Cole has successfully survived the preschooler exam, and now he’s a full-fledged Scholomance student. More importantly, though, he now has four women bound to him forever. He’s their master, they are his slaves, and they must obey his commands. But his women also gain power and prestige out of the deal, and the Headmistress has taken a special interest in Cole and his coven. Now, they must prove themselves against Scholomance’s enemies: the elder gods and their minions. Disclaimer: This novel contains horrific violence, dark rituals, a harem, and deviant mind control sexual escapades.
Welcome back to the Devil's Academy, where the air is thick with dark magic, and the only thing more dangerous than the curriculum is Cole's growing ego. This second installment picks up immediately where the first left off. Cole, now a full-fledged student with his coven of four witches magically bound to him, must now defend the school against its ancient enemies: elder gods and their minions. If you're here, you're in it for the unapologetically R-rated, adult power fantasy that pits a magic-school-isekai against cosmic horrors. While the dark thrills are still present, Scholomance 2 struggles with a repetitive structure and frustrating character logic that many fans felt was a step down from the initial, wicked fun.
Key Themes Power, Control, and Transactional Relationships: The central dynamic remains Cole's dominance over his coven. He is their "master," they are his "slaves," and their relationship is framed as a transaction: he gains absolute authority, while they gain power and prestige through him. The book explores this theme by testing this bond through increasingly dangerous external threats, though some readers felt the coven's trust issues became annoying and repetitive.
Survival in a Ruthless Institution: The series continues to build on the "evil Hogwarts" premise. Here, the school's brutal nature is turned outward. The theme is explored through a cycle of special missions assigned by the enigmatic Headmistress, where Cole and his coven become the school's primary weapon against external threats.
The Repetitive Nature of Power Fantasy: A meta-theme emerges from the plot structure itself. The story moves in a predictable loop: class, immediate mission, brief respite, repeat. This cycle, while delivering action, starts to feel like a grind, with missions conveniently requiring spells they've just learned.
Character Analysis Cole: Our amnesiac, overpowered protagonist shows minimal growth. While he was a blank slate of power in Book 1, here his defining trait becomes a cocky, reckless confidence that many readers found grating. His character is pulled in contradictory directions—simultaneously ruthless and naive, a chivalrous schoolboy one moment and an enslaver the next—which created significant believability issues for critical readers.
The Coven (Morgana, Faye, etc.): The witches bound to Cole receive more page time, but their development is inconsistent. One character, Morgana, is suddenly reframed as a Hermione-esque know-it-all, a jarring shift from her portrayal in the first book. Many reviewers noted that the coven members spend much of the book acting distrustful and "instantly annoying," undermining the supposed bond.
The Antagonists: The book introduces external foes in the form of elder gods and a pale, snake-like villain who is dispatched with surprising speed. This rush to introduce and eliminate threats left many feeling the stakes lacked impact.
Writing Style & Pacing This is where the book receives its harshest criticism. Logan Jacobs's prose remains functional and focused on moving the plot, but the pacing is widely panned as disjointed, rushed, and repetitive.
The story structure devolves into a formula where the Headmistress wakes Cole for a midnight mission, they warp to a location, complete the task, and return, only to repeat the process. This robs the narrative of any breathing room or tension. Major plot points, including a final confrontation, feel rushed and lack gravitas, making the entire book's events feel like they could fit into a single semester. Furthermore, the book continues to withhold answers about Cole's origins, a dangling thread from Book 1 that becomes a source of reader frustration.
What I Liked/Disliked Liked:
The core, darkly fun premise remains intact. Watching a powerful anti-hero and his coven tackle eldritch horrors is an entertaining, B-movie-style concept.
The expansion of the world, hinting at ancient gods and external conflicts, adds potential scope to the series.
For fans of the genre, it delivers more of the spicy, supernatural action they signed up for.
Disliked:
Repetitive, Predictable Structure: The "class-mission-class" loop becomes a tedious slog that stifles any sense of adventure.
Character Inconsistencies and Naivete: Cole's failure to question why he's being used as a disposable pawn by an openly evil institution strained credibility. The coven's persistent distrust also wore thin.
Rushed Plot and Lack of Payoff: Major villains appear and are defeated with little fanfare, and the central mystery of Cole's identity remains frustratingly unanswered.
Conclusion/Recommendation Scholomance 2 is a classic example of "more of the same, but worse." It doubles down on the first book's formula but loses the fresh, wicked charm in a maze of repetitive missions and shaky character logic.
Read this if: You absolutely loved the first book and need to continue Cole's story, no matter what. You prioritize a steady stream of dark magic and action over tight plotting and character development. You're a die-hard fan of Logan Jacobs' particular brand of harem fantasy.
Do not read this if: You found the first book merely okay, as this amplifies its flaws. You need coherent character motivations, satisfying plot progression, or answers to lingering mysteries. This could easily be your DNF point in the series.
Final Verdict: A disappointing 2.5 out of 5 stars. The series still has a compellingly dark aesthetic, but this installment feels like filler. I pushed through out of obligation, but the magic is fading fast. Unless you're a completist for this very niche genre, your TBR pile has better, more consistent dark fantasies to offer.
Couldn't finish it. I was getting annoyed by pretty much every single character. Coven not having an ounce of trust, Headmistress constant new missions (which just so happen to require just learned spell) and lack of promised answer about his identity (because sentence or two takes so much time) and MC unreasonably cocky and reckless attitude...
I liked the first one very much. However, this one was very repetitive and didn't have a lot of thought put in to it. It kept repeating the same thing over and over. Class, mission, class, mission.
If you've read book one you know the series is an adult evil Harry Potter. I liked it enough to buy and read this one. There's sex in this series, but the sex isn't central to the story, and the sex scenes aren't amazing or make much sense, so the story needs to make consistent sense and stand on it's own. But, book 2 has disjointed pacing and too many things that don't make sense. The pacing because it's rushed for no reason, and doesn't make sense because the characters stop making decision. Things just happen to them and they react. And, their reactions don't match the characters. Cole has no reason to trust anyone at the school other than the girls he literally controls, and barely them. They're evil. They torture and kill for power. The students are killed regularly and the professors don't care at all. But for some reason his coven are sent on dangerous missions literally an hour after they've barely learned some skill that the headmistress somehow knows will be required for the specific mission they're being sent on. WTH? This would be like Harry Potter and his crew being sent after their enemies by Dumbledore when surrounded by far more powerful and competent witches. Reminded me of Virgil Knightly's Esoterica, but in that series the headmaster of the school was evil and the main character knew it and was going along with things until they had the power to kill the headmaster. There are similar themes and Star wars sith novels. No one is naive in those stories. But, Cole never thinks that he's being used by school as an expendable pawn who's powerful enough to maybe succeed, but if he dies everyone at the school would be happy about it. Instead, he assumes they need him because he's amazing. None of this fits the story or the characters. That and the protagonists are bad people, fighting bad people, so it's hard to care what happens to anyone. Ex: in one scene he sees the memory of a dead human knight that burned 3 witches, and was happy about it. So, Cole goes into a rage over the memory. But, Cole and his coven killed and stole the soals of multiple human prisoners who were tortured and starved for no reason in the first book. Didn't even ask what they may have done to deserve it, Before they killed an entire village of families and reanimated their bodies to become slaves an hour later. I empathized more with the human knight in that scene. I get why the man killed the witches. I don't get Cole's rage given the witches don't value any lives, including each other, and what he's seen the witches do to humans, and how they've treated him given that he is a human man. it might make sense if there was some background for the hatred of humans. or if Cole wasn't a human male 5 minutes ago in book 1 with no memory or understanding of why he's at a school with witches who all hate him after he savwd their lives and even had sex with some of them. It's like he has Stockholm syndrome but not enough time or events have happened for that to makes sense. In one scene he gives pause and feels bad about killing a flower after a scene where he squeezes a mouse to death. Then later he has a comedic mouse familiar who he becomes friends with and takes care of. Then he's told he needs to fight some guy who's too powerful for all the other witches, including the head mistress, because.... no reason is given. He's a powerful man and that's supposed to be enough. We're told he's bad, but I've been given no reason other than the head mistress said so. Again, a person whose demonstrated evil multiple times.
Make it make sense. Based on what's actually happened in the books it would make more sense for the main character to wonder who this other man is, why the witches hate him, and possibly go into to an alliance with him against the witches given that he's more powerful and could possibly grant Cole freedom. The only reason Cole is even trying at the school is because if he doesn't he'll be killed. Cole is somehow ruthless, enslaver of women, powerful, smart, and a naive whipped chivalrous schoolboy all at the same time.
The author should stop writing so many books at the same time and write a consistently good series or two. He's obviously got the talent. But I feel cheated after the first book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
If you thought the first book was a Harry Potter rip-off, then wait until you see this one. It gets even more egregious and shameless. One of the main girls, Morgana, suddenly becomes a straight copy of Hermione. She exhibited none of those traits in the first book, but now she's rattling off spells and textbook page numbers, she's always wanting to answer questions in class, and everyone is calling her a nerd. There's even one scene where she talks about having read the book about the school's history before coming to school, and that is almost word-for-word something that Hermione says in the first Harry Potter novel. There is a killing curse that is introduced, and we are told that using it takes a portion of your soul. That's exactly what the killing curse in Harry Potter does. The villain of the book is a pale white man with snakelike features and red eyes - that is literally what Voldemort looks like. But, that villain is in the book for less than 10 pages before he gets killed off, which brings me to my next point...
Everything is so rushed and has zero impact. The first book was a series of classes and quizzes. It also felt rushed, but nothing like this. Now, there are a couple of classes, but the main thrust of the story is Cole being woken up in the middle of the night by a professor, taken to the headmistress' office, given a mission, warped to the mission location, do the mission, come back, sleep, another class, and repeat. This happens beat for beat like 3 or 4 times. It's ridiculous how rote it is. And at the end of the book, it's treated like some massive undertaking was completed and there's a big celebration. It's meant to feel similar to the end of a Harry Potter school year, yet this story could take place in its entirety before a Harry Potter book even hits Christmas break. Oh, and we're still given jack shit in the way of answers about anything. The first book literally ends with the headmistress saying "follow me, I'll give you some answers." But what happens at the beginning here? Some random and completely unprecedented attack takes place, and after it gets resolved, the headmistress of course is like "I can't give you answers right now." Just keeps putting that shit off. Maybe the author will have figured out what answers to give by book 12.
This series is dark, tantalizing, evil, and fun to read. Sure, the MC is the go-to for all problems and can solve it all, but there is still so much more to learn about him and his coven.
True to the HP world, every problem is handed to the MC who must fight against all odds while the adults leave it to the students to fix. Throw in some scantily clad, horny witches, and you have yourself a fun, dark, twisted story.
Logan Jacobs keeps delivering fun, entertaining novels that keep me wanting to read his series. I hope this one continues as I want to learn more of Cole’s backstory and what else he and his coven can do.
The second installment sees it from 100 to 200 in the octane stakes for Cole and his coven. Now they have survived preschool they are thrust hard into new learning, more quizzes and more challenges. The school is in danger and it's up to Cole and his sexy coven to save the day. More character development is a plus as Logan Jacobs continues to build a dark world where a school devoted to the worship of Satan and wicca magic are actually the good guys. Not something I would have expected but after two installments in hooked and can't wait to see what happens and how the coven continues to evolve and grow. Get on this dark and twisted ride.
This was fun from start to finish. The adventures were intense, the school issues were cool and crazy, and the ending was great. This was well written and a great continuation of the series story line. Cow and his coven are told by the Headmistress that they are the strongest coven in decades and are needed to help save the school from being attacked by other schools. Thus, the school does what it can to teach them how to be better witches and kill better. And they do use all they are taught. I enjoyed this entire book and am excited for the next story in this series. Read in 1 day.
Ok this book was just ok. Book one was better. I did enjoy it, but it did not answer key questions. WTF is Cole? He was told he would learn. But no Headmistress just keep sending him on missions. As readers we may have a clue, but don’t know for sure. His coven don’t act like they trust him. It gets tiring as they keep doubting him. I hope they learn to trust him. They trust enough for him to fill them with his seed, but not in other ways. Overall it is a good story, I hope to learn if the Elder Gods are “good”, but based on their support of the Duke I am not sure. I WILL get the next book.
Even worse, than the one before. I only decided to read it, becouse I liked the amorality of the characters in the first book.
The only positive thing: the coven witches got some minor character traits. While they're still one dimensional, shallow fantasies made for equally shallow 14 year old boys, at least they're not exact copies of each other.
Every character acts like a complete idiot. The author tries to convince the reader about the MC's alleged awesomeness, by making everyone an even bigger idiot.
It doesn't work. MC makes obviously idiotic, groan-worthy decisions. Of course, the meter thick plot armor not only defends him, but rewards him for his idiocy.
This was a mistake. I regret buying this book. The first part wasn’t perfect but had a certain charm. The mystery, the looming threat of the exam and protagonist who was clearly not a good guy all made it intriguing.
This book lacked the charm. It was repetitive and unoriginal. We do not get any information about the Mc. Just as the headwitch is about to explain, they suddenly get attacked by some other school out of nowhere. After the attack the headmistress goes back on her words. She tells him nothing and continues to work him to the bone. The Mc just accepts it all like the spineless b*tch he is.
This was a pile of junk! And I say that with the utmost respect to the author. I'm one of his biggest fans but this story pushed my limits to the bounds of credibility. I gave the first book a 5 star rating and was actually looking forward to this one... But gave up just about halfway through. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had enough of the 4 girls in the coven sneering, snapping, bitching, griping and just plain fighting with each other. And the coincidence of going on "missions" after just having finished with that particular magical class was just too much.
In ages past this book could be considered sacrilege. And all the well written with characters that are actually unique and well thought out, it seems to try extremely hard to be edgy and dark. The final battle scene is closely resembling ones in Harry Potter, although probably closer to watch harry really should’ve been like… and all I will not be continuing series. However, if you’re in need of a Elaine doing slightly heroic things then take a read…
Struggling with this series as nothing really stands out, Lots of questions but none seem to get answered, the biggest one being where the hell are they and what is the point in the school that seems to exist to cause pain and suffering. The relationship with his familiar is amusing though but its hard to like the charachters when they all appear to follow Satan!
It’s so Unholy! Yep! It’s written that way. Fascinating really. A bit of Slytherin perhaps. Definitely need to start with book 1 to understand much of what is going on in this one. Looking forward to the character development in the next book; this one certainly ties together loose ends from the last one.
This book had a great plot as well as the first book which was amazing I was so happy when I found this series and I hope others enjoy it to because it had great features and gave a feeling that most books don’t have a feeling of wanting to be or cheer them on.
I have read a great many of Logan Jacobs books and haven't been disappointed yet. His characters grow and evolve into people that you can relate to. His plots are unique and interesting. These books are action packed with many twist and turns and are a must read of fans of this genre.
Putting aside the Satan worship, which is easy to do, this storyline is a fun read. Not the greatest literary work when it comes to details and time line continuity, but as long as the reader does not try to pick holes in everything the story flows fairly well and is very enjoyable
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. This time around, Cole and his beautiful coven have to save the school from their surrounding enemies, if their instructor do not kill them first. The story and characters were intriguing and engaging. I look forward to reading more about these characters and their further adventures. This book is definitely worth reading.
Learning to master evil and to do evil with spells and hexes is not easy but if sexually motivated it can be done. Cole and his four female cohorts are rapidly becoming the badasses of the academy. Training to defend from the evil Malik is a full time ordeal. But it is train and learn or die.
The complexity of the underlying plot elements and the speed of the action is extremely compelling. The callous nature of this world is intriguing while the anti-hero, jerk that he is, is roguishly endearing.
I can write all kinds of adjectives to describe this book but why bother when all that needs to be said is hurry up with book 3... or ill have to pull a Kathy Bates on you .
Looking forward to book 3. It’s an interesting twist to see the dark powers and how they work. It’s only evil if you look at it from one direction. They think they are “good” in their own evil way. Lol. It’s fun.
I enjoyed the book the story and characters are not very in depth but the author kept me entertained with the story. I hope the next book will expand on the characters and on the world building.
Not quite sure what it is but I really enjoy this series. It's a fun read with a bit of a twist following the evil side and being another magical school book, even if the svhoolong was a little weak here. I can't wait to see what comes next.
This is a very good continuation of the story about Cole and his coven. They must protect the school from dangerous enemies and must fight to protect what they love.
So thier coven is formed (still using terms with that artistic license I see.) And they're off to see the wizard so to speak. Now, what is Theodora hiding, I want to know, and why can he fight back so hard?
Once again Logan Jacobs has crafted an excellent tale, with well written and developed characters. Cole and his Coven face perilous challenges. The sex is hot, and the girls are hotter! Looking forward to #3!