This is a fun urban fantasy adventure that had a good paced, interesting story, but didn't blow me away, hence the three star rating.

What was good:
The are numerous POVs throughout the story, including occasionally from the villain's perspective, with usually several different plot lines occurring at once. For me, this choice, as well as the short chapters, really kept me turning the pages
I enjoyed the writing style. There was enough prose and description to help me understand the scene without being over the top.
The story was pretty tropey (chosen one, magic school, good v evil) but otherwise good fun and action packed and sometimes intriguing.
The magic system is pretty soft so there aren't a load of rules or lore to come to terms with to understand what the characters can do.
No annoying romantic subplot. There were a few relationships in here and the most prominent was LGBT but none took the focus of the story at any point.
The book is part of a series but told a complete story on it's own while creating a wider narrative that makes me want to read the next one

What was neutral:
The characters have several various backstories and their unique strengths but I found them all pretty samey and didn't have a particular one that I gelled with but nor was there any that I particularly disliked
The work is translated and there are some turns of phrase that native speakers likely wouldn't use, however this didn't bother me.

What was not quite so good:
This work is quite derivative. There is no really getting away from that fact. I didn't feel like this book did anything particularly compelling or unique and as someone has read a lot of fantasy, the story felt quite predictable. Two of the characters have twin wands. They can store their memories in objects. Non magical people are called 'nowiz'. You may draw your own conclusions from there.
This reads like a young adult book but I think it's meant to be adult? The characters are in their twenties but behave like teenagers. They are full of banter and make impulsive decisions. Also just the tone of the book largely reads as young adult which isn't what I expected.
A first book in a series is always tricky and I felt like this book did get a bit bogged down in those common problems. It was hard to understand the world for a good portion of the book and there were a lot of characters to get to terms with.

Overall, this book was enjoyable but just wasn't a new favourite. That said, I am likely to pick up the sequel as I often feel book series improve as they go on.

The world-building was interesting, the plotline is good, however, I felt it a bit slow-paced, I like the details from this type of books, but something was missing. The characters did make up for the story, I am interested in finding out what comes next, this is the first book and so I know we are probably going to be in for a long story. The narration and writing felt a bit odd but saw past that and the different names and also the idea of having a lot of real historical people to see the actual story behind it all. Definitely an intriguing start.

Firstly, I didn’t actually finish this book. I made it to about 74% which seems a lot to then not then not finish but I just couldn’t.
Secondly, there were a lot of mistakes that made this story a chore to work through. Wrong spellings, misused words, words left out, wrong character names. It made some parts truly confusing and took way too much brain power to try and figure out what it should/was meant to say.
Thirdly, I actually liked this book. It was interesting and intriguing. I liked the characters, even though the immortals were a bit odd to me, Di Vinci, Einstein and Joan of Arc ... what I couldn’t get on board with was the writing style, was it third person? First person? Really confusing? Yep. The idea is something I’m really interested in, the execution isn’t.

The Awakening - Andreas Suchanek

The world as you know it is a lie. For over a century, the mystic Wall has kept the magical society hidden from human eyes, guaranteeing peace and equality between humans and wizards. But in the shadows a war for supremacy rages.

Jennifer Danvers is a wizard. When her friend and comrade-in-arms dies, a new heir to magic awakens in Alexander Kent, whom she must introduce to the world of magic.

Neither of them suspects that the balance of light and darkness is out of control. An ancient evil is rising. Its only goal: to shatter the mystic Wall and bring darkness upon the wizards and immortals.

Being a fan of Harry Potter and Mortal Instruments I was eager to try this series, but at the same time I was slightly hesitant incase it was too similar. I feel that The Awakening was a clever balance of both worlds. Whilst the basis of the world isn’t original the story is gripping enough to keep you interested. The start of the book is a little bit tedious with the introduction of the various characters but it definitely gets better.

This is book one in The Immortal Wizards series, which has already been published in German. I am curious to see what Andreas does with this series.

I would recommend this book to fans of magical worlds.

Rating 4/5

4.5 review

Sometimes the first book in a series can be a little tedious and slow paced, because they have so much detail and world building to set up for the entire series. At first, it took me a while to really sink into this book, but the characters and the intrigue kept me around, and oh boy, I’m so glad I kept on with this book.

I am absolutely hooked on this series already! My expectations were fairly low if I’m being honest. I didn’t know what to expect, and the blurb doesn’t give much away, but Andreas Suchanek has totally blown me out of the water. I don’t normally like books with a complex magical system, because they’re not always written in a way that I’m able to picture clearly, and now look at me, with a new favourite book, and hopefully a new favourite series.

The reason why I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the concept is a little unoriginal, but to be honest, there’s very little new concepts out there nowadays, and also because the book takes a while to really hook you, but I’m telling you, KEEP READING!

All in all, I’m so impressed and so glad that I was given the opportunity to review the ARC of the Awakening by Andreas Suchanek in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, and the author.

I had never read this author before, but the blurb seemed pretty interesting. I dived in to it, and I have to admit I was confused after a bit. The action was good, the characters were interesting, but the magic and the universe really confused me at first. After I finally got a handle on everything, and while that did take longer than I generally like, the book really became much better. I ended the book thinking I couldn’t wait to try the next one and see what is going to happen, the characters had really engaged me, and I was invested in the future of the group. This is a series-starter, and sometimes that can be the weakest book. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.