I got The Last Starborn Seer (Chronicles of Arcelia #1) by Venetia Constantine as part of this year’s Bloomsbury Big Night In with Bloomsbury Publishing and Tandem Collective and I was genuinely excited to finally get into it. I had been looking at this book for months and everything about it looked to be just my kind of fantasy. But the first chapters are dense. There’s a lot of lore, history and terminology to absorb, and I needed a moment to find my footing in Arcelia. Once I got into the story it started opening up enough that the early effort was worth it.

Leilani Stellarion is a princess cursed with a dangerous variety of star magic that grants her prophetic visions, but threatens her sanity, slowly. Her people are shunning her, her betrothed is mistrusting her, and she’s being blamed for the plague ravaging her kingdom. When a prophecy says she could be able to end the Sickening by retrieving an ancient sceptre, she is forced into a quest with people who have every reason to despise her. The setup has a lot of tension and the world itself feels ancient and layered, with fractured kingdoms, old grudges and magic that always comes at a cost.

I did best with the sense of adventure. It is a quest peppered with shifting loyalties, secrets and moments when the characters are forced to confront their own prejudices. I loved the group dynamics and the mistrust informing their interactions. The magic system is also actually interesting. Leilani’s visions aren’t merely dramatic flourishes, but something that actively threatens her wellbeing, giving her decisions real weight.

But the romance didn’t quite work for me. I liked that there was no instant attraction, but the emotional connection felt uneven and I never quite settled into either potential pairing. It was also hard for me to deal with all the secrecy involved. It’s a familiar fantasy trope, characters keeping information from each other, but here it was a constant frustration.

Even with those caveats, the ending hooked me. At that point I was all in on the characters and the world and I closed the book wanting more. It certainly feels like there is a much bigger story to be told and I look forward to seeing where Venetia Constantine takes the series next.

A lot of slow paced fantasy fans can enjoy here, with the detailed world building, political tension, quest vibes and a magic system based on consequence. My experience of reading this was mixed but memorable, and I will definitely be reading the sequel.

With thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing, Tandem Collective and Netgalley.