Initial thoughts: There’s so much I disliked, I don’t even know where to begin. Can we just say that the Grace siblings were a carbon copy of the Cullens from Twilight? Minus the vampire part, replaced by rumours of them being witches. The protagonist was so obsessed with them, she was maniacal. It was uncomfortable to read.
“Oh, Fenrin, you have no idea the lengths you’d have to go to get me to hate you. I’m not going anywhere.”She may not have verbalised her thoughts but it made me downright cringe. The phrasing didn’t help.
Speaking of the protagonist, what even was her name? No, technically it wasn't River. River was her “secret name”, the one she wished she had been called because she didn't like her given name. Funny that her “secret name” came to be the one she was called by while her given name remained a mystery.
“It started in dorm room, while the teacher, Miss Franks, called attendance. She said my name.Okay, so what was her name? So much time was spent on her given name and yet nobody utttered it, instead opting for “new girl” when addressing her. This might not seem like such a big deal but in combination with everything else, I was considerably irritated.
[…]
Niral's eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You mean River?’
[.…]
Miss Franks waited for me to say something, then cleared her throat. ‘Her name is not River, Niral.
The last few chapters picked up a slight bit, adding plot twists and surprises that led to a cliffhanger. It's those developments that lifted my rating from 1 to 1.5 stars and really, I have zero interest in continuing. When most of the book is that boring and elicits so many eye rolls from me, it's not worth reading the sequel to find out how things continue.