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Arcane Dropout #1
Arcane Dropout
length: 422 min
Lee Amaranth is a mystic, not a mage. In fact, he’s never cast a spell in his life. His day to day routine involves communing with unseen supernatural entities and using silver weapons to banish rampaging specters. With his sister missing, however, he has no choice but to go on a search that leads him to the locked gates of Primhaven University, a school forbidden to those untouched by arcane potential.
Luckily, if he plays his cards right, he might just have some help. A cute ghost from another century. A nerdy spellcasting prodigy. A beautiful teacher who sees right through his bullshit. It’s up to Lee to decide who to place his trust in as he formulates a plan to fake his way through classes and exams.
WARNING: This novel contains graphic sex scenes between the main character and numerous women/succubi/monster girls.
Lee Amaranth is a mystic, not a mage. In fact, he’s never cast a spell in his life. His day to day routine involves communing with unseen supernatural entities and using silver weapons to banish rampaging specters. With his sister missing, however, he has no choice but to go on a search that leads him to the locked gates of Primhaven University, a school forbidden to those untouched by arcane potential.
Luckily, if he plays his cards right, he might just have some help. A cute ghost from another century. A nerdy spellcasting prodigy. A beautiful teacher who sees right through his bullshit. It’s up to Lee to decide who to place his trust in as he formulates a plan to fake his way through classes and exams.
WARNING: This novel contains graphic sex scenes between the main character and numerous women/succubi/monster girls.
442 pages, Audible Audio
First published June 3, 2019
295 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Edmund Hughes
31 books119 followersHey, I'm Edmund Hughes. I like to write fantasy novels with strong erotic themes, gratuitous amounts of sex and violence, and offensive humor. If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.
Check out my page on Booksprout (https://booksprout.co/author/1303/edm...) for freebies and discounts. Check out my website (https://edmundhughes.com) for random musings and behind the scenes content.
Thanks for reading. Reviews are always appreciated
Check out my page on Booksprout (https://booksprout.co/author/1303/edm...) for freebies and discounts. Check out my website (https://edmundhughes.com) for random musings and behind the scenes content.
Thanks for reading. Reviews are always appreciated
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 16, 2019
Hottest supernatural couple ever
I never thought I'd say that my ideal supernatural couple would be a mystic and a ghost. Hands down my current favorite couple in literature. Yes there was lots of sex, but the little things the author added that made the ghost so cute and the mystic so relatable was perfect in every way. I was expecting an awful harem story, what I got was a super interesting series, a new favorite author, and a new lease on the romance genre. The cherry on top was the amazing narrator in the audio book. Congrats to the author for earning himself another fan. Thank you for making something that was both sexy and got me in the feels.
I never thought I'd say that my ideal supernatural couple would be a mystic and a ghost. Hands down my current favorite couple in literature. Yes there was lots of sex, but the little things the author added that made the ghost so cute and the mystic so relatable was perfect in every way. I was expecting an awful harem story, what I got was a super interesting series, a new favorite author, and a new lease on the romance genre. The cherry on top was the amazing narrator in the audio book. Congrats to the author for earning himself another fan. Thank you for making something that was both sexy and got me in the feels.
July 8, 2019
For what is essentially a fetishy Harry Potter fanfiction, it's not terrible. The writing, characters, and the world are fine and Hugh does have some interesting ideas mixed in there as well.
July 2, 2023
Rating 2.5 rounded down to 2
Setting:
This book takes place in the modern day mainly at the secret Alaskan wizard school Primhaven. Here budding magic users are taught how to harness and, more importantly, control their abilities. There are five different flavors of spellcasting and a separate kind of magic called mysticism.
Character:
Lee: Lee is an orphan with little to his false name but love for his sister and his mystic abilities.
Tess: Tess is a centuries old ghost of a former magic student. With little else to occupy her time, she enjoys toying with the living as much as she is able and is absolutely thrilled when a young man who can actually talk to her shows up.
Plot:
Lee is trying to find out what happened to his sister who stopped talking to him after she went to magical boarding school. He's finally managed to track down the location of the school and, with a little help, is doing his best to hide his complete inability to cast any spells while he searches for information on what happened to Zoe.
My Thoughts:
This is very much a book of two halves. There’s the plot half and the “plot” half. For anyone who doesn’t get the joke the second one of those is sex.
The actual concept and plot of the story is really well done. Lee is looking for his elder sister who cared for him when he was young and then vanished after going to a magical school. He’s finally tracked down the school but the school only lets in mages which he very much isn’t. With the help of a friendly ghost he’s able to fake a few things that resemble magic close enough to get in but if he’s ever found out to not have magic he’ll be subject to a horrible process of having his memory messed with that will remove any knowledge of his sister ever existing. Obviously he doesn’t want this, and just as obviously there are some unusual things going on at Primhaven. The actual story being told here is really interesting and well executed.
Unfortunately, the other main aspect of the book doesn’t work as well.
A couple of the sex scenes feel really crowbarred in, most notably the scene in which Lee wakes up in the infirmary after getting badly hurt and being unconscious for over a day and promptly asks for a blowjob. Yes I’m serious. The other most egregious example is when, a bit later on in the story, a brand new character shows up, literally out of thin air, immediately has sex with Lee, and then promptly vanishes for the rest of the book.
It is also worth noting that a number, perhaps most, of the sex scenes are also a bit questionable in terms of if everyone is totally consenting to what's going on. Tess has multiple comments about Lee’s actions that might suggest she isn’t entirely pleased with the things he’s done though these could arguably be passed off as her just being coy and/or demure about enjoying it due to the time she was alive in. On a rather less arguable note, the previously mentioned scene with the new character appearing literally only to bang the main character then have no more presence for the rest of the novel is directly called out in the text as sounding like rape and it really kind of read like one. Lee brushes this concern off but reader’s may want to be advised.
Ultimately I find myself wishing that the sexy bits had been omitted all together and thinking that this novel is rather hard to recommend. Anyone who wants the sexy stuff will likely be somewhat disappointed by the quality of that content and readers who don’t want that content will likely avoid the book entirely due to its mere inclusion despite the actual plot of the story being very engaging.
Setting:
This book takes place in the modern day mainly at the secret Alaskan wizard school Primhaven. Here budding magic users are taught how to harness and, more importantly, control their abilities. There are five different flavors of spellcasting and a separate kind of magic called mysticism.
Character:
Lee: Lee is an orphan with little to his false name but love for his sister and his mystic abilities.
Tess: Tess is a centuries old ghost of a former magic student. With little else to occupy her time, she enjoys toying with the living as much as she is able and is absolutely thrilled when a young man who can actually talk to her shows up.
Plot:
Lee is trying to find out what happened to his sister who stopped talking to him after she went to magical boarding school. He's finally managed to track down the location of the school and, with a little help, is doing his best to hide his complete inability to cast any spells while he searches for information on what happened to Zoe.
My Thoughts:
This is very much a book of two halves. There’s the plot half and the “plot” half. For anyone who doesn’t get the joke the second one of those is sex.
The actual concept and plot of the story is really well done. Lee is looking for his elder sister who cared for him when he was young and then vanished after going to a magical school. He’s finally tracked down the school but the school only lets in mages which he very much isn’t. With the help of a friendly ghost he’s able to fake a few things that resemble magic close enough to get in but if he’s ever found out to not have magic he’ll be subject to a horrible process of having his memory messed with that will remove any knowledge of his sister ever existing. Obviously he doesn’t want this, and just as obviously there are some unusual things going on at Primhaven. The actual story being told here is really interesting and well executed.
Unfortunately, the other main aspect of the book doesn’t work as well.
A couple of the sex scenes feel really crowbarred in, most notably the scene in which Lee wakes up in the infirmary after getting badly hurt and being unconscious for over a day and promptly asks for a blowjob. Yes I’m serious. The other most egregious example is when, a bit later on in the story, a brand new character shows up, literally out of thin air, immediately has sex with Lee, and then promptly vanishes for the rest of the book.
It is also worth noting that a number, perhaps most, of the sex scenes are also a bit questionable in terms of if everyone is totally consenting to what's going on. Tess has multiple comments about Lee’s actions that might suggest she isn’t entirely pleased with the things he’s done though these could arguably be passed off as her just being coy and/or demure about enjoying it due to the time she was alive in. On a rather less arguable note, the previously mentioned scene with the new character appearing literally only to bang the main character then have no more presence for the rest of the novel is directly called out in the text as sounding like rape and it really kind of read like one. Lee brushes this concern off but reader’s may want to be advised.
Ultimately I find myself wishing that the sexy bits had been omitted all together and thinking that this novel is rather hard to recommend. Anyone who wants the sexy stuff will likely be somewhat disappointed by the quality of that content and readers who don’t want that content will likely avoid the book entirely due to its mere inclusion despite the actual plot of the story being very engaging.
June 5, 2019
The story revolves around Lee Amaranth who is searching for his missing sister.
Lee is a mystic meaning he can see and communicate with ghosts as well as helping them on their way.
He knows his sister, Zoe, went to Primhaven University, a college for training mages run by the order of Chaldea who only admit magically talented students.
He discovers where Primhaven is and although he hasn't any magical talent, with the help of a mischievous young woman ghost he blags his way in.
He starts searching the university for clues to the reason his sister went missing. Contains graphic sexual encounters.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Lee is a mystic meaning he can see and communicate with ghosts as well as helping them on their way.
He knows his sister, Zoe, went to Primhaven University, a college for training mages run by the order of Chaldea who only admit magically talented students.
He discovers where Primhaven is and although he hasn't any magical talent, with the help of a mischievous young woman ghost he blags his way in.
He starts searching the university for clues to the reason his sister went missing. Contains graphic sexual encounters.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
June 5, 2019
Arcane Dropout is the beginning of a new series by Edmund Hughes. It follows our hero, Lee, through his adventures at the last-chance magic school of Primhaven University. Here he is trying to find out about his missing older sister. He meets a number of other students, some that he becomes friends with and some who become enemies. There is plenty of action and adventure in this book and a good amount of sexual energy. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
July 5, 2020
This is a fun romp. I like Lee as a character - his grasp of legalities may be a little weak, his moral principles are firm. Lee is quire the trickster - the way he managed to trick his way into a magical academy brings to mind W.H. Lock's Quinn (of 'The Fiddler's Dagger'), who has a similar outlook on life, love and legalities. While I may not a fan of harem adventures in general, this one has a story worth following, sympathetic characters and a morally-gray hero who just can't stop with the charm. Like I noted earlier, fun!
January 31, 2021
It's a fun book with an interesting world, ok characters, and creative... khm... action. The only thing I hate about the whole series is the authors choice of BBEG. It just doesn't make sense. Feels like the only reason for them to be evil is to artificially generate drama.
(Side note: this and Mask of the Template are the only two book series I came across so far, that had good monster girl representation. The girls aren't just humans with weird ears, but monstrous (and sexy) beings, which is way better imo, than the alternative)
(Side note: this and Mask of the Template are the only two book series I came across so far, that had good monster girl representation. The girls aren't just humans with weird ears, but monstrous (and sexy) beings, which is way better imo, than the alternative)
April 13, 2023
Mystic that cannot cast magic spells gets into a magic school to find his missing sister.
He has support from a female ghost.
Interesting story, nice how he tries to hide that he has no magic ability. I like the characters even if they are stereotypes. The book has some sex scenes and there is a lot innuendo.
Ends on a surprising cliffhanger.
He has support from a female ghost.
Interesting story, nice how he tries to hide that he has no magic ability. I like the characters even if they are stereotypes. The book has some sex scenes and there is a lot innuendo.
Ends on a surprising cliffhanger.
September 13, 2020
Nope, just another waste of time.
Another weak story with forced characters doing thing that have no reasonable justification. More overly dramatic tension that would be fine on a CW teen drama series. I expect more from a book.
Another weak story with forced characters doing thing that have no reasonable justification. More overly dramatic tension that would be fine on a CW teen drama series. I expect more from a book.
November 25, 2023
A protagonist that isn't OP and women that are actually given some reason to be interested in him make this a more believable harem than most, even if the harem includes a ghost and a succubus. The performance by Alex Ford makes the audio book a better choice than the ebook.
June 21, 2019
Good book!!
It's a enjoyable book ,adult themed..but a good story to read..different than what is out their..Would recommend this book to anyone.
It's a enjoyable book ,adult themed..but a good story to read..different than what is out their..Would recommend this book to anyone.
June 30, 2019
Great start to a series
This is a good book. You should read it. I like the story. The characters are fun. I really enjoy the authors style of story telling.
This is a good book. You should read it. I like the story. The characters are fun. I really enjoy the authors style of story telling.
July 24, 2019
A clear step above the rest of the genre. Intelligent author and it shows in his writing.
July 18, 2021
Good Book
Book full of surprises. The action keeps you interested. The ending holds a mild surprise. Leaving you to wonder what will happen in the next book.
Book full of surprises. The action keeps you interested. The ending holds a mild surprise. Leaving you to wonder what will happen in the next book.
December 7, 2021
"Do you have any idea how boring being a ghost is?”
“Better than most do, to tell you the truth."
Me deje influenciar por una foto en una red social pero me equivoque porque el libro no es para mí.
“Better than most do, to tell you the truth."
Me deje influenciar por una foto en una red social pero me equivoque porque el libro no es para mí.
December 20, 2021
Amusing
A different idea that I kinda liked so I ended up reading all six of them. The ghost made the storyline what it was.
A different idea that I kinda liked so I ended up reading all six of them. The ghost made the storyline what it was.
May 13, 2025
excellent read
I really look forward to reading the next couple of books in the series and admired how the author balanced character aspects.
I really look forward to reading the next couple of books in the series and admired how the author balanced character aspects.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews