2.5 stars.

In the land of Demeine, people have the ability to perform magic - some use their magic to create beautiful illusions, to divine the future and scry on others. Other magic can be used in battle - for strength and for healing. But all magic takes a toll, and eventually a body is worn down. So nobles use hacks - a peasant who can also use magic, and who agrees to work and lend their strength and magic for as long as their body holds out.

Emilie des Marais is on her way to an elite school to learn the art of illusion and divination but she desperately wants to be a physician - even if it means being a hack. When she meets Annette, the two swap places and begin their new lives. But revolution is brewing in Demeine, and war is on the horizon with their neighbours. Will the girls be able to keep their secret, and use their magic to save their country - while also bringing down a corrupt king?

I hoped to love this, and there were some parts I did. I think the magic is really interesting in this book, and how it's used and channeled. I love the girl power going on in this book, and I really appreciate how Linsey Miller always makes sure to have a vast array of diversity in her characters (characters' appearances are explicitly stated so we know if they are POC, one main character appears to be asexual, another describes her relationship with herself and her identity as possibly non-binary, a side character/love interest is a trans man). While I don't believe some of this is from an own voices perspective (though I'm not 100% sure), I think it's still important to appreciate this from any author.

I don't know why all the names and titles in this were French, and when I learned the king was called King Henry XII, I was really confused for a bit wondering if this wasn't fantasy but some kind of historical fantasy and we actually were in France. There's a lot of names and titles thrown around in the book too and sometimes I was confused about who everyone was.

There's a lot of convenience in this book too and everything just happens so easily. It's only in the first chapter that Emilie and Annette meet and swap lives - it's literally like "You wanna be me?", "Okay" and that's that. There was no build up except Emilie talking about how much she hated her mother (who actually wasn't a bad person at all?).

The magic in this while intriguing was messy. I don't think we ever got a good idea of how they actually learned and refined their magic - the only classes we seemed to actually see in the book were mathematics and history? Everyone just seemed to know how to do it and what exactly to do.

The war that ended up happening, I don't know why it happened. All of a sudden everyone was at war? I was confused.

The Laurels thing seemed a bit stupid. I liked the idea of it, and I liked the actual name itself but Emilie and Annette both basically walking up a Laurel and becoming part of the group without any questioning was really sketchy.

I think as well none of these characters actually seemed real to me. And when I read a character, I like them to take shape in front of me. I want it to feel like they are sitting beside me, telling me their story. And I didn't feel this with this book. I found it hard to picture anyone and everyone's relationships didn't seem to really have anything in them. I don't think any characters had real chemistry - even friendships like Annette, Coline, and Isabella. I liked Charles and Emilie but there was no real banter between them and I feel like it was really forced.

The only real relationship I liked and felt something between was Laurence and Esthel and we literally only had about 3 seconds of page time with them. But THAT's the true love story I wanted and one we didn't get.

There was nothing really wrong with this book. Linsey Miller is able to write, and she does create worlds and magic that seem to have thought in them. Maybe it's just refining them that's the problem. I just didn't totally get on with this book, and I'm not 100% sure why. And that makes me sad.