Review: House of Marionne by J. Elle

From the publisher:
BURY YOUR SECRET OR DIE FOR IT.

17-year-old Quell has lived her entire life on the run. She and her mother have fled from city to city, in order to hide the deadly magic that flows through Quell’s veins. 

Until someone discovers her dark secret.

To hide from the assassin hunting her, and keep her mother out of harm’s way, Quell reluctantly inducts into a debutante society of magical social elites called the Order that she never knew existed. If she can pass their three rites of membership, mastering their proper form of magic, she’ll be able to secretly bury her forbidden magic forever. 

If caught, she will be killed.

But becoming the perfect debutante is a lot harder than Quell imagined, especially when there’s more than tutoring happening with Jordan, her brooding mentor and—assassin in training. 

When Quell uncovers the deadly lengths the Order will go to defend its wealth and power, she’s forced to choose: embrace the dark magic she’s been running from her entire life or risk losing everything, and everyone, she’s grown to love.

Still, she fears the most formidable monster she’ll have to face is the one inside.

Review:
I was lucky enough to read an excerpt on BookishFirst and ran to NetGalley to request the ARC. I was in a reading slump and the first three chapters completely pulled me out of it.

Quell and her mom are on the run because Quell has a dark magic called toushana living inside her. If she is found by those who hunt dark magic, they will kill her. When she is finally found, her only option is to run to the manor of her estranged grandmother, who turns out to be a headmistress of a secret magic using society.

Quite honestly, it got kind of boring and lost me a bit once Quell was "safe". It was definitely one of those stories where the main character is kept in the dark and then berated for not knowing anything. It did pick up about 3/4 of the way through and left me absolutely wanting to continue on with the series. The story was well written and had an interesting premise, but I feel like this is the boring world building book and the rest of the series will be the unputdownable five star reads.

3.5 / 5 stars
House of Marionne by J. Elle releases August 29, 2023.