Magic Trials

Half-Blood Academy 1

By: Meg Xuemei X

Narrated by: Marnye Young, Conner Goff

Welcome to Half Death Academy. That's what they call my new school - because only half the students survive.

Rule number one: Keep your head down and don't mess with the four gorgeous demigods who rule the school.

Rule number two: When the demigods try to kill you, lie down and die.

Too bad I never was very good at following the rules. And when my forbidden power awakens, I'll make them regret they tried to make me their bitch.

Magic Trials is the first book in the Half-Blood Academy series with a badass heroine, four deadly, striking demigods, heart-pounding action blended with super steamy love scenes, and great romance. For fans of Shadowspell Academy.

Excerpt

For a long moment, we didn't speak as he pounded into me relentlessly and I plunged from the tip to the hilt of him with equally bruising force.

"My woman," he murmured, lust changing him, making him an erotic god. "You were made for me to find and pleasure in this pure ecstasy of my dreams."

"This is actually my dream", I said between breathless moans.

He ignored my correction and commanded. "Come to me in my dreams every night, lamb, and let me have you in every way until dawn."

©2019 Meg Xuemei X (P)2019 Meg Xuemei X

FANTASTIC

This book was AMAZING! I wish book two was out on audio already. The narrator did a good job.
The cliffhanger at the end made me clinch my eyes and shake my head. I wonder what death is going to do when he finds out just who beat his Lamb so badly.
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry making the rest of the series auditable!

One of my favorite series

This is a reread for me but this is one of my absolute favorite series of all time. I constantly go back to reread or listen to my favorite parts. If you are looking for a why choose, paranormal, academy book look no further.

Good start to this supernatural RH academy series!

I am slowly rotating back in academy audiobooks (there was a rush of them and I mentally was burnt out so I am slowly getting back to them) and I have been really happy so far with Meg's Half-Blood Academy. It makes me reminisce about Percy Jackson's series (but a more adult version haha) that I loved growing up reading. I will say there were a couple things that held me back from giving it a 5 star, but I did enjoy book 1, glad I could continue to listen to the rest of the series because I wanted to know know more after book 1. One thing was some things were repetitive. Some of the internal monologues, or things the guys kept saying (particularly Axel). I think it could have been caught in the writing process and helped smoothed out and I would have given this a 5 stars. But besides that. again a great start to this 5 book series.

In terms of the story I really enjoyed the stubbornness, ferocity, and snarky attitude of Marigold, she stayed true to herself the whole book, putting her coven before herself, then not holding back or backing down from the bullies of the half-blood academy. I did like her banter with the Demi-gods and liked how they slowly realized she wasn't a normal human and that they had feelings for her. I was trying to figure out who her mystery dream man was but that was a great surprise. I really like Axel and was holding back judgement of Zack. But Pigston deserves all the bad things coming to him, after how he continues to treat Marigold. I don't give much of the story away, but Marigold has to go through some trials and proves she is more than what she seems and that she has no clue how to control what is hidden inside her. I think there is bound to be a ton of redemption for the guys in the future books and I am excited to see what Marigold put them through/how she handles it. I also want 1/8 to get her just rewards for being horrible haha.

Narration was good, I like listening to Marnye in past audiobooks. I do think she was over the top too much in some instances and no offense her French accent was tough to listen to when she did dream man. I was hoping this would have been a duet audiobook after seeing Conner listed, but he only got a small portion of the book because of the POVs. I would give the narration 3.5-4 stars.

Excellent Story

I have read the entire series. Based on the description I wasn't really interested but decided to give it a chance, so happy I did. They mix up the narrators in the coming books trying to find the right mix, while I am not crazy about the female voice of some of the males it doesn't take away from the excellent story.
The males are totally alpha and you will love them all, and after the first book you may not be to stoked about Paxton, don't give up all hope.
Thanks for another great series Meg!

Half-Blood Academy

Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy 1) is a academy reverse harem fantasy romance. Magic Trials is the beginning of this new fatasy series and sets the stage for this new world. It provides well detailed world building descriptions and settings. This is a adventurous fantasy realm with demi gods, and opulence of magic and intrigue. Character's of the Harem are introduced and we just get a glimpse of their characteristics. It ends with cliffhanger so you need to listen to the next audio to find out what happens.

Overall, a entertaining listen.

Narrators Marnye Young, Conner Goff performance was entertaining and brought the characters to reality.

loved the storyline

I loved this storyline. The male performance was great. The only issue I had was some of the supporting characters voices.

Good storyline

I enjoyed the surprises in this story.l and discovering marigolds power. I loved the death demigod but the hated the sea god. Interested to see what happens in the next book

I don't like the woman voice narrating the men!!!

It does get a little dirty so if u don't like that kind of thing stay away! The reason I gave low stars for performance is bc I cannot stand when the narrator does a man's voice! It sounds like a grouchy old lady or sometimes a relaly old man. It made it so hard to picture the actual characters and the frech dude REALLY through me off. I could barely listen to the book unfortunately. I like the Marigold voice but I just can't deal whenever switches to men. it is sooooooo odd!!! I will say when the man did the French Demi of death it was much better!! Wayyyy more realistic. I didn't care for all the cuss words.

it was about gods

it was ok similar to others I've heard. I liked it though just kind wish not all the men were mean to her.

Not Bad, However...

This will be a full series review. I have listened to a lot of Meg Xuemei X Reverse Harems. I usually love her work, it's sexy with a decent story! Also OMG the steamy factor is what we're here for!

Spoilers Ahead

Pros:
- The sexy and steamy moments are frequent. It's a RH so im here for multiple sex scenes in a book. It does not disappoint with quantity. All MF scenes. No MM at all. One group moment of MMF.
- The story evolved in a great way. I was genuinely surprised at some of the twists that came about.

Cons:
- Yes the sexy scenes were plentiful. However it failed in quality for me. I got annoyed anytime any mention of sex was happening because the scenes sucked. They were short, No foreplay like ever and described a lot of pounding with no substance.
- The constant retelling of the plot. They told the same plot details multiple times over and over.
- The OVERUSE of SOO many specific terms. If I had to hear Pure Male Scent one more time I would scream! Also the pet name usage COOKIE, ROSE BUD, BUTTERCUP AND LAMB need to never be said again!!
- I usually enjoy some alpha male moments but all of the ones past book 2 were awful and unnecessary.
- The narrator change in the middle was annoying
- The accent for Hector was the worst I've ever heard. It literally made me cringe when he spoke.
- Five credits is WAY to much for this series. The books are short and not worth the money.

Honestly the first 3 books were good, so I continued. I hated it all be the end and could not wait for it to be over!!! So my advice is enjoy the first couple then put this series down!