The Sevenfold Hunters by Rose Egal

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm not usually a sci-fi girl but I spent the past weekend in fictional London at Carlisle Academy where things aren't exactly what they seem. This series starter lured me in with hints of mystery surrounding an elite school and promises of alien hunting. I received an arc from Page Street of this unique debut.

The Sevenfold Hunters is a dual pov YA sci-fi that follows Artemis and Abyan, two girls from similar parts of London who've been living very different lives. 

Artemis has been living a fairly normal life up until a few months ago when her boyfriend was killed after they were attacked by the Nosaru on an outing. Since then she's been trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Carlisle Academy which appears to be an elite private school with a stricter admissions process than Oxford and Cambridge.

Abyan and the rest of her crew are still grieving the loss of beloved teammate Jared who was killed by the Nosaru, vampire like aliens. As if Abyan needed one more reason to be out to destroy them. Losing a teammate was bad enough but now school administration is pushing her team to move on and has brought in newbie Artemis as a replacement. 

While there are some hints of  romance it was refreshing that romance didn't overshadow the rest of the story. Friendship shines in this book with the Sevenfold being a tight knit team finding themselves torn apart after Jared's death. Readers often get told characters are friends in books with large casts but we don't always see those relationships played out well on page. The Sevenfold banter with each other on a day to day basis and we see the ways in which the team is disconnected because of their grief. Newcomer Artemis finds it hard to fit in with the crew because they don't like that she's replacing Jared and they're even more suspicious when they find out she's his ex girlfriend. It doesn't help that she's terrible at fighting and she's discovering new things about herself.

As much as I love a loud badass sometimes it's nice to see a protagonist with quiet strength which we see here with Abyan. She's an elite fighter but doesn't constantly have to shout it from the rooftops, which makes her an ideal leader for the crew. Though she has her moments where her own agendas get in the way of missions there's a realistic fallout from that.

I will say the fights felt a bit breezed through when they faced off with the Nosaru and I wanted to linger a little bit more to really feel the impact. But the revelations at the end of this book have me ready to see how the Sevenfold are impacted in book 2 and this was a solid start the series.