DRAINED: The Elden Blood Series

by Jack J Lacey

Only the strong survive Aetheria War Academy.

Aetheria has been rebuilt after The Resistance 40 years ago. It is a place where gifted students with Psionic abilities can develop their powers in secret, or else they will face death if the Three Kingdoms learn of their existence.

Everyone has a secret.

Ruel Valore has been enlisted into Aetheria after his near-death experience awoke his Psionic abilities. As luck would have it, a dark force is lurking within the shadows, causing students and professors to seemingly disappear without a trace.

Fight or die trying. It will be the only way to survive.

As a group of friends unite to fight against the malevolent forces plaguing Aetheria, they unearth only fragments of a larger conspiracy. Alliances form and break. Relationships rise and crumble. Together, join Ruel, Luca, and Alora to embark on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth, whilst a shadowed figure makes it their mission to stop them, and destroy the world they know.

436 pages, Paperback

Published May 31, 2024

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I want to make a few things clear. Let another man touch you, he dies. Tell me I can't touch you, and I will fucking die."

Oh. My. Gosh. I was OBSESSED with this story! I need the next book RIGHT NOW!!!

This is a spicy, mysterious, thrilling MM fantasy story, following Ruel discovering he has Psionic abilities and is whisked away to Aetheria War Academy.

I honestly have not felt such a roller-coaster of emotions in a book in sooo long...so I was completely unprepared for this 🫣
The slow burn between Ruel and Luca was just chefs kiss 🤌
And the twists had my jaw on the floor!


This has every trope you could honestly ask for...
✔️ Slow burn
✔️ Found family
✔️ Forced proximity
✔️ Withheld secrets
✔️ Second Chance
✔️ Telekinesis
✔️ Dark entities
✔️ Surpise twists


If you were a fan of Hunger Games, Fourth Wing, Broken Bonds, Divergent etc, then you will LOVE this book 😍

Honestly what a debut! Congratulations Jack on such an epic novel and I cannot wait to see what happens next!






*also...bonus points for Lieutenant Tentacles...🦑*

[Grace Kinirons · Rating 5 out of 5]

“as the forest greens met earths browns”

This was an absolutely delicious debut novel and I ate it up in pretty much 1 day (I started it a few days ago but got distracted, then read 95% of it today)

I felt like I was reading the final Harry Potter again at times! Absolutely thrilling, full of twists and turns, found family, amazing magic systems, betrayals and a couple I am absolutely feral for

This had me laughing, gasping, crying and I couldn’t even THINK of anything else I had to do today, all I wanted to do was read this

I bloody love a good fantasy book with a training academy and a rebellion; and this was everything I could have possibly wanted

Huge congratulations to Jack, I hope book 2 is almost ready! ;) also seriously need some character art here

Definitely recommend this book, we’re all in for an unreal journey

I keep going back to edit this review after thinking about it more and if this hasn’t sold you so far there are fucking LIGHTENING WIELDERS honestly mind blown

[K. Andersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening line of this book instantly drew me in, and I had a feeling I was going to love the story—and I did. There are a few minor editing oversights that occasionally pulled me out of the narrative, which is the only reason this isn’t a full five stars for me. But once the romance really takes off, I was completely swept up again. I’ll be counting the days until the sequel!