Okay, I liked the story, I liked the main protagonist and I liked the magic.

Here is what I have an issue with:

- Toxic male characters

- No growth except for the MC

and lastly: {TW: r*pe & SA} In the beginning of the book the MC is sexually assaulted. It reveals her powers, she sets the offender on fire and she can escape. And it is never ever mentioned again. She is kissed without warning or being asked by the love interest and there is nothing problematic with that at all (there should. There should be and there is.) It is merely a plot device and a shock moment. And that is not okay. If you put your character through that horrible and TRAUMATIC event that you have to deal with the consequences. It was a bit better with the MCs best friend Ella, who actually has a scene where she freezes when being confronted with her offender. Who is the brother of our love interest. And tada. It is a plot device to drive a rift between the MC and the love interest. Great. That is not okay. End of the story. ( )

I was given the book free of charge in exchange of an honest review (Lovers of Paranormal). The following review might contain spoilers.

Rating 9 of 10

4am, not even 24 hours after I recieved the book and 9 hours after I started it - I am done. After a busy day at work, spending the whole night reading wasn't really what I had in mind, but.... I just couldn't leave that book down.What could I say more? It's captivating, dynamic, a real page turner, something I absolutely didn't expect when I signed up for it. Nice characters, should I say - mostly believable, even thought it's a fantasy book and you might often expect perfect heroes and perfect villains. Not that there isn't heroes in the book, they are just not perfect and I liked it. After all we all have our flaws and doubts.
Ryiah made it to my personal top 10 of main heroines. She strong-willed, passionate, stubborn, smart, friendly, loyal and altogether very likable. And as I already said - not perfect. Which makes her even more likable. She struggles, she fights, she fails, she stumbles, she falls ... but she doesn't give up and keeps going. I am definitely Ryiah fan.
Darren... the dark, mysterious prince. Friend or foe? Well made character and I would love see more of him. Extremely curious to learn more about his past, his relationship with his brother and why he decided to get betrothed....
Ella is sweet. The kind of friend we all wish about - kind, thoughtful, helping. Alec grew on me too. And I think I might like Ruth too if I see more of her.
What I would have liked to see more thought is world building. We get thrown in directly into the story and we get bits and pieces of how Ryiah's world functions, but at then end of the book I still had no clear idea about it.
Overall, great read. I am already eager to see what happens next and can recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy books. ( )

Exposition dumps, not interested. ( )

The characters are fun, story a bit standard, magic super awesome, however First Year gets most of its merit from its potential as a series starter.

As far as setting is concerned, not much is explained beyond the academy. This is totally fine, there's a lot of stuff that goes down in not terribly many pages, but it leaves me waiting to see what the rest of the realm is actually like.

The same goes for the main characters. Ryiah's year of training is rigorous (big understatement), and for whatever reason, that sense of urgency seems to carry into developing the audience's connection with our punky mage girl and her gang. With the fast pace, we learn so much about everyone's pasts, ambitions, and fears, which I love, and I want to get to known them even more. However, it feels like I've just gotten an information overload, like reviewing an entire textbook for an exam. I'm really looking forward to the next books as an opportunity to see each character slow down and just live a little.

We've seen Ryiah's determination, felt her exhaustion, exulted in her power. Somehow we've missed her laugh, skipped quickly over her smile, and not really given her a lot of time to sleep.

The stage has been set. ( )

I reviewed this over at TheFandom.Net so check it out here! ( )