Review: Vassals and Villains (Wraithwood Academy #3) by Teresa Hann

                                                             

Print Length: 205 pages

Publisher: Teresa Hann (February 8, 2021)

From Goodreads.com: I’m alive. I’m out of the Hells. I've become one of the most powerful people in mage society overnight. Also, it’s summer break.

But there’s no rest for the wicked.

I witnessed dark magic and darker crimes in the Hells. Now, I stand with allies I struggle to forgive, against a mortal enemy who once held my heart in his hands.

Powerful men want to make me a pawn in their unhinged games, to be used or sacrificed at their whim. They can try. My boyfriends and I will carve our own path through mage society, whatever it takes.

I have innocent people to protect. Vengeance to take.

And bloodstained secrets to unearth...

Welcome back to Wraithwood Academy.

  

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My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

In my opinion, this series just keeps getting better. I loved the character development that we saw from Cass in this one, the way that she balances her new duties against the life she wanted to have. Her inner monologue combined with her actions (especially the way she tried to show Aegis that there is more to life that just working for the Redbriar family and even giving Cly a way out of danger), shows very clearly why she is the perfect choice to be the leader of Redbriar house. She manages to blend duty to her house along with a sense of helping others (the ones from the no name houses for example). I also loved how she reluctantly worked with her father, while still hating everything that he stood for. 

I also really liked the fact that this installment didn't take place just at the school. I felt the events that led them to House Mandrake was just what this story needed to keep the pace and that feeling of war is coming and you need to choose sides now. But the way things played out? Holy heck. Now that was a roller-coaster that came with twists I did not see coming (both with Sica Nightfield and the horrible secrets that both Arcturus and Cass' father have been hiding). 

Of course it all leads to an incredible showdown, and then to Cass doing something that she knows is going to alienate herself from her father, and potentially all of the other Great Houses, and yet she does it anyway. I'm not sure that I would have done the same if I had been in her place. Speaking of that,  I will say there was one part of the novel that could be potentially triggering that involves Arcturus and Darshan, and its something that I personally cannot understand how it was so easily glossed over. Even if the original intent wasn't what actually happened, the fact remains of what his intentions were, and I know that is not something that I could easily forgive. 

We are now at the halfway point of the series, and considering the cliff-hanger this one ended on, I can't wait to see what comes next.