You might be reading this post in order to figure out if the Zodiac Academy Series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti is worth the read. It’s 14 books, some of them being extremely long, and can feel extremely overwhelming. So is it worth it to read? I say yes.
If you enjoy dark romantasy, this series may very well be worth the read. And that’s coming from someone who read the series before it was finished and had to wait a couple of years. I’ve read the entire series twice now, and don’t regret either read through.
The Zodiac Academy Series
The Zodiac Academy series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti is a dark fantasy romance series with fourteen books, some can be skipped as they contain deleted scenes from the main series. You can find the series on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and the author’s website here.
Order of Books
There is a lot of recommendations for how to read the Zodiac Academy series, and while I will give my own recommendations below, you could read them in chronological order too. You just may not get the hit of emotions that those of us who read it as it was released got.
Below is the chronological order of the books:
- Origins of an Academy Bully
- The Awakening
- The Awakening as Told by the Boys
- Ruthless Fae
- The Reckoning
- Shadow Princess
- Cursed Fates
- The Big A.S.S. Party
- Fated Throne
- Heartless Sky
- Sorrow and Starlight
- Beyond The Veil
- Live and Let Lionel
- Restless Stars
The main books in the Zodiac Academy series are pictured below:
There are only two books that I recommend reading while reading the main series. The Awakening as Told by the Boys, which I would wait till after you read Ruthless Fae to read it. I also highly recommend reading Beyond the Veil after Sorrow and Starlight.
As for Origins of an Academy Bully, The Big A.S.S. Party, and Live and Let Lionel. These three can be read after finishing the series for additional Zodiac Academy series content. But that is my personal opinion, others have their own ways of reading the series.
Premise
Twin sisters, Tory and Darcy, were just trying to survive life, working and stealing, to put a little food on the table. Foster homes, abuse, assault, and everything else you could think of were all they knew. So when a professor shows up and tells them they’ve been accepted into a special school for their kind, they aren’t quick to believe him. That is until he sweeps them off to Zodiac Academy and the land of Solaria.
Finding out their real parents were royalty, they also find out they are actually wealthier than they could ever imagine. But they don’t know anything about this land, and the Fae are ruthless. Going up against the celestial heirs, and claiming a throne they have no interest in, wasn’t something they expected either. Too bad the heirs didn’t get the message that the twins weren’t interested in the seats they were destined to hold.
Triggers
Triggers found in the Zodiac Academy Series include:
I want to try to be complete in what triggers will be found in this series, but it is 14 books, so I may miss some. It may also be helpful to know that Solaria is not like our world. They are stuck in a only the strongest survive mentality, so every single thing they want needs to be viciously fought for. This is a dark fantasy romance series and there are heinous things that happen in these books.
- Bullying (Extreme, like crosses the line into homicidal type of bullying)
- Torture, violence, murder, death and all the things that come with that.
- Slavery, sex trafficking, drugging, and physical experimentation
- Heavy trauma with detailed scenes
- Parental abuse, physical and mental
My Thoughts
You want a series that will tear out your heart repeatedly, leave you broken and sobbing, have you throwing your tablet across the room, and screaming at the authors? Look no further than Zodiac Academy series by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, otherwise known as the Twisted Sisters.
I almost DNF’d this series. I picked it up, got halfway through the first book, and wanted to reach in a choke the shit out of the MMCs. I hated the heirs, entirely. And that is pretty par for the course when you are dealing with the Twisted Sisters.
These authors will make you so thoroughly hate the characters they create, just to somehow get you to turn it around and make you fall in love with them. This entire series is a ride that I could not get off of, once I decided to keep going. And what a ride it took me on.
“Tears never did anyone any favours, but sometimes they just needed to fall.” – The Awakening
I will forewarn you, this is a long ass series, with extremely beefy books toward the end. But if you like dark books, romance, and fantasy, it might be worth it for you. However, I was lucky enough to have enough planned free time that I was able to sit down and read through the entire series and honestly, now that it’s complete, I highly recommend doing that. Just know it will take you a couple or even a few weeks to read it depending on your schedule and how fast you read.
“Where I’m from I found out the hard way that this life will throw all kinds of crap at you, but the one thing you don’t have to accept is other people’s bullshit.” – The Awakening
The Zodiac Academy series made me feel every single emotion I could feel. Everything from ugly crying tears, to hold your breath panic, to laughing so hard it took you minutes to stop, and even happy tears of joy. Every win and loss is felt heavily. And honestly, the twisted sisters brought these characters to life in a way that you’re transported right into Solaria, which would probably be horrible in all actuality, but it’s perfectly done.
I think what I loved most about this series was how we didn’t have just one or two MMC’s but an entire cast. We get to follow several different couples throughout this series and how they fall in love.
This also means we get a lot of spice, some excellent spice to be honest. But it never feels like too much and it’s all central to the plot. Early on you get angst and love triangles, but as the series moves forward you see just how much people fight for each other.
Hands down, from beginning to end, there is a large amount of growth in the characters. Of course, they also go through an obscene amount of hardship and trauma through the book too.
However, the thing I love most about the twisted sisters is how they give us more POV’s than just our main characters. Sure, I could have done without Lionel’s POV the few times we got it, but we get to hear stories from Fae all over Solaria. It gives us hope for our main characters too.
“Okay this is going from weird to mental asylum real fast.” – The Awakening
This series starts off heavy in the Bully Romance, but it’s to be expected once you start learning about Solaria and the culture the Fae have adapted to. It becomes a story about fighting tyranny and the losses that happen while fighting it. Because fighting tyranny isn’t easy, it isn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows. It is brutal and heart breaking, and exhausting. But it’s worth it!
Who Would The Zodiac Academy Series?
Tropes in the Zodiac Academy Series include:
- Enemies to Lovers
- Magical Academy Setting
- Found Family
- Trauma and Healing
I wish I could give comparisons but I haven’t read anything remotely similar to this series. Some say it’s a grown up version of a series lots of millennial’s read about a magical school that shall not be named, but honestly, I don’t feel that that description does this series any sort of justice because this is in a league of it’s own. So if you like fantasy, romance, revolution tales, dark, gritty, and heartbreaking books, Zodiac Academy is for you.
When you’re done reading Zodiac Academy and feel that book slump coming on and need something short and hilarious to pull you out of your slump, I highly recommend giving Kimberly Lemming’s That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon a try.
Have you read the Zodiac Academy, or have you added it to your TBR? Let me know in the comments below. I love interacting with other readers over books I loved.