A blond fellow lassos his arm in the air and the dozen barrels tremor. A haze fills the air, rippling like rain on a window. It clears and he does it again, and this time the barrels disappear. I squint, my heart lodged in my throat. A darkly tantalizing tale of intrigue, glamor, and romance." —Amélie Wen Zhao, New York Times bestselling author of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night I turn, but in every direction the walls have shifted or closed in. There are no bathroom signs, no blaring red light pointing toward an exit anymore. Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: Essentially, the bare bones of this book had the makings of something interesting. The magic system and the premise were intriguing. But I simply was not interested.

I think I will probably try and read this again another time because I did want to like it but on first read it overall was not for me. I do think it was marketed weirdly as I was not expecting this book to be quite so young though that isn't usually a problem for me as I do enjoy YA.

J. Elle

House of Marionne isa captivating contemporary fantasy that’s sure to enchant readers from the start. Perfect for fans of magical boarding schools, dark secrets, and books with glittering atmosphere." —Kerri Maniscalco, #1 New York Times bestselling author Soon Quell realises that hiding who you are is even harder, especially when she meets the handsome, brooding Jordon. My envelope from my job slips from my fingers, and I try to dash for it as it tumbles to the pavement. Next, we have our male lead Jordan. A handsome cardboard cutout that reads "Handsome Shadow Daddy". Because I think that's what we're going for. Sadly, it's falling flat for me because I haven't seen any particular charm or cute banter. Maybe that comes later and I'm too impatient but I have a lot of books to read and not enough time, so I need to make some tough calls.

The relationship that was set up as the love connection felt extremely forced, and really didn't have any depth to it either. I felt like a lot of the characters were just created to fill roles that are common and expected in YA fantasy. I think it's supposed to enemies to lovers, or some sort of tension along those lines, but I never bought into it, and I never experienced that tension. Basically it was just Quell being afraid of Jordan because of his role in the society as one who goes after toushana users. I went into this book expecting a sophisticated story of intrigue during a season of society events. The cover and descriptions lead me to make those expectations. What I found was a boarding school like setting with a poorly described magic system and simple writing that made me think this is more middle grade than YA.

Yagrin is there sometimes. He had two POVs that I can recall, and despite being the only other POV character besides Quell he has added little to nothing to the plot as far as I could tell. Overall, it was okay. I just don’t have much to say about this one. I didn’t connect with it in any way and because of that I have already forgot a lot of what happened.