Week 40 Reviews: A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate

From Goodreads:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I'm concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I'm not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don't need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts. I'm probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I'll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that's what the world expects me to do. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that's crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school itself certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn't getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone's idea of the shining hero, but I'm going to make it out of this place alive, and I'm not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I'm giving serious consideration to just one.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

From Goodreads:

A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik's groundbreaking crossover series.

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . . 

My first review of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate
My Review:
Reading these books put a spanner in the works that is my TBR, but I can't regret it. I just love these books and this world so freaking much! I mean, I did just read The Last Graduate just over a week ago, and now I've read A Deadly Education, and The Last Graduate again? I wasn't planning on it, but they're so great!

And I'm really glad that I read them back to back, because I'd forgotten what roles that these characters had played. Because they really weren't great to El in the first book, and watching her save them all in the 2nd, well, it'd be easy to have a grudge against them, not want to help. But she does, and she's such a great character!

Honestly, my thoughts on how to keep future generations of magically budding teens safe in the future, is to implement a version of what happened in The Last Graduate, build a space to lure the mals into, and then destroy it, because it's a plan that almost certainly has proved that it can work!

But oh, knowing what was coming, how they were planning on having all the students survive, and those last few pages, they just hurt. I need to know how Orion is going to survive that, how El is going to react to what he did! I just need more!

These were 2 so very excellent books, and I can't wait for the 3rd (and final?) book!

Author: Naomi Novik
Series: Scholomance #1, 2
First Read: October 5th, 2020, September 28th 2021

Read: October 6th, 6th, 2021
Source: Ebook.bike
Reason Why: Rereading, and they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2021 Books!
Publisher: Del Ray
Published: September 29th 2020, September 28th 2021

A Deadly Education:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

The Last Graduate:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars