Author: Liza Anderson
Expected Publication: January 27, 2026 by Ballantine Books
Format: Kindle, 384 Pages
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: The Acheron Order #1
Blurb: Vic Wood knows her priorities: scrape by on her restaurant wages, take care of her younger brother Henry, and forget their mother ever existed. But Vic’s careful life crumbles when Henry reveals that their long-missing mother belonged to the Acheron Order—a secret society of witches tasked with keeping the dead at bay. What’s worse, Henry inherited their mother’s magical abilities while Vic did not, and Henry has been chosen as the Order's newest recruit.
Determined to keep him safe, Vic accompanies Henry to the isolated woods in upstate New York that play host to the sprawling and eerie Avalon Castle. When she joins the academy despite lacking powers of her own, she risks not only the Order’s wrath, but also her brother’s. And then there is Xan, the head Sentinel—imposing, ruthless, and frustrating—in charge of protecting Avalon. He makes no secret that he wants Vic to leave.
As she makes both enemies and allies in this mysterious realm, Vic becomes caught between the dark forces at play, with her mother at the heart of it all. What's stranger is that Vic begins to be affected by the academy—and Xan—in ways she can't quite understand. But with war between witches threatening the fabric of reality, Vic must decide whether to risk her heart and life for a world where power is everything.
My Opinion: This is one of those books that demands more patience than I was willing to give. From the start, the writing felt oddly uneven, as if two different authors were at work. Each chapter begins with a lengthy “quote” from the elders of The Acheron Order, and instead of setting the stage, they drag on with a level of complexity that doesn’t match the rest of the text. The main narrative, by contrast, reads like young adult fiction with a bit of spice, but not executed particularly well.
The style is overly descriptive, weighed down by sentences that stop and start instead of flowing. It’s the kind of choppiness that makes you want to skim, and eventually, that’s exactly what I did. And by skimmed, I found the usual suspects lined up neatly: dark academia, witches, a hidden magical society, the outsider girl, enemies-to-lovers. It all felt recycled, like a checklist of tropes rather than a fresh story.
I can see the intent of layering lofty philosophical musings over a YA-style fantasy, but the result is disjointed and exhausting. By the time I realized I was slogging instead of reading, I knew this wasn’t worth my time. I’ve decided this year I won’t force myself through books that don’t earn my attention early on, and this one simply didn’t.
Determined to keep him safe, Vic accompanies Henry to the isolated woods in upstate New York that play host to the sprawling and eerie Avalon Castle. When she joins the academy despite lacking powers of her own, she risks not only the Order’s wrath, but also her brother’s. And then there is Xan, the head Sentinel—imposing, ruthless, and frustrating—in charge of protecting Avalon. He makes no secret that he wants Vic to leave.
As she makes both enemies and allies in this mysterious realm, Vic becomes caught between the dark forces at play, with her mother at the heart of it all. What's stranger is that Vic begins to be affected by the academy—and Xan—in ways she can't quite understand. But with war between witches threatening the fabric of reality, Vic must decide whether to risk her heart and life for a world where power is everything.
My Opinion: This is one of those books that demands more patience than I was willing to give. From the start, the writing felt oddly uneven, as if two different authors were at work. Each chapter begins with a lengthy “quote” from the elders of The Acheron Order, and instead of setting the stage, they drag on with a level of complexity that doesn’t match the rest of the text. The main narrative, by contrast, reads like young adult fiction with a bit of spice, but not executed particularly well.
The style is overly descriptive, weighed down by sentences that stop and start instead of flowing. It’s the kind of choppiness that makes you want to skim, and eventually, that’s exactly what I did. And by skimmed, I found the usual suspects lined up neatly: dark academia, witches, a hidden magical society, the outsider girl, enemies-to-lovers. It all felt recycled, like a checklist of tropes rather than a fresh story.
I can see the intent of layering lofty philosophical musings over a YA-style fantasy, but the result is disjointed and exhausting. By the time I realized I was slogging instead of reading, I knew this wasn’t worth my time. I’ve decided this year I won’t force myself through books that don’t earn my attention early on, and this one simply didn’t.
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