My first kiss nearly killed me—literally.
When 80% of the population is gifted with touch magic, it’s best to keep your hands—and your lips—to yourself. Especially if you’re an ungifted serf like I am. The problem is, the most dangerous guy at Gifted Fae Academy is the one I want to touch more than anything, even as I draw the attention of the school’s most gorgeous Apprentice Fae. When my … anything, even as I draw the attention of the school’s most gorgeous Apprentice Fae.
When my entry exam leads to the revelation that I may not be as Ungifted as I previously believed… well… surviving until graduation might prove harder than I thought—particularly when a certain fatal touch may be worth the risk.
If you love reading about childhood friends, enemies-to-lovers, royal and celebrity classmates, and everything Fae, then one-click today and fall into this magical new series that’s Gossip Girl meets My Hero Academia!
This Upper YA/NA series is intended for mature audiences. It contains cursing, sexual situations, bullying, and violence.
more
First time reading this author, but it won’t be my last. I found this to be a really intriguing take on academies and superpowers and, somehow, bullies. I don’t read the bully books – total turnoff – but I’m hoping this author can maybe turn it in a way that I can tolerate. Now that I have the generalities covered….
Semi-spoilery things to follow. 4+*
Reina, the heroine, has been through a lot in her life. Seemingly powerless in a world that seemingly rewards power above all else, she dreams of joining the ranks of the Fae. To get there, she has to get into GFA, but she’s classified as a serf, someone without powers, or so everyone thinks. Until one person doesn’t. And he brings her into the GFA, where she passes the entrance exam. And she brings Kaito – former friend, crush, and tormentor – along with her.
It’s the continued crush part I don’t fully understand and, again, I think the bully thing is part of my issue. Why does she continue to have these feelings for someone so completely awful to her? I think, maybe, we just haven’t been shown enough of their history together. The intense friendship they shared until Kaito got his powers and she didn’t. Because, frankly, Oden seems the better, nicer, yet still not necessarily safer choice. It was either incredibly important to her OR maybe, just maybe, she’s been in touch with her superpower longer than she knows? Because that power – which I will not name – maybe it helps her see something more than what we see on the surface but get glimpses of because of the chapters from Kai’s perspective.
I really want to see more of Yemoja. I want to see that maybe the darkside of the fae that the Fallen are against is real. I know not everything is as it appears because is it ever? There has to be a reason that the battling between the gifted is more than for wealth and glory. They sure seem to need fighting more than us commons.
Anyway, the characters are engaging. The powers being individualistic is interesting. The intense stratifying of the societal structure has been referenced, but I hope comes into play in the next books. It really is a fascinating world I’m excited to read about more.
Ok, where to begin. First let me say that this book, this woman, is the reason I’m so enamored with newer authors. Watching an author go from their very first book ever (which was already good!) to a book as engaging and exciting as this one is such a treat…such a marvel!
Academy books have become such a *thing* that you would have to wonder, what can be done that’s new? Well, I’ll tell you. You can take the idea of an Academy for the powerful and make it yours. And Brittni did just this. Not only did she create an Academy that creates the Fae (nope, not telling you what I mean by that!), but one that just may not have the best interests of the students in mind. Ahhh…ulterior motives. Gotta love them!
Take 2 kids who have known each other since they were young, give them similar ambitions, but have one be Gifted and one be a Serf (normal, ungifted human), and there’s no way we can expect that to go well…or can we? Does childhood friendship mean friendship forever? These 2, Reina and Kaito, certainly put this to the test. These are our main characters, but by no means our only characters. Brittni has created a wonderful phalanx of teens coming into their own, each in their own way.
The Gifted Fae Academy is unusual in that it isn’t just for teaching our youth how to control their powers. There’s so much more to it than that. The Fae are revered in the world outside, and the Academy is there to make sure that stays the case. And while life seems to begin and end at their gate, and the outside world not allowed past, that doesn’t stop the outside world from moving on in it’s own way. Not everyone is enamored with the Fae. Some feel perhaps they’ve been given too much power, too much autonomy. Some who have come to be known as the Fallen.
There is intrigue, controversy and personalities galore in this first book of a new series. And being outside the genre Brittni originally chose as her own, Fantasy, hasn’t stopped her from being a gifted writer. She pulled me in and wouldn’t let go until I got to the end. I didn’t think I’d like Academy books. Brittni has shown me there is always the writer’s perspective to consider. That not all Academy books are created equally. And thank the gods for that!
I was already mostly in love with Brittni’s mastery of the written word. This book just showed me that it’s not just her words, but the way they are used. She has a wonderful imagination, and I’m so lucky to be able to delve into that crazy place! I love your mind, lovely lady!
Excellently done, Brittni Chenelle! Excellently done indeed! Am on pins and needles for book 2!
This was given to me as an ARC. This review is done of my own volition and in my own words. As Always.
This is the 1st book that I’ve read by Brittni, the premises that the book was set in really grabbed my attention and I devoured this book as fast as real life would let me. Her characters are well developed though at times I felt like the content was a little too old for the age they’re supposed to be, or what I felt their ages were. I really like her twist on the lead female character in what is a decidedly popular genre. She’s aware of what she could be and when she finally gets her Gift, she knows she needs to work hard to catch up since she’s so far behind her peers. I’m confused on her attraction to Kai however, as he really didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities. I very much enjoyed the dual POV, though at times I wish it was more of a multiple POV so I could see if Oden is really as much of a nice guy as he seems. lol Overall, I would say thing is a strong book for a relatively new author and I can’t wait to see where the story takes us!
A solid good book. While there are a lot of academy style books out right now I felt this one had some interesting new takes on the subject. I was impressed that even though we are reading about high school age kids I wasn’t bored out of my mind with annoying teenage whining. It didn’t feel like I was reading about kids and I really enjoyed that. There were many parts that made me not want to put it down and I look forward to the next in the series.
I recieved a free copy from the author for an honest review.
This book will keep you reading until the very end. It’s a fast-paced story and a page turner.
It’s the first book in a 3 part series and I cant wait to read more.
really enjoyed reading this book. From the beginning to the end it will keep you engaged and turning the pages to find out what happens next. The story is engaging and the characters are interesting. I really enjoyed how each chapter was from each of the different characters points of view. It really helped to get a different feel for everything.
Are things as really black and white as everyone has been told? Or is something else happening that no one wants the people to know about? Which group is right?
What a refreshing change in pace! I love academy style books, but it’s starting to get repetitive…but this story is different. It’s unique, fun, thrilling and a little real!
The characters are fantastic and incredible, the storyline was amazing and grabbed my attention from the very beginning and the world building is beautiful written! I’m looking forward to reading the next book!
My Rating: 4.8
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. When I read the blurb for this book I saw so much potential and let’s just say I’m really glad I read it. If you love Academy books and love stories with Fae and an almost Dystopian like system – where everything looks perfect, but you know deep down has some serious flaws. This book is totally for you.
Hmm where to start…can I start at the end? no? Whatever I’m starting there anyway. So I didn’t realise that I was at the end until I saw the sneak peak for book two and I was like YAAASSS I NEED to know more. And that led to me reading that and then I was like…Why did I do that lol?! I seriously needed more after that!
Sooo all I will say if you have the willpower to avoid reading the sneak peak of book two, hold off because the ending of book one is easier to handle without that as an ending….not having the answer of what is said and done next is HARD. That’s just me though lol. Clearly I didn’t have the willpower, but I’m blaming the lack of brain power from the cold that’s taking all my energy.
Okay but aside from that, I REALLY loved that ending…it really snatches you by the hands and makes you want more, which is kinda the whole point of an ending so…that was totally achieved.
Okay, I’m moving onto the story now. I really loved the pace that was set in this story and the world setup, it felt like it was constructed extremely well. Although not a huge amount of stuff went down per se, it was written in a way that still grabbed your attention and showed all necessary information needed for story development. It was a book that has been well setup to allow for great story expansion. I honestly feel book two will only get better from here.
I absolutely love the characters and I really enjoyed how we got both POV’s, I felt for this story it was 100% necessary. Also, it was just nice at the same time knowing what both parties were thinking and what was happening. A lot of character growth went on for particularly Reina and I feel Kaito although a little behind will do a lot of his growth in book two.
As for the story…hmm what can I offer? Well, basically we are in a world where there are the gifted and the ungifted (known as Serf). These gifted have what is known as touch magic. So if they touch you or an object they can make it react to whatever their gift is. So for example, Kai his ability is levitation, so if he touches objects, people etc he can remove the gravity and wallah things start levitating.
But the thing is, those with no abilities, Serf’s, aren’t treated nicely because those that have gifts think they are better than everyone.
Then we need to introduce our main characters. Reina and Kaito. They have been long-time friends, until Kaito’s powers arise and then he changes and becomes just like the rest of them…a bully and especially a bully to Reina. He would literally make it his life mission to show her, her place. But Reina was not one to be kept down uh-uh. Nope she fought back and never lost hope. But as she gets older and no power shows up everyone was done believing she’d manifest…Reina still kept her hope. Holding onto it like a lifeline. She was determined she would get into Gifted Fae Academy, an Academy that raises the best-gifted students to fight the bad on the streets. But with every year that passes that chance is slowly slipping away.
After Kai takes one of his “lessons” too far Reina finds herself with a special confectionary that may offer some payback. Anywho, that also ends up going a little too far and well they both find themselves expelled. Oops.
Reina being the beautiful, determined soul she is, finds a way to get both of them in to take the exam, to gain entrance into GFA… cos we all know she’s gotto have some power right?
Well she does, just nobody knows what it is…so that makes things interesting when they do get accepted into the school…Reina may just have had her dreams come true and may have just scored the best teacher to find what lies just beneath Reina’s surface….and Kai is right back to his old ways trying to become an Elite again.
Meanwhile, in between being accepted into the school, these like top Fae beings have begun to be offed by these people that are basically trying to change the whole system. Going by the name the Fallen.
This novel is more setting the scene in my opinion…I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learning all about this world and seeing the possibilities open wide…Just like those pop-up books lol.
I loved so much about this book and I loved the uniqueness of the story and characters. I didn’t feel strongly connected to some of the characters which was disappointing, but it didn’t change my opinion of the book…I also took my time connecting to Kaito, but really do you want to like a guy that’s been a douche-bucket to our girl like forever? My mind was at war going between yes we love him and no, no we can’t lols.
But after mentioning something about books and when he finally decided that he had to win Reina back I was sol… but I dunno he’s got a lot of work to do to fix that bridge. Hopefully he has some Magneto abilities lol…cos that’s some serious bridge mending going on lol.
I think you will enjoy this book, it really shows great potential to get even better and I honestly can’t wait to see where this world will take us.
Now I’m just chilling around like an everyday book nerdy person and will probably be keeping in touch with Brittni and be like…is it ready yet haha. Book Nerds are a pushy bunch lol. It’s true …Sorry about that. I’m a patient person but when it comes to books…not so much haha.
Okay, now that I’ve chatted everyone’s ear off I’m going to leave it at that.
Happy Readings