book where i would've usually been a bit annoyed—repetition, pacing, etc. were all irrelevant to me because the romance, atmosphere, and world was truly so fun. i believe i wouldn't have enjoyed this as much if i wasn't in the mood for it, and i do hence have to take off one star from my rating, but otherwise this was a wonderful debut!

Unfortunately I DNFed this book, I really wanted to enjoy it and it was one of my anticipated reads. I loved the academia setting and the character building but the pacing was a bit slow and confusing and I found myself losing concentration and struggling to grasp what was really happening. However, I know a lot of people enjoy this book so please don't let my opinions sway you!