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Leda Shadow arrives in Magical London as the first hybrid student in a millennium admitted to the cutthroat Malcroix Bones Academy. When assassination attempts immediately target her, she forms an uneasy bargain with the school's hostile aristocratic heir, trading help with his volatile magic for protection.

You'll like it if you enjoy

  • Enemies-to-allies slow burn romance
  • A resilient hybrid heroine
  • Deadly magical academy politics
  • Dark fantasy and intricate worldbuilding

Good to know

  • Explicit sexual content
  • Dark themes and violence

How it ends: Readers say the final book delivers a tense, fulfilling conclusion where heroes and villains alike get their due.

Tags

  • Strong Female Lead
  • Romance
  • Dark
  • Slow Burn
  • Academy
  • Heavy Worldbuilding
  • Unique Magic System
  • Explicit Content

Reading order

  1. Cover for Malcroix Bones Academy: A Dark Academia Romantasy (Bones and Shadow Book 1)

    Book 1: Malcroix Bones Academy

    447 pages2025

    As the first hybrid student at an elite magical university, Leda Shadow is an outcast marked for death. Caelum Bones, the academy founder's arrogant heir and lethal sparring champion, despises her on sight. Yet after an assassination attempt exposes a bizarre truth about her power, the rivals strike a secret bargain to survive. In Malcroix Bones Academy, dangerous secrets and explosive enemies-to-lovers tension ignite when a fragile pact of survival turns a deadly feud into something far more volatile.

  2. Cover for Malevolent Bones: A Dark Academia Romantasy (Bones and Shadow Book 2)

    Book 2: Malevolent Bones

    484 pages2026

    To the magical world, Caelum Bones is untouchable royalty, but behind the closed doors of his ancestral estate, his father grooms him as a weapon of dark conquest. Only Leda Shadow can see past his cold facade, refusing to abandon him even as he tries to push her away. In Malevolent Bones, buried family secrets and forced proximity deepen their simmering bond, pulling Leda into the crosshairs of an ancient dark legacy where trusting a morally grey heir might cost her life.

  3. Cover for Bones and Blood Spells: A Dark Academia Romantasy (Bones and Shadow Book 3)

    Book 3: Bones and Blood Spells

    517 pages2026

    Trapped at the academy over winter break while half of Magique hunts her, Leda Shadow faces a campus shrouded in peril. When a battered Caelum returns from his father’s brutal attack, they unite with remaining classmates to scour forbidden archives. But as citizens vanish and return terrifyingly altered, Caelum makes a reckless plunge into enemy territory. Bones and Blood Spells delivers high-stakes intrigue and dark magical conspiracies as a clandestine found family races against escalating chaos.

  4. Cover for Serpent and Shadow: A Dark Academia Romantasy (Bones and Shadow Book 4)

    Book 4: Serpent and Shadow

    533 pages2026

    The Dark Cathedral has stepped out of the shadows, conquering Magique with an ultimatum: surrender or face their unstoppable, golden-masked champion. Refusing to yield, Leda Shadow embarks on a desperate hunt through the rumors of war to rescue Caelum before his soul is lost forever. In Serpent and Shadow, the battle for survival reaches its boiling point with high-stakes magic and an agonizing fight for redemption against a father determined to break them both.

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