#NAAugust Week Four, Day 27: Beyond The Contemporaries - Magic Academy Series by E.R. Ross

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 I'm so sad to see the speculative fiction of this week go =(

Hopefully you've found some really good ones to start your collection!

We have just a few more days left in the month, and today is the end of the Beyond The Contemporaries week.

I had the pleasure of reading both today's spotlights last year when they first came out, but at the time I'd only read the first.

Today I'll give reasons why you should read the first, and give a mini-review of the second ;p

Reasons I chose The Fire Test:

~If you enjoyed Harry Potter, but it wasn't explicitly inclusive enough for you, The Fire Test is an cool alternative.

~It can be seen as African-American New Adult Fantasy, but it's not explicitly so. And there's a bunch of racial, gender and disability representation too!

~Lace, the main character was a Black princess. Tiana, eat your heart out ;p

~The amazeball covers. I mean, come on!

Murder At Seagrove Review:

I'll admit that I liked the first one more in terms of fantastic elements than the second. Murder At Seagrove was an amazing sophomore effort, and explored the relationship between Lace, the MC and her privileged frenemy/ally Delia.

There was more of a whodunnit theme than fantasy, and it was interesting learning the mystery killer the team was set out to find, while they were on the run themselves.

They'd managed to take the identities of those investigating the mystery, and could only move freely at Seagrove without the officials there.

They had one ally, but she'd been lost to the struggle, but they had so much more on their hands, as it opened a door to a land facing a lot of pain, oppression and strife.

I was still confused to why only people who were brown were automatically considered slaves, and nothing explored why that was. Delia, the former Queen of everyone's current foe, was still privileged and hard of hearing, but I think it'd be unrealistic for her to unlearn everything ignorant she'd learned in a day, so I'm hoping a book three might explore that.

Like any mystery needing to be solved, it ironed itself out, but unfortunately more trouble awaits. I wish there'd been more One-Eye, but I hear Book Three will focus more on the relationships between the male figures in the party, so I hope this is like, a six book series.

The last week will be filled with new releases not yet announced or expected to release soon. It'll be a short week, but I had so much fun with this event! Hope you guys did too!

Also, don't forget to enter the giveaways we're offering with Dani Reviews Things, posts you can find here and here!