Academy – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Stealing Infinity (Stolen Beauty, #1)

Author: Alyson Noel

Format: ebook (KU)

Pages: 473

Publication Date: 6/28/23

Categories: Young Adult, Time Travel, Romance, Academy, Series

These days, I’ve been killing it when it comes to letting people down. Now I’ve been kicked out of high school, arrested, and accepted into a remote, off-the-grid school owned and operated by an inscrutable billionaire tech guru.

Gray Wolf Academy is looking for a certain kind of student. Ones that no one will miss. Like me.

Then there’s Braxton. The beautiful, oddly anachronistic guy who showed up right when the trouble started. And he’s a total enigma—which means that I definitely can’t trust him, even if there’s something about him that makes me want to.
They all tell me I have a gift. A very rare gift. And Gray Wolf Academy wants me to learn it. To use it. Because if what they say is true, I have all the time in the world.
And that makes me the most dangerous high school student you’ll never know…

Content Warning: violence, sexual assault

I’ve been curious about this title and saw it as available to borrow as an audiobook so I tried it out. But then I found it was on Kindle Unlimited so I stopped listening on the audiobook (which wasn’t bad or anything) and read it because I thought I could just read it faster. There are 100+ chapters but each chapter is short, like a page short.

Just an FYI, time-travel stories are usually a hit or miss for me. I think for this book it’s a hit! Natasha is going through some teenage things. And when her ex-best friend, Elodie, sets her up as a thief and she gets taken away to a secret academy she learns the truth about what Elodie is or does. Gray Wolf Academy is a training facility for time-traveling thieves under Arthur Blackstone’s tutelage and demands. He’s a wealthy man who covets historical artifacts and he needs Natasha to do retrieve some unconventional things from her trip missions.

It’s an academy book so I like the drama – I expect it with this trope. I like that Natasha doesn’t really know who to trust and something is happening at the academy, like people going missing or not coming back from their “trips”. I want to know why. Elodie lives up to that girl who is a frenemy. The romance between Natasha and Braxton is a bit of an insta-love moment (not that Natasha calls it love, but she’s testing the waters). I found all the training and time traveling fascinating and Arthur Blackstone is a mystery. The art and historical artifacts knowledge is fun – Natasha is just a wealth of information isn’t she?

Would like more character development in book two but for the most part I thought the story was entertaining, especially for a time-traveling story.

Tropes: insta-love, time travel, boarding school academy

Why you should read it:

you like time travel and boarding school academy settings
there is a lot of mystery and historical facts
there is romance and backstabbing

Why you might not want to read it:

not into the boarding school academy trope – I feel like teens and young YA readers would enjoy this one
insta love

My Thoughts:

I’m someone who loves books set at a boarding school and I thought the time-travel element was done well. I think I’d like to see more character development in book two. Everyone’s background is still quite a mystery and I think there is a lot more to learn about everyone.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Girls With Sharp Sticks

Author: Suzanne Young

Format: Hardcover (borrowed)

Pages: 393

Categories: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Suspense

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears.

As Mena and her friends begin to uncover the dark secrets of what’s actually happening there—and who they really are—the girls of Innovations will find out what they are truly capable of. Because some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

Girls with Sharp Sticks is a really interesting book and I don’t say that just to say something about it. It’s a book that made me think a lot after I read it, because of the some elements to it (and yes I’m trying not to spoil it 😅).

Philomena “Mena”, and her friends are students at a boarding school called Innovations Academy. They are all very beautiful girls with perfect bodies and looks. Something small like having a scar devalues a girl’s beauty. They attend classes and learn subjects to assimilate into society but they aren’t allowed independent thoughts. Thinking is a bad thing. They aren’t allowed excessive emotions, like regular girls, and take vitamins every night to keep them functioning the way the Academy wants them to.

The further into the story I got, it just made me feel creeped out because the way the men treat these girls is just wrong. And when I say men, I’m talking about their professors, their Guardians, and the administrator, Anton. They threaten, then smile at them, blame them if they don’t “obey”, and then praise them. And then if they really do something bad, they get impulse therapy. Ugh. They are grooming these girls, but for what? Apparently for investors interested in them- but we don’t know what they need them for. It reminded me of The Stepford Wives and when I mentioned the premise of the story to my husband, he said it sounded like Westworld.

One by one the girls start to “wake up” and then we find out what’s really happening at this school. The story kept me interested enough but it is slow going because we keep learning about the girls’ regiment and their life at the Academy. It unfolds like a mystery actually and hardly anything happens outside of the Academy. Mena is a daydreamer, kind of bland, but I see why since she wasn’t woken up yet. She loves her friends very much though – but emotion as well, isn’t something appreciated as a quality for these girls.

The meat of the story is at the end. There is action, a plot twist, questions and some answers but I’m hoping a lot more will be answered in the second book.

If you read the book and feel creeped out, it did its job. The book is supposed to make you uncomfortable like how girls or women feel when boys and men treat females a certain way. The grooming, the abuse, the assault, the constrictions, the expectations and rules placed on these girls is wrong. It is a book for right now with all the issues we are presently dealing with in society.

I wanted the pacing to pick up a bit more because I wanted the girls to start fighting back. Like, enough of this treatment! Let’s kick these guys’ butts already, I was getting so mad. 😤 But I was also getting mad because I was afraid for these girls, they needed help and there seemed to be no one they could turn to. The ending was gripping and it makes me curious as to what will happen in book two. Let’s hope the pacing in book two is quicker and Mena and the girls are equipped with more than just sharp sticks to fight back.