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The Color Alchemist #1-4

The Color Alchemist: The Complete Series

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I didn’t collect secrets. I only had one.

Our kingdom thrives because those with magic are forced into servitude. The sacrifice of these few has ensured the prosperity of many.

At 17, my life is set before me until I accidentally unleash my own rare magic. Now the royals want to use me as their personal pet project, and Prince Lucas has been charged with my training. He says I can manipulate color, but how can I harness magic so volatile? I want to trust him, but he’s so mysterious that even his secrets have secrets.

I'm afraid if I don’t learn fast, the blood of thousands will end up on my trembling hands.

Jump into this fresh dystopian young adult fantasy, complete with a complex magic system, forbidden romance, and Victorian flare. The Color Alchemist series is an international bestseller from USA Today Bestselling Author, Nina Walker.

778 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2019

1081 people are currently reading
265 people want to read

About the author

Nina Walker

35 books248 followers
Nina Walker writes all kinds of fantasy for teens and adults. She is happily married and living the good life in the mountains of southern Utah.

Connect with her:
FB Group - Nina's Reading Party
IG - @ninabelievesinmagic
TT - @ninawalker.books
www.ninawalkerbooks.com

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Community Reviews

5 stars
227 (55%)
4 stars
98 (23%)
3 stars
60 (14%)
2 stars
19 (4%)
1 star
6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
8 reviews
January 31, 2019
Amazing

Loved it been hooked since the first book defiantly a fab x x x x x x x x x
Profile Image for Janine.
517 reviews75 followers
August 20, 2019
This series is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I came in with moderately high expectations after enjoying Dark Ocean Princess and reading a bit more of the premise, being a post apocalyptic dystopia in future America with some magic. In the end, it’s a series with great potential with the setting, magic and characters, but the execution falls short at times with severe pacing problems, at times an undercooked plot and choppy prose, leading to a series that I was deeply invested in by the end, but not before an extended period of disappointment.

The world building is good, with an unique magic system in color alchemy with a history that isn’t really talked about, but implied to go millennia with some Eastern inspiration. While it does take a while for certain aspects of the magic to come in, it’s enjoyable and I like how each part is used, and by the end of the series, none is really neglected. The setting of a world that has used up resources and that New Colony has reverted to a monarchy in order to take care of everyone was an interesting move. Though as the series continues, so does the conflict with neighboring nations and we see more of this world, though I wish a few things were touched on a bit more.

In terms of the characters, most of them didn’t really become memorable until the last book. Before then, they were okay and had decent development, but really started one step above cookie cutter. Jessa starts out as a typical YA protagonist, living a normal life before discovering she’s an alchemist, and wanting to go back to her normal life, but getting herself eventually wrapped into war. At first, she came off as too passive, and her character arc in Prism felt incomplete, but by the end, she does step up. Prince Lucas is tired of King Richard’s atrocities, and trying to put a stop to it, but struggling to impasse his own father. . His development does get interesting later in the series, but I liked it. Sasha is torn between her current role as a resistance alchemist and her former life before becoming an alchemist. While she has interesting moments and explores things about the world that the other two do not, she gets stuck in a unneeded love triangle, which derailed her development in a way. I do like how it is resolved though. The supporting cast was interesting in their own way, with many of them delivering. King Richard, the antagonist, was well done, with his grip on the other characters growing tighter as the series continues. He casts a threatening shadow on everyone and poses a great threat. Same with Faulk and several other characters on the King’s side.

The romance is okay, mostly the one between Jessa and Lucas, but I felt too much time was taken up on less than stellar conflicts on the protagonists love lives (and sometimes cringey with Sasha and a borderline idiot plot with Prism), which meant less time focusing on the main conflicts and motivations and other aspects of the character development. Sasha really didn’t need a love triangle or a romance period (especially as she mentions several times that she has no time for a romance), and took away from her development. Jessa and Lucas felt like it spent a lot of time in the wrong places and we really don’t see them meld as a couple, which made me frustrated at times. I get forbidden romance, but it felt like things went to the extreme in the ways they were broken apart.

The pacing for this series is all over the place, especially early on. There’s some intrigue for a little bit, but by the time things get interesting, it turns back to a less intriguing storyline. Many important aspects were explained much later than they should have, and in some cases, glossed over. This series has a total of three PoVs, and while it was nice to have their perspectives, it meant some reveals felt more lackluster than they should have, and in two cases in Prism, felt underwhelming after a lot of focus. Honestly, Prism and Fracture could have been a single novel if a lot of the superfluous parts of the stories were removed.

If you ask me, the story and writing quality does go up as one progresses through the series. The choppy prose lessens (but doesn’t really go away), and as the world building and political intrigue expanded, I got more invested in what was going on. The pacing improves and the characters become more memorable, starting with the latter parts of Blackout. I actually enjoyed Collide: The Color Alchemist Book Four for the most part. But it took a long time for me to get there. I’m sure if you like a romance heavy storyline in a dystopian like setting with some magic, this is at least worth a look.
Profile Image for Leda.
169 reviews18 followers
June 11, 2019
I enjoyed every single book of the series. Every one had its twists and turns and the ending was satisfying. The whole series leaves you with a message of hope of a bright future ahead if we can o cope with our differences and stop being narcissists.
4 reviews
June 19, 2019
Read it!

This book was so vivid in my mind that I had dreams where I was an Alchemist! Everyone should read this series!
Profile Image for Karen Voitik.
3,219 reviews
April 24, 2020
>Book Review – The Color Alchemist: The Complete Series
>I am an independent reviewer. This series consists of 4 books: Prism, Fracture, Blackout and Collide. The series ends in an HEA. The reality in this universe has magical alchemists living among humans. The USA is now divided into a western half, which is a democracy, and an eastern half, which is a monarchy. King Richard isn’t totally evil, but very power hungry to the point he loses some of his humanity. King Richard takes young children who show magical ability away from their families and exploits their abilities for his benefit.
>The descriptions of the magic are really interesting. All of the magic revolves around color. Each color has a different type of magic associated with it. The romance involves Prince Lucas, who is awakened to the poor decisions made by his father, and the color alchemist, Jessa. Jessa lost her sister to the King years earlier and is now a prisoner of the king himself. The story is not a strong romance. The chemistry between Lucas and Jessa is very weak. There is too much mistrust, amnesia and jealousy.
>There are a lot of violence and torture scenes. The evil family working for the king is discovered, yet left to survive and be free at the end of the book, which makes no sense. This book is appropriate for a young adult (18+) audience. I am giving this series 4 stars.
Profile Image for Katie.
249 reviews2 followers
July 29, 2020
Not a fan

I’m pretty much sped read through the last two books just to get to the end of this series to see how it ended. I never felt fully engaged in the story. I never felt like I really understood how the magic system worked. It was just like there are colors, they do x, y, and z, you have to work your whole life to excel at them, maybe, except Jessa. Everything felt contrived. The story didn’t flow naturally. You ended up at point B sometimes not really understanding how you got there. Significant timeline issues, and there wasn’t a single relationship that I enjoyed. At first I thought Sasha would be the redeeming character for me in this series, and then she was ruined with the Tristan/Mastin triangle. And Jessa and Lucas relationship... I don’t even have words for how awful they were. After their first spat I was never rooting for them again. They never actually listened to each other. I think there is potential in this story, but I found myself not being able to stand or care about the vast majority of the characters. Wasn’t impressed with how it ended either.
1,160 reviews
January 21, 2019
A riveting series

Old America and New Colony - one is democratic and one is a kingdom. One embraces the color alchemists for power and control. The other fears them and locks them up. But absolute power corrupts and a king who controls so much also uses propaganda to gain support from his people as he declares war. Necessary evil or just plain evil?? Mind control is the ultimate goal and the subsequent abuse of power is tremendous. In addition - A prince and a alchemist in a forbidden love story, with incredible roadblocks - All wrapping up with a nice HEA.
Profile Image for Margaret.
375 reviews2 followers
May 22, 2019
The Color Alchemist Review

All I can say is that this series has become a favorite of mine. From the beginning to the end, Jessa, Lucas, and Sasha story was full of twists and turns that kept me on my feet as I was reading. Some parts made me smile with joy and others broke my heart to the point I cried and had to stop reading to collect my thoughts. The ending was exactly what the story needed and was just fantastic. This is one that will linger on in my mind throughout the next couple of days.
Profile Image for R.R. Adams.
Author 2 books14 followers
February 1, 2020
The writing is great. The story premise great. The male lead is decent. But, the female lead whines a lot. A LOT. Jessa is so selfish it's hard to read it from first person without wanting to throw the book at the female main character.

I'm all for characters going through personal growth, but there may be too many chapters with her self loathing, whiney, and selfish attitude.

I've been holding onto the hope that her personal growth is soon...

I'm pushing to book 2 so hopefully, the female main character gets beyond this. Otherwise, I might need to drop the book.
Profile Image for Christie Powell.
Author 29 books70 followers
May 22, 2021
Professional dystopia

I loved the magic system in this book. The way the colors are used is fascinating.
Full confession: I didn't finish. I still gave it a high rating, because it's well written and reminds me of other popular dystopia books. However, for a book to appeal to me personally, I need to have faith in something. With all the secrets, mistrust, and dangerous politics, the main character can't fully trust anyone or anything-- and neither can I as a reader. I know other people enjoy that, and it's done well.
Profile Image for Ela.
35 reviews1 follower
January 24, 2019
I liked it but didn't..

Does it make sense? If I only bought book 1 I might have left it at that and move on but as I got whole series it truly sucked me in. Story is good, it flows it works it's interesting and a great read. But I really didn't like main characters.. Maybe Sasha a bit in last book.. I was also surprised by the ending, it just happened so suddenly! I don't regret reading it but dont think I'll read it again
Profile Image for Brittany Goodman.
920 reviews127 followers
January 27, 2019
Wow

That was a ride. It was intense and I loved how it ended. I admit, my heart broke a few times and it kept breaking as some of the events unfolded. The characters were excellent and the villains were done so that they were both despicable but also had a glimmer of humanity. And the heroes were fantastically drawn both heroic and flawed. There were parts in this book i wanted to cover my eyes but I got through it and am satisfied by how it all ended.
45 reviews
February 2, 2020
A Whirlwind Ride

This book series has driven me crazy for the last week or so it took me to read it. So many times I wanted to put it down, to delete it, to just move on to the next series. But I couldn't. I tried but I just had to get to the end of the series. I had to know what happened. And I'm glad I did. The twists and turns. The characters. The power. I loved and hated every moment of it.
27 reviews1 follower
May 9, 2020
Amazing

This series is the first in awhile that I couldn’t put down. Amazing from start to finish no matter where you left off as soon as you started reading again you would be sucked into the story it was like I was living the characters lives the emotion was felt for days after each story I would love to see more written about years later I do wish we had more of an ending but it was still great I would love to see this made either into a tv series or movie
Profile Image for Wendy Sahl.
68 reviews2 followers
July 31, 2020
This one is good!

I give this book 5 stars if this is the sort of story you are looking to read. If so, it’s excellent. The characters are fresh and more developed, the plot is fresh as well with unexpected twists and turns...and an ending that some might say is too easy, but on the other hand reflects the reality we live in. If you’re looking for a literary masterpiece and fun, I give it a four.
Profile Image for Trina.
5 reviews
April 3, 2021
Awesome series

I loved reading this series. The characters are nicely written with depth, and evolved throughput the books to a glowing conclusion! It is sooo very refreshing to read novels that do not include trashy violence, cursing and unnecessary sexuality.
I would strongly recommend this series to young adults, (of all ages!), and to anyone who is magically inclined and knows it’s out there, somewhere.....
24 reviews
February 12, 2019
This series was a wild dance with a very satisfying finale!

I have always loved ballet and magic, artistry and color. Of course I would be hooked from the first. You just have to have faith when reading this that things will turn out and that love truly will come off conqueror. There were some very close calls! My thanks to the author!
Profile Image for Debra Stubbins.
334 reviews
February 18, 2019
This series has it all

Betrayal, deceit, love, intrigue, danger and war help make this series hard to put down until finished. There were times I felt love for Jessa and Lucas and other times I felt like slapping them both across the head. The books pull you in and take you along for the ride.
Profile Image for Jennifer Ruffner.
3 reviews
February 26, 2019
Amazing

I absolutely loved this series. The plot and characters were interesting and well developed. I feel like the story could have been a little longer, it seems as if things wrapped up quickly but other parts dragged. Overall, I couldn't stop reading even while I wish that it lasted longer.
1 review
June 9, 2019
Great series but it is challenging to read

This was a hard set of books to get through as it seemed like the evil would never stop. It was hard to read about the fallacies of humanity and how both sides of the conflict can be wrong even as they think they are the good guys. She masterfully built the story and then wrapped everything up with a bow.
13 reviews1 follower
December 18, 2019
This book had such an interesting premise - I wish I liked it better than I did. The main character wasn't interesting enough - she was supposed to be doing all of this stuff because of her family but her relationship with them was never written properly enough to get the reader emotionally invested.
Profile Image for Brit.
694 reviews
October 16, 2020
A must read!

I absolutely loved this series. It is definitely something different than I typically read, but it popped up on a FB ad and it intrigued me. It is a series I would be comfortable my teen daughter reading. I loved the characters and the different alchemy. Some parts did make me sad and the characters that weren't good you really felt that hatred towards them.
170 reviews1 follower
March 14, 2021
Superbly written YA fantasy series

Oh man, this series has it all, magic, romance,war, intrigue, betrayal, loyalty, everything. Be warned, while reading range alchemy will give you a huge case of "the feels"! This series will live in your heart for a good long while. Enjoy!
Well done, Nina Walker, well done!
50 reviews
March 14, 2021
A really good series, that has it's up and down. Some things were easy to expect, others just didn't pop out until time for them to appear, LOL! This was definitely a page turner book. I enjoyed the entire background and storyline. Kind of wish that another series took off where this one ended; I can see several storylines that would be quite interesting.
Profile Image for Erica Dugue.
1 review
March 24, 2019
Wonderful couldn’t put it down

Found this book on a Facebook add, thought I would try it out. Couldn’t put it down. I really hope that you continue this world! What happens when two rare alchemists have kids. What are the others stories. So many questions!
1 review
April 25, 2019
Pageturner

I couldn't put the series down, I just jumped from book to book. It was completely different a new angle that kept me excited and thinking. An amazing series highly recommend.
23 reviews2 followers
May 25, 2019
I love this series!

I've recently discovered Nina Walker - and I can confidently predict in going to love all of her work!
Multidimensional characters, criss-crossing plotlines, this series kept me up at night and taking longer lunch breaks just to get to the finish!
Profile Image for F.E. Bradley.
Author 1 book16 followers
July 1, 2019
Not a quick read

Don't start this lightly as it will be a significant time investment. The story is very original, but I had a hard time connecting with all the characters which I think made portions feel a bit too long winded.
Profile Image for Stephani Austin.
267 reviews1 follower
September 23, 2019
Did not finish the series. The first book was good, but I felt like the character of the characters was just not solid enough to build a story on. “Just kidding, I’ll abandon everything I was working toward in the previous book because of circumstances.” Sorry, not for me.
4 reviews1 follower
January 2, 2020
Great read!

I loved the concept of this entire series. It was an easy read while still able to hold my attention with real content on each page :) definitely recommend for any YA/magic fans
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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