An Arcane Study of Stars

• Author: Sydney J. Shields
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: April 28, 2026
• Publisher: Redhook

Thank you to Redhook for sending me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From Sydney J. Shields, the breakout author of The Honey Witch, comes An Arcane Study of Stars, a historical dark academia fantasy filled with ancient secret societies, a swoon-worthy rivals-to-lovers romance, and dangerous deals made after dark. Perfect for fans of The Atlas Six and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

When Claudia Jolicoeur is rejected from Cygnus University, a devilish stranger named Dorian appears in her nightmares and offers her a bargain: he will get her into Cygnus if she learns how to free him from a prison of stars. He takes a bite of her soul to seal the deal, and Claudia wakes to a letter from the High Sage of Cygnus stating she will take the place of Odette Dufort, a Rhetoric student who passed away.

Her arrival raises suspicions, rumors that she had a hand in Odette’s death spread like wildfire, and Cassius MacLeod, the High Sage’s apprentice and Claudia’s fellow Rhetoric student, seems hellbent on humiliating her. Determined to clear her name, she searches for any evidence that could prove her innocence. When someone—or something—starts slipping her pieces of Odette’s diary, Claudia uncovers a horrifying truth: over the last century, celestial witches at Cygnus have been murdered. Odette was one of them, and Claudia could be next. For her own protection, Claudia needs to free Dorian—and fast.

By night, she studies the stars, slowly unraveling the mystery of Dorian’s prison. By day, she and Cassius wage rhetorical war as debate partners in class. What begins as a fierce rivalry devolves into something deeper, darker, and dangerously sensual. As Claudia inches closer to the truth, she must decide: would trusting Cassius be the last mistake she ever makes?

This sounded like an excellent premise, and it involved aspects that I love—dark academia, a sketchy bargain, and romantasy, all in one place, so I went into this with high expectations. Since I had also enjoyed her debut novel, I started reading this prepared to love it. 

There’s a lot going on in the novel, so I want to discuss some of the things that stood out to me. First of all, Claudia is a character I liked right away. She’s what would happen if Murphy’s Law was a person—anything that can go wrong for her usually does. After the early passing of her mother, the disdain and neglect from her father, the impoverishment of her family because of her father’s gambling, and the impending forced marriage to a significantly older suitor to pay her father’s debts, Claudia wants nothing more than to be free to follow her mother’s path into a world of astrology and magic. She finds solace and escape in the local bookstore, until a strange book appears seemingly out of thin air. 

It wasn’t hard to like Claudia early on. She’s a young woman stuck in a horrible situation within a historical, patriarchal-led society, leaving her at the mercy of her father, who doesn’t seem to have any positive feelings towards Claudia at all and views her as a way to escape debts he cannot pay. Correspondingly, she doesn’t have much positive feeling towards her father either, especially after he basically sells her into a marriage with a man who is 6 decades older. I wouldn’t want to marry someone 60 years older than me, so I could understand Claudia’s desire to escape. She’s an empathic character, although her love for her rescued white snake named Bishop is a wonderful addition. He is woven through the story as a side character, and I loved that her pet was so important to her which added a new level of realism to this story.

Once she obtains this mysterious book, she learns about the presence of a magical college known as Cygnus University and how to get into it. After applying, she is heartbroken to be rejected and have no other options than to marry this elderly suitor, so instead she makes a sketchy bargain with a devilish stranger who promises to get her into Cygnus University if she’ll free him from the stars he is imprisoned in, then seals the deal with a bite of her soul. Voila, her rejection is changed to an acceptance and she is whisked off to school in just the nick of time. 

Cygnus is a dark academia setting for sure. It didn’t quite reach the level of a character in itself, but it was close and lent itself well to dark academia. Claudia starts off on the wrong foot by arriving in a suspicious manner, and crosses paths with Cassius MacLeod, the golden boy of the school and the apprentice to the High Sage, who goes out of his way to humiliate her and make her feel unwelcome. Since she arrives on the heels of the death of another student, they suspect her of murdering their friend. 

It’s at this point that a few things stuck out to me that I didn’t love. Claudia has an inner monologue that feels excessively fixated on how bad and evil she is, viewing her past actions through what feels like an inability to see things past the surface and see the nuance and context that surrounded her violent actions. It felt like the author really wanted us to get that part, because scenes involving her self-blame and internal monologue are repeated ad nauseam throughout the book. I can certainly understand the tendency of people to see situations through a distorted lens, but she really struggled to clarify these situations at any point, and I would have liked to see a little more self-forgiveness in her character arc, which felt rather flat.

I knew that this was going to be a romantasy, but when it did happen, I was blown away. The enemies-to-lovers aspect of the story occurred really quick when it switched, and it felt a little like the characters rushed into a BDSM dynamic without the more realistic aspects of consent, boundaries, safe words, and aftercare along with the trust that comes when . I would have liked it more if this was all clarified before they jumped into this type of situation, especially with the power dynamics in place between Claudia and Cassius. However, the spicy scenes were written really well, and I did like that they clarified what was okay and specifying what they wanted verbally throughout these scenes. 

The idea of celestial magic is central to this magic system, which I found unique and refreshing. Students are taught in rhetoric, logic, and philosophy, and I enjoyed seeing the discussions that the students had in these areas of learning, as well as how their magic is utilized through their internal desires. This aspect of the story was done extremely well, and is one of the more creative magic systems I’ve read about. 

One of my favorite aspects of the story was the friendship that develops between Claudia and Alastair. It came on in a way that felt natural and comfortable, and they are so supportive of each other that I couldn’t help but love them together. Especially going by the nicknames Claud and Alas, which gave me a bit of a chuckle. Additionally, the dynamic within the friend group felt realistic and gave me a bit of university nostalgia. Even with the strained bond between Claudia and Marcherie, which actually changes over the course of the story as more information and previous biases come to light. 

Early on, there was a line that surprised me to see in a book featuring no Jewish or Jewish-coded characters, and from an author with no ties to Judaism. When introducing Claudia to her new peers, he says this:

“‘Everyone, please welcome Claudia, our new Rhetoric student. She’s taking the place of Miss Dufort who tragically passed away before returning for her second term. May her memory be a blessing.’”

This might not seem strange to many of you, but ‘may his/her memory be a blessing’ is a specifically Jewish response to the passing of a person. I’m willing to bet that this doesn’t stand out to the majority of readers, but it felt like an inappropriate usage of a Jewish phrase by someone who isn’t Jewish. To be honest, to me it read like the author had seen it commented on a social media post and figured it might be nice to include, but instead it felt like appropriation, along with a scene where characters are toasting and someone says ‘To life!’ Which is another specifically Jewish toast, more commonly heard in Hebrew, as ‘L’Chaim.’ I’m not sure why the author needed to use these, since neither phrase really had a major impact on the story, but it just deepened the ick for me.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable read. I liked learning about the magic system and the university, right along with Claudia. The pacing was steady for the first parts of the book, but the last part felt like the author was trying to resolve too much too quickly. With a suspicious bargain, an ancient curse, and a murder to solve all in the last part of the book, things felt rushed in how they wrapped up. I would have liked to see things resolved a little more thoroughly. The dynamics between the characters are wonderfully rendered and so many of them stole my heart, but I especially adored Bishop and Alastair. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept this interesting, but it did feel like the author went more for vibe over content towards the end of the book. Even so, her prose is beautiful and lyrical and this was a wonderfully immersive read. 

Bottom line: This is a wonderful read with a couple of snags, but if you like dark academia, magical bargains, and enemies-to-lovers with plenty of spice, this should be right up your alley.

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