Review: Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti

When we left Tory Vega, Darcy Vega, Lance Orion and the Celestial Heirs, they had just finished a deadly battle against the Nymphs. Now that the Nymphs made it to Zodiac Academy, no Fae is safe. 

Just in time for the reckoning: the tests that decide if you’re powerful enough to remain at the Zodiac Academy. Older students are encouraged to make the lives of freshman hell, as freshmen prepare to show off their elemental skills. 

Since Tory and Darcy have all four elements, they have to prepare more than anybody else. At the same time, things in Solaria are more dangerous than ever. Not only do the Vegas have to deal with the Nymphs, things become more tense over whether or not the Vegas will take the throne.

While in some ways the Heirs are opening up to the Vegas more, they’re still under pressure from their parents to make sure the Vegas fail. But Geraldine and her Almighty Sovereign Society (A.S.S. 😂) want nothing more to see Tory and Darcy with crowns. All they want to do is survive…then they can make the tough decisions.

Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning is even better than Zodiac Academy 1: The Awakening and Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae. First of all, we’re used to Solaria now and like how it mirrors our world. They have FaeFlix and FaeBook, which is super clever.

We also love the main characters. Darcy and Tory have gone through a lot over their first few months at the academy. But we love watching take on these challenges with strength and shocking the Heirs. One of the best parts of the book is the sister bond. The two would do anything for each other and they always work together to ensure the best outcome. Some of our favorite scenes included them dominating the reckoning challenges and seeing how each element could be used in a trial.

Now, the Celestial Heirs are definitely morally gray. Like the last book, we still prefer Darius and Caleb to Max and Seth. Although, Max got some more story time in the book because he started crushing on Geraldine. We totally ship it! Seth is still the worst and he tries whatever he can to torture Darcy. Not cool! Caleb and Darius have started to go head to head over Tory a bit. While it’s pretty obvious who she is endgame with, we can’t help but like them both. Tory had great scenes with both of them: she went with Caleb to the Faefair and she and Darius raced Motorcycles and had their first real moment. She will have a decision to make very soon we bet.

The smaller characters such as Geraldine, Sofia and Xavier continued to shine. However, we completely changed our minds on Diego, who called Darcy a whore! We wanted to slap his stupid hat off his face for treating her badly. All she did was not want to kiss him.

But at least Darcy is starting to form her own romance. She and Lance Orion brought things to the next level and while we were apprehensive at first, we’re starting to ship it.

Even with the great romance developments, the twins had a lot of problems at the end of the book. It’s the lunar eclipse and everyone is supposed to be partying, but not Darcy and Tory. They fall into a dangerous trap of an enemy and nothing will ever be the same. The book ended on a big cliffhanger, so obviously we bought Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess right away.

Have you read this series yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐