So I have simmered on my thoughts of this book for a while now, so it is time to write a review.

Going into this book, I knew nothing except the vague buzzwords of "Sapphic" and "Dark Academia." And then when I read the table of contents, I was like "is this a Carmilla retelling?" but boy I am glad it was not. I found An Education in Malice to be engaging with it's intrigue, even though it was a little bit predictable.

I went back and forth, but Laura ended up being my favorite character and by far the most interesting even though it seems like she's not. I really loved her relationship and the steamy scenes.

Although I have mostly positive things to say about this book, one of my only critiques is that everything seemed a bit too easy and there was not enough stakes when the plot was concerned, so everything seemed to be solved a bit too easily.

All in all, if you like sapphic vampires, 60s/70s historical dark academia settings, you'll really like this one.

As mentioned by the group I was reading this with, there were lots of similarities between this book and Howl's Moving Castle (I don't know if they were referring to the book or the Studio Ghibli movie).

Agnes as a character was a person I love to follow and root for. She just adored those cats and wanted to help them find homes. If she happens to stumble upon magicians duking it out in the streets with their magic and her shelter becomes a partial casualty, forcing her to find better accommodations for her little fur babies? She's got a twelve point plan and a check list.

I also really liked her sister Elise, who was more a bit daring and confident than she was. We also find out early on in the book that Agnes is a widower, her husband Robin having recently passed. I wish the book focused slightly more on her grief, but hey, she's got kitties to feed and a goal to find all the strays homes. I thought we would meet Havelock, the mysterious apocalyptic magician and part-time landlord earlier on in the book, but he sort of came at the right time considering some events in the plot.

The pacing was slow for a majority of the book, for both the story and romance, but it was not overtly slow. The setting/time-period would have benefitted from more reminders that it is 1920s Montreal and the limitations of that, although it was nice not to be battered over the head with exposition.

The relationship between Havelock and Agnes turns romantic more slowly as well, which I enjoyed. I would love another book with their adventures. I love that each of the main cats in the book had a personality.

The magic system was info-dumped a bit near the beginning, so it took me a while to understand it. I appreciated that Agnes was not as familiar with magic so we could get some repeat explanations of the system. It wasn't that it was convoluted, there was just a lot of possibilities.

Overall, this book was great! Though the comparisons with other works may hinder your enjoyment if that matters to you. It didn't really to me.