Book Review: The Auctor Trilogy by T.R. Wolf

When seventeen-year-old Addie Auctor’s mother is murdered by her father, she must confront many secrets that her family has hidden from her. The worst of these secrets is that Addie’s father, Donovan Hawthorne, is still hunting Addie because of an ancient blood feud between her mother’s family, the Auctors, and her father’s family, the House of Hawthorne. In order to be protected from the House of Hawthorne, Addie and her brother, Augustus, are sent to Initiation at an exclusive University, the Wicked Cabal. 
Initiation is nothing like Addie expects. She is immediately separated from Augustus and thrown in with four complete strangers – Fallon, Maddox, Liam, and Tempe. Addie must try to forge friendships with her fellow Initiates while they solve clues, battle mystical creatures, and explore increasingly dangerous places. 
Readers of all ages will love this adventure filled with suspense, treachery, and romance. 

The setting was one of my favorite things about this book! The characters somehow find themselves deep in the mountains surrounded by woods with only a backpack to their name with all the necessary things needed to survive. I love traveling inside woods because anything can hide in them and I’m glad to say that the author used this setting well. Dragons! Elves! Mystical trees! Many things popped out from the shadows (or hid inside them) and it was thrilling to  see what would come out next. 

What I cannot believe is that the school would place their students into such dangerous situations! They are supposedly proving their endurance and driving out their magic, but truth be told,  so many things were beyond crazy, like having to battle with a dragon or cross an obstacle course that’s basically a death trap without actual help. One thing is for the University to be on the sidelines, ready to protect you in case you might possibly get hurt, but this place actually lets you fight for your life. Um, NOPE. I’m fine playing magic tricks on my own without this University in my life (if I had magical powers, that is). However, I do want to see the characters set foot inside it just to see how much worse it can get because honestly, The Wicked Cabal sounds like a terrifying school and I want to see it go down.


What Left Me Wanting More:

I liked most of the characters in The Auctor Trilogy, but I wasn’t that crazy with the relationships, especially with the romance between Addie and Maddox. Maddox was awfully mean to her in the beginning, and while I understand his reasoning, I do not get why he fell hard for her so quickly. Both of them. I LIKE them together, just not how quickly it happened. At least it felt too quick for me.

I also did not like how Augustus, Addie’s twin brother, acted sometimes when it came to her. Same with her grandmother. They pointlessly kept secrets from Addie and that drove me a bit crazy. For such a serious situation, they sure acted childish.