The Notorious Virtues (The Notorious Virtues, #1) by Alwyn Hamilton 🎧 Max Meyers, Colin White, Karissa Vacker, and EJ Lavery

Synopsis (via Goodreads): A glittering fantasy thriller about a glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

At sixteen, Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money—and all the magic—in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.

But there's a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora's aunt. When Lotte's absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she'd abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother's death wasn't random—it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.

While the dangers of the Veritaz competition threaten each of the Holtzfall girls, and the stark class differences turns political outrage to terrifing violence—the new cousins must fight to stay alive, no matter what.

Incredible tests, impossible choices, and deadly odds await both girls. But there can only be one winner.

The Notorious Virtues was a really interesting story with a unique concept, but I definitely think it was longer than it needed to be. The pacing dragged in places, which was a bit of a bummer since we didn’t get as much worldbuilding or character development as I would have liked. The story alternates between several POVs — Lotte, Nora, August, Theo, and even a few secondary characters — but unfortunately none of them felt especially fleshed out, and I think that hurt the overall story a bit.

I still ended up giving this one 4 stars, although if I’m being completely honest it probably lands closer to a 3.5 for me. I’m not sure I would have made it as far if I’d been reading a physical copy, but the narrators did a fantastic job bringing the story to life and giving the characters more personality.

The ending does set up the next book really well, even though it leaves us with quite a few unanswered questions. I have a feeling the regular folk are about to learn what the Holtzfall family’s protection really meant when it came to their safety and wellbeing. I think people forgot the original story and only saw the Holtzfalls as power-hungry elites who refused to share their wealth.

Things definitely needed to change, and even Lotte and Nora seemed ready to see what that might look like — but I don’t think they anticipated some of the events that transpired. It will be interesting to see how they come back from everything that's happened, and what their new world will look like when they do.