ACADEMY GIRLS (2015)

Academy Girls by Nora Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A perfect book to read on a crisp autumn day! Filled with poetry, mystery, and the angst of young women, this book will appeal to those who want a lighter version in the vein of Donna Tart's The Secret History or have enjoyed Carol Goodman's Lake of Dead Languages.

THE STORY:  Thirty-five years after leaving, Jane Milton has come back to Grove Academy with her teen-aged son Charlie. Their world has collapsed and she has one last chance to put it back together. Given the opportunity to teach English, for which she is totally unprepared, Jane fights to overcome her memories of dark secrets in the past. When her least favorite student starts submitting stories that seem all too familiar, Jane knows she has to discover the truth before it is too late.

WHAT I THOUGHT: Told in the present and the past, the layers of deception and deceit are slowly pealed away. The reader becomes invested in the characters. And the poetry of Emily Dickinson woven through the story is a wonderful bonus to this truly compelling mystery.

FIRST SENTENCE: "At the Grove Academy, we learned three immutable lessons" literature is a kind of religion, only failures get married, and though we would eventually leave the academy, the spirit of the Grove would always stay with us."

BOTTOM LINE: I have read that you should write the book that you would want to read. Nora Carroll has written that book for me. Gothic, mysterious, and in a beautiful private school setting, this was a book I didn't want to put down until there were no more pages left.

DISCLAIMER: Invited by Net Galley to request and receive this title for an honest review.

Title: Academy Girls

Author: Nora Carroll

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Publisher:  Lake Union Publishing

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

No. of Pages:512 pages

Copyright: September 15, 2015

ISBN-10: 1503947440

ISBN-13: 978-1503947443

"Nora Carroll is a pseudonym for #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Letts. As Nora Carroll, she writes multi-layered novels filled with the things she loves most-- rambling houses, old letters and manuscripts, and most importantly, the mysteries of love, women, and family." (from Amazon)