Celestial Academy: Essence

Thank you, NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have been in a reading slump since last October and I saw this and decided to give it a chance. I can say without a doubt that this was worth the chance.
I was 100% entertained by Celestial Academy: Essence by Olivia Pharos. Now, for some... it might be an issue because It does have a lot of other book ideas within it. For me, I have no issue with that. Celestial Academy is perfect and amazing. It was so amazing for me that I went out and bought it and the second book.
Cough I'm gonna need that third one soon. Cough

Anyway...
Content Warnings/Trigger Warnings that I remember off the top of my head for those that need it:
Cursing
Mentions of rape (Chp. 3)
Talks of sex
Depictions of violence
Mentions of Death (lots of it)
Religion (for those who have religious trauma or might be easily offended because there is a religious aspect to this book.

Ummm... I might be missing some but I got too caught up in the story to keep track of them because it was that good. LOL. Sorry.

So... within the first chapter, we jump right into the story and it takes off running. The Female main character is extremely snarky and humorous. I found myself laughing a lot due to her dark humor and the banter between her and the rest of the characters.

The Narrator was.... one of the best Narrators I have listened to in a while. Very expressive and read at a... good pace. She even did the different tones and voices for different characters. It was a very enjoyable listening experience. Well done.

I was really excited for this one because it was compared to one of my fav series....

It was decent. I was entertained but it was a little amateurish in spots. I actually think maybe it was more an editing thing rather than the fault of the author. It was well worth the read though and I am searching for book 2.

The characters were great and I thought the storyline was fun. It just didn't feel 100% cohesive in spots. It is an indie author and had I known that going on, I might have had a different mindset but having said that, it still stood up well to someone who can be super hard on fantasy books.

4 stars well done