I guess gender is a hard secret

Oh this book was fun! The characters sped through a couple trials and had some amazing experiences - like riding alicorns! I know Wild is making an impression on everyone, but I feel like she's making allies all over the place. I do not trust Rory.

The writing is significantly better than the previous one. Other than that, I don't remember any noteworthy events taking place. Colt was a nice addition, but he just seemed a piece to add to her story, not a human being. I mean, all characters seemed kinda flat in this series, but he's extra flat? One reason for this is maybe Wild is a narcissist and doesn't notice/care about other people. In the first book, she was so annoying! She was constantly giving people nicknames in her mind, like Wally, Freckles, Wonder Bread, Sideburn- It was getting annoying tbh. However, this book managed to improve her character building along with the writing style. Yaay.

4.5 rounded up

Fantastic continuation of The Culling Trials. Wild is learning step by step, and surviving the terrors the academy throws at her, with the help of her make shift and mismatched crew. We get two full trials this time around instead of just one, offering more clues and glimpses into the houses these trials represent - and just what they might mean for Wild.

Pros:
- Character development
- Fast paced!
- Great team.

Cons:
- This is a trilogy?? HOW are they going to solve everything in just one more book?? What about the school? Is there going to be another series?

It’s honestly annoying at this point how much of a rip off this is of Harry Potter.
Wild is Harry with the clueless normal upbringing, Ethan is Draco with the rich daddy, Wally is Luna with being close to death, Pete is Ron with being the goofy scaredy cat friend. The Shadow Killer is Voldemort and the shades are the death eaters. The culling trials is the tri-wizard tournament but is entrance instead of year 4.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that sideburns feels like he will totally be her brother. There was no body. She can’t clearly see his face. He’s super close to Rory. I hope I’m wrong. I’m going to keep going.

Did this start as fan fiction and get published?

Cover: 4/5
World building: 4/5
Characters: 1/5 just for blatantly taking HP
Flow: 1/5 it’s all exposition!
Overall plot: 2/5 for taking HP
Tension: n/a
Would recommend?: no
Would read again? no
Total: 2.4 stars. I’ll round down based on my scale

My rating scale
5 stars daaaayuuum that was a great book. My world was darker without this book and now I see in brighter colors. I WILL be rereading and I WILL be talking to my coworkers about this tomorrow who couldn’t care less about reading but I don’t care because THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW HOW GOOD THIS IS.

4 stars aiight it’s a good book. I’ll likely reread but my husband may hear of the book, coworkers saved.

3 stars I likely audibly said “meh” and felt disappointed by the book but enjoyed the overall premise

2 stars I’m not mad, just disappointed. You had so much promise and just…yeah…

1 star they say if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. So…that’s my review.

Genre: contemporary fantasy, YA
Tropes: Dark Academy,  magic school, trials
Trigger Warnings:  death
Series: Shadowspell Academy #2
Cliffhanger: Yes
Spice: 0/5

Yeah this was better than the first book for sure.

Plot:
Fast paced and action packed

I already talked about the characters but there are new ones

Rory: i don’t trust him he’s plotting something i know it.

Colt: i kinda like him? I know I shouldn’t trust him considering i know virtually nothing about him but i do. I still like Ethan more tho he’s much worse which makes him a better love interest.

Omnibus for the Culling Trials 1-3 was a great decision because the cliff hanger on this book? Absolutely not.

I do love that our priorities seem straight, like there's life-and-death circumstances and we focus on that rather than romance. It was refreshing and that's coming from a girl who can't read anything without a love line in it lol.

Another fun quick read. Still pretty confused about the world we are in though. I can't decide if the quick nature of each book is a blessing or an annoyance. I have no doubt that I will have finished the next book in the series by tomorrow but is that a good thing? The shortness gives me a goal to look forward to and motivation but the themes in each book seem to be never-ending. In this book, we are 3 days into the trial and there are five days in total. These definitely could have been combined into one book.