Verdict: A warm, fast, genuinely inventive supernatural academy romance with witches, shifters, vampires and mermaids sharing one campus — undercut by a subtitle that promises a lesbian romance and delivers a bi one, and by 227 pages that cannot hold everything it sets up.
Best for: Readers who want a cosy, low-angst magic-school world with fated mates and found family, and who care more about the campus and the concept than about explicit heat or a rigorous plot.
Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — romance.io rates it open door, and readers report the scenes stop short of explicit)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8/5 — a 4.12 Goodreads average pulled down by a label mismatch readers keep raising)
Tropes: Fated mates, roommates-to-lovers, magical academy, forbidden love across a family feud, queer awakening, found family, shifter pack politics, exiled heroine, standalone series opener.
Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy is Remi Lebeau’s self-published opener to the Covens and Clans series — a 227-page paranormal and fantasy sapphic romance set at a newly reopened magic college where witches, wolf shifters, vampires and mermaids are made to study together for the first time, and where Maggie Hall, a witch who wanted a normal life at a normal university, is assigned a wolf-shifter roommate who turns out to be her fated mate and the daughter of a pack her own mothers helped exile.
It holds a 4.12 average across 167 Goodreads ratings and 4.4 across 205 on Amazon, with 76% of Goodreads ratings at four stars or above. The written reviews tell a different story than those numbers do — there are only fourteen of them, and several of the most detailed ones spend their whole length on the same objection. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.
What Is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy About?
This is urban fantasy romance in the magic-academy mode, and the “inclusive” in the title is the actual premise rather than a marketing adjective. Most academy fantasy runs on one species and one hierarchy; Lebeau’s campus is a political experiment, reopened after years of closure to teach witches, shifters, vampires and mermaids side by side, which means the school itself is the source of conflict rather than the backdrop to it. Expect pack politics, inter-species suspicion and prank warfare rather than trials and tournaments.
Maggie is introduced through what she does not want: magic, the academy, and the year her three witch mothers are holding her tuition hostage over. She has a boyfriend, a plan and no interest in any of this. Rae arrives assuming she can keep her head down — her pack was exiled, she is trying not to be noticed, and the last thing she needs is a fated-mate bond to a witch who does not take her world seriously. The book runs dual POV, which is what lets the fated-mate premise work at all: one lead feels the certainty, the other feels ambushed by it, and the reader sits inside both.
What Makes This Sapphic Magic Academy Romance Work
- The campus: The most-praised element by a distance. Readers reach for the Hogwarts comparison unprompted, and the four-species mix is described as the thing that makes it feel new rather than borrowed.
- The fated-mate collision: Rae knows immediately, Maggie does not believe in any of it, and that asymmetry gives the forbidden-love angle real friction — her mothers helped exile Rae’s pack.
- Pace: The publisher bills it as fun and fast-paced and readers agree; the word that recurs across the positive reviews is “immersive,” usually attached to how quickly the world assembles.
- Found family: The friend group around the two leads is the second thing readers name, and several reviews frame the whole book as being about belonging rather than about romance.
- The shared world: Elmwood connects to Lebeau’s vampire series, and readers who arrived from those books report the crossovers as a genuine draw rather than a gimmick.
Book Synopsis
Maggie Hall has a plan and it does not involve magic. She wants a normal college, a normal degree and the boyfriend she already has, and she is prepared to be extremely reasonable about all of it. Her three witch mothers are not. They will pay her tuition on one condition: one year at Elmwood, the inclusive magic academy that has just reopened its doors to every magical species at once. She takes the deal intending to keep her head down and run out the clock.
Rae Arundel has a plan too, and hers is smaller. Her pack was exiled and she has spent long enough learning what happens to a wolf shifter who draws attention. Elmwood is a chance to be a student rather than a problem, and she intends to take it quietly. Then she meets her new roommate and recognises, immediately and inconveniently, that the witch who does not believe in any of this is her fated mate — and the daughter of one of the witches who signed her pack’s exile.
Around them the academy is not settling. The witches run pranks on the newcomers, the shifter packs circle each other, and something with red eyes keeps appearing at the edge of Maggie’s vision without anyone else seeing it. The staff insist the school is safe. The students increasingly do not. What neither Maggie nor Rae realises is that the two questions in front of them — what a bond neither of them chose actually obliges them to, and what is really moving through the corridors at night — turn out to be the same question, and the answer is older than the academy.
My Review
The concept is the reason to read this and it is a good one. Magic-academy fantasy almost always sorts its students by house or bloodline; Lebeau builds a school whose entire reason for existing is that it refuses to sort them, and then lets the resulting friction supply the plot. Witches who resent sharing, packs that will not stand near each other, vampires and mermaids in the same lecture hall — it is a genuinely fresh setup for a subgenre that has been recycling the same castle for a decade, and readers respond to it as such.
The second strength is the shape of the romance. Fated mates is a trope that usually removes tension, because certainty is not tension. Lebeau splits the certainty between the leads: Rae knows what the bond is and Maggie has no framework for it at all, and on top of that Maggie’s family is directly implicated in Rae’s exile. That gives a short book two engines running at once, and the roommate proximity means neither woman can retreat from the other while she works it out.
Where it struggles, and this is the dominant complaint rather than a personal quibble, is the gap between the cover copy and the book. The Amazon subtitle reads “A Lesbian Urban Fantasy Romance.” Both leads are written as bi or pan, Maggie has a boyfriend when the book opens, and at least one detailed reviewer docked a full star specifically for that mismatch — her position was that the book earned four stars and the label cost it one. Another review notes the relationship is bi with an ex in the background. This is not a complaint about the representation; it is a complaint about the promise, and it is the single most consistent thing in the written reviews.
The other problems are structural and they share a cause: 227 pages is not enough room. One reader wanted it longer so the explanations and the plot could go deeper. Another noted, bluntly, that there is no point giving Maggie three mothers when the third one does nothing. A third found the pronoun handling for one character confusing because the plural is used inconsistently alongside gendered ones. And the spice, per multiple readers, stops short — the scenes require the reader to fill in the rest. None of these are fatal, and the ratings show most readers do not mind, but they all point the same direction: a world sketched faster than it is built.
So reset the expectation on category, not on quality. If you came for an explicit sapphic romance you have bought a warm new-adult supernatural campus story with a bi lead and closed-adjacent heat. If you came for a cosy magic school with fated mates and found family, the label problem will not touch you at all.
My honest note: A genuinely inventive world running at novella depth with a novel’s worth of ideas. Read it for Elmwood itself; if the marketing is what sold you, check the subtitle against the reviews first.
| Element | In Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Maggie Hall & Rae Arundel — reluctant witch and exiled wolf shifter, roommates and fated mates |
| Core tropes | Fated mates, roommates-to-lovers, magical academy, forbidden love across a family feud, queer awakening, found family |
| Setting | Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy — a reopened college teaching witches, shifters, vampires and mermaids together |
| Heat level | 3/5 — open door, but the scenes are not fully explicit |
| Series | Covens and Clans book 1 — billed as readable standalone; the series has continued and shares a world with the author’s vampire books |
| Content notes | Sexual content, exile and displacement of a community, bullying and hazing between student factions, demonic threat and peril, family betrayal |
How Spicy Is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy?
romance.io bands it at 3 out of 5 and labels it open door, though that entry rests on only four ratings, so it is worth weighing the readers alongside it. They land in the same place and are more specific: one review states plainly that the spice scenes are not fully descriptive and need the reader to imagine the rest, and the author’s own front matter says the book contains “some sexual content and adult themes” rather than billing it as explicit. Treat it as a book with sex in it rather than a spicy book.
The thing to flag in advance is not content, it is the fated-mate bond itself: the attraction is presented as supernaturally determined before either woman consents to it, which is standard for the trope but worth knowing if bond-driven inevitability bothers you. No reviewer flags anything darker. For the same band, Her Shadow so Dark and Lovely sits at the same 3/5 with the same plot-forward priorities, and Unbound by Midnight matches it in a paranormal setting.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a magic school that is genuinely not Hogwarts with the serial numbers filed off, you like fated mates and found family more than slow burn, you are happy with new-adult heat that stays suggestive, and a fast 227-page read is what you are after.
You may want to skip it if: you specifically want a lesbian romance and the subtitle is why you clicked, you need a world explained rather than sketched, you want explicit on-page heat, or thin supporting characters pull you out of a book.
In short: a strong idea delivered at speed — the campus is worth the price, the label on the cover is not the book you are getting.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)
The gap between ratings and reviews is the first thing to notice here. There are 167 Goodreads ratings against just 14 written reviews, and 205 Amazon ratings at 4.4 — a profile that is typical of a Kindle Unlimited title read quickly and rated on the way out. There is no TikTok moment, no Reddit thread, no trade coverage and no audiobook; Libro.fm does not stock it. What drives discovery instead is the author’s shared universe: several reviewers say they came to Elmwood from Lebeau’s vampire series and stayed for the crossover.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The academy first — “immersive” is the recurring word, and the reviewer who called it “a little like Hogwarts, filled with vampires, witches, shifters” is doing what most of the positive reviews do, which is describe the building before describing the couple. The species mix is second, named explicitly as the thing that makes the concept work. Third is the found-family reading: more than one reviewer frames the book as being about trust, fear and finding a place to belong rather than about the romance, and one closes on exactly that. The series-hopping readers are the fourth group, and the most loyal — they arrived from other books in the same world and rate accordingly.
What readers argue about and complain about: The label, above everything. The mechanism is specific and it is not about representation: the subtitle sells a lesbian urban fantasy romance, both leads read as bi or pan, and Maggie opens the book with a boyfriend, so a reader who chose it for the category finds a different book. One reviewer removed a full star for that alone while stating the book otherwise deserved four. Second: compression. Two hundred and twenty-seven pages carry a four-species political premise, a fated-mate romance, a demon subplot and a family feud, and reviewers who wanted more depth say so directly — one asked for a longer book so the explanations and plot could land. Third, and smaller: cast economy. The three-mothers setup is raised as a case of a character existing without a function, and the pronoun handling for one supporting character confused at least one reader who found the plural used inconsistently against gendered forms. Fourth: the heat is softer than the packaging suggests. The genuine split is between readers treating this as cosy new-adult fantasy, who are delighted, and readers who came for the romance category on the cover, who are not.
The series question everyone should ask first: The publisher bills this as readable either as a standalone or as book one of Covens and Clans, and no reviewer reports a cliffhanger — the romance and the academy plot both close. The series has since grown to at least three books, and it sits inside a wider shared world with the author’s vampire titles, which is where most of the repeat readers came from. One reviewer notes the next book appears to step back a generation, so check the ordering before you buy rather than assuming a straight sequel. If you want one book and no commitment, this works on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy a lesbian romance?
Not exactly, and this is the most common complaint in the reviews. The Amazon subtitle says lesbian urban fantasy romance, but both leads read as bi or pan and Maggie has a boyfriend when the book opens — one reviewer docked a star for the mismatch alone.
How spicy is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy?
A 3/5. romance.io bands it open door, and readers report the scenes stop short of fully explicit — the author’s own note describes it as containing some sexual content rather than billing it as spicy.
Can Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy be read as a standalone?
Yes. The publisher bills it as both a standalone and as Covens and Clans book one, and no reviewer reports a cliffhanger — the romance and the academy plot both resolve.
Is there an Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy audiobook?
Not as of August 2026. Libro.fm does not stock it and no audio edition is listed elsewhere, which is common for self-published paranormal romance.
Is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy on Kindle Unlimited?
Yes. It is currently borrowable with a Kindle Unlimited membership, which is how most of its 167 Goodreads ratings appear to have been earned.
How long is Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy?
Two hundred and twenty-seven pages — a fast read, and short enough that several reviewers wished the world-building had more room.
If You Loved Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy, Read These Next
A Witch for Solstice runs the same witchy warmth and found-family register at a slightly hotter setting, She Came for the Pack takes the wolf-pack politics Elmwood keeps in the background and makes them the whole book, and Unbound by Midnight matches the 3/5 heat band in a paranormal setting with more room to develop. More in paranormal and fantasy lesbian romance and across all our book reviews.
The Bottom Line
Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy sets out to build a magic school that works by refusing to segregate its students, and it delivers that: the campus is the freshest thing in the book, the fated-mate asymmetry gives a short romance real friction, and the found-family thread is what most readers end up talking about. What it does not deliver is the category its subtitle promises, the depth its four-species premise needs, or the heat its packaging implies — and those three gaps account for almost every critical review it has. If you want a warm, quick, inventive supernatural campus story and you are relaxed about the label, it is an easy recommendation. Check Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy ranks as a high-concept cosy paranormal academy romance — inventive and warm, constrained by a page count and a cover label that both promise more than the book carries, and best approached for the school and the found family rather than for the romance category on the tin.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ 4.12 average across 167 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 4.4 on Amazon across 205 ratings
- ✓ Campus concept praised in nearly every review
- ✓ Only 14 written reviews, and the detailed ones object
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Fated mates split asymmetrically across two POVs
- ✓ Family feud gives the bond real obstruction
- ✓ Roommate proximity keeps them in the room
- ✓ One lead opens the book with a boyfriend
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Maggie’s reluctance is a real character position
- ✓ Rae’s exile gives her something to protect
- ✓ Found-family group is the readers’ favourite
- ✓ Third mother named as having no function
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Fast, readable, never stalls
- ✓ Four species established quickly and clearly
- ✓ Shared world managed without confusion
- ✓ Pronoun handling reported as inconsistent
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Exile and belonging are the real subject
- ✓ Several reviews read it as a book about trust
- ✓ “Immersive” is the recurring word
- ✓ 227 pages limit how deep any thread goes
Heat Level ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ romance.io bands it 3/5 open door
- ✓ Author bills it as some sexual content
- ✓ Readers say scenes stop short of explicit
- ✓ romance.io entry rests on only four ratings
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Billed as standalone and reads as one
- ✓ No reviewer reports a cliffhanger
- ✓ Academy plot and romance both resolve
- ✓ Series ordering afterwards is unclear
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Shared world with the author’s vampire series
- ✓ Series has continued to at least three books
- ✓ Short enough to revisit in an evening
- ✓ No audiobook exists for a second format
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