Pub Date: April 7. 2026
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Dark Academia
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads Amazon Bookshop
Neither amnesia nor the
brothers trying to steer her fate will stop Amber Fallbrook from uncovering the
truth about herself, the Alchemary, and the legend of the Philosopher’s Stone.
New York Times bestselling
author Rachel Vincent (Soul Screamers, The Shifters) pens a dark paranormal
romantasy centered on alchemy magic—and those who dare harness it.
Naked, knowing little more
than her name, Amber Fallbrook does not recognize the stone tower she’s awoken
in, or the vast, glittering ocean outside the window. Turning, she finds a very
a different view: the beautiful, nearly naked man in the narrow bed is a
stranger. So is the man who barges into the room unannounced, clearly expecting
to find Amber alone.
Who are they? Who is she?
Why can’t she remember?
Shocked to discover that
she’s in her dormitory room at the Alchemary—the realm’s prestigious university
dedicated to the study of alchemy—Amber has no recollection of having been one
of the school’s top students for the past two years. The two men—brothers—are
her childhood friends, even if “friends” is not the exact energy in the room.
One brother claims to want
to protect her, and the other to help her recover her memory, but Amber soon
realizes that nothing is at it seems at the Alchemary. Not the intentions of
her classmates and faculty, not the stunning, labyrinthian campus, not the two
brothers she’s increasingly attracted to—maybe not even herself.
Despite her memory loss,
Amber rejoins her classes and prepares for the deadly Alchemary Trials
alongside the other Mastery-level students. But as invigorating as the flowing
language and symbology of alchemy is, she can’t help but notice that for an institution
shining light on the quest for human perfection there are a lot of dark shadows
in its winding corridors.
My Review: EHH.
I was expecting a lot from
this book. Given I've read many of Rachels books, the blurb for this book, it
was all aimed to have high hopes.
Well....I had to put this
book down and come back to it in order to finish it.
While I didn't hate the
book, I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped.
I liked Amber. She was a
good character and developed well throughout the book. Especially for someone
who woke up to sudden amnesia with no clue or cause as to why this happened,
she takes it in stride.
Amber wants to know what
happened, will her memory come back, fight to stay and earn her spot back as
the top student and get through the trials.
At one point, they think
this whole issue is kept under wraps until Amber is basically threatened/blackmails
by Pryce who knows she can’t remember and how easy it’ll be to beat her
now. Give you a moment to pause and think,
could it be him? Mayne he is just this kind of jerk. Plus he knew she was
waiting on Wilder and kind of sort of made it so would be delayed. Yeah, jerk
he is and not a fan of this guy.
There were many aspects
that I loved about this book and many that could’ve been improved on. The pace
was horribly slow and made it feel so boring you had to step away to avoid
being angry at it.
It took about the halfway
point before it finally got my attention enough to finally want to continue the
book and be glued to the pages.
Plus that ending was
fabulous! Finally what I needed and now I'm actually holding hope that the
second book will turn out to be better and keep me glued in from the start.
My Rating:
✪✪✪
