The first book of this months 26 in 26 challenge was none other than I.V. Marie’s Immortal Consequences, I am someone that is obsessed with books that have a good sprayed edge; so, you bet I’ll be looking on vinted for fairyloot or illumicrate editions to snatch up and the one for immortal consequences is just… unbelievably pretty. I know there will be a second book and I do hope that illumicrate will make a matching one so it’ll be the best set to put on display.

This book has a lot of POVs but, those are all within the same timeline and event so it isn’t really difficult to keep up with. I would’ve stopped reading immediately if the book would have that many POVs and in different timelines and events – I can’t handle that. But luckily this book isn’t.

Immortal Consequences is about a couple of students attending Blackwood Academy. This is somewhat of a purgatory; you stay in Blackwood until ‘the forgetting’ but that doesn’t take place until your soul has been there for hundreds maybe thousands of years. There is one way to ‘cross over’ or become an ascended for Blackwood – The people living in Blackwood have powers but they are limited, if you choose to become ascended that unlocks you magic so it can be used to its full potential. BUT for either of those things you have to win the Decennial and that only takes place once every 10 years.

The Decennial is a game of sorts, you have to play 4 trails and the one that is left standing will get to choose if they want to cross over and put their soul to rest or if they want to become Ascended. All students in Blackwood are not under 16 or over 18 years of age and there are hundreds of them. But in this book the main characters are; Wren, August, Irene, Masika, Olivier and Emilio. Those are the POVs we’ll be following throughout.

After midnight August wakes Wren because there is something about to happen that shouldn’t; A new student will come to Blackwood which should be impossible because Emilio came a year ago and there shouldn’t be another scheduled for at least 9 years. But alas, curiosity wins and they both sneak out to the building where the student is likely to ‘fall’ into their purgatory. When Irene sees Wren and August moving outside toward a building that is off limits, she gets intrigued and decides to take Masika on this adventure with her. But they are not the only ones that saw Wren and August sneak off, Olivier and Emilio did to so, they are of to investigate as well.

Once all the protective wards are unlocked of the building that is supposedly for the Housemasters, they check it out but it’s surprisingly empty which it isn’t supposed to be. Up on the rooftop they wait, and the rest eventually joins. When time ticks by and there is still no new student, August thinks that maybe it was a fluke? But then the student comes and she is surrounded by shadow magic, a type of magic that you can’t use unless you are a Demien. The girl keeps screaming but then a figure takes hold of her and they are both gone. All shocked by what they’ve just witnessed, they silently discuss what it could be and walk back down to be met by the housemasters and be brought to the headmaster’s office.

With just a slap on the wrist and the promise to not discus this any further live goes on and soon the nominees for the Decennial will be chosen but this year it’ll be in a form of competition. Not one of every house gets to participate but two and, in the end, there will only be one winner.

The trails are gruesome and a lot harder than they thought it would be. There is one thing that they haven’t felt in a long time that can do you under in the trails and that is pain and believe me, the things within the trails will do their utmost best to harm you in the most painful way.

While in between trails the six get to know more and more secrets and are not comfortable with the Decennial any longer but have to participate because they all signed a soul vow and those can’t be broken. With the truth piling up and the Demien order trying to infiltrate the school and try to persuade students to follow them. (The Demien order is a bit like following Voldemort; at least that is what the kids get taught)

Losing students within the trails – Who will still stand when the last trail begins and who will survive and become the ascended? – Will the Demien order succeed in getting more followers and infiltrating the school? Will the love between some of the students finally blossom enough for them to act upon it? And what about that weird girl that got pushed into this world and was surrounded by shadow magic? Something that shouldn’t even be possible in the first place. Guess you’ll have to read to find out!

I’m giving this book a solid ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐.5 stars and can’t wait to see what the next one brings us.