chronicallybookish | Arcana Academy

Arcana Academy

Elise Kova

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“Magical from nail-biting beginning to shocking end!”—Danielle L. Jensen, New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood.

A woman who wields magical tarot cards lands herself in a false engagement with the headmaster of a mysterious academy in this first installment of an enthralling fantasy romance series from the bestselling author of A Deal with the Elf King. The dazzling first edition hardcover of Arcana Academy will feature gold foil page edges, designed endpapers, two interior black-and-white maps, a custom-stamped case, and a premium dust jacket with foil—while supplies last!

Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards—a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy. Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy’s enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape—for a price.

Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time. In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.

Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world—and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?

Book One of The Arcana Academy Series

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Posts about this title from chronicallybookish

chronicallybookish\ \ Kaley\ \ • Nov 29 2025

23 book birthday book haul!

Buried under the weight of my TBR but I couldn’t be happier #booktok #bookhaul #indiebookstore #romancebooktok #fantasybooktok

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Dec 5 2025

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I owe you a post, more like I owe you a lot of posts. If you can't tell, November kind of passed me by in a whirlwind and I need to do a better job of figuring out how to stay on top of things because I feel like I have forgotten about y'all more than once. I actually came on her to say that I am working my way through ten before the end, which is more like 20 before the end because I'm a mood reader and I also read fast so I have a stack of like 35 books and I'm hoping at least 10 of them will work for me.\ \ So far I have finished Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer (4 stars), All Superheroes Need Photo Ops by Elizabeth Stephens (5 stars), Savage Blooms by St. Gibson (5 stars), Say a Little Prayer by Jenna Voris (5 stars), and Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi (4 stars). I NRN'd (not right now) Arcana Academy by Elise Kova. I'm currently reading Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri. This is my first Tasha Suri book and five chapters in and I can tell I will need to be reading her backlist.\ \ My thoughts so far: WPA was my first Kemmerer book and I liked her writing style, I was hooked and kept turning pages because I wanted to know what happened. I don't know if I would love her YA stuff as much because I really enjoyed the forbidden aspect of this MMF romance and the secrecy. I can't wait of book 2. Elizabeth Stephens wrote her FREAKNASTIEST book yet, and in her patreon she said blame it on her pregnancy hormones, but Darius said crawl and I almost got on my own damn knees. I think I've never given St. Gibson less than a perfect 5 star and this was no different. It gave me all the vibes of Thornchapel, my fave Sierra Simone series but damn it left us on quite a cliffy. Also super gay, we love. Say a Little Prayer was my book club pick this month and for all the religious trauma girlies, this one is going to be for you. It's YA and the FMC really is very teenagery. Also the titles of the chapters, honestly the writing style in general was so funny! Let but not least, this was Emezi's spiciest book yet, and it's an MFM that evolves into and MMF and I love that for us. I was hoping to have the same deconstruction vibes I got when I read The Fall That Saved Us, which is one of my favorite books of all time, but it just didn't hit as good, I think there could have been more explored in terms of Galilee's identity, I still loved it, I just wanted more, hence the 4 stars.\ \ As far as Arcana Academy, I was bored. But I'm going to give it another try later because I really enjoyed the other books by Kova I've read.\ \ Also we raised approximately $7,500 for foodbanks across the US during our Read to Feed auction and read-a-thon. If you participated, thank you so much! I am working on a more realistic posting schedule and more tuned on content for next year. I hope you all stick with me.

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chronicallybookish\ \ Kaley\ \ • Nov 29 2025

23 book birthday book haul!

Buried under the weight of my TBR but I couldn’t be happier #booktok #bookhaul #indiebookstore #romancebooktok #fantasybooktok

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The Biblio(files)\ \ Brooke \ \ • Aug 26 2025

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Inner circle tier sneak peak

It’s voting time for the book club! 🔗 in b-I-0 #booktok #darkacademia #spookyseason

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The Biblio(files)\ \ Brooke \ \ • Aug 25 2025

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Poll:\ \ What are we reading??\ \ The time has come to vote for next months book! It’s back to school season so all the books for next month are dark academia themed. Which one are you rooting for? What are some of your other favorites in this genre?\ \ \ \ Upgrade for $5 or login

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The Biblio(files)\ \ Brooke \ \ • Aug 4 2025

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\ \ Join for free or login](https://onthebrookeshelves.binderybooks.com/item/mksFTqG6Ir5HG4eAmyNS/)

book haul!

I did a thing... a few times!

several of these were pre-orders, and while the anticipation of a new release is always so so high, it feels like Christmas every time they show up!

What good books have you guys picked up lately?

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Alyssa’s Library\ \ alyssa\ \ • Jul 30 2025

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Physical TBR Challenge: Week 14

a (slower) week of reads for me but i did read one of my favourites of the month so i call that a win #booktok #physicaltbrchallenge #tbrchallenge #readingvlog

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Arcane Nights Press\ \ Cassidy\ \ • Jul 22 2025

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New Book Releases July 22nd

Here’s another New Book Tuesday for you all!

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Arcane Nights Press\ \ Cassidy\ \ • Jan 29 2025

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Publisher Book Mail! All the ARCs!

I received a ton of advanced reading copies of some of my most anticipated books so here’s a book haul discussing them!

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