Antonia Bernardin

My 69th read of the year was Zodiac Academy 8.5 – Beyond the Veil by Susanne Valenti and Caroline Peckham.

Your find my review for the rest of the Zodiac Academy Series, including the novellas, here

Definitely spoilers for book 8.

An attempt at summarising

This book follows immediately after the events at the end of book 8 and takes place ‘beyond the veil’, in the land of the dead.

(before I continue – SERIOUSLY, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BOOK 8)

It follows Darius in the afterlife, watching the consequences after the big battle where he lost his life. Time moves strangely beyond the veil but Darius and the twins other loved ones watch over them as Darcy is trapped in the Palace of Souls, bound with a shadow beast within, trying to protect Lance from the death bond. Tory is leading her remains of the rebel army, trying to carry on while crippled by the loss of her mate. The dead desperately try to find the ways they can help the living, including the locations of the Guild Stones.

My thoughts

To my shock… I did not enjoy this book. I have loved every single Zodiac Academy book I’ve read, including the novellas. But this was… dull, expositional and introduced a whole host of dead characters that I just could not care about. Because of the ‘strange way time works in the veil’ this allowed the story to jump cut through a whole bunch of world building to set up up for the final book. This book just wasn’t for me. It was sad and boring. I nearly DNF’d it.

I will still read the last book but I’m genuinely so disappointed, after consuming the first 7 in literally a week and reading every other book as soon as I could get my hands on it. I was so surprised to feel this way about this book.