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The Notorious Virtues #1
The Notorious Virtues
A glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.
At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.
But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.
And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.
With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.
At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.
But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.
And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.
With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.
576 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2025
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44089 people want to read
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July 9, 2025
from the release date being continually pushed back over the course of 5 years to the unusually extended length for a first book in a series, i expected this to be much better than what it is. but its just all over the place.
the world-building is unsure and confused. the story doesnt know what kind of world its set in and, therefore, cant explain itself to the reader. i had no idea if this was set in a fantasy medieval times or an urban fantasy 1920s. the magic system is also not explored, causing to it seem ruleless and undeveloped, preventing the reader from establishing any sort of expectations.
there are too many POVs for this particular story. the constant switching hindered any of the characters from fully shining, the reader from building any connection with them, and the pacing feeling smooth. the trials themselves are so rushed and anticlimactic. almost to the point of being rendered useless. and the ending isnt a cliffhanger. the story just stops. no resolution to a book that takes a lot of effort to push through, so a very unsatisfying conclusion.
if i were to say anything positive, it would be AHs writing is actually quite good. she knows how to craft a sentence, but she really struggled to use that talent to tell a story this time around. so, for a book that took such a long time to write and for how long the book itself actually is, im shocked at how much this didnt deliver.
↠ 2 stars
the world-building is unsure and confused. the story doesnt know what kind of world its set in and, therefore, cant explain itself to the reader. i had no idea if this was set in a fantasy medieval times or an urban fantasy 1920s. the magic system is also not explored, causing to it seem ruleless and undeveloped, preventing the reader from establishing any sort of expectations.
there are too many POVs for this particular story. the constant switching hindered any of the characters from fully shining, the reader from building any connection with them, and the pacing feeling smooth. the trials themselves are so rushed and anticlimactic. almost to the point of being rendered useless. and the ending isnt a cliffhanger. the story just stops. no resolution to a book that takes a lot of effort to push through, so a very unsatisfying conclusion.
if i were to say anything positive, it would be AHs writing is actually quite good. she knows how to craft a sentence, but she really struggled to use that talent to tell a story this time around. so, for a book that took such a long time to write and for how long the book itself actually is, im shocked at how much this didnt deliver.
↠ 2 stars
Want to read
August 4, 2018i don't know what this is but i'll read anything alwyn hamilton writes
Want to read
March 23, 2021One day, I'll stop adding books to my TBR based entirely on their glorious covers. This is not that day.
Update-
is this book even going to released anymore? It doesn't appear anywhere (on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Etc.) and it no longer has a release date. Does anyone know the deal with this?
Update-
is this book even going to released anymore? It doesn't appear anywhere (on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Etc.) and it no longer has a release date. Does anyone know the deal with this?
April 1, 2025
જ⁀➴ 3 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Update (4/1/2025): Happy publishing day to The Notorious Virtues!
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After almost half a decade, I've finally been able to read The Notorious Virtues. I'm not sure what I thought I was expecting going into the story, but it was everything I thought it was going to be but also not at the same time. There are good parts of the story that I liked, but also way more parts that I wish were developed more or done differently (including a questionable line in the story that's said by one of the main characters, but more on that later). Prepare for a long review ahead!
(Before starting the main part of the review, I just wanted to put a disclaimer that I'll be mentioning some scenes here and there from the story, but none of the scenes are spoilers for the overall plot, and because this is a review of an eARC, there's no guarantee what I'll be mentioning will make it into the final draft of the book.)
Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in Walstad. Her family controls the power, money, wealth, influence, and magic that runs through the entire city. When her mother, the current heiress, is found dead, she's thrust into the Veritaz, a competition that pits her against her cousins as they fight to be the next Holtzfall heiress. The winner of the Veritaz obtains all of the magic that runs through the Holtzfall family, and the losers forfeit their magic and powers forever. When she finds out her mother's death was actually a murder, she's determined to find out what happened the night she died, even if that means accepting the help from August Wolffe, a young investigative reporter at the local newspaper who hates how the Holtzfalls run the city. With the rise of the Grims, a rebel group in the city who stands against everything the Holtzfall family emulates, Nora needs to sleep with one eye open as she fights against her cousins in the Veritaz while also finding out who killed her mother.
Ottoline "Lotte" Holtzfall has been living in a convent for the last 16 years of her life. When her estranged mother returns for her to compete in the Veritaz, she's thrust into a world of glitz, glamour, and a family who doesn't even know her but wants her dead at all costs. She's determined to prove that she has a place in the Holtzfall family, and that starts by winning the Veritaz.
The first thing I want to get out of the way about this book is that it's very difficult to get into. I wasn't sure what to make of anything at first because you're immediately dropped into the story with no additional context or background. There was no exposition whatsoever. Then, you get a massive info dump a few chapters later explaining the entire Holtzfall family tree and the lore of why they have to have the Veritaz. The family tree is expansive. It was difficult to keep everyone's names straight when almost none of them have normal, "easier" names to remember. I now know why the book is titled The Notorious Virtues- it's because all of the characters' names are some sort of virtue: Clemency, Modesty, Constance, Grace, Verity, Honora, Honor, Prosper... you get the idea. I didn't realize there was a family tree until after I finished reading because the eARC had the family tree at the end of the book. Not sure if it'll be placed at the beginning of the book in the final version but it would've been helpful to see it before I started reading lol.
I also didn't feel like the magic system made 100% sense? I think I kind of know how it works but also not at the same time. So there's the concept of the more money and power you have, the more magic you can have and control, which I suppose makes sense because Nora's ancestors founded the entire city a thousand years ago and made a deal with a magical god that granted them magic and power, so all of Walstad's citizens pay taxes and tariffs on their land and it all falls back to the Holtzfalls. But then I believe there's a part of the story where they say that everyone is born with some amount of magic, but it depletes over time if they use it? So would they just have to be born into wealth to continue using their magic and prevent it from depleting?
There's the concept of "charms" in the story, which is the story's magic system. It sort of reminds me of the runes from the Shadowhunters series where you create a symbol and activate it with magic, and then it works to do things like keep a drink cold, open a door, etc. I think it's an interesting magic system, but the book doesn't go into how everyone knows what the symbols look like or how to create a new one. There's a scene where Nora is trying to show Lotte how to activate a charm, and while Nora can create a spark with her magic to activate one, Lotte can only activate one if she draws blood which doesn't make a whole ton of sense because Lotte is a Holtzfall and should have a ton of magic in her. On top of that, I was under the impression that you just had to draw random symbols to make a charm, but then there's another scene where Nora's channeling her inner electrical engineer and working with circuitry to make a brand new charm work?! None of it made 100% sense to me.
In terms of the overall plot, I felt like the Veritaz trials were a subplot to what I thought were supposed to be the actual subplots but then became major plotlines of the story. I'm not sure what I was supposed to expect going into reading this, but I think I was expecting something more along the lines of The Inheritance Games where the trials were the main plot of the story and the mystery aspects--Nora finding out who murdered her mother, Theo finding out what happened to his older brother the night of Nora's mother's death, and Lotte figuring out who her father is--were subplots. The synopsis of the story describes the Veritaz as "the ultimate magic competition" where I expected that they competed in a tournament against each other, kind of like the trials in Powerless, even, but to describe them as "trials" is somewhat generous. They were "tests" more than anything else. They were tests of virtue and a judgement of character, so the "trials" themselves were pretty mundane aside from an occasional rebel attack from the Grims here and there.
Going into the characters themselves, the story is also told in four different POVs: Nora, Lotte, August, and Theo, so I think it would be easier to make this review based on all their POVs:
✧ Nora: I was honestly the most satisfied by her character arc the most. I was pretty wary of her going in because she came off as snooty, entitled, and pompous, but I loved her character development by the end of the story. She's selfless, clever, loves her friends, and driven to discover what happened to her mother. She went from someone who accepted her wealth and took advantage of it to further herself to wanting to use her power and influence for more.
✧ Lotte: I was rooting for her the entire time because she was an underdog. I love a good underdog story and I think her POV delivered on that. She was hated by her family immediately after she arrived, but proved all of them wrong in her own way. They forced her to be prim and proper, but she knew that she was more than that, as much as she loved the glittering ballgowns and parties.
✧ August: I thought August wasn't going to be the one-dimensional character, but he ended up as that by the time I finished reading the book. I feel like way more could've been done with his character beyond him being just the journalist chasing another headline. I liked how he challenged Nora and her views about her wealth and power and motivated her to be more than what her family expects of her, but that was pretty much about it when it comes to his character.
✧ Theo: Theo, I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game. I almost hated what Alwyn Hamilton did to his character. He was so one-dimensional for the vast majority of the story. He's part of the Rydder family, a family of knights who have served the Holtzfall family for as long as they've been around. They're oathbound to serve the Holtzfalls and nothing else. Most of his lines were along the lines of "I HAVE TO DO WHAT I'M TOLD BECAUSE A RYDDER KNIGHT NEVER BREAKS HIS OATH!" and it drove me crazy. Like Nora, he has a similar subplot where he tries to find out what happened to Alaric, his older brother, who was with Nora's mom the night she died; he mysteriously disappeared and wasn't found after her death. His character development I think was my second favorite's after Nora's as he struggles between duty and what he truly wants to do.
Honestly, I don't understand why Theo and August had to have POVs, or at the very least, why August needed to have one. Nora and Lotte were the leading ladies and I loved watching them grow and connect with each other during the trials and get closer to each other. They started off as rivals, but learned to accept each other into their family. Additionally, I felt like the romance between Lotte and Theo was forced. I didn't really feel any chemistry between them, but that was probably because Theo's head was so far up his own ass about wanting to never break his oath as a knight.
Last but not least, I just wanted to mention a few other things about the book overall that made me a little uneasy/uncomfortable:
✧ The classism and elitism: This was inevitable considering that the Holtzfalls are like, the top 0.000001% of the 1%, and their views on the middle and lower classes in their city are unfavorable, to put it mildly. There's one specific line in the eARC that goes, "Jobs were for needy people. As in people who needed money. Not Holtzfalls." and that line called me broke in 5 million different ways. Given today's current climate when it comes to social injustice and the class divides, the dialogue between some of the Holtzfalls I thought was extremely tone-deaf and out of touch. I know it's there to show how wealthy the Holtzfalls really are, but I was taken back by how much of it there was throughout the story. (I'm just glad that the main characters at the very least are self-aware and want something to change.)
✧ This one specific quote: I didn't mention this before because I didn't think it would be relevant until this point, but I think now would be a good time to mention that all of the Holtzfalls have light skin and blonde hair. I wouldn't be surprised if they had blue or brown eyes to go with it. Nora, on the other hand, is mixed. She's half-white (via her mother's side) and half Middle Eastern (via her father's side). However, Nora takes after her father's traits with dark hair and dark tan skin. There's a line somewhere in the eARC where one of her cousins says, "She's too foreign to be pretty" about Nora. Like....what in the racism!?!?!? That alone knocked off one star from my rating.
Aside from all of that, I think this series has a lot of potential. We're left with a cliffhanger at the end of the story and I was left with more questions than answers. I want to know what happens next! I know this is only book 1 of a trilogy, so hopefully we get more answers sooner rather than later (AKA not another 5 years down the line for book 2).
(P.S.: Someone needs to update how long this book is on Goodreads because I was BAMBOOZLED yesterday. It's not 320 pages. It's 512.)
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Trigger warnings: recounted death of a parent, murder, blood, classism and elitism, amnesia, violence
𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹: (3/4/2025): ARC #1 of March! I heard some people are trying to do mARCh Madness where they read as many of their ARCs this month as possible so this will be my first ARC of the month!🍀✨Fast forward 3.5 years later and The Notorious Virtues IS coming out in 2025 LMAO. I forgot I even did that initial pre-read back in 2021; that's how much time has passed! I did graduate pharmacy school, I did get licensed as a pharmacist in my state, and I did actually read The Inheritance Games since my initial pre-read on this in 2021. I guess fate has a funny way of doing things because I got the eARC after all this time of waiting to see what would happen to the book!
𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 (8/2/2021): Okay so I hope this book comes out before 2025 because that's what the release date is saying on Goodreads right now and apparently, it keeps changing all the time. The fact that this book may potentially come out after I graduate pharmacy school in 2024 is so crazy to think about because that seems like centuries away so I hope that's just a placeholder date.
The cover and the premise are giving me The Inheritance Games vibes (I haven't read the book yet but it's sitting on my bookshelf in my room waiting to be and I know what it's about to an extent), but make it YA high fantasy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Update (4/1/2025): Happy publishing day to The Notorious Virtues!
✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚
After almost half a decade, I've finally been able to read The Notorious Virtues. I'm not sure what I thought I was expecting going into the story, but it was everything I thought it was going to be but also not at the same time. There are good parts of the story that I liked, but also way more parts that I wish were developed more or done differently (including a questionable line in the story that's said by one of the main characters, but more on that later). Prepare for a long review ahead!
(Before starting the main part of the review, I just wanted to put a disclaimer that I'll be mentioning some scenes here and there from the story, but none of the scenes are spoilers for the overall plot, and because this is a review of an eARC, there's no guarantee what I'll be mentioning will make it into the final draft of the book.)
Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in Walstad. Her family controls the power, money, wealth, influence, and magic that runs through the entire city. When her mother, the current heiress, is found dead, she's thrust into the Veritaz, a competition that pits her against her cousins as they fight to be the next Holtzfall heiress. The winner of the Veritaz obtains all of the magic that runs through the Holtzfall family, and the losers forfeit their magic and powers forever. When she finds out her mother's death was actually a murder, she's determined to find out what happened the night she died, even if that means accepting the help from August Wolffe, a young investigative reporter at the local newspaper who hates how the Holtzfalls run the city. With the rise of the Grims, a rebel group in the city who stands against everything the Holtzfall family emulates, Nora needs to sleep with one eye open as she fights against her cousins in the Veritaz while also finding out who killed her mother.
Ottoline "Lotte" Holtzfall has been living in a convent for the last 16 years of her life. When her estranged mother returns for her to compete in the Veritaz, she's thrust into a world of glitz, glamour, and a family who doesn't even know her but wants her dead at all costs. She's determined to prove that she has a place in the Holtzfall family, and that starts by winning the Veritaz.
The first thing I want to get out of the way about this book is that it's very difficult to get into. I wasn't sure what to make of anything at first because you're immediately dropped into the story with no additional context or background. There was no exposition whatsoever. Then, you get a massive info dump a few chapters later explaining the entire Holtzfall family tree and the lore of why they have to have the Veritaz. The family tree is expansive. It was difficult to keep everyone's names straight when almost none of them have normal, "easier" names to remember. I now know why the book is titled The Notorious Virtues- it's because all of the characters' names are some sort of virtue: Clemency, Modesty, Constance, Grace, Verity, Honora, Honor, Prosper... you get the idea. I didn't realize there was a family tree until after I finished reading because the eARC had the family tree at the end of the book. Not sure if it'll be placed at the beginning of the book in the final version but it would've been helpful to see it before I started reading lol.
I also didn't feel like the magic system made 100% sense? I think I kind of know how it works but also not at the same time. So there's the concept of the more money and power you have, the more magic you can have and control, which I suppose makes sense because Nora's ancestors founded the entire city a thousand years ago and made a deal with a magical god that granted them magic and power, so all of Walstad's citizens pay taxes and tariffs on their land and it all falls back to the Holtzfalls. But then I believe there's a part of the story where they say that everyone is born with some amount of magic, but it depletes over time if they use it? So would they just have to be born into wealth to continue using their magic and prevent it from depleting?
There's the concept of "charms" in the story, which is the story's magic system. It sort of reminds me of the runes from the Shadowhunters series where you create a symbol and activate it with magic, and then it works to do things like keep a drink cold, open a door, etc. I think it's an interesting magic system, but the book doesn't go into how everyone knows what the symbols look like or how to create a new one. There's a scene where Nora is trying to show Lotte how to activate a charm, and while Nora can create a spark with her magic to activate one, Lotte can only activate one if she draws blood which doesn't make a whole ton of sense because Lotte is a Holtzfall and should have a ton of magic in her. On top of that, I was under the impression that you just had to draw random symbols to make a charm, but then there's another scene where Nora's channeling her inner electrical engineer and working with circuitry to make a brand new charm work?! None of it made 100% sense to me.
In terms of the overall plot, I felt like the Veritaz trials were a subplot to what I thought were supposed to be the actual subplots but then became major plotlines of the story. I'm not sure what I was supposed to expect going into reading this, but I think I was expecting something more along the lines of The Inheritance Games where the trials were the main plot of the story and the mystery aspects--Nora finding out who murdered her mother, Theo finding out what happened to his older brother the night of Nora's mother's death, and Lotte figuring out who her father is--were subplots. The synopsis of the story describes the Veritaz as "the ultimate magic competition" where I expected that they competed in a tournament against each other, kind of like the trials in Powerless, even, but to describe them as "trials" is somewhat generous. They were "tests" more than anything else. They were tests of virtue and a judgement of character, so the "trials" themselves were pretty mundane aside from an occasional rebel attack from the Grims here and there.
Going into the characters themselves, the story is also told in four different POVs: Nora, Lotte, August, and Theo, so I think it would be easier to make this review based on all their POVs:
✧ Nora: I was honestly the most satisfied by her character arc the most. I was pretty wary of her going in because she came off as snooty, entitled, and pompous, but I loved her character development by the end of the story. She's selfless, clever, loves her friends, and driven to discover what happened to her mother. She went from someone who accepted her wealth and took advantage of it to further herself to wanting to use her power and influence for more.
✧ Lotte: I was rooting for her the entire time because she was an underdog. I love a good underdog story and I think her POV delivered on that. She was hated by her family immediately after she arrived, but proved all of them wrong in her own way. They forced her to be prim and proper, but she knew that she was more than that, as much as she loved the glittering ballgowns and parties.
✧ August: I thought August wasn't going to be the one-dimensional character, but he ended up as that by the time I finished reading the book. I feel like way more could've been done with his character beyond him being just the journalist chasing another headline. I liked how he challenged Nora and her views about her wealth and power and motivated her to be more than what her family expects of her, but that was pretty much about it when it comes to his character.
✧ Theo: Theo, I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game. I almost hated what Alwyn Hamilton did to his character. He was so one-dimensional for the vast majority of the story. He's part of the Rydder family, a family of knights who have served the Holtzfall family for as long as they've been around. They're oathbound to serve the Holtzfalls and nothing else. Most of his lines were along the lines of "I HAVE TO DO WHAT I'M TOLD BECAUSE A RYDDER KNIGHT NEVER BREAKS HIS OATH!" and it drove me crazy. Like Nora, he has a similar subplot where he tries to find out what happened to Alaric, his older brother, who was with Nora's mom the night she died; he mysteriously disappeared and wasn't found after her death. His character development I think was my second favorite's after Nora's as he struggles between duty and what he truly wants to do.
Honestly, I don't understand why Theo and August had to have POVs, or at the very least, why August needed to have one. Nora and Lotte were the leading ladies and I loved watching them grow and connect with each other during the trials and get closer to each other. They started off as rivals, but learned to accept each other into their family. Additionally, I felt like the romance between Lotte and Theo was forced. I didn't really feel any chemistry between them, but that was probably because Theo's head was so far up his own ass about wanting to never break his oath as a knight.
Last but not least, I just wanted to mention a few other things about the book overall that made me a little uneasy/uncomfortable:
✧ The classism and elitism: This was inevitable considering that the Holtzfalls are like, the top 0.000001% of the 1%, and their views on the middle and lower classes in their city are unfavorable, to put it mildly. There's one specific line in the eARC that goes, "Jobs were for needy people. As in people who needed money. Not Holtzfalls." and that line called me broke in 5 million different ways. Given today's current climate when it comes to social injustice and the class divides, the dialogue between some of the Holtzfalls I thought was extremely tone-deaf and out of touch. I know it's there to show how wealthy the Holtzfalls really are, but I was taken back by how much of it there was throughout the story. (I'm just glad that the main characters at the very least are self-aware and want something to change.)
✧ This one specific quote: I didn't mention this before because I didn't think it would be relevant until this point, but I think now would be a good time to mention that all of the Holtzfalls have light skin and blonde hair. I wouldn't be surprised if they had blue or brown eyes to go with it. Nora, on the other hand, is mixed. She's half-white (via her mother's side) and half Middle Eastern (via her father's side). However, Nora takes after her father's traits with dark hair and dark tan skin. There's a line somewhere in the eARC where one of her cousins says, "She's too foreign to be pretty" about Nora. Like....what in the racism!?!?!? That alone knocked off one star from my rating.
Aside from all of that, I think this series has a lot of potential. We're left with a cliffhanger at the end of the story and I was left with more questions than answers. I want to know what happens next! I know this is only book 1 of a trilogy, so hopefully we get more answers sooner rather than later (AKA not another 5 years down the line for book 2).
(P.S.: Someone needs to update how long this book is on Goodreads because I was BAMBOOZLED yesterday. It's not 320 pages. It's 512.)
✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡♡˚
Trigger warnings: recounted death of a parent, murder, blood, classism and elitism, amnesia, violence
𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹: (3/4/2025): ARC #1 of March! I heard some people are trying to do mARCh Madness where they read as many of their ARCs this month as possible so this will be my first ARC of the month!🍀✨Fast forward 3.5 years later and The Notorious Virtues IS coming out in 2025 LMAO. I forgot I even did that initial pre-read back in 2021; that's how much time has passed! I did graduate pharmacy school, I did get licensed as a pharmacist in my state, and I did actually read The Inheritance Games since my initial pre-read on this in 2021. I guess fate has a funny way of doing things because I got the eARC after all this time of waiting to see what would happen to the book!
𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 (8/2/2021): Okay so I hope this book comes out before 2025 because that's what the release date is saying on Goodreads right now and apparently, it keeps changing all the time. The fact that this book may potentially come out after I graduate pharmacy school in 2024 is so crazy to think about because that seems like centuries away so I hope that's just a placeholder date.
The cover and the premise are giving me The Inheritance Games vibes (I haven't read the book yet but it's sitting on my bookshelf in my room waiting to be and I know what it's about to an extent), but make it YA high fantasy.
Want to read
June 29, 2020Sooo...when is this book ACTUALLY releasing???
- Amazon says 4 January 2050
- Book Depository says 1 June 2021
- IndieBound says 4 January 2050
- Waterstones says 18 August 2020
- and it's disappeared from Barnes & Noble's website
WHAT IS GOING ON??? Goodreads also says 18 August 2020, so I'm rather confused...
- Amazon says 4 January 2050
- Book Depository says 1 June 2021
- IndieBound says 4 January 2050
- Waterstones says 18 August 2020
- and it's disappeared from Barnes & Noble's website
WHAT IS GOING ON??? Goodreads also says 18 August 2020, so I'm rather confused...
June 24, 2024
Trust me when I say this book is absolutely worth the wait. My quote:
‘The Notorious Virtues is a sparkling cocktail of fairy tales, family conflicts, mysteries and magic, bubbling with rebellion and vibrant characters. Beneath the intoxicating glamour of Walstad, you’ll soon find a dark fable about power, the importance of storytelling, and our primal fear of what lies in the woods. Alwyn Hamilton is back and better than ever.’
Note: I received an early copy from the publisher.
‘The Notorious Virtues is a sparkling cocktail of fairy tales, family conflicts, mysteries and magic, bubbling with rebellion and vibrant characters. Beneath the intoxicating glamour of Walstad, you’ll soon find a dark fable about power, the importance of storytelling, and our primal fear of what lies in the woods. Alwyn Hamilton is back and better than ever.’
Note: I received an early copy from the publisher.
March 18, 2025
4 STARS! 🌟 Huge thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Viking Books for Young Readers for the ARC via NetGalley! 💌
✨ Deadly trials. Magic. Family betrayal. Old money meets high stakes. LET’S GO! ✨
From author Alwyn Hamilton comes a glitzy, cutthroat YA fantasy that’s basically The Inheritance Games—but with even more murder, magic, and messy, backstabbing family drama. And I was eating it UP.
🔪 WHO WILL BE THE NEXT HEIRESS? LET THE VERITAZ TRIALS BEGIN. 🔪
Sixteen-year-old Honora "Nora" Holtzfall has it all—wealth, power, a legacy that shapes the entire country. But when her mother is murdered, the throne (and all the magic that comes with it) is suddenly up for grabs. Enter the Veritaz Trials. A brutal, high-stakes competition where only one heir can win.
BUT WAIT. Plot twist. Lotte enters the chat.
Lotte, aka the hidden, illegitimate cousin, was raised in a convent with ZERO clue that she’s Holtzfall blood. Now, she’s yanked into this ruthless world and thrown into the trials against a family that wants her dead.
💰 Magic and money rule everything. But there’s something darker bubbling beneath the surface... and a revolution is brewing.
🔥 WHAT I LOVED:
✧ Nora & August’s dynamic?? 🔥 RICH GIRL × REBELLIOUS JOURNALIST WITH TENSION. I WAS LIVING.
✧ The trials were NOT just your basic fight-to-the-death setup. They tested honesty, courage, and unity. Every moment, I was like 😧 “Oh no, what’s next?”
✧ ROARING ‘20s meets modern fantasy?? Yes, please. The mix of magic, wealth, and a city on the brink of chaos was immaculate.
✧ THE FAMILY DRAMA. Everyone was scheming, no one could be trusted, and I was OBSESSED.
👀 WHAT I STRUGGLED WITH:
✧ There were A LOT of characters and shifting POVs. Took a hot minute to keep track of everyone.
✧ The worldbuilding was a little confusing at times—are we in a fantasy world?? A futuristic one?? WHY ARE THERE CARS AND MAGIC??? My brain was working overtime.
✧ CLIFFHANGER ENDING. 😭 JUST WHEN IT GOT EVEN JUICIER. I NEED BOOK 2 IMMEDIATELY.
✨ READ IF YOU LOVE:
🖤 Deadly inheritance battles between cousins
🥂 Champagne & high society parties hiding dark secrets
🖤 Magic-powered industry & blood-fueled spells
🥂 Tension-filled rich girl × rebellious journalist romance
🖤 Trials that test virtue & inner demons
🥂 Hidden secrets, family betrayals, & cutthroat ambition
Overall?? This book was a WILD, DRAMATIC, MAGICAL RIDE. If you love stories packed with glamour, power struggles, and a touch of murder, this one’s for you. Just be ready for that cliffhanger. 😭
Can’t wait for book 2! ✨
✨ Deadly trials. Magic. Family betrayal. Old money meets high stakes. LET’S GO! ✨
From author Alwyn Hamilton comes a glitzy, cutthroat YA fantasy that’s basically The Inheritance Games—but with even more murder, magic, and messy, backstabbing family drama. And I was eating it UP.
🔪 WHO WILL BE THE NEXT HEIRESS? LET THE VERITAZ TRIALS BEGIN. 🔪
Sixteen-year-old Honora "Nora" Holtzfall has it all—wealth, power, a legacy that shapes the entire country. But when her mother is murdered, the throne (and all the magic that comes with it) is suddenly up for grabs. Enter the Veritaz Trials. A brutal, high-stakes competition where only one heir can win.
BUT WAIT. Plot twist. Lotte enters the chat.
Lotte, aka the hidden, illegitimate cousin, was raised in a convent with ZERO clue that she’s Holtzfall blood. Now, she’s yanked into this ruthless world and thrown into the trials against a family that wants her dead.
💰 Magic and money rule everything. But there’s something darker bubbling beneath the surface... and a revolution is brewing.
🔥 WHAT I LOVED:
✧ Nora & August’s dynamic?? 🔥 RICH GIRL × REBELLIOUS JOURNALIST WITH TENSION. I WAS LIVING.
✧ The trials were NOT just your basic fight-to-the-death setup. They tested honesty, courage, and unity. Every moment, I was like 😧 “Oh no, what’s next?”
✧ ROARING ‘20s meets modern fantasy?? Yes, please. The mix of magic, wealth, and a city on the brink of chaos was immaculate.
✧ THE FAMILY DRAMA. Everyone was scheming, no one could be trusted, and I was OBSESSED.
👀 WHAT I STRUGGLED WITH:
✧ There were A LOT of characters and shifting POVs. Took a hot minute to keep track of everyone.
✧ The worldbuilding was a little confusing at times—are we in a fantasy world?? A futuristic one?? WHY ARE THERE CARS AND MAGIC??? My brain was working overtime.
✧ CLIFFHANGER ENDING. 😭 JUST WHEN IT GOT EVEN JUICIER. I NEED BOOK 2 IMMEDIATELY.
✨ READ IF YOU LOVE:
🖤 Deadly inheritance battles between cousins
🥂 Champagne & high society parties hiding dark secrets
🖤 Magic-powered industry & blood-fueled spells
🥂 Tension-filled rich girl × rebellious journalist romance
🖤 Trials that test virtue & inner demons
🥂 Hidden secrets, family betrayals, & cutthroat ambition
Overall?? This book was a WILD, DRAMATIC, MAGICAL RIDE. If you love stories packed with glamour, power struggles, and a touch of murder, this one’s for you. Just be ready for that cliffhanger. 😭
Can’t wait for book 2! ✨
Want to read
April 9, 2025Two five-star reads back-to-back. Statistically speaking, the odds aren't in my favour for another, but heiresses in a magical deadly competition amidst a murder mystery sounds fun?
Want to read
January 19, 2022huh? 2025? huh? ma'am do you realize maybe by then I won't be alive? THAT'S TOO FAR. OMG.
-------
I'm simple, I saw Alwyn Hamilton I clicked & I want.
-------
I'm simple, I saw Alwyn Hamilton I clicked & I want.
Want to read
February 5, 2018I’ll read everything that this woman brings to the table!
December 25, 2025
3.5 stars
This was a HEFTY story.
There was a lot of information in this book, and I was struggling a little bit because I was 2/3 through the book and there were still just pages of info dumps. So that slowed my forward progress of this book a bit, but the last 1/3 if this book was pretty banging.
There are four different POVs in this book, and two of them I was really interested and invested in from the beginning. Both Nora and August had really great storylines and their characters were just really captivating. It was very entertaining watching Nora be the public heiress but then see exactly what she was capable of, in many different ways. Her interactions with August were 🤌 I always love seeing two people who are at odds but working toward a shared goal. Those dynamics are always enjoyable.
Lottie and Theo were a little harder for me. Lottie's character just kinda seemed all over the place and I couldn't get a good read on her until about half way and then her chapters really started to sync. Once she clicked for me, then I really started to like her chapters. And Theo...I really wanted to like Theo, and I did generally, but his chapters were just so emotionless and stiff. Maybe that was on purpose, but it really made me not look forward to his chapters, which was a shame because he also had a really interesting storyline to follow.
But the last 1/3 of this book was pretty great and a lot of different shit went down, and it really sets up a pretty crazy follow up so I'm for sure intrigued enough to continue the series.
Thank you NetGalley, Goodreads, and Penguin Group for this arc in exchange for an honest review!
This was a HEFTY story.
There was a lot of information in this book, and I was struggling a little bit because I was 2/3 through the book and there were still just pages of info dumps. So that slowed my forward progress of this book a bit, but the last 1/3 if this book was pretty banging.
There are four different POVs in this book, and two of them I was really interested and invested in from the beginning. Both Nora and August had really great storylines and their characters were just really captivating. It was very entertaining watching Nora be the public heiress but then see exactly what she was capable of, in many different ways. Her interactions with August were 🤌 I always love seeing two people who are at odds but working toward a shared goal. Those dynamics are always enjoyable.
Lottie and Theo were a little harder for me. Lottie's character just kinda seemed all over the place and I couldn't get a good read on her until about half way and then her chapters really started to sync. Once she clicked for me, then I really started to like her chapters. And Theo...I really wanted to like Theo, and I did generally, but his chapters were just so emotionless and stiff. Maybe that was on purpose, but it really made me not look forward to his chapters, which was a shame because he also had a really interesting storyline to follow.
But the last 1/3 of this book was pretty great and a lot of different shit went down, and it really sets up a pretty crazy follow up so I'm for sure intrigued enough to continue the series.
Thank you NetGalley, Goodreads, and Penguin Group for this arc in exchange for an honest review!
Want to read
December 9, 2025UPDATE #2: GUESS WHO GOT AN ARC WOOO 🎉🎉🎉
~~~
UPDATE: we got told something!!! alwyn has informed us that the notorious virtues will be released in late march (27th) 2025!!! there was a number of delaying factors, but at least we’ve finally got a set date, and i cannot wait to finally read this book. it’s real!
~~~
this is never going to be released.... half the book websites don't have it, goodreads says 2025, i keep watching the countdown on book depository but whenever it hits 0 it says 'unavailable'... i've given up. someone just tell me something!
~~~
UPDATE: we got told something!!! alwyn has informed us that the notorious virtues will be released in late march (27th) 2025!!! there was a number of delaying factors, but at least we’ve finally got a set date, and i cannot wait to finally read this book. it’s real!
~~~
this is never going to be released.... half the book websites don't have it, goodreads says 2025, i keep watching the countdown on book depository but whenever it hits 0 it says 'unavailable'... i've given up. someone just tell me something!
April 9, 2025
The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton
2.5/5 stars
I hate, hate, hate writing reviews below three stars. But this book just didn't connect with me at all. Someone told me this book has been over 5 years in the making and it shows. I'll try to write my thoughts down with the utmost respect for Alwyn and the publisher.
The book is about the Holtzfall family who rule Walstad. Verity Holtzfall just got murdered and the new generation of the Holtzfall family must participate in the Veritaz Trials. The one who wins will be the new heiress to the Holtfall family.
But things are far more complicated than just the trials. Nora is Verity's daughter and she wants to find out what truly happened to her mother. Meanwhile Lotte, the daughter of Grace, Verity's sister, suddenly pops up out of nowhere and the cousins face a new competitor and the rivalry explodes between all of them.
In the end the most worthy must find the woodcutter's axe. The one who holds it, wins. I really enjoyed the woodcutters fairytale written in parts throughout the book. That was by far my favorite part of the book.
The overall storyline sounds really exciting, but unfortunately the execution fell really flat. There are a lot of character points of views. It was too many for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. Bonds are created and even a line of a potential love story, but I didn't feel any love or longing between the two characters. The trials were very anticlimactic. With each trial I was like, is this it? The book was written in a very rushed way. Too much was cramped into one book. Some characters perish and not one made my heart thump in any way. The reveals were also bland.
I also couldn't read more than a few pages each time. I really wanted to DNF it. But because it's a review book I forced myself to finish it.
I know the book is released. But a part of me hopes that it'll be taken back and rewritten. Some of the bones are really good. And the fairytale part was so, so strong. I wish the book was built on that fairytale and had that tone and cadence. I wish the characters had personality and that the bonds were written in a palpable way.
So hopefully one day it'll get rewritten or re-edited. Or that the second book will be changed drastically to make the characters and the story shine.
So overall 2.5 stars from me for The Notorious Virtues.
2.5/5 stars
I hate, hate, hate writing reviews below three stars. But this book just didn't connect with me at all. Someone told me this book has been over 5 years in the making and it shows. I'll try to write my thoughts down with the utmost respect for Alwyn and the publisher.
The book is about the Holtzfall family who rule Walstad. Verity Holtzfall just got murdered and the new generation of the Holtzfall family must participate in the Veritaz Trials. The one who wins will be the new heiress to the Holtfall family.
But things are far more complicated than just the trials. Nora is Verity's daughter and she wants to find out what truly happened to her mother. Meanwhile Lotte, the daughter of Grace, Verity's sister, suddenly pops up out of nowhere and the cousins face a new competitor and the rivalry explodes between all of them.
In the end the most worthy must find the woodcutter's axe. The one who holds it, wins. I really enjoyed the woodcutters fairytale written in parts throughout the book. That was by far my favorite part of the book.
The overall storyline sounds really exciting, but unfortunately the execution fell really flat. There are a lot of character points of views. It was too many for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. Bonds are created and even a line of a potential love story, but I didn't feel any love or longing between the two characters. The trials were very anticlimactic. With each trial I was like, is this it? The book was written in a very rushed way. Too much was cramped into one book. Some characters perish and not one made my heart thump in any way. The reveals were also bland.
I also couldn't read more than a few pages each time. I really wanted to DNF it. But because it's a review book I forced myself to finish it.
I know the book is released. But a part of me hopes that it'll be taken back and rewritten. Some of the bones are really good. And the fairytale part was so, so strong. I wish the book was built on that fairytale and had that tone and cadence. I wish the characters had personality and that the bonds were written in a palpable way.
So hopefully one day it'll get rewritten or re-edited. Or that the second book will be changed drastically to make the characters and the story shine.
So overall 2.5 stars from me for The Notorious Virtues.
physical-books
February 12, 2025The true book casualty of the pandemic, this has now been pushed back from may 2020, to august 2020, to december 2020, to... 2025
I wonder how many Prime Ministers the UK will go through between this book's original release date and when it's actually released (FOUR. WE WENT THROUGH FOUR)
THE US GOT TO A SECOND ROUND OF TRUMP BEFORE THIS WAS RELEASED
I wonder how many Prime Ministers the UK will go through between this book's original release date and when it's actually released (FOUR. WE WENT THROUGH FOUR)
THE US GOT TO A SECOND ROUND OF TRUMP BEFORE THIS WAS RELEASED
October 27, 2025
1,5
Prawie nic nie zrozumiałam z tej książki. Serio, to jakieś dziwne połączenie szlachty, magii, ego top, miasta, którego nie umiem sobie wyobrazić, nieeeee aż nie chce mi się dalej wymieniać
Prawie nic nie zrozumiałam z tej książki. Serio, to jakieś dziwne połączenie szlachty, magii, ego top, miasta, którego nie umiem sobie wyobrazić, nieeeee aż nie chce mi się dalej wymieniać
March 29, 2025
Overview:
💀 Death games
❣️ Light romance
🚻 Multi POV
🕵️ Fantasy mystery
🔫 Flintlock
⭐⭐ Read more of my reviews and get tips on the best Enemies to Lovers books by checking out my Blog, Enemies to Lovers Source ⭐⭐
🖤🖤 Follow me On Bluesky for more book ranting 🖤🖤
The Notorious Virtues might actually be perfect. Alwyn Hamilton borrows from a variety of standard popular YA themes whole making to make something wholly original and with tons of heart.
Nora Holtzfall was born to be an heiress, groomed from her first day on earth to take over the family from her mother; until her mother is murdered and the line of succession became open again.
August is a reporter looking for a new angle when he catches wind of a story of a dead matriarch and an heiress looking for the truth.
Lotte has lived her whole live in a convent, abused and left to grovel at the hands of anyone who will show her kindness, until the day shes taken away from it all and told shes the lost daughter of the regions most powerful family.
Theo is a knight, bound by an unbreakable magic oath to submit to his masters no matter what the circumstance.
and with a dead matriarch comes a new set of games to determine who the new heiress will be.
So already you have some familiar themes, but what makes this book masterful is just how maturely they are used. If you are sick of books where the trope is dominating the narrative, you will love The Notorious Virtues. The prose is uncomplicated but mature, Alwyn Hamilton follows the adult standards for a flintlock fantasy beautifully- mixing fantasy with industry and progress. Our characters live in a world built by magic, but now dominated by factories and class struggle. The gilded age favors a small group of elites who build the city from the ground up known as the Holtzfalls- they and their ilk are desperate to cling onto power in an age of growing working class discontent.
The book touches on class issues without being objectively political or trying to borrow too much from today's issues. I thought this was skillfully done because frankly, I am burnt out from todays horrors, but I liked that Hamilton built a world that included these themes and felt they were well done.
The magic system in virtues has two components- inherit magic bestowed upon members of the elite that can range from mind reading to stealing memories, and "borrowed" magic using magic rings and enchantments. While this is not a book that handles its magic system ad nauseam, theres thought put into it that I appreciate.
All of the POV characters are excellent- all are whole and complete people with their own motivations and personalities. No self insert characters, no "love interest" copy and paste standards. Nora is a privileged but sturdy rich girl who is equal parts logical and intimidating. August is curious and cynical. Theo is duty bound and probably the most "purehearted" of the group. Lotte is probably the most "heroic" on paper, but also has a spiteful side and is capable of some reasonable cruelty that surprised me. All of them are very richly written and play on each other well.
Even the non POV characters are excellent. Members of the Holtzfall family that show up in the story range from weird to detestable. The knights, commoners, and the Grimms, freedom fights of questionable behavior, are all so colorful and able to elicit strong emotions from the reader.
The story moves fast- with part of the focus being on the trials that members of the Holtzfall family are meant to complete to earn the title of heir, and the other half being the investigation into not one, but two conspiratorial plots. Sometimes, when dealing with murder mystery as a secondary factor, there is some lazy writing involved, but I found myself surprised at every turn when reading Virtues.
My best comp for this is One Dark Window, while the two books are not on paper the same, the setting, politics, and trial adventure aspect are very closely connected. Both have a little touch of romance and a really cool overarching plot and world that is written with some level of looseness to ensure the characters are primarily focused on. It also has many elements of Six of Crows- including its low criminal mystery elements, and its multi POV format with a cast of morally grey characters.
I strongly recommend this book to just about every kind of fantasy reader- even folks who are not partial to YA fantasy. I appreciate that the romance is a side plot in a bigger, much more interesting world, and that the characters all have meaningful relationships with each other. It just feels like so much THOUGHT was put into this story and I am absolutely thrilled to pick the sequel of this one up.
💀 Death games
❣️ Light romance
🚻 Multi POV
🕵️ Fantasy mystery
🔫 Flintlock
⭐⭐ Read more of my reviews and get tips on the best Enemies to Lovers books by checking out my Blog, Enemies to Lovers Source ⭐⭐
🖤🖤 Follow me On Bluesky for more book ranting 🖤🖤
The Notorious Virtues might actually be perfect. Alwyn Hamilton borrows from a variety of standard popular YA themes whole making to make something wholly original and with tons of heart.
Nora Holtzfall was born to be an heiress, groomed from her first day on earth to take over the family from her mother; until her mother is murdered and the line of succession became open again.
August is a reporter looking for a new angle when he catches wind of a story of a dead matriarch and an heiress looking for the truth.
Lotte has lived her whole live in a convent, abused and left to grovel at the hands of anyone who will show her kindness, until the day shes taken away from it all and told shes the lost daughter of the regions most powerful family.
Theo is a knight, bound by an unbreakable magic oath to submit to his masters no matter what the circumstance.
and with a dead matriarch comes a new set of games to determine who the new heiress will be.
So already you have some familiar themes, but what makes this book masterful is just how maturely they are used. If you are sick of books where the trope is dominating the narrative, you will love The Notorious Virtues. The prose is uncomplicated but mature, Alwyn Hamilton follows the adult standards for a flintlock fantasy beautifully- mixing fantasy with industry and progress. Our characters live in a world built by magic, but now dominated by factories and class struggle. The gilded age favors a small group of elites who build the city from the ground up known as the Holtzfalls- they and their ilk are desperate to cling onto power in an age of growing working class discontent.
The book touches on class issues without being objectively political or trying to borrow too much from today's issues. I thought this was skillfully done because frankly, I am burnt out from todays horrors, but I liked that Hamilton built a world that included these themes and felt they were well done.
The magic system in virtues has two components- inherit magic bestowed upon members of the elite that can range from mind reading to stealing memories, and "borrowed" magic using magic rings and enchantments. While this is not a book that handles its magic system ad nauseam, theres thought put into it that I appreciate.
All of the POV characters are excellent- all are whole and complete people with their own motivations and personalities. No self insert characters, no "love interest" copy and paste standards. Nora is a privileged but sturdy rich girl who is equal parts logical and intimidating. August is curious and cynical. Theo is duty bound and probably the most "purehearted" of the group. Lotte is probably the most "heroic" on paper, but also has a spiteful side and is capable of some reasonable cruelty that surprised me. All of them are very richly written and play on each other well.
Even the non POV characters are excellent. Members of the Holtzfall family that show up in the story range from weird to detestable. The knights, commoners, and the Grimms, freedom fights of questionable behavior, are all so colorful and able to elicit strong emotions from the reader.
The story moves fast- with part of the focus being on the trials that members of the Holtzfall family are meant to complete to earn the title of heir, and the other half being the investigation into not one, but two conspiratorial plots. Sometimes, when dealing with murder mystery as a secondary factor, there is some lazy writing involved, but I found myself surprised at every turn when reading Virtues.
My best comp for this is One Dark Window, while the two books are not on paper the same, the setting, politics, and trial adventure aspect are very closely connected. Both have a little touch of romance and a really cool overarching plot and world that is written with some level of looseness to ensure the characters are primarily focused on. It also has many elements of Six of Crows- including its low criminal mystery elements, and its multi POV format with a cast of morally grey characters.
I strongly recommend this book to just about every kind of fantasy reader- even folks who are not partial to YA fantasy. I appreciate that the romance is a side plot in a bigger, much more interesting world, and that the characters all have meaningful relationships with each other. It just feels like so much THOUGHT was put into this story and I am absolutely thrilled to pick the sequel of this one up.
October 18, 2025
Hiiiiii mais j'ai adoréééé ! Il se passe tellement de choses pendant ce premier tome qu'il a beau être conséquent (presque 600 pages tout de même), je l'ai dévoré en un temps record tellement j'étais accro ! Je suis fan de l'autrice depuis la parution de sa première saga en France (Rebelle du Désert, pour ceux que ça intéresse, pépiiiiiite, foncez !) alors j'avais hâte de lire celle-ci... et je n'ai pas du tout été déçue ! C'est un univers riche, avec un folklore fascinant et des protagonistes hyper attachant du fait de leurs failles autant que de leurs forces. Les dilemmes moraux font écho aux tâches que certains d'entre eux affrontent dans cette compétition centenaire qui permet à la famille régnante de garder le pouvoir... donc oui, les personnages sont ouf. Mais ils évoluent surtout dans une intrigue trèèèèès addictive. On a cette histoire de compétition, on a des secrets de famille qui pourraient faire trembler tout le pays. On a des retournements de situation à gogo, des trahisons, des alliances improbables, une touche de machinations politiques, du female rage à la pelle et des histoires d’amour contrariées… vraiment, j'ai adoré ce premier tome et je n'ai qu'une hâte : LIRE LA SUIIIIIITE !
August 21, 2025
I am in pain.
This author's debut was engaging, impossible to put down, had characters you couldn't help but fall in love with immediately and a world building with rules that made complete sense. Reading this book, on the other hand, was a rough journey. I was about to dnf more than once because I was bored and some of the characters felt superficial. I ended up reading till the last page just because there was more action towards the end.
No, this book issn't bad, but that last quarter still doesn't make it memorable or enough for me to be interested in continuing the series.
For the most part I liked the characters, but Nora seemed the most fleshed out. Lotte, August and Theo felt underdeveloped, and the boys especially didn't need their own pov. I don't understand why it's trendy right now to indiscriminately have multiple povs in all genres. If a book doesn't have two or more major storylines why bother making everything more confusing to the detriment of the enjoyability of the book? Having constant pov switches, so less time to spend with each character overall, made them feel flat and unimportant. Theo is the major casualty of this issue: his chapters have basically nothing to add to the story.
It's not easy to get into this book. The world building and magic system are thrown at you mainly at the beginning of the book in an incredibly long infodump. And for a book that seemed focused on a deadly competition, there is an awful lot of other plotlines taking the spotlight. Also, I wasn't really a fan of the magic system. It seems well-built when it is first presented to you, then it slowly starts going off the rails. The magic is inconsistent, illogical, messy, it has no set rules and can be used in different ways as long as it serves the plot. This is actually the thing I liked the least about this book, because it significantly lowered the stakes.
So, overall, this was just okay. Sadly not as good as I was expecting for a book that was worked on for more than 5 years and for which its publication kept being postponed.
This author's debut was engaging, impossible to put down, had characters you couldn't help but fall in love with immediately and a world building with rules that made complete sense. Reading this book, on the other hand, was a rough journey. I was about to dnf more than once because I was bored and some of the characters felt superficial. I ended up reading till the last page just because there was more action towards the end.
No, this book issn't bad, but that last quarter still doesn't make it memorable or enough for me to be interested in continuing the series.
For the most part I liked the characters, but Nora seemed the most fleshed out. Lotte, August and Theo felt underdeveloped, and the boys especially didn't need their own pov. I don't understand why it's trendy right now to indiscriminately have multiple povs in all genres. If a book doesn't have two or more major storylines why bother making everything more confusing to the detriment of the enjoyability of the book? Having constant pov switches, so less time to spend with each character overall, made them feel flat and unimportant. Theo is the major casualty of this issue: his chapters have basically nothing to add to the story.
It's not easy to get into this book. The world building and magic system are thrown at you mainly at the beginning of the book in an incredibly long infodump. And for a book that seemed focused on a deadly competition, there is an awful lot of other plotlines taking the spotlight. Also, I wasn't really a fan of the magic system. It seems well-built when it is first presented to you, then it slowly starts going off the rails. The magic is inconsistent, illogical, messy, it has no set rules and can be used in different ways as long as it serves the plot. This is actually the thing I liked the least about this book, because it significantly lowered the stakes.
So, overall, this was just okay. Sadly not as good as I was expecting for a book that was worked on for more than 5 years and for which its publication kept being postponed.
Want to read
June 25, 20216/24/2021
June 2025?
Man, this book must be something in the making...
- - -
12/18/2020
I'm confused as to why I got an email that this book was released today and yet it's not actually available anywhere? Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository all say it's not available...
I've never seen this happen before
---
5/12/2020
Okay, August 18, 2020, that’s way more reasonable lol
-
Umm...I swear this was listed as a May 5, 2020 release but now that date has been related from this page and when I click the Amazon link it says January 4, 2050!? Like wtf happened lol
June 2025?
Man, this book must be something in the making...
- - -
12/18/2020
I'm confused as to why I got an email that this book was released today and yet it's not actually available anywhere? Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository all say it's not available...
I've never seen this happen before
---
5/12/2020
Okay, August 18, 2020, that’s way more reasonable lol
-
Umm...I swear this was listed as a May 5, 2020 release but now that date has been related from this page and when I click the Amazon link it says January 4, 2050!? Like wtf happened lol
March 29, 2025
when she doesn’t like warm champagne and now neither does he>>>>
May 7, 2025
This book was a twisty game of magic that can sadly only have one winner. I really liked the world’s mythology that was woven through this book. In addition to the chapters that were stories of the characters’ ancestors we got the story through four voices and I grew to like them all. I’ll admit I didn’t start out liking the all, but they grew on me. Lotte has been raised in a convent, a battered servant, when she is whisked away and told her family is the rich rules of the whole land. Nora has always been raised as the heiress but when her mother is killed suddenly a new trial must be held to find who is the most virtuous of her family and deserving. This book ended on quite a cliffhanger so I do hope there is a sequel and quickly. It took me a while to really get into this one but once I did I struggled to put it down.
February 28, 2025
The Notorious Virtues
by Alwyn Hamilton
The Notorious Virtues #1
YA Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Apr 1, 2025
Penguin Group
Ages: 16+
Nora's family controls all of the money and magic in all of Walstad, but when her mother is found dead of a supposed mugging gone wrong, Nora's inheritance of the family throne, fortune, and power is no longer guaranteed. Now she must contend in a magical competition against her cousins, the winner, being the most virtuous, also gets the magic of the losers.
But at the last moment, the illegitimate daughter of Nora's aunt, a young girl who has lived her entire life in a convent, abused by the sisters, arrives to contend in the contest.
In the city, a rebellious group of common citizens are gathering followers because they no longer want to be under the control of Nora's family and the other rich magical families, and they are willing to kill to obtain the keys Nora and her cousins could win that would gain them access to the forest where the magic comes from.
This is a story where the rich have and control everything, only pretending that the common folk have any type of say in what happens in the city, when in actuality not even their votes count.
A definition of virtue is 'behavior showing high moral standards'; but all except one of the heirs do not have morals. For the most part, they are greedy, self-centered, spiteful, and power-hungry, as are the rest of the magical/rich people, who all match a definition of notorious, of 'famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed'. Reminds me of the present 'real world' of how a rat and an orange are taking over at the time of this review...
The story was good, though more world/history building is needed about the other magical families. I'm not sure how they got their magic and/or how they are related to Nora's family who are the descendants of the original magical family.
It was the detailed busy book cover that grabbed my attention, but sadly the story isn't that 'action-packed'. A lot is going on in the story, but it isn't as supernatural as the cover portrays.
I did like the story and had expectations of the ending, but there was a little unexpected twist, so I will be looking for the next book in the series.
3 Stars
by Alwyn Hamilton
The Notorious Virtues #1
YA Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Apr 1, 2025
Penguin Group
Ages: 16+
Nora's family controls all of the money and magic in all of Walstad, but when her mother is found dead of a supposed mugging gone wrong, Nora's inheritance of the family throne, fortune, and power is no longer guaranteed. Now she must contend in a magical competition against her cousins, the winner, being the most virtuous, also gets the magic of the losers.
But at the last moment, the illegitimate daughter of Nora's aunt, a young girl who has lived her entire life in a convent, abused by the sisters, arrives to contend in the contest.
In the city, a rebellious group of common citizens are gathering followers because they no longer want to be under the control of Nora's family and the other rich magical families, and they are willing to kill to obtain the keys Nora and her cousins could win that would gain them access to the forest where the magic comes from.
This is a story where the rich have and control everything, only pretending that the common folk have any type of say in what happens in the city, when in actuality not even their votes count.
A definition of virtue is 'behavior showing high moral standards'; but all except one of the heirs do not have morals. For the most part, they are greedy, self-centered, spiteful, and power-hungry, as are the rest of the magical/rich people, who all match a definition of notorious, of 'famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed'. Reminds me of the present 'real world' of how a rat and an orange are taking over at the time of this review...
The story was good, though more world/history building is needed about the other magical families. I'm not sure how they got their magic and/or how they are related to Nora's family who are the descendants of the original magical family.
It was the detailed busy book cover that grabbed my attention, but sadly the story isn't that 'action-packed'. A lot is going on in the story, but it isn't as supernatural as the cover portrays.
I did like the story and had expectations of the ending, but there was a little unexpected twist, so I will be looking for the next book in the series.
3 Stars
January 17, 2025
I really enjoyed this, very excited to see where it all goes next. I connected with all the characters.
The ending took me by surprise. The concept, world building and plot are excellent. A mystery till the end. Highly recommend.
The ending took me by surprise. The concept, world building and plot are excellent. A mystery till the end. Highly recommend.
March 18, 2025
The Notorious Virtues is Alwynn Hamilton’s long awaited return to writing and I can definitely say that the wait was worth it! I loved this book. I was honestly a little hesitant going into this story, but it delivered again and again. There is murder, political scheming, a little romance, rebellion, betrayal, magic, and did I mention scheming?
The story is told in 4 POVs, Nora, Lottie, Theo, and August. Nora is the spoiled and favored heir of the Holtzfall family. This family is the center of all wealth, magic, and power in the entire kingdom. When Nora’s mother turns up dead, her spot as the next heiress is up for grabs. Nora and all her cousins must fight in a magical competition to prove their virtue to determine the Holtzfall successor. Lottie is an illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt, who is thrust from a brutal convent into the magical and dangerous world of the competition. Theo is a Rydder Knight, sworn and magically bound to protect the Holtzfall family at all costs. August is a reporter out to find the truth of the murder while struggling to make ends meet.
This book is kind of a beast as far as YA fantasy books go. There is a lot of world building and lore, especially at the beginning, but I didn’t feel like it was dumped on me. There are snippets of the mythology sprinkled throughout the story that helped explain stuff without slowing things down. The setting felt like a 1920s/Jazz Era and the culture of parties and fashion as seen through the two FMCs was a wonderful way to showcase the class divide in the kingdom. The pacing took a while to get settled, but by the end I was staying up till 2am just wanting more. And the ending! I cannot wait for the next book!
Huge thank you to Alwynn Hamilton, Viking and Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for the advance copy! 🩷
Pre Read: I enjoyed Rebel of the Sands so I’m really looking forward to this ARC! 💕
The story is told in 4 POVs, Nora, Lottie, Theo, and August. Nora is the spoiled and favored heir of the Holtzfall family. This family is the center of all wealth, magic, and power in the entire kingdom. When Nora’s mother turns up dead, her spot as the next heiress is up for grabs. Nora and all her cousins must fight in a magical competition to prove their virtue to determine the Holtzfall successor. Lottie is an illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt, who is thrust from a brutal convent into the magical and dangerous world of the competition. Theo is a Rydder Knight, sworn and magically bound to protect the Holtzfall family at all costs. August is a reporter out to find the truth of the murder while struggling to make ends meet.
This book is kind of a beast as far as YA fantasy books go. There is a lot of world building and lore, especially at the beginning, but I didn’t feel like it was dumped on me. There are snippets of the mythology sprinkled throughout the story that helped explain stuff without slowing things down. The setting felt like a 1920s/Jazz Era and the culture of parties and fashion as seen through the two FMCs was a wonderful way to showcase the class divide in the kingdom. The pacing took a while to get settled, but by the end I was staying up till 2am just wanting more. And the ending! I cannot wait for the next book!
Huge thank you to Alwynn Hamilton, Viking and Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for the advance copy! 🩷
Pre Read: I enjoyed Rebel of the Sands so I’m really looking forward to this ARC! 💕
December 10, 2024
⭐️ 3.5
no spoilers
thanks Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for the arc !!
at first it was REALLY hard to get into it and since it was written in the 3rd person made it so hard for me to connect with the characters especially since this book has 4 povs. i didn’t care about what was happening until 25-30% into the book.
it reminded me of so many books at the same time like inheritance games (especially the cover and this is maybe on of the reason i took the arc), hunger games, fairytales and etc…so it felt like a lot of fantasy tropes that got put together in one book and to be honest it was kind of interesting.
the characters were all pretty good and the development too but not enough for me to care about any romance that was happening.
overall, i still enjoyed this book and i will for sure read the next one
𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 🧭:
OMG!! i just got the arc for « The Notorious Virtues », this book was delayed for 5 years (since 2020 i think) and it’s finally going to be released in april 2025.
no spoilers
thanks Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for the arc !!
at first it was REALLY hard to get into it and since it was written in the 3rd person made it so hard for me to connect with the characters especially since this book has 4 povs. i didn’t care about what was happening until 25-30% into the book.
it reminded me of so many books at the same time like inheritance games (especially the cover and this is maybe on of the reason i took the arc), hunger games, fairytales and etc…so it felt like a lot of fantasy tropes that got put together in one book and to be honest it was kind of interesting.
the characters were all pretty good and the development too but not enough for me to care about any romance that was happening.
overall, i still enjoyed this book and i will for sure read the next one
𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 🧭:
OMG!! i just got the arc for « The Notorious Virtues », this book was delayed for 5 years (since 2020 i think) and it’s finally going to be released in april 2025.
November 13, 2024
I do not know why this was delayed like, five years, but holy *shit* was this worth the wait! I have read over 130 books this year so far and this is absolutely top 5, if not higher.
This book is a beast. It is an intricate, clever, entertaining, and clearly well-planned fantasy that kicks off a trilogy I will NOT be missing. It's set in a magical 1920's style (to me) world with the disgustingly rich Holtzfalls at the centre of the city's power, magic, and status. There are dangerous monsters, jaw-dropping political implications, a revolution brewing in the wings, and an ancient magic that drives the wants and whims of everyone.
Told from four POVS, but primarily from the viewpoint of Nora, the heiress presumptive until a week ago, and Lotte, a girl forced to grow up at a convent. There is something so compelling about each girl and their character arcs. Nora is the typical spoiled rich girl but she is smart and always three steps ahead. Lotte is a country lass with something to prove. For a story so focused on virtues, there was something so deliciously morally corrupt about them at times, and I just loved seeing what they would do next. I enjoyed Nora's and August's storylines the most.
I loved every second of this and I really hope the second book doesn't take as long to publish as this one because I am desperate to continue!
This book is a beast. It is an intricate, clever, entertaining, and clearly well-planned fantasy that kicks off a trilogy I will NOT be missing. It's set in a magical 1920's style (to me) world with the disgustingly rich Holtzfalls at the centre of the city's power, magic, and status. There are dangerous monsters, jaw-dropping political implications, a revolution brewing in the wings, and an ancient magic that drives the wants and whims of everyone.
Told from four POVS, but primarily from the viewpoint of Nora, the heiress presumptive until a week ago, and Lotte, a girl forced to grow up at a convent. There is something so compelling about each girl and their character arcs. Nora is the typical spoiled rich girl but she is smart and always three steps ahead. Lotte is a country lass with something to prove. For a story so focused on virtues, there was something so deliciously morally corrupt about them at times, and I just loved seeing what they would do next. I enjoyed Nora's and August's storylines the most.
I loved every second of this and I really hope the second book doesn't take as long to publish as this one because I am desperate to continue!
June 21, 2025
3.75
Considering this book apparently took five years to come out i may get to read the next one by the time i'm 25 yay
Considering this book apparently took five years to come out i may get to read the next one by the time i'm 25 yay
March 23, 2025
✧₊‧˚⁀➷ 3.9/5 .ᐟ
→ for everyone who read the inheritance games and thought it should have been fantasy. and about girls.
it took me so, so long to get into this book, and even longer to start to enjoy it, but i am very glad i did because this was truly amazing by the end.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ setting .ᐟ walstad, ruled by the holtzfall family for centuries, ever since honor holtzfall built a ward of sorts to protect the city from the magical forest that surrounds it. the city is protected by the rydder knights, who are magically oathbound to serve the holtzfalls, due to a vow by their ancestor many centuries ago. the holtzfall heiress, verity, has been murdered and thus there are a set of tests of virtue, the veritaz trials, to decide the next heir. features honora holtzfall, formerly heir presumptive, attempting to find her mother's murderer, august wolffe, who teams up with her in order to establish himself as a newswriter, ottoline holtzfall, who has just discovered her connection to the family and now must compete in the trials, and theodric rydder, who is perhaps the only rydder to actually like being a holtzfall lapdog and who must decide if he stands with his duty or his blood.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ worldbuilding .ᐟ i really like the universe in which this is set, but there's not a lot of explanation in how the magic functions. it's both inherited and dependent on class of wealth? the city is divided into districts, or 'circles,' in which the first circle is the holtzfall circle and the wealthiest, and the further out you go, the poorer everyone gets. are these circles warded in some way to make sure the first circles have the highest magic? i know this is set in the same universe as the rebel of the sands series, so perhaps that's why there isn't much explanation, but not everyone has read rots. and the time period is also somewhat wonky. i was so surprised that the knights still used swords, and not guns, despite this being a world with cars and yachts. i understand it's suppose to resemble a fairytale, but everything is very modern except for this one aspect, and it just comes off as goofy and not very immersive. one thing i loved was the veritaz trials. they were lawless, wild, and magical enough to bring the fairytale atmosphere and compensate for everything else.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ plot .ᐟ suspenseful, well-paced, immensely enjoyable. the mystery of verity holtzfall's death was excellently written, with clues being well-placed enough that you could guess at what happened, but the reveals were still surprising. the absolutely perfect mystery—i hate when the killer in a whodunnit turns out to be a random and all the clues end up being red herrings, so i love that here, the reader is able to actually theorize and make sense of the mystery. the actual veritaz trials played very little part in the story, which i'm sad about, because i expected something akin to all of us villains. but it does make sense. they're structured as little tests of kindness or honesty, and there's only meant to be four, and it would be difficult to make an entire book out of that, i suppose.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ characters .ᐟ
→ nora was my favorite from the beginning, and though lotte became a close second towards the end, this never changed throughout the book. despite being another iteration of the poor little rich girl trope, she's fascinating to read about. she goes from wanting the heirship in the same way she would want a new dress—because she thinks everything in the city, the country should be hers as some sort of natural law—to actively wanting to change how wealth and magic is distributed in walstad. her friendship with august and lotte allows her to view the world through a new lens. despite her initial resistance, as she hunts for her mother's murder and goes deeper into the city, she realizes her family's power can actually be used to make life better for these people. i also love her because she seems to be the only one out of the lead characters to be interested in the grims' political plans for the city—everyone else is like woo they're terrorists, even if they understand the plight of the common people. granted, it's probably because, as nora herself admits, she's equally unhinged.
→ cinderella wishes she could be as princess as lotte. it's funny because i hated her in the beginning, but she's fighting nora for the best character spot now. her journey in desperately trying to find belonging in the holtzfall house to then standing up for herself and not caring anymore because these people are evil and weird was so satisfying and inspiring. her gradual sisterhood with nora was the best part of the book.
→ and then there's august. i do love august. it's just the problem is he's kind of a blank slate. he has maybe seven povs max, and the only thing they serve to add to the story is some background on the bullhorn newspaper and the grims' alliance. he's poor, and he's funny, and he likes nora, and that's basically it. you know how ya books basically have only two male lead types, the brooding traumatized sex beast, and the cutesy, funny, golden boy green flag? he's the outline of the latter, and he has not been colored in yet. but there's still hopes for book two.
→ finally, theodric. there aren't enough words in the english language to describe my revulsion towards this man. i hate his face, i hate his politics, i hate the fact that he's allowed to step within ten feet of either nora or lotte without being shot. aside from the fact that he's boring, he's also the personification of the twitter incels that make $10/hour and yet somehow consider it their highest calling to defend bezos and musk from being taxed. you can make a case for brainwashing i suppose, but both verity holtzfall and nora, who were actively groomed into being "perfect" holtzfalls were able to break out of this thinking. it's stated that the other knights, who were also oathbound, were simply protecting holtzfalls as a job, and he's here thinking they're gods. okay.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ romance .ᐟ not really an important part of the story, which i'm so glad about because everything else was more interesting. however, nora and august did have insane chemistry from their first meeting. there's a few kisses, and something being built up for the next installment. that's all there is, yet it's absolutely the most satisfying romance i've read since maybe january. alwyn hamilton might be the first romance fantasy author to understand pacing, because they know that 300 pages of banter and nothing else doesn't mean you get married and die for each other on the last page. theolotte, are also being built up for the next book, but them, i despise. it's instalove on his side, and a whole lot of drivel about vows and duty. like do you like her or her last name? she's a little intrigued by him, but it's not serious, and i hope this means she gets with literally anyone else.
→ anyhow, loved this, some aspects of worldbuilding could have been better, but overall an excellent read. thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy!
→ for everyone who read the inheritance games and thought it should have been fantasy. and about girls.
it took me so, so long to get into this book, and even longer to start to enjoy it, but i am very glad i did because this was truly amazing by the end.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ setting .ᐟ walstad, ruled by the holtzfall family for centuries, ever since honor holtzfall built a ward of sorts to protect the city from the magical forest that surrounds it. the city is protected by the rydder knights, who are magically oathbound to serve the holtzfalls, due to a vow by their ancestor many centuries ago. the holtzfall heiress, verity, has been murdered and thus there are a set of tests of virtue, the veritaz trials, to decide the next heir. features honora holtzfall, formerly heir presumptive, attempting to find her mother's murderer, august wolffe, who teams up with her in order to establish himself as a newswriter, ottoline holtzfall, who has just discovered her connection to the family and now must compete in the trials, and theodric rydder, who is perhaps the only rydder to actually like being a holtzfall lapdog and who must decide if he stands with his duty or his blood.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ worldbuilding .ᐟ i really like the universe in which this is set, but there's not a lot of explanation in how the magic functions. it's both inherited and dependent on class of wealth? the city is divided into districts, or 'circles,' in which the first circle is the holtzfall circle and the wealthiest, and the further out you go, the poorer everyone gets. are these circles warded in some way to make sure the first circles have the highest magic? i know this is set in the same universe as the rebel of the sands series, so perhaps that's why there isn't much explanation, but not everyone has read rots. and the time period is also somewhat wonky. i was so surprised that the knights still used swords, and not guns, despite this being a world with cars and yachts. i understand it's suppose to resemble a fairytale, but everything is very modern except for this one aspect, and it just comes off as goofy and not very immersive. one thing i loved was the veritaz trials. they were lawless, wild, and magical enough to bring the fairytale atmosphere and compensate for everything else.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ plot .ᐟ suspenseful, well-paced, immensely enjoyable. the mystery of verity holtzfall's death was excellently written, with clues being well-placed enough that you could guess at what happened, but the reveals were still surprising. the absolutely perfect mystery—i hate when the killer in a whodunnit turns out to be a random and all the clues end up being red herrings, so i love that here, the reader is able to actually theorize and make sense of the mystery. the actual veritaz trials played very little part in the story, which i'm sad about, because i expected something akin to all of us villains. but it does make sense. they're structured as little tests of kindness or honesty, and there's only meant to be four, and it would be difficult to make an entire book out of that, i suppose.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ characters .ᐟ
→ nora was my favorite from the beginning, and though lotte became a close second towards the end, this never changed throughout the book. despite being another iteration of the poor little rich girl trope, she's fascinating to read about. she goes from wanting the heirship in the same way she would want a new dress—because she thinks everything in the city, the country should be hers as some sort of natural law—to actively wanting to change how wealth and magic is distributed in walstad. her friendship with august and lotte allows her to view the world through a new lens. despite her initial resistance, as she hunts for her mother's murder and goes deeper into the city, she realizes her family's power can actually be used to make life better for these people. i also love her because she seems to be the only one out of the lead characters to be interested in the grims' political plans for the city—everyone else is like woo they're terrorists, even if they understand the plight of the common people. granted, it's probably because, as nora herself admits, she's equally unhinged.
→ cinderella wishes she could be as princess as lotte. it's funny because i hated her in the beginning, but she's fighting nora for the best character spot now. her journey in desperately trying to find belonging in the holtzfall house to then standing up for herself and not caring anymore because these people are evil and weird was so satisfying and inspiring. her gradual sisterhood with nora was the best part of the book.
→ and then there's august. i do love august. it's just the problem is he's kind of a blank slate. he has maybe seven povs max, and the only thing they serve to add to the story is some background on the bullhorn newspaper and the grims' alliance. he's poor, and he's funny, and he likes nora, and that's basically it. you know how ya books basically have only two male lead types, the brooding traumatized sex beast, and the cutesy, funny, golden boy green flag? he's the outline of the latter, and he has not been colored in yet. but there's still hopes for book two.
→ finally, theodric. there aren't enough words in the english language to describe my revulsion towards this man. i hate his face, i hate his politics, i hate the fact that he's allowed to step within ten feet of either nora or lotte without being shot. aside from the fact that he's boring, he's also the personification of the twitter incels that make $10/hour and yet somehow consider it their highest calling to defend bezos and musk from being taxed. you can make a case for brainwashing i suppose, but both verity holtzfall and nora, who were actively groomed into being "perfect" holtzfalls were able to break out of this thinking. it's stated that the other knights, who were also oathbound, were simply protecting holtzfalls as a job, and he's here thinking they're gods. okay.
ʚɞ ⁺˖ romance .ᐟ not really an important part of the story, which i'm so glad about because everything else was more interesting. however, nora and august did have insane chemistry from their first meeting. there's a few kisses, and something being built up for the next installment. that's all there is, yet it's absolutely the most satisfying romance i've read since maybe january. alwyn hamilton might be the first romance fantasy author to understand pacing, because they know that 300 pages of banter and nothing else doesn't mean you get married and die for each other on the last page. theolotte, are also being built up for the next book, but them, i despise. it's instalove on his side, and a whole lot of drivel about vows and duty. like do you like her or her last name? she's a little intrigued by him, but it's not serious, and i hope this means she gets with literally anyone else.
→ anyhow, loved this, some aspects of worldbuilding could have been better, but overall an excellent read. thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy!
March 17, 2025
I'm always going to be here for anything Alwyn writes and I loved the synopsis on this one.
There are a lot of characters, a lot of moving pieces, and a lot of backstory. It took a while for the story to really get moving (and it's sort of a beast at 500+ pages), but once it's set up, the story just flows.
I'm being vague on purpose because spoilers, but know that after the ending, my eyeballs will be on book 2 as soon as they can be.
**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**
There are a lot of characters, a lot of moving pieces, and a lot of backstory. It took a while for the story to really get moving (and it's sort of a beast at 500+ pages), but once it's set up, the story just flows.
I'm being vague on purpose because spoilers, but know that after the ending, my eyeballs will be on book 2 as soon as they can be.
**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**
February 19, 2025
Thanks to the Viking Books for Young Readers and Penguin Random for this early copy .
I kid you not, from the very first page, this novel had gripped me and refused to let me go even for once. The world of Holtzfall is filled with magic, family politics, history, power, betrayal, and lack of love. The twists and turns are spread throughout the book. Nora is supposed to be a heiress since childhood, she has been trained for it. But when her mother is murdered, the future she’s been preparing for is thrown into chaos. According to the rule, now Veritas competition will decide who is a future heiress. Nora is brain with beauty, her cousins are nothing in front of her. She knows vertias will be just a walk of cake for her. She got everything, a future heiress needs. What she missed in her calculation is Lotte. Lotte, the cousin no one knew existed, raised in a convent far from the cutthroat world of the Holtzfalls where magic is believed to be a curse. Lotte has to win this trial to get the love and attention of her family, the same family who abandoned her for 16 years. Theo, a knight bound by an oath taken centuries ago by his forefather to first Holtzafall, has his own struggle to choose oath or blood. August, a young journalist in a controversial newspaper trying to make a big break so he can get rid of his corrupt past. All of the stories are intertwined beautifully.
It is the first time that I am shipping two couples with equal passion. I don’t want any of them to die. It has all the tropes, forbidden romance, damsel in distress, riches from rags, kinda grumpy, and sunshine. This story is about digging secrets and facades that people have been wearing to secure power or steal it. Rich world-building, intricate magic system, engaging writing style, and intriguing story had me in clutches throughout the book. I kept thinking about it even though when I wasn’t reading. I delayed my sleeping schedule because I fell into the trap of “one more chapter”. It’s been so long since I had these feelings about any book. This book reminded me why I used to love fantasy. 3rd POVs helped a lot, otherwise, the first POVs can make writing cringy and embarrassing. The author develops each character well-rounded, there are several, and never does it feel that someone is a filler, everyone has a purpose in the story. I didn’t want to finish this book because I was sensing a cliffhanger and it is what happened. Have to wait one year or more to get the ends of all of the strings.
I can’t believe that I got my first 5-star read of the year only in the second month. Must read!!!
I kid you not, from the very first page, this novel had gripped me and refused to let me go even for once. The world of Holtzfall is filled with magic, family politics, history, power, betrayal, and lack of love. The twists and turns are spread throughout the book. Nora is supposed to be a heiress since childhood, she has been trained for it. But when her mother is murdered, the future she’s been preparing for is thrown into chaos. According to the rule, now Veritas competition will decide who is a future heiress. Nora is brain with beauty, her cousins are nothing in front of her. She knows vertias will be just a walk of cake for her. She got everything, a future heiress needs. What she missed in her calculation is Lotte. Lotte, the cousin no one knew existed, raised in a convent far from the cutthroat world of the Holtzfalls where magic is believed to be a curse. Lotte has to win this trial to get the love and attention of her family, the same family who abandoned her for 16 years. Theo, a knight bound by an oath taken centuries ago by his forefather to first Holtzafall, has his own struggle to choose oath or blood. August, a young journalist in a controversial newspaper trying to make a big break so he can get rid of his corrupt past. All of the stories are intertwined beautifully.
It is the first time that I am shipping two couples with equal passion. I don’t want any of them to die. It has all the tropes, forbidden romance, damsel in distress, riches from rags, kinda grumpy, and sunshine. This story is about digging secrets and facades that people have been wearing to secure power or steal it. Rich world-building, intricate magic system, engaging writing style, and intriguing story had me in clutches throughout the book. I kept thinking about it even though when I wasn’t reading. I delayed my sleeping schedule because I fell into the trap of “one more chapter”. It’s been so long since I had these feelings about any book. This book reminded me why I used to love fantasy. 3rd POVs helped a lot, otherwise, the first POVs can make writing cringy and embarrassing. The author develops each character well-rounded, there are several, and never does it feel that someone is a filler, everyone has a purpose in the story. I didn’t want to finish this book because I was sensing a cliffhanger and it is what happened. Have to wait one year or more to get the ends of all of the strings.
I can’t believe that I got my first 5-star read of the year only in the second month. Must read!!!
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