Thank you NetGalley and Tara O'Toole for the ARC!

While I enjoyed the dark academia setting and mystery, I found that the plot could have been more cohesive. That said, I did enjoy the complex characters!

I'm torn about this book. I liked the magic system and the dark academia setting, but it just didn't spark or keep my interest.

The Lost Apprentice is the kind of book that pulls you in and doesn’t let go. It’s got that perfect mix of dark academia, mystery, and magic, all set against the hauntingly beautiful backdrop of Ireland.

Fiadh isn’t just another ambitious apprentice—she has a mission. Her cousin vanished after joining this elite (and ruthless) legal program, and she’s determined to find out why. But the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that the truth isn’t just buried—it’s protected by something far more powerful than law. The magic system is fresh and brilliantly woven into the mystery, making every revelation even more intense.

And the characters? Messy, flawed, and completely compelling. Fiadh’s circle is full of tension, shifting dynamics, and relationships that make it impossible to tell who’s friend or foe. The Irish setting only adds to the book’s immersive, almost eerie tone, and I loved that Tara O’Toole included a pronunciation guide (lifesaver!). The bits of Irish language scattered throughout made the world feel even more vivid and left me wanting to learn more.

I couldn’t put this one down. The pacing is razor-sharp, the twists are relentless, and just when I thought I had it figured out—bam, another curveball. It’s been a while since a mystery kept me this hooked.

If you love fast-paced, twisty stories with magic, tension, and just the right touch of romance, The Lost Apprentice needs to be on your list.

I loved this so much! The build up to the secret society was perfect. I loved each character, the secrets and mystery that surrounded everything and I really enjoyed the atmosphere to this book!

such a great read!

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

What caught my eye was the cover. I think it reflects the themes/vibes present in the story. The concept is there. You can see it as you read. There is mystery that (initially) engages curiosity. Though this story wasn’t what I thought it would be, the potential is there. I’m rooting for author and can appreciate the time they put into this work.

I think this has a really interesting premise, I love mysteries but ultimately this failed to keep me interested. The mystery aspect of the book felt like an afterthought, instead the secret society takes main stage. I think the author could have found a better balance between the two to make the story more cohesive. There was also a lot of focus on the legal profession which is not something I’m not well versed in. I skimmed through some of those parts because I don’t feel like they contributed to the overall story.

I really love The Lost Apprentice. I am so excited to see a fantasy/dark academia/thriller that takes place in Ireland. The inclusion of Irish folklore was very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Overall, I would say this was an entertaining mystery to become absorbed in if you are looking for a quick read. It definitely could have used some more work on the plot itself, as there were many times when I would begin to lose interest and some of the comedic elements felt forced and out of place. The characters were all unique and I did enjoy their connections and the romantic element of the plot. The nickname "swan man" did seem overused at points and just strange after a while. I would definitely recommend this to others!

DNF @ 28%. I love a dark academia setting, but one of the things I love about it is pairing the setting with an academic level of writing. I’ve read this in books like The Secret History, Babel, and The Historian. Unfortunately the writing in the Lost Apprentice doesn’t live up to its setting or predecessors and reading it was more akin to fan fiction than literary fiction it’s aspiring to.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I’m so sad that I didn’t enjoy this book like I thought I was going to. I wasn’t fully invested in the characters but I loved the premise of the book. I felt like I was forcing myself to continue the story because I wanted to know what happened to Muriel but didn’t have the patience to continue so I did DNF at 55%.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun thriller! I liked the magic system, the characters felt distinct and diverse, and it was really interesting to dive into Ireland’s apprentice program. The ending was a little rushed for me and it felt a little predictable, but overall, it was an enjoyable read.

A fantasy novel where the main characters are lawyers?! Sign. Me. Up.

As a law student, this book was an absolute treat! The Lost Apprentice takes legal drama, blends it with magic, and sets it all against an atmospheric Dublin backdrop—what’s not to love?

What Worked:
✅ Engaging writing style – The sentence structure and rich vocabulary made for a compelling read. No dry prose here!
✅ Fast-paced plot – The story moves quickly, keeping you hooked from start to finish.
✅ Subtle (but well-executed) romance – I didn’t expect smut in this book, but hey, it was tastefully done!
✅ Dublin’s magic – The setting felt alive, with just the right touch of Irish history to add depth.

What Could’ve Been Better:
⚖️ The mystery element wasn’t all that mysterious, but it did its job moving the plot forward.
⚖️ The ending felt a bit Scooby-Doo-esque—not necessarily a bad thing, but it could have packed more punch.

Final Verdict: If you’re a fan of dark academia with a legal twist, this one’s for you. I’d love to own a physical copy myself! ✨📖

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

"First impressions matter, so make it a good one." But can you ever really trust your first impression of someone? #TheLostApprentice focuses on young men and women in the midst of their first years working in law, and striving to "earn their places" while also being confronted with things that are not always as they seem surface-level.

Love, hate, insecurity and determination are mixed in with a little magic and soul-selling in this story that catches you off-guard with plot twists.

This story follows Fiadh Whelan, who is trying to figure out what happened to her cousin Muriel, who went missing 6 months ago. In order to find out what actually happened to her, Fiadh ends up applying to the same rigorous internship that Muriel was a part of as she believes that it has something to do with her disappearance. During the first meet-up of the apprentices, Fiadh gets sucked into an even darker world, which is a secret society called the Society of Solicitors. Believing her cousin was also involved, she now must juggle her intense internship, becoming a member of this society, and still trying to find out what happened to her cousin. Eventually, Fiadh does become a member of the society and learns that members have a tool for a sort of magic that can make people behave in certain ways, but doing so causes part of their soul to be taken from them. Soon things start happening to Fiadh and her co-apprentices at the firm she is interning at, and they all realize that someone is hexing them. Fiadh is convinced it is one of the older apprentices that knew her cousin, and she stops at nothing to figure out the truth.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. Once the action starts happening, the book kept me interested the whole time and I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the secret society aspect of the novel especially with the added use of magic, which was done in a really unique way I thought. It was a fun legal thriller. The one thing I wish the author expanded more on was the actually schooling/classes/internship stuff more because once the action started up, it was go go go go. This book was definitely unexpected for me, and I'm glad! I honestly hope the author writes more books set in this world with these characters!

Dark academia, winter vibes. The authors writing was fairly predictable so I wasn't shocked when the twists happened but overall decent read

3,5/5

I picked up this book while deep in my binge-watching-law-TV-series phase, fresh off catching up on an ongoing show, and "The Lost Apprentice" seamlessly filled the void.

You think you're getting a legal mystery, but surprise! You also get secret societies, a dash of cultism, and a bucketful of unexpected magic.

What worked for me:

✔ Quick, snappy, and impossible to put down – A fast-paced read with just the right amount of twists, made even more addictive by its short, bingeable chapters.
✔ The secret society/cult dynamic—nothing like some good old-fashioned shady traditions to keep things interesting.
✔ The classic Scooby-Doo gang dynamic – This book serves up a perfect example of how *group projects* actually work. PTSD reactivated.
✔ The Irish flavor—the use of phraseologies, along with the sprinkling of Irish Gaelic, gave the book a unique voice.
✔ Magic? In MY legal thriller? You wouldn’t expect it, but it works surprisingly well—an unexpected yet oddly fitting touch, complete with a cozy magic system.

What didn’t quite win me over:

❌ Some characters felt like they were missing a key argument—and for the first time ever, I wasn’t a big fan of the comic relief character, but he did have his good moments as well.
❌ The predictability factor: Once I got into the rhythm of Tara O’Toole’s writing, I started guessing major twists before they happened. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it did take away some of the mystery.
❌ Some moments seemed designed for foreshadowing but instead felt out of place.
❌ Dramatic leaps in logic – Certain characters had a talent for drawing conclusions out of thin air rather than actual facts.
❌ Main character’s questionable expectations – She makes some bold assumptions about friendships and loyalty, and let’s just say… I had some thoughts.


While the book's concept and genre might not be a "trending read" right now, it’s a solid case of “unexpected but enjoyable.” If you like legal mysteries with a side of cults and a *dash* of magic, it’s worth adding to your reading docket.

La premisa del libro me pareció bastante interesante, es sobre una sociedad secreta y tiene elementos de academia oscura, genero que me gusta mucho y el misterio que nuestra protagonista esta intentando descubrir. Desafortunadamente si bien la trama logró atraparme por momentos siento que el estilo de escritura no es mi favorito y el ritmo de la trama no lo sentí completamente fluido.

What sets this story apart is its emotional resonance. Fiadh’s relentless pursuit of the truth is not just about solving a mystery; it’s about justice, grief, and the desperate need for closure. Her internal conflict that is balancing her ambition with the emotional toll of her mission, feels raw and real. The novel doesn't shy away from exploring the burden of expectations, both self-imposed and societal, making Fiadh a protagonist readers can root for.

let's talk about the pacing. The pacing is taut and relentless, reflecting Fiadh’s urgency. I think the novel balances legal procedural elements with suspenseful twists. The tension builds methodically, and just when you think you have the plot figured out, the story pivots in unexpected ways. The stakes feel genuine, and the consequences of each revelation hit hard, making for a read that is difficult to put down.

The setting is an elite legal environment steeped in secrecy and is vividly rendered, creating an atmosphere that is both alluring and ominous. The world of The Lost Apprentice feels richly developed, from the rigid hierarchy of apprenticeships to the veiled machinations. Every scene is meticulously written, drawing me into Fiadh’s world with striking imagery and immersive descriptions. Tara O'Toole's ability to depict both the sterile professionalism of the law firm and the underlying darkness lurking beneath its surface adds to the novel’s layered storytelling.

The Lost Apprentice is more than just a mystery but it’s a story about resilience, the cost of ambition, and the gray morality of power. It’s a book that doesn’t just entertain; it challenges readers to consider what they would sacrifice in pursuit of the truth. A compelling, thought-provoking read that lingers long after the final page.

The mystery was not a mystery. The romance was not romancing. The fantasy was barely fantasy. The Dark Academia was not dark or even really academia.

For a book that's supposed to be about the MC's lost cousin, 50% in and no attempts have been made at all to figure out what happened. 75% and still minimal attempts! And you want to know why? Because it's actually not really that much of a mystery at all, so instead of putting the story towards that, we just get random nonsense for the majority of the book to distract you from the fact that this could've been sorted out with Fiadh asking her "suspect" once at all anything about Muriel. But nope, why do that when we can run around on a mountain or throw turnips at each other!

Literally nothing any characters said or did made sense at all, and the story was so shallow. You can't give me a magical secret society and say this person is gonna teach them everything, then show nothing at all. And basically immediately people are doing hexing? When they are explicitly told that will get them kicked out? What?

I actually chose to watch the Super Bowl rather than finish reading this book, and I hate football. So... yeah.

Thanks to NetGalley providing an eARC of The Lost Apprentice.

“Isn't anyone going to ask why it took only one wayward root vegetable to turn Blackhall into a turnip-fuelled fight club? Or care to wonder why we have so much repressed rage bottled up inside of us? Or ask what might be traumatising the future members of the legal profession they claim to care so much about?"

Firstly, "The Lost Apprentice" is very misleadingly being advertised as a dark academia novel, which it is not. it vaguely tries to mention how perceptions of Irish students from different cities differ and tries to build a disparity between Dubliners and non-dubliners, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Nor does the academia side of things—we're told that the apprentices must find time for both their studies and work, but I can't recall more than a few paragraphs in one chapter mentioning that they attend a class. Otherwise, we're just told how overworked they are and how busy the case keeps them.

told told told. everything is told, very explicitly, very clearly, lest the reader misinterprets anything. This book is very heavy on the telling, exhaustingly so. we're shown characters go for a cup of coffee after a cup of coffee—in the very few scenes we get at the law firm, that is—but it is emphasised yet in words that they have so. much. work. work that we're not actually seeing them do, we're just told it was done, behind the scenes, totally pulled all-nighters on all these tasks. This is particularly egregious at the final confrontation, but I'll get to that.

there' just so much to this book that could've been fleshed out better, developed with more depth, overall polished and made good, but none of it was. and i was very intrigued to read it! Ireland is a nice setting with a lot of potential when you mix catholicism with paganism (which was done, again, very briefly). lawyers who make deals with (maybe) the devil, driven by ambition and competitiveness? I love "Suits", sign me up!

but then it just didn't work. and i think a big problem is, at the end of the day and at just short of 300 pages, this book didn't know what it wanted to be, and ended up being nothing. not a romance, not a dark academia, not a modern fantasy, not a mystery. Let's break that down. I'll mark some sections as spoilers as they reveal key relationships or plot developments.

ROMANCE
Let's start with maybe the most bland part of the book—the romance. It's set up pretty much page one, with both Fiadh and Keefe's shared introduction. This is also where we establish keefe's nickname, "swan man" which continues to plague the. entire. book. even as they grow closer together.

The instantaneous setup made this so predictable, it kind of soured the story for me. He's introduced as a rival, but they don't really have a rivalry over anything? On the contrary, they team up early on. i was hope there'd be at least some intrigue with dawson ruffling some feathers (pun tragically intended), but nope, the conflict was minimal.

The biggest issue here, for me, was the instalove. When you put it all together, the story lasts a month—it starts with the "chill October" and ends in early november. There was no time for the relationship between Fiadh and Keefe to progress in a believable manner at the speed they were going along.

I don't mind them hooking up. If anything, that makes the most sense—they're physically attracted to each other, they're stuck with each other all day studying, working, and scheming. It's the same rules that apply to medical residents, where spending all day with someone might lead to spending the night with them too. However, the actual hookup chapter itself had issues, especially related to descriptions. those may have been overlooked by an editor and fixed in the final version. I couldn't tell if one particular line, identically repeated a handful of paragraphs apart, was a motif or an oversight. and for the love of god, after all that, why would she continue calling him "swan man"? i'd rather she'd called him by his last name, it would've put a powerful pin to the end of the story.

tl;dr more buildup and tension was needed, but due to the short time setting and the page count, it lacked space to be fleshed out.

DARK ACADEMIA
I have big gripes here because of how the book was marketed. Dark academia, to me, should be a critique of an overly romanticized, overly privileged depictions of the higher education system. The only place where I'd say this book gets it right is dismantling the romanticized vision—no, it's not good that law apprentices are overworked to exhaustion, and the book does not try to pretend that hard work pays off. I appreciated it, as well as the dedication to those who helped women in Ireland get rights to practice law.

In terms of privilege, there's not much done to tackle it. Nepotism runs rampant, and as far as I recall, every main character was a white Irish person. I think one of the rivals was implied to be a woman of colour, and Peadar's boyfriend is briefly mentioned, but not much in terms of diversity.

The education itself, as I've mentioned, does not play a big role here. We're told they're at the most prestigious law school in Ireland, but we don't really see other students aside from one small rival group, nor do we see them in actual classes. They reference a couple cases they'd studied, go to one lecture, then go to a pretend lecture held by the secret society. That's about it. Other than this, we're just told they're kept busy by school and apprenticeship, but, again, the plot only lasts a month. They've been here a month, we don't even get to have an idea of the kind of work they're doing in practice. They're just exhausted two weeks in and we have to believe it, because that's what happens to solicitor apprentices in this particular law school.

MODERN FANTASY
This is the part that was the most interesting, but also felt like it restricted the story a bit. O'Toole takes a very interesting approach in how the magic system works. Having the magic wielders craft deeds based on the norms of legal acts is actually really cool and I love that there's a need to be very precise, otherwise, the consequences can be considerable. I do wish more could've been done with the leeway of consequences, just to see how they look in practice, other than one spell countering another. I also think it's interesting that you need two or more people for an effective spell, otherwise the sacrifice can be at your life. Again, cool concept that was executed pretty well. The problem is that we didn't see all that much of it till the end.

I'm not sure the rule that no first-years can cast spells was that necessary, considering they did as they pleased; maybe greater consequences could've been done. Overall, I'd say this is the best fleshed-out part of the story, it just felt that we only good the good bits at the very end, and in very quick succession. It would've been nice to see more coherence between dark academia and modern fantasy—don't tell us they're reading about spells, show us how they find different types of scrolls and compare the writings to find loopholes. Give them more depth. Build on the intrigue and curiosity. You have a great, pretty unique concept here, but the potential isn't realised.

Sidenote: the references to hell were kind of goofy. Some subtlety could've been employed. It really felt like the author did not trust the reader to find anything between the lines and had to chew everything up for them beforehand.

MYSTERY
I'm putting this whole thing under spoilers given that it touches the disappearance of Muriel and the secret society.

Plain and simple: Muriel felt like an afterthought. Despite being Fiadh's core reason to starting this apprenticeship, she fades into the background pretty quickly. We are, once again, TOLD how close they were as children, but besides a single flashback, there's not much there. She's a shell before we even learn of her fate.

Even when the discovery happens, there's little intrigue or struggle to deal with her circumstances. Oh those get resolved the next page, don't worry, she's fine. She walks off the stage abruptly despite being pretty much Fiadh's reason to live, which was so strange? You don't want to talk about what happened now that you have time? Huh? I though you were basically like sisters, blood-bound to each other?

The secret society was ominous until it wasn't. Oh, sure, you could assume some of the people at the company were part of the secret society—how could they not be? It was established they were the best of the best in Ireland, going to the best law school, working at the best law firms, the true creme de la creme. But every single named character who had anything vaguely to do with law?

Without going into too much depth, the grand finale was such a slop of talktalktalktalktalkwemusttalkwithoutshowinganythingever it reminded me an awful lot of "Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore", a book with an ending where everything is resolved through a single character's monologue, who, by the way, invited every single menial side character for the storytime. It was painful to get through and played a lot into convenience of people being at the right place at the right time saying the right things and playing the right moves. It felt too calculated.

To briefly touch on the epilogue, I hated it. There's no other way to put it. We get a two-day time jump, where we are T O L D how Muriel's situation with her family was resolved, and in less than a page, we're supposed to be left wondering if Fiadh is rejoining the gang or not. Without even a single clue of her relationship with Keefe or how that might be impacted. A longer time jump would've worked better—or no epilogue at all.

A couple bonus sections of things I want to cover the really needed either more through editing or more fleshing out:

IRELAND
Ireland is, obviously, at the very core of this story, and there was much to appreciate—some tidbits of history, some lovely sceneries, use of the Irish language. However, the way it was presented, felt sort of awkward. I didn't mind as much characters not recognising certain locations—I couldn't pinpoint local monuments in Plungė or what the nature looks like near Ignalina.

It was once again the problem of telling without showing. You'd have character A and B, both Irish, speak. Character A says something in Irish, then themselves immediately translated to English. Character B says something in English, but a little while later also says something in Irish. Two characters speaking Irish should not need to translate into English for each other themselves. In that instance, it would make more sense to use footnotes for the reader's guidance. The characters are not confused about what's being said, and the dialogue is only done this way for the benefit of the reader, leading to awkward interactions.

Likewise, Irish characters tell each other about historical and cultural moments that the other would more than likely know, in a very objective, Wikipedia-article-retelling kind of manner. Perhaps it would've worked better if they shared sentiments about their childhood and how they did such customs at school or at home, to bring some sense of personality to it. It just felt like the assumption the reader wouldn't know triumphed over how the characters would naturally communicate.

STYLE AND GRAMMAR
Here's where my theory about a rushed production gets some weight. There's something very, very off with the style of this book. The persistent separation of compound and complex sentences with a full stop rather than a comma peeved me from the very beginning. i thought it was a typo at first, but it kept going the whole book. it really messed with the reading flow and didn't make a lot of sense. I can't say if that's what the final version of the book looks like, but I imagine so, given how much would need to be reedited.

I also think there was a very strict deadline and word limit, given the pacing issues. The story only took place over a span of a month, with frequent time jumps. As mentioned, some individual days, like the initiation, were given several chapters to cover in detail, while others we'd just get "a few days had passed" or "can you believe it's only been two weeks?" It really impacted the quality of the pacing.

Toward the end of the book, more typos and errors popped up, like wrong turns of phrases ("leave him go" instead of let him go or leave him be, small spelling errors, the likes), giving the impression that the book needed to be submitted ASAP, final checks be damned. It didn't give a very good impression of attentiveness.

Okay, we've been here long enough, let's wrap up.

Perhaps if this book had been a good 150-200 pages longer, it would've had more time to flesh all these topics out and be overall more coherent. Perhaps then the plot would not have been a handful of weeks shoved into a very short time, where four chapters can encompass a single hour, followed by a weekend-long time skip. even the epilogue felt cheap with how ridiculously short the time skip was.

I saw the author mention on social media that there are plans for a series, and honestly, I would be willing to revisit it! I'd be willing to give it another chance, perhaps with more POVs of the rest of the heron early squad, or a different group of solicitors in the same universe. There's a good foundation here, and I'm very sad that the execution failed so quickly.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.