REVIEW: The Awakening (book) by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti

The Awakening is the first book in the Zodiac Academy series. It's marketed as fantasy romance, part of the "bully romance" subgenre. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Darcy and Tory are twin orphans who were raised in various awful foster homes. They were promptly kicked out of their final foster home when they turned 18. The only problem? Their secret savings stash is still in the house. They're able to get their hands on it, but their lives are almost immediately upended by the arrival of Professor Orion, a hot-looking guy who claims they're both Fae, Changelings who were swapped with human twins when they were babies. They have powers linked to the elements and their Zodiac sign, Gemini.

It's a lot to take in, but there's some appeal to going with Professor Orion (plus, he doesn't really give them much of a choice) - if they can graduate from Zodiac Academy, they'll inherit a sizeable inheritance and finally have the freedom and security they've always wanted. They'll also have the chance to reclaim their parents' throne - this, unfortunately, makes them a target of the Celestial Heirs, the young Fae men who've been raised on the understanding that they'll share the task of ruling over Solaria, the land of the Fae, together.

Right from the start, the twins are separated, required to be in different Houses. Although they still share a lot of classes, they're generally surrounded by potential enemies. It's tough to tell who they can trust, and it doesn't help that at least one of the Heirs may be keeping secrets from the others. 

I wished I'd researched this one more before picking it up. In the back of the book, the list of Peckham and Valenti's various series calls this one a "m/f bully romance series," which would have been an automatic "no" for me. But I bought it, so I made myself get through it.

So many of the characters in this were cartoonishly garbage people, the sort you'd see in a movie or TV series about stereotypical high school bullies or sleazeball college frat boys. Most of the book was composed of the Heirs or their friends/allies being awful to Darcy and Tory in one way or another. For example, at one point the other students learned that Darcy and Tory hadn't been taught the basics of shielding themselves from others' attempts at magical coercion...so they made them do embarrassing or humiliating things any chance they got. This almost included forcing them to kiss each other, but thankfully that attempt was cut short.

Even a few of the professors were awful, either hitting on Darcy and Tory or exposing their weaknesses for other students to exploit. The best of the professors still weren't great - they knew Tory and Darcy were being tormented and did nothing, or were stupidly convinced that the Heirs could do no wrong.

As far as the fantasy aspects went, this was an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of series. Each student had at least one element-based power. In addition to that, each student was also part of an Order (vampire, werewolf, pegasus, siren, etc.) that dictated how they could replenish their powers. Tory and Darcy, of course, had no clue what their Order was and weren't any closer to finding out by the end of the book. 

Despite the fact that they'd humiliated the twins and shown every evidence of not having their best interests at heart, there were several guys who, by the end of this volume, seemed likely to become romantically linked to Darcy and Tory. I don't plan to stick around and see how things turn out.