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Book: “An Arcane Inheritance” by Kamilah Cole
Publishing Info: Sourcebooks, December 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publihser!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones―and forbidden magic―of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.
Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.
Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can’t convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.
Review: There are a few subgenres of fantasy that I doubt I’ll ever get entirely sick of, and dark academia is one of those! While cozy fantasy is a struggle more often than not, the dark, gloomy, slightly mysterious vibe of dark academia and gothic fantasies is always up my alley.
To start with the positives, this one definitely struck the right chords on that note. The entire tone of this book was perfect, with a lovely balance of darkness, mystery, and the elevated language that one expects to find from any book that rubs elbows with a term like “academia.” It definitely delivers on all the expectations readers will have for it, based on the book summary above. That said, the book doesn’t deliver anything more than you would expect, and that’s where it began to fall flat.
From the progression of the plot, to the character archetypes of our two main leads, to their romance, to the final twists and turns toward the end of the book, nothing really struck me by surprise or asked me to stop and think more deeply about any of it. I pretty much just read the book, and then…was done. One of the things I often enjoy about dark academia is the treatment of fantastical themes or abilities through a more serious lens, often combining philosophy and critique with these more magical elements. But here, any of the themes explored were done in ways that felt overly familiar and almost derivative at times. Nothing new was added to any of these conversations, and I found myself with the urge to skim more often than I had hoped.
As for the characters, they, too, were just fine. Readers should be aware that the romance plays a more central role in the story than, perhaps, the blurb suggests. This can be a positive or a negative, of course. I enjoy romantic subplots, so by and large I was fine with the scales tipping more towards the love story than towards the plot. However, the romance itself also felt very expected, following all of the story beats I have come to expect from the enemies-to-lovers, academic rivals love story. Again, it wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t draw me in particularly. By the end, when the action picks up and the romance comes to a head, I found myself not caring as much as I imagine I should have about the future for these two characters.
I feel like I’ve written an entire review and said very little. But ultimately, that’s kind of how I felt about this book. It’s a full-length novel that seemed to have very little new to say or contribute to an already packed subgenre. I do think that the writing itself was strong, so I’ll definitely be checking out whatever this author has next in store, but this one, sadly, won’t stick with me for long.
Rating 7: I enjoyed the overall writing style and the dark academia vibes; however, the stories and characters felt overly familiar, leaving me a bit cold in the end.
Reader’s Advisory:
“An Arcane Inheritance” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Black Fantasy and 2026 Debuts.
The Library Ladies 