Arcane

The Harmonia Chronicles #1

by Jarah Aurel

After an accident killed her parents, Malia's life is turned upside down. She's going to an academy she's never heard of with people who have powers she didn't know existed, preparing for a war she wants to play no part in.
Only that she will play a part in it, and one much more important than she could've anticipated.
Will she be able to keep up with the other students or will she fail? Can she possibly be what people expect from her? And more importantly, how will she possibly survive living in the same place as a certain curly-haired, deeply infuriating boy?
Only time will tell.


Arcane is the first book in the Harmonia Chronicles. It can not be read as a standalone. Tropes: Enemies to lovers, childhood rivals, badass fmc, slow burn, he falls first, one bed, healing the other's wounds & more.
It is a uniquely constructed novel that plays over the span of multiple years to show the development of two rivals' relationship as they grow up.
Dive in and leave reality behind in a world full of elemental powers, slow burn romance, and angsty fights.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Dark Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy Romance, Dystopia

379 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2023

About the author

Jarah Aurel is an indie author known for writing emotionally rich romance and romantasy that blend sharp storytelling with immersive worldbuilding. From heartfelt contemporary love stories to high-stakes magical academies, her novels explore themes of resilience, vulnerability, and connection with striking clarity.

Her work is available on platforms like Amazon, Kindle, ku. When she isn’t writing, she connects with readers through visual storytelling and behind-the-scenes insights on Instagram.

Reviews

[⟢ sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5, olala

first thing that threw me off was 11 years old mmc calling the fmc princess when she’s 10 (i didn’t even believe it).

then it’s the switch when they meet again and tension and attraction are everywhere but all of a sudden the only plot is them in the bedroom? not having sex immediately but it becomes so central at some point i was even wondering what the plot was about again😭

typos.. would’ve ignored them but when they come this many times it’s like it’s everywhere 😀

ends on a cliff hanger but i am officially dnfing this series

── .✦ pre-read

told myself id not do this anymore, but started a book out of boredom at work…

[Filippa Skog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arcane book review

So first of it was an amazing book I loved all the characters and thought the writing was very good. I loved how she described all the emotions that the characters had and most of them was because their traumatic past and abuse or just hurtful words. And sometimes I thought “she is so overreacting” but then I remember what she went through, then you
Understand why, so I loved how she described the strong emotions (sometimes I also felt them bc of the good description)

It’s a very long book but soo worth it if you like slow burn enemies to lovers and of course spice 🌶️, and because it was slow burn some of you that want to read this book want to know if it’s boring or not and I think it wasn’t boring at all (otherwise I think I wouldn’t have finished it) and the book contain powers and a bit fantasy but it’s mostly like the “real” world but they have powers as; water, fire, earth,wind.

And there is some abuse and other things that could be triggering so think about that before reading.

Overal it was a long ride I would say and many emotions. I gave the book a 5⭐️

[laya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book five stars, but I couldn’t. The first half was AMAZING and everything I look for in a book. The characters, the tension, mwah. BUT THEN it just became very meh. When they got together everything became so mild and I started hating on their relationship. Also the TYPOS AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS killed me. It felt like the characters were amazing and well written when they were young, but then it just went downhill as they got older. The cliffhanger was also disappointing. 3.75 ⭐️

[Addy G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could easily be a 3 or 4 if there weren’t so many spelling and grammar errors- it kind of messes with the flow of the book

[Zali · Rating 1 out of 5]

basically a harry potter fanfic if all the guys were hypocrites and creeps at 15 years old

[TheCozyBook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowwww 5⭐️
Love and More Love the story is amazing Malia is a badass woman and I love her . She went through hell and she always gets back on her feet 🔥🫶🏼
And Keahi I love him with my heart. The way he treats her melts my heart 😍😮‍💨🔥🧎🏽‍♀️

[Brandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story had potential but the spelling errors drove me insane and the last like 15% of the book was rlly redundant

[Holly Rivet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually give this a 4.5!

[Kora Kinerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was something off about the writing but also I couldn’t put it down.. the character growth/ change was my favorite part, and the main characters growing up together. But the ending absolutely destroyed me and I’m not well.

[Annie Reading · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I read this

[Laura Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of this book I enjoyed. I liked seeing them grow up and mentally develop. However, I don’t think a 10 year speaks or thinks the same way a 15 year old does, but I felt no change in the way they were written between each age, which threw me off. The scenes when Malia was older were hard to read and graphic and actually made me understand her thought process. The 2nd part of the book was quite bland. Nothing really really happened. The additional conflict was so rushed and boring I wasn’t even excited for it. The ending had me like 😐. And the whole books swears Keahi’s the best fighter but literally every fight it seems he gets his ass absolutely whooped and that fully leads to the next plot point which had me rolling my eyes. There are also a lot of spelling and grammar issues but that didn’t really bother me all that much.

[maddiiii 🔆 · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a new author this book is great. It’s quick paced, and has one of my favorite genres. Although there were some grammatical errors throughout the text, the book grabbed onto my attention so much that even I, as someone who prioritizes grammar, was able to read it. My favorite moments were actually in the beginning of the book when they were young. Their usual dynamic of fire and ice and playful teasing kind of wore off as the book progressed, and I kinda wish we got more of that. Although I usually hate books with sad endings, this was bearable. The last scene, although a little predictable, had me at the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see HOW, spoiler, Keahi survives. There’s no way he doesn’t, and if he really doesn’t, then Jarah this rating will change very quickly. I’m so excited for the second book, which I will definitely be reading as soon as it releases. I hope this book gets some more attention so I can talk to more people about it. Great job author!

[Elsa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really dragged on—and I mean dragged. I wanted to DNF it so many times.
The concept was interesting, but that’s about the only good thing I can say.

Malia in the first half? Absolutely bland. She gets upset because someone called her boring… and honestly? They were right. Then came her “villain arc,” which was just pure edge-lord energy—like something out of a teen’s Wattpad story. She wasn’t compelling, just moody in the most cliché way possible.

Keahi? What even was that character? In the first half, he’s the stereotypical “mean guy,” but for no real reason. He hates Malia because… she stole a pear? That’s the level we’re working with. His hate for everything felt completely unearned and empty. And then in the second half, he does a complete 180 and becomes spineless. No strength, no smarts, just… there. Honestly, I didn’t even like Malia, but she still deserved better than him. And don’t get me started on the miscommunication trope.

The side characters? If the main ones were hollow, these were black holes. Completely forgettable.

The dialogue was painful—there’s this gimmick where a character says something, and then 20 chapters later is the exact same line said by the other character . First time? Kinda clever. Second time? Cringe. Third? Please make it stop.

So yeah, this book was bad. It dragged, the characters were flat, and the storytelling was rough. I still finished it, so that’s something. And while the ending had a plot twist that could make you want to read the next book… I honestly don’t care enough to bother.

[Anna M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I read Arcane by Jarah recently and honestly… I need to lay down. I’m pretty sure I could write a better love story between two spoons in my kitchen drawer (and those spoons have more personality too).

First off — the grammar mistakes? Everywhere. It’s like the editor went out for milk and ghosted the whole book. My eyeballs physically hurt from seeing “your” instead of “you’re” every five seconds.

And the “romance” — if you can even call it that — has the chemistry of two damp socks stuck to the side of a washing machine. We don’t even get to see them fall in love. They just wake up one morning and suddenly they’re all “my princess” at 10 AM and longing stares at 5 PM. Be so for real — no actual teenager acts like that. If a boy ever called me princess unironically I’d block him on everything.

Then there’s the betrayal, which could have been messy in a good way, but instead they forgive each other faster than I forgive myself for demolishing an entire bag of Hot Cheetos alone at 2 AM. I swear I was rooting for the author to just kill them both off so I could go outside and touch grass.

The plot? If you find it, send me the link. There were a few good ideas buried in there, but they got lost under the typos and insta-love nonsense. Reading this felt like watching a soap opera on mute with captions written by a baby who just learned to type.

All that said, I know it’s crazy hard to write a whole book — so props to the author for finishing it. This just wasn’t my vibe at all. Good luck to anyone else who picks it up… you’re gonna need it.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t quite tell if Chat GPT was used, or if this was translated from a different language, but there are too many issues with the overall vernacular, that it was distracting. So many typos too. The idea was fine but execution was lacking. Also, the character development seemed off.

[Ellie Hawker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a badass woman.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need book 2 now

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of grammatical errors but other than that this story is SO GOOD


(p.s. I need the next book like NOW)

[Amazing_BookReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so I’m obsessed with Malia and Keahi. It’s amazing how many times these two break up and get back together, but of course they always find their way back to each other. I loved all the other friendships/bonds that the two MCs make with people who they once fought. It was really cool to see the change in dynamics. The plot was juicy and I was hooked from the beginning. I could not put this book don’t and ended up staying up all night.
Now that being said there are a few parts that I questioned/bothered me a bit.
One part being the spelling and grammar errors throughout the book. I know not everyone can get proofreaders or editors to help though so I wasn’t too bothered by it. The second part being that they were ten and eleven and years old at the start of the novel. Both of their thought processes and dialogues seemed like it would be for people that were at the very least thirteen years of age. Now as someone who has read on many different platforms and done ARC reviews before, none of these two stopped me from enjoying the book, however it was notable.

Overall I am giving this book a 4.5⭐️/5 stars, but for the actual apps sake I’m rounding up to 5⭐️. To the author if you see this, I really hope you do go through with making and publishing book two and continue the story on, because I NEED to know what happens next.

This novel was genuinely unlike anything I’ve read before, and I am genuinely in love with the characters and universe the author created.

4.5/5 stars!!

[Emma S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I’d say that I would have rated this book higher if not for a few reasons; one I was in a semi reading slump so it took me over a month to finish this book and so the momentum of reading kept getting lost. Two, I’m not sure if it was the version I was reading but there were a lot of typos and mixup of words. E.g. using ‘process’ instead of ‘progress’ they were easy enough to gather what the correct word was meant to be but it was jarring and distracted from the story (maybe due to copyright?)
Overall the story had good development from when they were children to when they became adults and the two sides of arcane and the shadow hunters. It did leave on a cliffhanger and I’m interested to know what happens next but not sure if I’ll choose to read the next book when it comes out

[layan ليان]

DNFed at 75%.

Imagine a very watered-down, adult version of Harry Potter—except everyone is inexplicably dumb and wildly lusting after one another for no good reason. Yeah… exactly like that.

Oh, and fair warning: this book is bursting at the seams with massive miscommunication and outright cheating.
Absolutely not. Hard pass.

Shame, I was super excited to read this.

[Halimaaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT IS THAT CLIFFHANGER😭😭

[Viktoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

brutal and frustrating

[marrireads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐
I'm sorry what was that ending??

[Zara Porteous · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️’s
She better make them pay!! It is so good to be back in the fantasy genre and this is a good one 🙌🏼

[Gaia Pini · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like it could’ve been so much better than it was

[Veronica Negro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surely that ending isn’t real 😭

[Kara Dugan · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF about 3/4 of the way through. The first half of the book is AMAZING, but it just kept dragging on. The book could have been way shorter, and there was a bit too much detail or events that were unnecessary. I really REALLY did like the first part of the book, I just got bored and couldn’t keep going.

The romance between 15year-old Keahi and Malia was SO SO SO cute. I loved it. Definitely my favorite part of the book (the part that I did read). I loved how they grew to like each other, and how Keahi changed for the better when he was around Malia. It was so sweet, and it definitely makes you believe in teenage love.

Overall, Arcane had GREAT potential to be really good, it just kept dragging on. The first 3/4 of the book was amazing, I just couldn’t keep going.

3/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
0/5 spice (from what I read)

[Grace :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no words. This book was everything and more. I saw a reel on insta that the author posted about this book and it intrigued me. So I was like “Yeah sure I’ll read it, why not?” I was on a road trip at the time and I needed a new book to start anyways. When I tell you that all I did on that trip was read, I AM NOT KIDDING!!!! It was super action packed and suspenseful. I LOVED Malia. She went through so much pain and suffering to protect the people she loved. She would always go to great lengths to make sure if anyone was going to get hurt, physically, emotionally, or mentally, it would be her instead of her friends. I loved Keahi too. His work ethic and desire to be the best resonated with me. This book is separated into parts based on age. I really liked being able to see their relationship change and develop as they grew older. There were some typos throughout but I don’t know if maybe it’s because it was a digital read and not a physical read for me. I didn’t mind it though. Usually it was just a misspelled word or a word that was left out. My ONLY complaint is that towards the end of the book, there’s a chunk where nothing really happens. There was just a bunch of spice and relationship formation. I was hoping that it would be super action packed and then end on a cliffhanger. Which leads me to my next point…the cliffhanger, OH. MY. GOSH. I kinda had a feeling that’s how the book would end but now that its confirmed, I have soooo many theories for the next book, which I believe should be released later this year, if I remember correctly. Anyways, this was definitely a well deserved five star. I said to my mom “I can’t believe this book isn’t more popular” like 100 times. So let that be your reason to read this book. I promise you’ll fall in love with Malia and Keahi just as much as I did, if not more.

[Nanna Kjær · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m Screaming, crying, throwing up. I cannot form coherent thoughts. All I know is pain. I’m completely and utterly destroyed.
I’ll need a year to recover from whatever the fuck just happened.
I need this book injected into my veins.
I can’t wait until the next book it needs to be released ASAP.
In the meanwhile you’ll find me screaming and sobbing into my pillow. I will never sleep again😭😭