Foretold is the story of Cassandra, a 17 year old with OCD who is plagued by catastrophic thoughts and visions. Most of the time these visions are just visions, her anxious imagination working overtime -- except for that time she saw her mom die. Now she's seen a vision of a teen boy dying in front of her, and when she gets home and discovers he's her new neighbor, she realizes it must be true. Can she save him? Is it even possible?

I liked Cass and Lumani's portrayal of anxiety and OCD. She felt like a real character, whether it was the way she picked at her hands, or the way she daydreamed about the boy she liked. I also really liked that organization Cass becomes involved with covers a wide range of divination techniques. This wasn't just about crystal balls, or seeing visions. There were scrying mirrors, and dream interpretation, and reading tea leaves. The folklore roots run deep. It was also interesting to conceive of how something that seems so passive, like seeing the future, can be weaponized. The supporting characters are good, and some even surprise you.

In the end, I am left with a number of unanswered questions, but that just makes me look forward to the next one!

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book. I spent so long at the beginning not knowing what was going on, or where the story was going - around the first 20%. The cover is gorgeous, the premise was great but for me the execution was not enough. I know some others loved it though, so maybe it's just not for me. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

There were so many things I was intrigued by at first glance. The cover? Gorgeous. The synopsis? Intriguing. I downloaded the arc right away, expecting a wonderfully immersive story. I hate to say it, but I just simply did not enjoy this book. This is Lumani's debut novel, and sometimes that showed. 1.5 stars.

I've never really been a fan of writing negative reviews. There are very few books that I've taken glee in trashing. This is not one of them. Foretold has decent bones, but its execution did not live up to the hype I created in my head. Perhaps that's my own fault.

The major problem I had with this was I found it hard to follow. The world building for this one could use some work; I had no idea what was what, or what was going on, or how things were happening. It was exacerbated by info-dumps throughout the novel. There were characters who were mentioned that I didn't remember meeting, plot points that were difficult to follow, etc. I appreciate the mental health rep, and think that this book had a modest start point, but just struggled to follow through.

-thank you NetGalley and Uproar Books for the eARC, in exchange for an honest review-

foretold by violet lumani
my rating: 4 stars

the cover of this book is absolutely stunning, which peaked my interest from the very start and all i can say is that the synopsis was even more intriguing.

i'm unsure whether it was the greek mythology references or the cute insta romance, but i was hooked and couldn't put down the book by the 4th chapter.

the main character, Cassandra, Cass for short, has foretold a real death before, but this time it's her next door neighbor. she later finds out where the "visions" come from, and is thrown into a whole new world.

the characters each had their own personality, and that's something i love to see in books i read, especially when there's so many.
-one thing though that was a bit sad, was the fact we didn't get to see a whole lot of Colin while Cass was at "camp"

I liked
-Mental Health Rep:
-I think that when a book includes mental health that it's portrayed correctly, Violet Lumani does a fantastic job with Cassandra's OCD and Anxiety.
-I also loved the dialogue, and the how the characters were written.

I didn't like
-there wasn't much i didn't like, but i wasn't a fun of the love triangle and how predictable it was.

Overall, i can say that i'm already dying for a physical copy of Foretold, and a sequel, when both aren't even out yet.

Foretold is the first book in the Scryer Series.
I was quite driven by this book so I found it hard to put it down. I love that the book included different aspects from fantasy, romance, and mental health.

I think including Intrusive Thoughts, into a fantasy book was an ingenious feature. Using these thoughts to foretell the future is astonishing. I love this concept. Having intrusive thoughts definitely makes you second guess yourself and the world around you.

Once I was introduced into the world or community of Theban Group, I saw the magic appear before my eyes. I enjoyed the visual content that was shown in the book, I was not disappointed. It felt as if I was in the realm myself. Just purely magical.

I'm going to have to patiently wait until next year for book 2.

This book Foretold will be out on the 20th July 2021.

Thank you to Netgalley Uproar books and to Violet Lumani.

I feel like this was another one that let me down. I was excited about the series potential, the actual experience with OCD to direct the characters, and the general description but it just ... didn't work for me.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of #Foretold.

Cassandra has always seen death around her, her imagined worries a result of her crippling OCD and anxiety. But not every worry is imagined. Cass has a vision of a young boy dying hours before she meets him. To save his life, she joins a secret organization of scryers. The deeper she gets, the more she realizes that changing the future comes with a price and that price could cost her everything. Foretold is the first in Violet Lumani’s Scryers trilogy and her YA debut novel.

The mental health representation in this book was fantastic. Lumani herself notes that the book was informed by her own struggles with OCD and it definitely reflects. Writing in first person, so you see the absolute depth of Cassie’s struggle with her mental health was a great choice by the author.

In terms of world building, what I got was great. The magic system was unique and interesting but took a backseat to character development and buildup. The core characters (Cassie, Regan, Griffin, Colin) felt well developed and unique. The banter between them and the pop culture references kept the dialogue interesting and made the characters relatable. I’m always a sucker for found family. To me, the excessive amount background characters all blurred together and was a lot to muddle through. Same with all the types of scrying and the rules related to them. I’d love to see it explained more in depth as the series evolves.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The summary piqued my interest (magic and secret societies and mental health rep, what more could you want?) but I didn’t love the writing. The book was fast paced for a series, heavily character driven, and the plot lacked depth for it. I would still absolutely recommend this book and I’m excited to see where Cassie’s story heads next.

The writing is excellent and the cover is STUNNING, However, this one wasn’t so much for me. The concept, while very clever and interesting feels like something from a past generation of young adult and I struggled to get invested in the protagonist. I would certainly have no qualms recommending it to someone who may sit more squarely in the books’ target audience! It seems like a great one to read if you love Taherah Mafi’s Shatter Me series.

Overall rating: 3.5 ⭐️

I've expressed my thoughts about some of the plot/world-building and character relationships on goodreads, but there were a few more point's I'd like to make!

The writing

I love the way the author portrayed the interior thoughts and ideas of Cassie! The descriptions flowed, and kept me invested in the story. I found that the writing was weakest with some of the dialogue; some ideas were choppy, like on page 32 when Colin makes a comment on Cassie's shirt. It just did not flow with the speech manner that I thought Colin used, but it also might just be me being picky about how I like dialogue written.

---------------------------------------------------

Cassie's instant trust in her Aunt Bree + her conviction for saving Colin

I touched on Cassie's trust in being introduced to the scryer world in my goodreads review, but I was also a little frustrated with Cassie blindly performing the ritual for her aunt later on in the plot. Before knowing she had visions, it seemed that her relationship with her Aunt Bree was already rocky, and her role in Cassie's life has been practically non-existent. There's an automatic coldness with how Aunt Bree talks to her niece, and she barely checks up on her during her time of 'training'. Then suddenly Cassie needs to perform a forbidden ritual - the same Cassie that fairly recently found out about this whole world and her abilities? It seems weird that she wouldn't question anything - although she is only sixteen-turning-seventeen, so I could let it slide.

Cassie's need to save Colin is the main premise surrounding the plot; I feel that it could have been elaborated on a little bit more. Sure, she doesn't want him to die - but I didn't see their relationship evolve to the point of her turning her life upside down and around just to save him. I really wish we saw how much of an impact he had on her life before she left to train/study, instead of a few minor exchanges at the beginning of the story.

---------------------------------------------------

Overall, despite my points made above, I would DEFINITELY recommend this book to others, and i cannot wait for the rest of the trilogy. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate mental illness being touched on in a real, non-glorifying, non-stereotyping way!!

Once again, thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I appreciated the OCD rep. I'm going to rant for a minute. Too often people think of OCD as nothing but wanting your mugs all lined up the same way. For some people, it can be absolutely crippling. What Cassandra suffered with was bad, but it wasn't the worst I've seen. Imagine that one day you start getting vivid intrusive thoughts, sexual thoughts, about children. You know you aren't sexually attracted to children, you are absolutely mortified by these thoughts, but they don't stop. They keep coming, and you start doubting yourself. You know it isn't true, and yet, what if deep down it is? What if you're a terrible person? What if you're a child molester and you're a danger to society? Who do you talk to about this? Who can you tell? Your psychiatrist and no one else. What would you think if someone you cared about told you this? Would you think that maybe it was true because you don't understand OCD like the majority of the world doesn't? What if you have terrible intrusive thoughts that you're going to murder the people you love most in life? You love your mother, but every time you open the kitchen drawer and see that knife... what if one day you do it? What if you push your best friend into traffic?

People with OCD live their lives not being able to trust themselves or the world around them. People kill themselves over OCD. They live in pain and shame and misery. They scrub until they bleed, brilliant people, because logic has absolutely no place in this. You cannot reason with it. It's incredibly difficult to treat, and it fucking sucks.

Ahem.

Anyway, this book had some faults. It moved a little too fast. It's already a series, so I feel like it should have been stretched out a bit more, fleshed out a bit more, and it would have been better. The summer camp thing was a bit of a stretch, something that takes place over 2 weeks, and suddenly these kids are supposed to have all the knowledge and skill they need to survive in the coil. It makes no sense and there's no justification for it. Why would they need to move so fast? Why would people send their children off to potentially lose their minds or die after 2 weeks? Whatever.

At any rate, I still enjoyed it. It made me bawl like a baby when they discussed the death of Cass's mom. I just lost someone really close to me, and I felt it man. I felt it. I was nodding along like YES IT'S AWFUL JUST LIKE THAT. I enjoyed the beginnings of romance. I enjoyed most of the characters except for Noah who is hot garbage. It ended on a semi cliffhanger; you know stuff is coming, and you don't know what it is exactly, but it wasn't the kind of cliffhanger where you find out who the killer is and then it fades to black and you need to wait for the next book to find out. I didn't expect the twist at the end until it was already in my face. I feel like this book laid some good groundwork, and I'm looking forward to reading what comes next.

This is such a beautiful book! Full of fortune telling, freindship and acceptance. The characters fit together well and the plot keeps you on your toes. I cannot wait for the sequel .

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Foretold is the first installment in the Scryers series, following teenage Cass as she navigates life after her mother's death, her own OCD, anxiety, and visions of the future. The way Lumani discusses these mental health topics is tasteful and relatable, and I think that combining these issues into a more magical plot will really engage teenage readers! 4/5 stars overall.

Genre: Fantasy | YA

Release Date: Expected 20th July 2021

Publisher: Uproar Books



After living her whole life with chronic anxiety and OCD, Cassandra is used to thinking the worst; to thinking there's death and destruction around every corner. Therapy helped teach her to cope and her Father has been as supportive as he could be but nothing has been the same since she lost her mother.

This time it's different though and she knows it. Colin, the boy next door and her newly found friend is going to due. It's happened once before, her visions becoming devastatingly real and now it's happening all over again.

Desperate to cheat death and save Colin from his untimely death, Cass finds herself enrolled in an Organisation of Scryers and Soothsayers, for people like her, that promise to help to her find a way to change the things she sees. But as she desceneds further into their world of magic she learns that changing fate and cheating death always comes with a price - and she's got to pay it.

Foretold is the first installment in the Scryers series, inspired by the authors own struggles with OCD that made this story so authentic and yet so magical at the same time. Right from the second line, I was locked in. I wanted to know Cass he world she lived in. She was introdued to us as a naive, quiet, somewhat sad young girl who played trivnometry and ate lasagne with her Dad every friday night and she grew and evolved in front of our eyes to a powerful, magical woman.

There were those quiet sparks of romance scattered throughout, but didn't take focus away from Cass and the friends she met on her journey who recognised that someone who is constantly having to fight a battle with their own mind is a true badass.

This story was full of familiar and comforting classic tropes without being boring - the universe and the lore created were rich and engrossing, although there were a few points throughout the story I felt that I didn't really know what was going on and maybe things could have been explained better.

I can't wait to see what Cass & Co get up to in their next adventure.



RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Violet Lumani, Uproar Books, IBPA and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

I love so much about this book! I can't believe I have had the pleasure of being able to read it a bit early. This is a story of future-telling, friendship, family, and accepting who you are. It is the start of a series that it seems, and I am highly anticipating the sequel. The characters flowed together so nicely. The friendship between Cassandra and Regan is so beautiful. I relate to them as I have a friendship sort of like that. I love the intentions that Cassie has through the plot line and how not all good things means it will last through the long run. I was blown away by Lumani's ability to throw me into the world by the flow of the words and the entrancing plot line. I thought the pace was great and the concept was so new for me.

I am beyond excited to give this five stars! It is soon released, so go get your copies, because this is one you will not want to stroll past in the bookstore.

**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review!

I spent most of this book waiting for the plot to really pick up and then when it finally did I wasn't all that excited about it. The love triangle aspect was okay, but didn't hook me, but I will say that the characters are well written. I did enjoy reading through Cassie's POV and witnessing her dealing with her anxiety and OCD. I thought that aspect was really well done. So were the friendships. The ending was kind of a shock but then again, not really, overall, I was intrigued with the book and how it took neuro-atypicalness and merged it into a fortune telling type thing--that was cool and something I hadn't read before.
*ARC recieved from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

What a great start of a trilogy. I am definitely looking forward to following the remainder of this story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

"Foretold" by Violet Lumani is about a girl, Cass Morai, who has OCD and is struggling with the death of her mother. When she has a vision of a boy dying in front of her, she is quickly swept up into a whole new world of scrying and magic.

This book wasn't for me. Maybe it's aimed toward a younger audience? (I'm 22 and mainly read YA). I don't think that the author knows how to write teenagers in a way that doesn't come off as semi-cringey. The plot was generic, easy to follow, and the dialogue just felt stilted and a bit off. It's not /bad/, but it's just a little off, if you know what I mean. I couldn't relate to any of the characters and I generally felt neutral about everything throughout the whole novel.

The one plus of this book was how OCD is portrayed. As someone who also has it, I found myself really resonating with the struggles of the protagonist. Many people think of people with OCD are just neat, but the author gets into the intricacies of intrusive thoughts and compulsions. For me, that's enough to give this book 3 stars. I think it's important for mental illnesses like OCD to be more common in popular media so people understand them properly.

Foretold is an interesting book that I don't think I'm the right audience for. The concept was incredibly appealing, and the cover is gorgeous, two reasons why I requested it on NetGalley, and I'm glad I read it, but I'm not the target audience. And that's fine! Violet Lumani is a talented writer, and the way she describes OCD and mental illness is spot on. I've never seen OCD written using the techniques that she does, and I think she does so effectively, giving the reader a deeper understanding of just how stifling OCD can be. For readers of this genre, I'm sure they'll love Foretold, and I hope to see its success!

The cover drew me in, so beautiful! Foretold starts slow, I couldn't get through the first couple chapters easily but its packed with magic and action. The author's skill at describing OCD was on point

The first thing that attracted me to this book was the cover (so gorgeous!) and from reading the synopsis it felt like my kind of novel, but after finishing it I feel slightly underwhelmed.

The story focuses on main character Cassie (love the name) who suffers from OCD and imagines the worst possible situations - to make matters worse these are actually visions. When she foresees the death of her neighbour, she needs to learn how to control her abilities and try to change the future.

First off, it took me a long time to read and this is really unusual for me. This was mainly because I found the book quite confusing to start with. I actually wondered if I’d missed a chapter because I didn’t understand the concept of their magic at all and it felt like I’d just been thrown in to this random world where all these people can suddenly see the future. There were a lot of different types of magic and the characters go to all these classes to learn different techniques, but I just felt nothing was really explained. How did they get these abilities? Where did the group come from? How was her mum involved? I have so many questions and there just weren’t any answers!

I did like the portrayal of Cassie’s OCD, and felt how this affected her life and her choices was accurate.

The book really picked up in the last half but then I felt like the story was quite abrupt when it ended so although I feel quite underwhelmed overall I will probably choose to read the sequel just to see what happens next.