Quell, are you listening?” Mom squeezes my hand as our car jerks to a stop outside the French Market on North Peters. Inventive, evocative, and epic . House of Marionne is a dazzling magical thrill ride . ― Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying We have Quell, a character whose name bothers me almost as much as America Singer. She has dark magic or something of the like, and she's been on the run all her life with her mom. Yet for some reason never thought to try to get answers from said mom. I don't care what anyone says if my mom was acting shady and cryptic after a while we would be having some words. The forbidden love story of my wildest dreams. House of Marionne is going to delight not only fantasy readers, but romance lovers of all ages!” —Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author

The forbidden love story of my wildest dreams!”– Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis A YA fantasy book that is heavy on tropes and vibes, House of Marionne follows a teen girl named Quell who has been on the run her whole life with her mom, trying to hide the dangerous magic she was born with. But now she's seeking refuge with her grandmother- the powerful head of a magical house who wants to groom Quell as her heir. Quell will become a debutante and train in traditional forms of magic, but if anyone discovers the secret she carries it will be a death sentence... Tonta’lise got here before me, yeah. Had to set up my whole show ova here. She know damn well I use dat spot eva day. But here she come, tryin’ to get my customers.” Her hand rests on her hip. “You come for ya money?” Full of magic and intrigue . . . the perfect escape for fans of fantasies that straddle the edge of our world and transport readers to dazzling, deceptive, and unexpected places' STEPHANIE GARBER

About the book

Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: Obvisouly, Quell meets this hottie named Jordan and they have this whole thing that I'm not even going to expain. It's supposed to be enemies to lovers except sike it's actually not. All you need to know is that Jordan is basically just like any other shadow-summoning beast of a love-interest we meet in every single YA fantasy (Xaden, Rhysand, Darkling) but he actually has NO PERSONALITY. Like, AT ALL. Follow me on BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/j-elle J. ELLE is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work has been translated into three languages. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for new desserts sans Chocolat, looking for literally any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her two dogs in tow. And it isn't long before she's forced to choose between her true nature and everyone she's grown to love. Twist ending. While I suspected for mere moments the ending, it still got me!! I literally was in the car and said, "*gasp*...waaaaaait..." I enjoyed that I didn't know what would happen. Could you speculate? Sure, I did...but it wasn't obvious, so that was nice.

however, giving credit where credit is due, the writing itself works well (if perhaps more geared towards middle grade than ya). what i could comprehend of the magic system was enticing and inspired and the ending itself was surprisingly very enjoyable. whilst i was indifferent to most of the characters, yagrin distinguished himself in my eyes. his moral ambiguity in particular - delineated within the chapters told from his vantage - consistently enthralled me. despite his lesser literal presence in view of, say, quell’s or jordan’s, he felt far more flesh and bone than they ever did. Essentially, the bare bones of this book had the makings of something interesting. The magic system and the premise were intriguing. But I simply was not interested.

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A darkly tantalizing tale of intrigue, glamor, and romance.” —Amélie Wen Zhao, New York Times bestselling author of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night Actually experiencing the school aspect of what classes the main character was attending and looking more into the magic that exists in this world. Full of magic and intrigue, this read is the perfect escape for fans of fantasies that straddle the edge of our world and transport readers to dazzling, deceptive, and unexpected places." - Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ballad of Never After

Aparently, Quell's Grandmom (yes, GRANDMOM) is some magical headmistress of this powerful magic house/school/I don't really know, which is technically in the same world but like also not (hidden away, maybe). After Quell runs away, she is taken in by her British (I'm assuming because she drinks tea and seems very proper) Grandmom and has to learn to control her magic, but not her toushana that no one seems to know about (don't even ask me tf this is because I'm confused out of my mind) because that's like a dark magic thing or something (which took me until 45% through to put this together). This is where J. Elle had the chance to make this into a sexy villianess origin story but that is obvisouly not what happened or else I wouldn't be here giving this 1 star. Oh, and I forgot to mention that everyone at this "school" also has to learn etiquette and a number of other boring things like how to curtsy and sit straight in your chair (*cue that scene in Barbie where they walk around with books on their heads*). A darkly tantalizing tale of intrigue, glamor, and romance." —Amélie Wen Zhao, New York Times bestselling author of Song of Silver, Flame Like NightThe forbidden love story of my wildest dreams. House of Marionne is going to delight not only fantasy readers, but romance lovers of all ages! Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author

With House of Marionne, J.Elle lures you through a portal and into an elaborate, enthralling world of magic and monsters and mayhem, where the twists and turns take you—and her characters—places you never expected to go.” —Sabaa Tahir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the An Ember in the Ashes series In this delightful little story, we follow this chic named Quell (don't even get me started on the names) who's *not like the other girls* because she has magic and welll... it really isn't quite explained if this is a normal thing to have or not. Anyway, our girl Quell has this thing called toushana (a form of magic) inside her which she knows she has and also knows is bad but doesn't really understand anything else about magic somehow.I thought that this world was incredible. I loved all the details and the different teases we got of all that the magic could do. The school itself seems fascinating, and it is something that I was really enjoying at first. I loved that the students grow their own diadems or masks based on their magic, and it just felt like a very lush world. It's dark and it's decadent, so that part was 100% correct. The writing was... well, something. At times, it was actually pretty good. At others, it was cringy and tear-inducing. Observe: Quell was the main character of this book, a girl with shadow-like magic who has been on the run almost her entire life with her mother so that people who will hunt her won't catch up with her. Despite this, I didn't feel she really fit the part of someone who had been running for so long. She claimed to be super observant, but then there were moments she was oblivious to some things. I also just don't feel she was as fleshed out as she could have been, she felt flat at times that she really should have shone. Jordan was the male main character who fell into the "dark-haired broody" trope, which I didn't mind because they're usually my favorite, but at times it felt like that's all he was as well. He did have more personality, but I couldn't exactly pinpoint what bothered me a little about his characterization.