The Balance of Fates

Fate and Legacy #1

by RAQUEL RAELYNN

FAMILY OR LOVE?

When her grandmother falls ill, Lucia Dol'Auclair has to leave her sheltered life and travel to Eirini Academy of Mystics to compete in the Triune.

In three events, she will compete against vampires and werewolves to take her grandmother's place as the guardian vessel of a destructive celestial of magic and prove her worth as heir to her royal coven.

But, her heart is pulled in two directions when she falls for her rival, Adelaide, a troublesome vampire who doesn't play by the rules.

Lucia is forced to choose between the traditions that hold her coven together and the passion that could tear apart her world.

Dangerous competition.

Deadly secrets.

A feud between mystics.

Lucia never believed in love. She never had a good example of it, nor did she think it was meant for her.

Until Adelaide.

Lucia must question everything she was taught, or she might lose the one she loves.

Will she mend the centuries-old rivalry or turn her back on love for family?

This book picks up speed and doesn't let go.

It's a new-adult sapphic fantasy novel with a swoon-worthy slow-burn romance. Full of banter and a heart-warming show of first love, "The Balance of Fates" has fun fantasy creatures, vast world-building, and a rivals-to-lovers dynamic that will leave you wanting more.

One-bed, helping with nightmares, forbidden love, and a vampire/witch romance...

Genres: Fantasy, Lesbian, Romance, Queer, Vampires, LGBT, Witches

406 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2024

Reviews

[Amivi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 review to come, give me book 2 now.

[lauraღ · Rating 2 out of 5]

“You’re so alive, Lucia. Let me be alive with you.”

Unfortunately, I don't think this was very good at all, and the list of things about it that I like is woefully short. But as always, I encourage you to check out the blurb and give this a go if you think it's something that you would be interested in. It's a sapphic enemies-to-lovers vampire/witch romance that takes place at a magical college of sorts. There a magical competition, a series of murders, and a tropey romance that I did think was really cute. (Spoiler: The romance is pretty much the only thing about this that I enjoyed, alas, and that's because I'm kinda no-thoughts-head-empty about certain tropes.) I really wanted to like this, and after I realised that I didn't like the writing, I still wanted to give it a chance, because you never know when things might improve. Sadly, it didn't improve. I honestly feel like my rating might be a teensy bit too generous...? But... nah, I've read worse things than this.

Some things about this that didn't work for me. Cut for length and very mild spoilers.

This clearly wasn't edited and it shows. Lots of typos and weird wording choices and weird formatting choices. You ever start reading a book and wish that you were beta reading it instead? Ever get that red pen urge? Yeah, that was me with this book. There were so may basic things that were begging to be tweaked. I don't think that the plot was amazing, but with some work it could have been a little bit better than this. Just purely on a mechanical level, the writing was rough. I'm always very gentle with indie books when it comes to editing, because if you're doing all of that on your own, it's a lot. But this was hard to read.

The world building and language/translation choices. I always think it's so creative when authors create a new language or lexicon for their fantasy world, and I can appreciate that after you've created something like this, you will want to show it off. But here, it was a little nonsensical. I always find it really obnoxious when an author writes something in a foreign language and then gives the reader the translation immediately after. And this was done ad nauseam in this book. If you're going to pepper in bits of your made-up language in the prose and dialogue, then it should be, 8 times out of 10, something that is easily understood from the context. You shouldn't always have to provide a translation for the reader. It gets so awkward and clunky to read. A basic example: "Dais Holum," she whispers in awe—Holy days. My sister if you tell me she said it in awe, I can suss out what it means. No need for the translation! Or even better: just have her say 'holy days'! Seriously, there were way too many instances of a phrases in the witch language or whatever, followed by the direct translation. Just let the reader know that another language is being spoken, but write it in English, unless the situation really calls for you to use your fantasy language!

(And I don't actually know if it was made up; perhaps the languages in the book were based on real world languages.)

This is more of a personal nit-pick than anything else, but I never tend to like it when fantasy worlds do a kind of melange with modern technology and norms. The author, as in other books that I've read and not really liked, has created this fantasy world with different factions of witches and vampires and werewolves, but there's also communities of humans who seem to be analogous to our modern society. So they have typical US American clothes food technology, et cetera. And I know I'm being picky, but I don't like reading that in fantasy, especially something that I expected was going to be high fantasy. Something that does, in fact, read like high fantasy, until the moments where you're confronted with pizza or a cell phone or someone wearing jeans. It's the laziest type of world-building. I'm sorry! I don't like it.

(But I know that there are some readers who do love when fantasy is a little more casual and has real-world connections, so hopefully I just convinced someone to try this book.)

This is written with a kind of omniscient POV. My enemy. The first person present tense was also kind of a weird choice, but I don't mind it as much as other readers seem to.

The general writing and plot progression and some character motivations and some character choices... a lot of it did not gel. Lucia learns about something extremely important and foundation-shaking about her mother in the early part of the book, and then she just resolves not to think about it…? And it doesn't really come up again until almost the very end of the book…? The school aspect of the book felt very amateur, because all the classes that we saw...how to put it? It didn't feel like we were observing people who are part of this world attending a school. All the information in the classes was obviously masks for world-building and info-dumping, clearly geared towards giving the reader certain bits of information about the world and history. A lot of fantasy in school settings do this; it's not an inherent flaw! But it needs to be written believably. A lot of the school content in this book was about basic magic, or things that would probably be basic history, and just general things that you would expect that characters who live in this world would already know. It was very clumsy.

…Sorry, I know I've already repeated myself a lot, but I have to get back to this language and translation thing. The author has different words for different types of witches and different levels of magic and all of it is completely unnecessary. In one of the classes, the students learned (or rather we, the reader, learn) about different types of magic. "There are six classes of magisk: Ariraan—divination, Ifyai—enchantment, Irujui—illusion, Oporaa—permutation, L'Paeru—conjuring, and Itoju—abjuration." Look me dead in the eye and tell me that any of that actually necessary. Can we not just say abjuration magic, or conjuration magic, et cetera? Do we need a different language word for it? Again, I have to stress that I am not opposed to stuff like this, and it is so, so commendable when authors do their fantasy language thing. But if it's not seamlessly integrated into the text in ways that are easy for the reader to remember, or understand from context, it's basically useless. That was just a fucking list! The same with the difficulty grade or whatever. "But there are six magisk grades, counting Asa-o—zero grade. There is Asa-o, Neno grade, Odua grade, Tri grade, Attan grade, and Quen grade." Are these words connected to anything else that we've learned about? No! I don't want to have to flip back to pages that I bookmarked every time a different type or grade of magic is mentioned, but that's what I had to do. At least, at first. After a while, I didn't care enough to really check.

(And I have to mention. Magisk? Silliest thing in the world. Just say magic. Or magick, if you must. I hope I'm not coming off as a hater who doesn't want authors to use creative words, because that's far from the truth. I just found a lot of word usage in this to be silly.)

I hate love triangles, no matter the situation. So the fact that this book had the audacity to introduce a love quadrant really deflated me. There's some line where Lucia gets a prophecy that she will have three loves and I literally rolled my eyes so hard. It's silly because we, the reader, obviously know that her love interest is the sexy vampire lady on the cover, and we don't care about her nice childhood werewolf friend, or the mean bigoted witch boy who is an asshole to her. Literally the only person she evinces any major attraction to (in present-day) is Adelaide. The introduction of the love triangle/quadrant really felt lazy, just like ticking a box. Just a way to introduce some cheap jealousy. “Oh, I'm writing a fantasy? Guess I've got to include more than one love interest!”

I could go on (seriously, I have dozens of highlights and notes in my ebook copy), but I won't. I really did go into this with the best of intentions. Even while registering that it wasn't good, I was mostly having a fun time until the 75 percent mark, when things started to really drag. I didn't love the plot and the world left a lot to be desired.

But I did like the main characters. So there was that! Lucia isn't the world's greatest protagonist, and she did navigate the world like a kicked puppy, which wasn't always very interesting to read, but she's the kind of character that you sort of have to root for. And honestly, I don't mind having a black girl being a damsel in distress. She's a sweetheart and deserves to get saved. And she wasn't always helpless; this is a story of her coming into her power and finding herself. It was nice to read, even if it wasn't written in the most skillful way. Adelaide was every single smirky, cocky vampire trope rolled into a blonde package, but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed her, so, no complaints. Maybe I was kicking my little feet. And I mean, I don't want to talk up the character writing too much, because it wasn't, like, amazing? But I had to find something to hold onto, and I think that their romance was cute, and the way they fell for each other was sweet. And this was pretty hot.

Ah, my kingdom to have this properly edited. It's a meh book, but there's a mediocre or possibly even good book somewhere inside of it. Seriously, I wouldn't write this many words if I didn't care, or if I didn't think it had promise. Or maybe it's already absolutely amazing, and I'm just picky! That is 1000 percent possible. Ah well! I don't have any plans to continue in the series, unless it gets a major overhaul. Maybe I'll check out the author again, if she writes anything new.

Content warnings: some violence and gore, fantasy bigotry

“Why would I be given this depth of feeling if not to love, even after life?”

[Lady Olenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

The Balance of Fates by Raquel Raelyn weaves together rich world-building, dynamic characters.

The book is not without fault. However, I was too taken by the plot, the characters and the twists that I didn’t care for any shortcomings. I was wilfully blind to any of it.

Most of the characters have promising upcoming arcs. Every ally, rival, and figure along the way feels integral to the story, with their own depth and purpose. The plot is layered with twists that adds to the intrigue and thrill of the story.

[Crim · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF very early.

This is possibly the worst writing I've ever attempted to read. I've been reading fanfics for years but nothing but the worst of those hold a candle to this.

First, there is a mix of long, often awkwardly constructed, sentences and banal information. It's all tell, no show. There is also a lot of redundancy that made me wonder if this was meant for middle school, and I should just silently move on. (It's also incredibly juvenile. I can't imagine reading this even when I was a teenager.) Secondly, this book badly needed editing because there's some outright misses.

I can take clumsy writing, to an extent, but there's no sense of pacing or structure. Nothing flows into something else. One page will be filled with checklist-style trivial descriptions, then there's a bit about Lucia's state of mind, then a short description of what's happening around her, then a random lore dump just inserted there like the extra info box in a text book. This happens CONSTANTLY as if the author wrote 2 different things and then spliced paragraphs together as if concerned that sticking with one would be too monotonous.

The end result is that, despite the outpour of information, the book is too fragmented to properly describe what's happening or worldbuild, and too concerned with various minor details around Lucia to make sense as her PoV, especially in her emotional state.

[Dr. Andy]

Currently up for preorder from Satisfiction book box is a gorgeous edition of this one with a new cover, foil on the naked hardcover and sprayed edges!! I got mine.

https://www.satisfiction.co/subscribe...

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

this author has no idea what she wanted to write. everything about this book is unsatisfying. the romance makes no sense- there is no reason why adelaide would want lucia. lucia herself is the most insufferable main character ive read in a long time- she is so insecure it’s painful- and she doesn’t learn anything about self confidence in all 400 pages. 400 pages and i still don’t understand a thing about the world the author has “built.��� I pushed my way through this because i desperately wanted to like it, but i just don’t. not even the ending is satisfying- it’s a cliffhanger for another 400 page sequel. just poor writing and poor world building. i will say that the ideas behind a lot of the politics were interesting, but they were dealt with so poorly it’s barely worth it.

[Staci (stacisbookishprobs) · Rating 5 out of 5]

excuse me but WHAT.

I’d give this a million stars if I could. Has taken the place of number 1 read of the year

[Mia Guzzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Balance of Fates written by Raquel Raelynn is a magically unique debut with political tensions, the discovery of self-worth, women-focused, fantasy elements we all know and love, a main character of color, and a wonderful main Sapphic relationship! A great read for those who love romance or fantasy, but make it spicy and Sapphic with rising political tensions and a misfit main character.

Raelynn's debut focuses on Lucia Dol'Auclair, the heir of her family who is trying her best to meet the crushing expectations put on her by her family. Lucia is such a great main character to follow, there are times when her incompetence starts to get annoying. That being said, though, one of my favorite parts is also getting to see her growth! Seeing her confront her biases and the stereotypes put on werewolves and vampires while growing into her power was wonderful to read. There is such great development that takes place with the characters.

Adelaide was a great addition to this story; many of the reviews have said that she seemed to solely exist to be a love interest. First of all, I do not disagree but I do not mind, it gives me the energy of a guilty-pleasure romance book put into a well-developed fantasy world. Second, Adelaide is dependent on Lucia's character but she helps Lucia develop which is very necessary. They are a great, great, great couple! It's so amazing to see their story play out!

For all the Sapphics waiting for a fantasy read that is for and about them, this will be your new favorite book! Make sure to check it out, happy release date!

Thank you to Raelynn for the ARC!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up | This book pleasantly surprised me with how much I ended up liking it tbh. Lucia didn't have the typical personality traits I like in my fantasy heroines. She was awkward and unsure of herself, but I honestly didn't mind it as I got to know her character while reading the book. If you squint, this book kind of reminded me of the Evernight series; Lucia reminds me of the main character but I least like her this time lol. I loved the romance between Lucia and Adelaide too! I'm defo interested in reading book two!

[Jo'uan Smothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as an arc for my honest opinion. And I think translations would be nice, there are important spells in another language and it would be nice to know what they are saying.
The importance of the class work was rushed given how much focus was given to it in the beginning and middle of the story. It ends on a cliff hanger that makes you want more! 

[Sasa]

i'm so sorry. i couldn't get through this. it's riddled with errors and clunky syntax. usually i can get through errors, but they made this book unreadable. there's also a lot of telling and no showing, making it hard to connect with the characters. i'm really happy people enjoy this and i hope the author will get a lot of beta readers for their future writing projects. i'll look out for more books from raquel raelynn because i genuinely want to love her writing and i'll hold my breath for a fully edited version of balance of fates.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished in a day and I need more! Raquel came up on my tiktok fyp and I impulsively bought the book on Amazon immediately. One of the best book purchases I’ve ever made🥰🥰 The spice, the tension, the fantasy 🫶🏾. The Black representation was everything! Definitely gonna read more from the author.

[Jennie Hedges · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m excited to read the next book in this series!
It felt a bit closer to a young adult/ new adult vibe throughout this story but it was really good and ended on a dramatic cliffhanger.

[Bbwolfy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rollercoaster Of Emotions

This book got me on my toes. I can’t even put into words how detailed this story is. The world building is amazing. The tension between each characters and how it’s slow burn adds to that. I can’t wait to read more from the author. This story kept me up because all I wanted to do is to read more and see what the next page brings. And don’t get me started on the cliffhanger. Chefs kiss for how good it is. But god damn I want to read more 🤣😭🥰

I can’t wait to read the whole series as each book comes out and will be adding this series to the series of books I want to own as hard copies. I am so happy I found this story and found the author at the time that I did. Because this was exactly what I was looking for. A main character who is a black woman and who can relate the the struggles and beauty of family. And the characters being poc and just beautifully written. And just how complex they are. And the more I read on, I wanted to learn more about each character. Even the minor one

Each character had a part to play that was throughly written out. And I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a sapphic fantasy romance, that is slow burn but worth it.

[Toby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf at 30%

I am so sad to dnf this bc it was one of my most anticipated books for 2025. Vampire x Witch!!! Rivals to lovers. Class X class. My cup of tea. And honestly, I would have slogged through the immaturity of Lucia and the irritating sudden love triangle if it weren't for the book being in present tense.

Don't get me wrong, present tense can be such a useful tool in thrillers, or action based books. Or just something fast paced that wants you completely in the moment - this book isn't that. It is a book full of character introspection - which I love introspection, I read copious amounts of fanfiction for gods' sake - and constant lore dumping. The present tense often left me pulled out of it and confused. I didn't feel immersed.

I also felt that Lucia was very annoying. I felt like I was in the brain of someone who was 16 tops, but she is 21. I understand that she was sheltered and probably quite emotionally stunted bc of her trauma but good lord was she annoying. This book did not feel like an adult or even new adult novel, the characters felt painfully ya and it's just not the energy I want to bring into my brain. So byesies.

[Persizae · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 c’était bien sympa cette ptite romance interdite wlw entre vampire et sorcière, sur fond d’université, de compétition et de conflits entre êtres mystiques ! On dépeint bien les dynamiques des familles toxiques/traditionalistes aussi. J’ai passé un bon moment même si j’ai trouvé la fin abrupte et que certains détails méritaient approfondissement.

[Lilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is great for just absolutely turning your brain off for 400+ pages.
the 4 stars 🌟 are purely for my personal enjoyment of the book rather than the actual quality of writing. I have decided that 2025 is the year I will be admitting to enjoying a trashy lesbian romance novel every now and again.

[anne-so · Rating 2 out of 5]

j’étais beaucoup déçu après avoir lu ce livre parce que j’ai l’impression qu’on m’a vendu beaucoup de bien sûr ce livre. Déjà l’écriture est pas à mon goût on peut excuser parce que c’est le premier roman publié de l’autrice, mais c’est vraiment mal écrit, ça se lit très mal. il y a beaucoup de moments inutiles. Un mélange de description longue et de détails. Y’a vraiment trop des choses qui m’´ont dérangé. j’ai impression que Lucia n’a pas eu de développement personnel. Elle n’a pas vraiment cherché à développer ses pouvoirs, alors qu’ils sont très rares et unique et qui pourrait être son meilleur atout dans la compétition. beaucoup d’informations qui était négligé dans l’histoire, surtout l’affaire de meurtre qui a été résolu dans les dernières pages. Pendant tout le reste du roman, l’affaire a été bâclé ou simplement oublié par les personnages principaux alors que de meurtre sur un campus ça ne s’oublie pas. Ça veut avouer des secrets mais au final ça ne parle pas pour X ou Y raison et finalement j’ai juste décroché parce que autant une fois ça laisse ce sentiment de suspense mais 3 4 ou cinq fois, au final je me dis garde ton secret pour trois frr on ne veut plus. Pour conclure je suis vraiment déçu et c’est rare que je ne lise pas les suites de livres, parce que généralement je toujours excité à l’idée de continuer mais pour une première fois je vais pas lire la suite

[↷ . . . glo ♡! · Rating 5 out of 5]

….

at times i wondered if i would find a sapphic vampire/witch book and this books will ALWAYS take the cake.

things that might grab ur attention. rivals to lovers, forbidden love, there is spice even though most of the time im not a fan with spice in the book it was so good. this book also deals with heavy topics of trauma and abuse and i really enjoy it.

the author is a black girl herself, and it’s just makes the book 100000% better.

im not gonna go into describing the book cuz it already does that but it’s a wonderful boo and i will recommend it to everyone.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!!

[Sequoia Drolet · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself is a nice concept but the entire book feels rushed and disorganized. The author frequently jumps between past and present with unclear, sloppy, or misplaced flashbacks. She also contradicts herself a lot but describing an event/memory of the main characters past and then describing the exact opposite a few pages later. The book is extremely repetitive jumping back and forth between the main character being “weak” and “powerless” and then suddenly believes in herself and then she feels weak again. This pattern literally lasted the ENTIRE book and wasn’t a steady, gradual development of confidence or ability (of Lucia) but rather a chopping, back and forth development of the main characters ability that honestly made me dislike her. It was honestly irritating how many times the same language and phrasing was used to describe Lucia’s lack of confidence or feelings of anxiety. The idea of having a main character that needs to overcome her inner anxiety and the expectations of her family to become an independent leader is great, but the repetitions and lack of creativity makes the whole thing feel childish. The author also introduced way too many names of characters, religious holidays, geographical locations, clan tribes, witch covens, and laws/rules within the first few chapters with very little descriptions or explanations. It made it very hard to understand the fantasy world the author created. I understand this is a self published book but there are way too many grammatical mistakes that are distracting. A lot of quotation marks are missing and there were many times
throughout the book where the dialogue was mislabeled (as in one character would speak and than that same character would respond back to themselves???). Many of the scenes that reveal important information that adds to or explains major plot lines of the book are extremely rushed with little description or explanations. There were so many instances that the author could have written an amazing scene or added even a little more description to highlight important moments or details but instead provided brief writing that felt rushed and unenthusiastic. The transitions between one setting to another, or from (Lucia using her ability as a Sage) a memory to reality are so incredibly weak. The author will switch from one scene in a particular building to two days later in an entirely new city/location without any transitional language, launching right into the action. This happens so frequently that I often had to reread paragraphs or pages to understand what was happening or where the characters were. The main character is also 20 (ish) but her thoughts and actions read as if she is 14. The whole book feels catered to the wrong audience.

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
2 🔥 (a few explicit scenes, but pretty minimal and easily skipped if preferred)

This book had been on my TBR for a while but I hadn't gotten around to it, mostly because I was still disappointed from my last attempt at reading a sapphic vampire fantasy, but I'm so glad I finally picked it up!

I'm going to be honest, I almost DNF'd this book. It reads really YA, which isn't a negative for me but I was thrown off by how naive and young Lucia came across. I kept having to remind myself that she was an adult. Also, at the beginning, the plot and world-building felt all over the place. It felt like we were thrown into the world with very little context about important topics and the only world-building was too focused on small, unimportant details. One thing in particular that was confusing, as some other reviewers have pointed out, was the different languages utilized and only sometimes were translations provided. And not exactly the plot, but the term "magisk" instead of magic really annoyed me at the beginning until I got used to it.

But around the halfway point, I got really pulled into the story and binged the rest of it in one sitting. I really enjoyed watching Lucia's character development and her thoughts and actions as the book progressed. And the plot itself started to become more complex and I love how all the little details eventually tied together in the end. Some of it was predictable, but some of it really took me by surprise. I wish we could've had more character development (outside of Lucia) because most of the characters did come across as very flat (even Adelaide which is disappointing), but I think the fact that we were limited to Lucia's perspective prevented that. And to be fair I think it did make sense because it also showed (minor spoiler but nothing that really affects the plot) how Lucia was naive and a bit self-centered and didn't seem to pay attention or really care about other characters' problems and motivations because she was so occupied with her own problems . I'm hoping we'll get more background and attention on other characters in future books.

Overall, by the end, I definitely fell in love with this book and can't wait for the next one to come out! Especially because of that cliffhanger 😅 I felt like the middle to end of this book were the best parts and I feel like there's so much potential and set-up for the future book(s) that I'm excited to see play out!

[Ra! ʕ •̀ ω •́ ʔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

We should be more different than two people can be, and yet I feel so complete when I’m with you. Like I belong.

The Good
Let's get this sapphic fantasy show on the road! I really felt for Lucia. (I do have complaints though.) She is anxious, abused, bullied and treated horribly by everyone but her sister who even at times does not actually see/understand her either. The romance between Adelaide and Lucia was well done. I love how intense Adelaide is and how strongly she felt for Lucia. She wanted to love her and understand her in a way no one else did. Their relationship was my favorite part of the book and were when Lucia was the most likable. I found the world-building to be interesting especially the dynamics and history between the clans. The bits of language sprinkled throughout were cool.

The Bad
While I was interested in the main parts of the world-building, I felt there was a lot of seemingly unnecessary details added especially at the beginning that overwhelmed me. The reader is bombarded with locations, lore, and small tidbits that it can't all be stored. When given too many details at once I stopped storing somethings for later because I couldn't identify what's important and what's just fluff. Lucia as a lead character frustrated me. While I understood she was abused, manipulated, and isolated – her lack of a mind of her own frustrated me. I never felt like she truly had thoughts of her own, they were constantly influenced by outside forces. And her own thoughts and decisions were often stupid or naive. She never does anything herself, only when someone tells her to or tells her not to. I craved real character development and felt frustrated as it only came at the very end. I also don't understand Cassius. He tried to kill Lucia during the trials and then both Lucia and Adelaide are fine with him at the party. He then tried to kill Lucia again, Adelaide says they'll deal with him but nothing apparently happens and Lucia is will to hang around him again. This is not how any normal person would react and makes no sense. I think I just didn't like Lucia or rather having to be in her head.

Format:
Ebook — Kindle Unlimited

The Rating
I give this book a 3/5

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book so I could give an honest review. Overall, I truly loved this book. I thought that the concept was so cool and something I hadn't seen with sapphic MCs, especially two sapphics of colour. It was so refreshing to see an interracial relationship that didn't have a white person in it. There will be very minor spoilers in the rest of this review, so proceed with caution.

Lucia is such a compelling character. While there were moments when I found myself getting frustrated with her lack of ability or knowledge, I also felt so much love and sympathy for her. Hearing about her childhood and seeing the way she continues to be treated by the people who are supposed to love her was heartbreaking, but made the relationship between her and Adelaide, Lucia's vampire love interest, all the more compelling. Seeing her find someone who teaches her how to love herself and cares about her so much was beautiful.

Watching Lucia confront the stereotypes and biases she had about the wolves and vampires felt so satisfying. It was amazing to watch her start questioning what she had been taught all her life and grow into her own person. I truly hope to see more growth from her in book 2 because she comes a long way, but she still has very far to go and I want to go on that journey with her.

There were moments when Adelaide felt like her only place was to be a love interest. This was not too bad or unbearable, but did leave me wanting more of Adelaide's character outside of her relationship to Lucia which I hope to see in the next book. Adelaide reminds me a little bit of Edward Cullen if he wasn't creepy and poorly written (I said what I said). She's protective, flirtatious, sarcastic, and above all down bad for her girl in the best (and a fairly healthy) way which I love to see.

This book was so easy to read and get invested in. I never felt bored or uninterested in the plot. I only had a small issue with the ending. I felt like the reveal should have had a few more hints and a bit more build up. I felt myself wondering how the story would wrap up because things didn't start to wrap up until the last few pages. It didn't feel like it came out of the blue, but I just wish there was a little more time dedicated to fleshing it out.

Overall, this book is so amazing, support black writers and go preorder/order it!!

[Maddy Diba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. God.

I LOVED this book. So much. Adelaide? Try daddy-laide.

I love this book, there were a few grammar/spelling mistakes, but most of it seemed like that was because I was reading an ARC. And there were a few instances that felt a little purple-prose-y, but it was still beautiful writing, lovely characters, and interesting dynamics.
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I really, really like the character development, especially with Lucia, she plays a role a lot of first-born daughters know, of this weighted responsibility where more and more is demanded. She is imperfect and flawed, and the author does this well and seeing her grow to not need her mother's attention. Adelaide and Lucia's slow burn rivals-to-lovers romance was intense and real. RR also deserves praise for the fact that she doesn't use LGBTQ+ identity as the main issue or drama. So many works center this tragic gay kind of storyline of coming out and homophobia. That isn't remotely the part that's contentious-it's the witch/vampire and rival clans that drives the Ramona/Juliet dynamic, which is really refreshing.
The central mystery, with the murders, was also an interesting turn. The reveal to me, did not feel really out of the blue for me. And I think it did very well as a way to talk about class and politics within the clans/Mystic classifications. Witches are on top, werewolves below them, and vampires. But each one had a really rigid class hierarchy within them.
I also think the prose itself, although sometimes a bit too purple-prose like, is really wonderfully digestible. Fantasy as a genre, no matter how much I love it, is dense and often really hard to get through. The chapters and pacing worked really well with my ADHD brain, and i think it's easier to track what's going on.
RR is adorable on TikTok-should definitely follow her, and am CERTAINLY will be buying a finished copy.

[Katie Petrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as a ARC reader and am giving my honest review of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this and had to stop myself in order to fully digest the information without just speed reading through the whole book. The world building was explained in information chunks throughout the whole story because we are learning right along with the main character Lucia but it felt organic to me learning the layout of the world without it just sounding like a history book. I immediately fell into the setting of the world and where Lucia is placed within that world, and learning more about the world because the exposure of the other characters whether they also be witches, or the vampires and werewolves.

There were so many emotional moments throughout the story, whether those are joyful or at times heartbreaking. I enjoy a main character that grows and changes within their story and Lucia doesn't stand still.

The love interest Adelaide was also very intriguing to have around as we learned more about her and got her story flushed out a little, I cannot wait to learn more about her outside of being the love interest.

My one complaint for this would be there are bits and pieces of a language used that I would like to have translations for or a clearer understanding of the language, especially as Lucia uses the words and phrases and would therefore know what they mean but the reader is unclear at points on what the words are.

I am very excited to see where the story goes next, I was so amped up to finish that I could barely contain myself.

[Cynthia Medeiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading A Balance of Fates and overall I enjoyed it very much. Witches, vampires and werewolves what's not to like there. The story held my interest and I am excited about the possibilities for future Fate and Legacy books. Between the political aspects and the personal possibilities really the potential for expanding on this story and the wonderful world building of the author is phenomenal. But getting back to this book I loved it, although there were times when I wanted the main character to hurry and grow into her abilities and get more confidence. But it takes time to mature. And for a person groomed to hold power, maturity and confidence is important. But it is more important to understand the personal is the political. Power is complicated. Is it more important to do what the majority wants or to do what is right? And who decides what is right? Most important can you legislate people's hearts and minds to change? It takes a lot of confidence and compassion to make decisions like that. To that end, I loved how Lucia was always able to put herself in another's place and understand what they were feeling and why. The ability to instinctively understand and feel for others is rather rare. If you must hold power over others it is so important to have this kind of deep compassion and kindness. You can't over estimate it's importance. I think the story is fascinating and there is so much depth and potential that I can't help but be excited for the future of this series. .I didn't love the cliffhanger ending, but I did love the story so I hope the next book is coming soon.

[Winefride Kinders · Rating 2 out of 5]

i tried really hard to like this book, it’s a sapphic vampire witch romance and it seems like a very interesting concept! but the author just seems to have too many ideas. there’s way too much word building lore drops. i think it’s interesting when people make their own languages in books but they are used either too much or didn’t follow the same grammar rules through. there was way too much explaining about the magic system in a class where you would think the students already know about the magic classes and grades (this also got convoluted to follow along), the main love interest adelaide also seemed to follow into the “dragon lady” stereotype, she is written as an asian america but she is cocky and NEVER STOPS SMIRKING AND BEING SMUG, but is always incredibly strong and graceful and wears revealing clothing so she can seduce people and is also a tsundere. there was also a love square that didn’t make you ever question who the main character was going to end up with. there was also a lot of cringe wattpad moments, like the amount of poems (don’t get me started on how much i hated those stupid poems) that you can just tell that the author sat back and was thinking they wrote the next masterpiece. THERE WAS A MOMENT WHERE AFTER DISSECTING THE AUTHOR’S OWN POEM THAT THE PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS CLAPPED FOR THE DISSECTION. BFFR YOU WROTE THAT STUPID POEM YOU DONT GET TO SIT DOWN AND EXPLAIN THE POEM THATS NOT EVEN A POEM TO US AND THINK THAT ITS NOT CONDESCENDING. the ONLY reason i am giving this two stars is because i think it has so much potential and can be turned into a great book, but there’s just too much going on

[Chelshelves]

The Balance of Fates by Raquel Realynn Review 🩸✨

In this fantasy novel, Lucia Dol’Auclair is thrust into a world of danger and intrigue when her grandmother falls ill, forcing her to leave her sheltered life and compete in the Triune at Eirini Academy of Mystics.

As she navigates the challenges, Lucia finds herself torn between her duty to her coven and her growing feelings for Adelaide, a rebellious vampire rival. With the future of her coven and the weight of ancient traditions on her shoulders, Lucia must decide whether to uphold the customs that define her world or follow her heart and risk everything for love.

I was really surprised by this book. When I started reading I thought it would be an easy enough cozy romantasy, but the plot of that book and the complexity of the character's emotions really surprised me ✨

There are certain aspects of a fantasy world that I took for granted, for example, the fact that each species knows about each other's specificity which the author completely erased. Raquel Realynn manages to take a concept, a fantasy world with tensions between each species, and make it her own! 🫠🌸

The plot was also compelling thanks to subplots, new discoveries, and interesting characters. Even if relationships are built throughout the book, you can clearly see that each is fighting an internal conflict. 🧛‍♀️

I can't wait to read book two and discover the rest of Lucia’s story 👸🏾🪷!

If you like romantasy, with sapphic moments, heartwarming characters, and a good plot you should enjoy this one 🩷

[Lucky · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good read, finished in a day😩

Fantastic plot, really good plot twists, could use work in developing Lucia’s interpersonal skills. It’s a very good read, the world-building is immaculate, there’s three different languages involved and the author is very generous with translations. The main love interests are so cuteeeeee. I love love love it. I love Lucia’s religious trauma lol but I also love the subtle generational trauma theme. Adelaide is my favorite character, so sweet and thoughtful and a badass.
Def on my Recommended Lesbians reads list. Can’t wait for the next book.

Now the book does need some content-editing work just to prevent repetitiveness and to make the main character more likable. I would’ve liked more side characters interaction because for the first quarter of the book Lucia really wants friends, then she goes to school and makes no friends wtf.
It got tiring hearing Lucia whine about herself all the time. Those times of her complaining could’ve been used on imagery and setting and dialogue. By the middle of the story she hated herself so much, I hated her and started thinking she didn’t deserve Adelaide as a lover. Even though Lucia gains confidence towards the end the constant self-hatred/doubt was still there. Made for an unlikeable character. Also in one section the Authors abbreviation “As Es” is left in instead of the entire country’s name.

[aliyyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Okay!! I ate this up.

The Balance of Fates is about a witch and vampire who fall in love.

I LOVED the plot of this and I cannot believe that I haven’t seen any hype surrounding this book when it seems to have everything the mainstream book community is loving right now. Lucia and Adelaide are rivals in a competition and there’s a forbidden aspect because one is a witch and the other a vampire. It’s set in a school. There’s magic and all that good stuff that everybody loves.

I really enjoyed reading about Lucia and Adelaide. This is fantasy romance so of course their relationship is the focus and I loved it. Adelaide is the typical sexy vampire love interest and I ate her up too. Pun intended. I loved watching Lucia fight her feelings before succumbing to them. I loved Adelaide’s teasing. The vibes were immaculate to me. I also really liked Lucia as a character, and I felt so much for her as we learned about everything she’s been through and the way she’s been treated by her mother and grandmother. I also loved her sister Gabrielle and want more of her so badly.

The writing was so fun! It’s typical fun fantasy romance and I had such a good time with it! I loved the magical setting. It was so fast paced and easy to get through. I was hooked the entire time.

This was so fun and exactly what I needed.