Rating: 4 stars

This is a bonus content novella to celebrate the series coming to a close and contains 100k words of bonus content from the Zodiac Academy Series.

Savage – a short story about Hail and Merissa Vega’s love story

The Shimmering Springs – that night Caleb and Seth did or didn’t kiss…

The moment Geraldine first saw the twins.

Seth on the Moon – one Werewolf’s wanderings on the moon.

Night – that time the twins met the Ruthless Boys – with a never before published chapter!

Orion ‘blue’ alternate POV – BRAND NEW

Orion ‘Fairy Fair’ alternate POV

Darius ‘throne room’ alternate POV

Darius ‘Stars’ alternate POV – BRAND NEW

Featuring the never before seen map of Solaria!

Each chapter is introduced by Lionel Acrux, looking back on how his enemies have thwarted him and how he overcame their insufferable rebellion – BRAND NEW

I know I read several Zodiac Academy novellas last year (see reviews of Origins of An Academy Bullyand the post I did here on The Big A.S.S. Party and Seth on the Moon). So when I heard about this one that released this February, I knew I had to read it. Live and Let Lionel is a novella featuring the narration of everyone’s favorite evil villain in the series, Lionel Acrux as he talks about those rebelling against him and reflects on his own shortcomings during the events leading up to the latest book in the Zodiac Academy series, Sorrow and Starlight. This book is a bonus novella that’s been written in celebration of the series coming to a close with the release of the last book in the series Restless Stars, which is set to release on April 23rd this year.

When I heard about this novella’s release, I was excited to read it for a number of reasons. I was curious to see how Lionel Acrux’s narrative was going to go at the beginning of each of the stories, I was excited to read more Zodiac Academy content, and I was happy to be back in the Zodiac Academy world again.

And let me tell you, Lionel Acrux didn’t disappoint. Hearing his narrative before reading each of these was amusing because of how clueless he was with regards to some of the things going on, including things happening with his own son. While he’s not a bad guy I would ever want to personally cross paths with, he’s very well-written and I enjoyed hearing his thoughts about those thwarting his plans. 

While I’m at the point where I’m ready for the final book in this series to be published, I’m also happy to get any content I can get about the characters in this world. This novella was no exception because I enjoyed reading all of the stories within its pages, even the one I’ve already read before (yes, I’m talking about you Seth on the Moon). It was nice seeing all of these characters again and seeing alternative perspectives from my favorite characters. Some of my favorites just to list a few were the Shimmering Springs, Orion ‘Blue’ Alternative POV, Orion ‘Fairy Fair’ Alternative POV, Darius ‘Throne Room’ Alternative POV, and Seth’s POV of the last chapter in Sorrow and Starlight. I enjoyed each of these stories because they featured several of my favorite characters and loved some of the hilarity that ensued in some of them.

What I didn’t enjoy about Live and Let Lionel with some of the stories is that I feel like I didn’t get enough story with the characters in them. Savage and Night are the ones that come to mind for me the most because while I enjoy the characters in both these stories, I felt like there just wasn’t enough for me. With Savage the issue I had was that I didn’t want to see just the moment that Hail and Melissa Vega’s love story started. I wanted to see what happened following and I don’t mean the stuff I already know from reading the series. I wanted to see their relationship develop into how its portrayed in Beyond the Veil. With Night, my issue is that the meeting between the characters from the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac and the Vega twins felt a little awkward to me. I can’t explain it exactly, but it just felt strange to me, almost like the Vega twins had met the whole group before and was just coming over to hang out with everyone. I think what probably didn’t help was that I couldn’t tell completely when this meeting of these characters was supposed to have taken place during the Zodiac Academy series. I know they had probably already met Dante before at this point because of him being a Dragon shifter and there are little hints regarding events that are in the series that’ve apparently already happened. But otherwise, I couldn’t sense exactly when Tory and Darcy had met them. And that bothered me while I was reading the story because I felt like I needed to know when exactly this meeting had taken place.

Overall though, I enjoyed reading this novella as it was a good way to bring me back into the Zodiac Academy world right before the release of the final book in the series. In fact, it has me contemplating on if I want to read all of the books in the series one final time before the release of Restless Stars, or if I want to wait until this last book has come out and then read the series again from the beginning. Regardless of what I do though, I recommend those who’ve enjoyed reading the Zodiac Academy series and want more content before the final book comes out to read this as I feel like anyone who’s enjoyed the series and wants to read more of this world will enjoy this novella.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my review of Live and Let Lionel! If you enjoyed my review of this book, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments below or check out another one of my blog posts.