Zodiac Academy

Live and Let Lionel

De: Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

Narrado por: Bridget Bordeaux, Jake Bordeaux

This is a bonus content novella to celebrate the series coming to a close and contains 100k words of bonus content from the Zodiac Academy Series.

Savage - a short story about Hail and Merissa Vega's love story
The Shimmering Springs - that night Caleb and Seth did or didn't kiss...
The moment Geraldine first saw the twins
Seth on the Moon - one Werewolf's wanderings on the moon
Night - that time the twins met the Ruthless Boys - with a never before published chapter!
Orion ‘blue’ alternate POV - BRAND NEW
Orion ‘Fairy Fair’ alternate POV
Darius 'throne room' alternate POV
Darius ‘Stars’ alternate POV - BRAND NEW
Featuring the never before seen map of Solaria!
Each chapter is introduced by Lionel Acrux, looking back on how his enemies have thwarted him and how he overcame their insufferable rebellion - BRAND NEW

©2024 Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti (P)2024 Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

Loved This Compilation of Bonus Chapters

The Twisted Sisters and the Bordeaux’s do it again. Caroline and Susan gave us bonus chapters and Bridget and Jake brought them to life beautifully. Thank you all for extending the Solaria world for us readers.

So fun to revisit Solaria

I had read some of these as they came out in different collections, but I LOVED getting to listen to them all together with Jake’s Lionel narration between each chapter.

First of all- if you’re missing Solaria it’s just so fun to “be among friends” again. It was like coming home.
The bonus content spans book 1 through 8 so it was like reliving the whole epic story.

Secondly- the picks of what to write from alternate POVs were perfect. The Tory/Darius scene from the end of Shadow Princess crushed me like no other book had and getting to hear it from Darius’s POV broke me all over. And back when I’d read it in real time I followed up with a Leon Chapter re-read as a pick-me up and I was cracking up that this book did the same!

Loved all the content and the narration as always is spot on. Highly recommend it you want a trip back through Solaria!

The best scenes

Thank the stars I needed to know what happened in the shimmering springs! I'm not sure why this is listed as book 0 I feel sorry for the poor souls who read this first don't read this first! I love Lance and Darcy and their love story. Still hate when Tory and Darius break our hearts.

Don’t start here.

Review written 01.16.2025, will revisit after completing main series.

Review TL:DR; Start with ZA, The Awakening aka ‘book 1’

Longer review:
I listened to several hours of this (much of it multiple times to catch what was said or to process meaning) before bailing, which is so not me. I rarely dnf a book and almost gave up on the series but I had been lead to believe how much I’d love these and looked closer. Ah… I grabbed the backstory books and this is book 0, which is followed by book 0.5, and THEN book 1, ZA, The Awakening.

I gave it a short second chance after that realization, thinking maybe it would set the scene for me. If you’re familiar with Assassin’s Blade to Throne of Glass, this is not the equivalent to ZA. Assassins Blade was capable of being a stand alone set of stories that could really be read at any time, first or otherwise.

These mini stories, however, (at least up to a few hours in) were confusing, largely futile to understand the gravity relevance/significance of events etc Further, the majority of character voices (especially for the she/her characters) are distractingly obnoxious, some just challenging to understand - despite loving the idea/opportunity for such variety.

So ultimately, I tried ‘book 1’ <— how novel 😅 and am really enjoying it. It feels more YA or intro to Romantasy, than fully fledged Romantasy, but that doesn’t bother me. The narrator is the same woman from book 0 and now I know some of the characters and their voices/accents and can understand various decisions and obnoxious delivery.

I am fairly confident I will have a more enjoyable experience next first-ish time through.

So for now, as a stand alone book I gave it 3 stars overall, 2 for performance, and 3 for story. It has potential, I look forward to seeing how it all plays out in the coming months.

Understand different POVs

This is a little boring for me honestly but understand it gives good context. Some of them were better than others.

Gah I hate lionel

Lionel is the perfect villain. Probably one of my most hated characters in a book. Ive yelled, cried and wanted to throw my kindle because of him. But i loved this novella and being able to read other short stories or chapters. It was perfect

“Sometimes we must look into the darkest of nights to discover the greatest of treasures.”

"Now I had finally found something that was pure and so help me, I was going to claim it.”

"Sometimes it was cruel, and sometimes I enjoyed when it was."

"I didn't hate the idea of him trying to claim it from me in a more thrilling way."

i really just can’t even fathom that the end is here 😭😭😭 i wanna cry like a baby! but these little extra insights to these characters fuel my soul!

best narrators!!

I love seeing the story from other characters POV! it's so fun and definitely worth listening to!

5 Stars

5 Stars!

The entirety of reading this book I felt like I needed to cry. I was throughly enjoying being back in Solaria, but thinking of everything these characters had gone through and all of the little scenes I forgot since reading all came back to me. Is this my sign to do a reread of ZA?

Lionel’s a jerk

Love this series and loved this book, can’t wait to read the rest of them!

Great addition

This is a great addition to the Zodiac Academy stories. Its a collection of other stories inside the universe, great things like background on characters or parts of stories from another POV. I defently think everyone should love it.