Name: The Monarchs
ISBN: 9781529363876

Kass Morgan

Danielle Paige

In this thrilling conclusion to New York Times bestselling authors Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige's The Ravens duology, loyalty, love, and friendships are tested as sorority sisters Scarlett and Vivi must face the forces of hell itself when a rival sorority threatens to wreak havoc on campus. The ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu - the Ravens - are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they'll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly's most powerful coven of witches. Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she's always wanted: Scarlett is Kappa Rho Nu's newest president. Unlike her mother or older sister before her, Scarlett has a vision for a more unified Kappa, one where no sister falls to the forces of wicked magic. But the powers of the presidency have their own pitfalls. And with the pressures of alumni bureaucracy and past failures weighing on her, Scarlett finds herself at risk of losing the very thing that defined her: her magic. As a new member of Kappa Rho Nu, Vivi Devereaux finally knows what it's like to belong. She has her Kappa Rho Nu sisters behind her and, with Scarlett's blessing, Vivi's happily dating her first college crush (who also just happens to be Scarlett's ex). When Scarlett assigns Vivi the coveted role of social chair, Vivi is determined to live up to her Big's expectations. But Vivi's studies in witchcraft take a deadly turn when she uncovers a new form of magic, one that has mysterious ties to Kappa Rho Nu's past and the vengeful demon once tied to their talisman. With the weight of their newfound roles and the terrible price of destroying the talisman haunting them, Scarlett and Vivi must save their sisterhood when the forces of hell itself and a rival sorority threaten to unleash havoc on the Ravens.

The Monarchs

In this thrilling conclusion to New York Times best-selling authors Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige's The Ravens duology, loyalty, love, and friendships are tested as sorority sisters Scarlett and Vivi must face the forces of hell itself when a rival sorority threatens to wreak havoc on campus. The ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu--the Ravens--are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they'll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly's most powerful coven of witches. Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she's always wanted: Scarlett is Kappa Rho Nu's newest president. Unlike her mother or older sister before her, Scarlett has a vision for a more unified Kappa, one where no sister falls to the forces of wicked magic. But the powers of the presidency have their own pitfalls. And with the pressures of alumni bureaucracy and past failures weighing on her, Scarlett finds herself at risk of losing the very thing that defined her: her magic. As a new member of Kappa Rho Nu, Vivi Devereaux finally knows what it's like to belong. She has her Kappa Rho Nu sisters behind her and, with Scarlett's blessing, Vivi's happily dating her first college crush (who also just happens to be Scarlett's ex). When Scarlett assigns Vivi the coveted role of social chair, Vivi is determined to live up to her Big's expectations. But Vivi's studies in witchcraft take a deadly turn when she uncovers a new form of magic, one that has mysterious ties to Kappa Rho Nu's past and the vengeful demon once tied to their talisman. With the weight of their newfound roles and the terrible price of destroying the talisman haunting them, Scarlett and Vivi must save their sisterhood when the forces of hell itself and a rival sorority threaten to unleash havoc on the Ravens.

Kimberly Burgess 

I did like these books, they're a fast easy read and very character driven. I feel like with how dialogue-forward the writing is and how simple the world building is, that these 2 books would really make for a better TV show stories than books. I would watch the hell out of this TV show, but I don't know how many times I would reread the story.

Alexa M

3.5 

super entertaining and loved the witchy vibes but nothing special

Marloes

This book continues at the start of a new school year with our favourite witchy sorority. They are still reeling from the previous year's events, with the deepest betrayal still cutting deep throughout all the girls of Kappa Rho Nu. 

I absolutely loved the premise of this sequel. It’s so much darker and grittier than I ever expected, and that is one of the things I absolutely love about it. Some events in the book are so obviously bad choices, and it makes you want to reach into the book and tell the characters not to do those stupid things. 

The Monarchs is just as fast paced, action packed and filled with twists and turns as The Ravens, but it's obvious that the characters have gone through heavy stuff and the character development in this one is even better than it was in The Ravens. 

I highly recommend the series to anyone who's in the mood for a bitchy, witchy, college/Greek Life inspired story!

Elisa Bieg

I received an e-ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

The Monarchs is the sequel to The Ravens, a New Adult (but completely clean and suitable for YA audiences) urban fantasy novel set in a college campus. The books focus on a coven of young witches sort of masquerading as a normal sorority, but really keeping a long history and heritage alive through the education of the new generation of Ravens, while also maintaining their standing as the most influential and prestigious sorority on campus. 

In The Monarchs, the sisters are still reeling from the events of the first book, and the story continues from there and revolves a lot around the effects of those events on everyone involved; because of this, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book without having read The Ravens first. 

Scarlett and Vivi are once again our MCs, and the chapters switch from one POV to the other. The book is written in third person and delves a lot into the state of mind of the protagonists: their fears, their uncertainty, their emotional scars if you will — all this while they are trying to lead the coven into a new year and very important events with extremely prominent guests. 

I really enjoy school settings, particularly when they are used to impart a dark academia vibe to a novel that benefits from a bit of a dark, mysterious atmosphere, like this one. I appreciated the descriptions which helped me imagine the sorority houses, the cafes, and the campus in general.

Where this book let me down a bit was characterization. The MCs aren’t well fleshed out for most of it, and for a long stretch they feel like little more than plot devices, only there to push forward whatever events will work as catalysts for the rest of the story. I was very disappointed because I had found Scarlett especially a fairly compelling character and I was looking forward to hearing more about these two girls who managed to form a bond through some very trying circumstances in the first book. 
What we did see of them painted them in a fairly unflattering light, with them somehow losing all the character growth that had been achieved during the first book, and instead being a big too self-absorbed, shallow, and overly focused on outward appearances. This of course contributed to things getting really bad, so unfortunately when things start falling apart, as the reader I had a hard time feeling bad for them as they hadn’t been the most appealing nor the most relatable characters. 

The narrative also felt a little unfocused and the pace was frequently a bit off, which affected how much suspense and sense of urgency we could feel during specific sequences. 
This made a perfectly reasonable 400-something pages feel like a much longer book, and added to the characterization issues to sort of make me want to give up on the duology as a whole, unfortunately. 

I did finish this but I cannot give it more than 2 1/2 stars I’m afraid, as it made me want to unhaul the first book.

Dee B. 

I genuinely wanted to love this one, but it would not mesh with me. When reading this on it's own didn't work I tried mixing in other genres, other age brackets, other reading mediums...but to no avail. I think I'll go forward with The Ravens being a standalone and this as a fever dream that never happened.

The stakes were as high in this as the first and yet our main characters did not show a sense of urgency expected of a group that underwent such life and death experiences a few months prior and I could not push past that. Maybe in a few months time, when I have blocked it out, I can try to read this as a standalone and maybe then the actions of the characters would make more sense to me.

I LOVED this book! I loved how this was a series, so by The Monarchs, I kind of built a connection with the characters as I was reading the book and I felt for them! When the ending to the book came, I had tears in my eyes because I was happy the book ended happily!! 

Kassia Skorzewska

Allison

I have to admit I did like the Ravens more than the Monarchs. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope BUT I still love this world and the characters. It was a fun duology. 

SPOILERS BELOW:
I thought that the name of this book being the Monarchs would mean that the alumni would step in to help or have more of a role in this book. I feel like that was a missed opportunity. We didn’t even get to peek into the history that they wrote down. That was disappointing. 
