Blythewood

Blythewood #1

by Carol Goodman

Welcome to Blythewood.

At seventeen, Avaline Hall has already buried her mother, survived a horrific factory fire, and escaped from an insane asylum. Now she's on her way to Blythewood Academy, the elite boarding school in New York's mist-shrouded Hudson Valley that her mother attended - and was expelled from. Though she's afraid her high society classmates won't accept a factory girl in their midst, Ava is desperate to unravel her family's murky past, discover the identity of the father she's never known, and perhaps finally understand her mother's abrupt suicide. She's also on the hunt for the identity of the mysterious boy who rescued her from the fire. And she suspects the answers she seeks lie at Blythewood.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Magic, Historical, Romance

489 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Carol Goodman is the author of The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the Hammett Prize, The Widow's House, which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award and The Night Visitors, which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also the co-author, with her husband Lee Slonimsky, of the Watchtower fantasy trilogy. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latte, The Midwest Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduation from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an M.F.A. in fiction from the New School University. Goodman currently teaches literature and writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz and lives with her family in the Hudson Valley.

Reviews

[Dschaper54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sorry but I feel that the people who are reading YA literature are too harsh. I am a librarian in a middle school and the students would love this book .. I think those who are critical are not looking at the writing as entertaining to young adults but looking for literary merit. Not every book has to be written like a classic. This book was entertaining, PERIOD!!! Maybe more people need to start reading for pleasure again instead of trying to be a critic. Just saying

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the use of imagery, but the key to using it as a literary device is subtlety. In this book, imagery doesn't gently tap you on the shoulders from behind, it doesn't touch you with a gentle lover's caress. The imagery within this book comes running at you in a Pennywise mask wielding a chainsaw while screaming bloody murder. The writing is overwrought, leaning heavily towards purple prose. It tries too hard to be "gothic." It has all the subtlety of a purple plaid-patterned penguin.

You could play a drinking game while reading this book. Take two imagery. Bells. Birds. You could take a sip---not a shot, mind you, just a sip---of a low alcohol-by-volume wine with every instance of those imageries and still end up dead by alcohol poisoning before you reach the 50% mark of this book.

There is an emphasis on collective nouns in this book, because it's one of the things a girl entering Blythewood must know. You have to know terms like a teal of magpies. A murder of crows. An exaltation of larks. A cete of badgers. I would like to take this opportunity to create my own collective noun to describe the writing in this book: a fuckload of frivolity.

(Yes, I deliberately used some terribly imagery and alliteration myself in describing the terribleness of this book. It's fine, I'm not an author, and the readers of this review are only subject to my atrocious writing for the length of an overly verbose review, not for all 400-something freaking pages of a book.)

This is one of those times when I reflect back to 11th grade AP English Literature and mentally shake my fist at my old teacher. Thanks to that damned class, I can pick out and analyze every single terrible use of metaphor, imagery, symbolism in this book. This book wasn't terrible, but it was generic. The characters are recycled, the romance is chock full of tropes (and comes complete with insta-love and a love triangle), the atmosphere and paranormal premise is interesting, but it doesn't make up for the fact that I cannot get over the writing. This is, of course, my opinion. I understand perfectly if some people reading this book find the writing beautiful, evocative. Not me. Again, I blame the many analytical essays I had to write in high school for my aggravating reading experience.

Summary: Avaline Hall is a seamstress at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 New York. That is a bad thing, and a real thing that actually happened. I won't go into the details because it is largely irrelevant to the story, but in short, nearly 150 people died, and Avaline was almost one of them, but she was one of the lucky ones who were rescued. It is a tragedy, yes, but in the middle of a fire, I would be screaming my ass off and running around like a chicken with its neck cut off (and probably die a horrible, fiery death), but I sure as fucking hell would not be having thoughts along these lines, looking at girls who are jumping out of a building to their deaths because there is literally no other way of escape.

“I thought the same thing,” I said softly, my voice quavering, “when I saw the girls jumping...that they were like butterflies trapped between panes of glass.”

Get your head on straight.

Avaline's backstory is kind of a mess. Within the first 5% of the book, we learn a multitude of things about Avaline that makes her just about the most unrealistic heroine ever, even for an YA PNR. We learn that she's the daughter of a woman who was formerly wealthy but who ran away from home and works as a hat trimmer instead.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the most dangerous occupation isn't that of a bomb squad technician, a soldier, a police officer, a firemen. Nope. The most dangerous occupation in the world is being the mother (or a close blood relative) of an YA heroine. Her mother commits suicide due to laudanum poisoning, and Avaline is forced to work for her own support. She ends up at the Factory as a curiously incompetent seamstress, despite her skills at making hats. She keeps hearing weird bells inside her head that warns her of imminent danger. She keeps seeing the same strange man in an Inverness cape everywhere. She falls into insta-love with some idiot boy (who is *GASP* not who he seems!!1!1!) shortly before the fire occurs.

My whole body shuddered like a bell that had been struck. My hand, which looked small in his, was trembling. For a moment the din of the factory—the whirr of the sewing machines, the shouts of the foreman to hurry up, the street noise from the open windows—all receded. I felt as though the two of us were standing alone in a green glade starred with wildflowers, the only sound the wind soughing through the encircling forest...

After being involved in the fire, Ava rants and raves like a lunatic because a weird boy with wings rescued her, and surprise, surprise, is actually committed to a mental hospital for 5 months. She is then rescued by her grandmother, and sent on an interview to Blythewood. Blythewood is the very prestigious girl's finishing school that her mother attended before her disgrace. Ava has harbored hopes of attending it, due to her mother's stories, and true to the tradition of cutting off your nose to spite your face, Ava acts like an absolute contrary bitch when she actually gets the chance to attend the school of her dreams. Wah wah wah. Boo fucking hoo. No, I don't want to attend a private school where my mother and I have always wanted me to attend. No, I don't want the protection of my wealthy grandmother. I just want to be a seamstress again so I can toil away my life without prospects. Shut the fuck up and enjoy your good fortune.

Blythewood is...weird. Really, really weird. The interview itself was freaky enough, the people are strange, and curiously, nobody questions anything until they're confronted with the truth of the place. There is one eligible boy in residence. One. Boy. In an all-girls' school. Nathan is the bad boy. Enter the love triangle. Nathan is an asshat, a spoiled, carefree boy who scrapes along in life due to his money, good looks, and influential family.

Naturally, in a school full of accomplished girls, beautiful girls, wealthy girls, Nathan would totally go for the one girl who's so *sigh* special. Yep. Avaline.

The romance is dumb. The love interests are clichéd. The mysterious, ethereal boy is as generic as they come. He's apparently ebony and ivory. A marbled, chiseled Adonis...

...he possessed the finely carved features of a Greek statue, his skin pale as marble, his eyes the weathered gray of worn granite. And a heart as hard as stone...

with wings so black you'd have to actually look close to see that his wings are actually all the colors of the fucking rainbow.

Those wings weren’t entirely black—they held the iridescent colors of the sunset in them.

WHAT THE FUCK? He's dangerous. The boy's name is Raven. He is a Darkling, but don't be fooled, this ain't Shadow and Bone's Darkling. There is no complexity here, and there is no questionable line of good versus evil. There's just a line between dullness and boredom. This book's Darkling doesn't hold a candle to the original.

The characters are generic as all gets out. I don't have anything to say about Ava because she puts me to sleep more effectively than an overdose of Lunesta. The other characters in the book are cookie cutter. The silly, frivolous, but kind-hearted rich girl, Helen. The eager-to-please, naive, bumbling small-town girl, Daisy (from Kansas City, Kansas). Sarah, the intelligent, competent, poor scholarship girl who hates the status quo and is eager to prove herself. The bitchy "mean girls," clique of George, Fred, and Wallie (all girls, who are nicknamed after their enormously wealthy fathers). The fat, incompetent, bitchtastic Etiquette mistress. The ice-cold, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth headmistress.

The names are Dickensian, in that the characters' name are a reflection of their work, of their character. Cute, but if I wanted Dickens, I'D READ DICKENS. Matilda Swift, the bow mistress. Euphorbia Frost, the bitchy etiquette instructor. The kind, motherly cluck of a secretary, Miss Moorhen. Martin Peale, the Bell Master. Mrs. Calendar, the Latin teacher. Vionetta Sharp, with her violet eyes and violet-growing spinster aunts. Enough is enough.

As I said. The characters are generic, through and through. The plot is decent, the use of the bells is unique, and the mystery---well, let's just say at least there are no vampires or werewolves. You can throw just about every single otherworldly creature into the mix, though. This was a really, really long book, and it got pretty boring before the pacing picked up.

The worst part about this book was the writing. I just could not overlook all the terrible use of imagery, strange and stupid metaphors, and tendency towards purple prose. Allow me to present some examples.

"It was like striking a match to kindling. What had seemed cold was now warm—or perhaps the warmth had been kindled in me at the thought that he’d lit up at the sight of me."

"It spread like cracks in an old China teacup when you pour hot water into it, only these cracks were made of fire and burned away flesh, changing him before my eyes from the beautiful boy of my dreams into a horrid monster."

"So that’s where he goes, I thought...he has a forest inside him."

A blond head is a "golden waterfall, an "angel's halo".

And the bells. THE BIRDS. SO MUCH BIRD IMAGERY. I feel like I'm in a Hitchcock film.



Here are a couple of examples. Or 10.

"The names fluttered through the air like brightly colored birds."

"You look as comfortable as an eaglet in its cliff-side aerie.”

"She said something and Miss Sharp tossed her head back and laughed, the sound like the nightingale’s song."

"In the firelight her pale gray eyes shone yellow, like the eyes of an owl sweeping the forest floor for prey."

"...she moved around the room like a trapped bird in a cage."

"He had taken himself off to a window seat overlooking the river and made a nest of books like a peregrine on a cliff."

"I’ve seen you hunched over them like a hawk mantling its prey.”

"I noticed how small my hands looked in his, like doves cupped in a nest. They fluttered like doves, too..."

"Cam, her hair sticking up in spikes, looked like a newly hatched chick eager for her first flight."

"...setting Miss Corey fluttering over the books like a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wing."

"He lifted his head away from Miss Frost’s ear and swiveled his neck like Blodeuwedd when she heard a mouse squeak—only his eyes were colder than any owl’s."

“And pale,” Miss Fisk added, tilting her head at me like a robin listening for worms in the ground.

"Gillie scowled, his dark eyebrows swooping together like two hawks fighting over a morsel."

...you get the point.

I believe you would be better off reading Libba Bray. It may be clichéd, but at least the writing doesn't stand out for the worse.

[Heidi (can’t retire soon enough) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in a month featuring a world of Fae and human characters— and I really enjoyed this YA fantasy world and its heroine, Ava.

I thought it was clever to use a few famous tragedies as backdrop to the ultimate battle of good vs evil, but in this book Prejudice becomes as much of an influence as whether sprites and darklings are monsters or misunderstood.

The setting is a girls school and it definitely had shades of Harry Potter especially as the school’s teachers are not all as they seem.

Between Ava’s discoveries about herself, her mother, and others, there the penultimate question of who
Her father is.

Of course it ends on a cliffhanger… looking forward to spending another term at The Blythewood School for Girls soon!!

[Wendy Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars I love this so, so, so, so, much. PLEASE let there be a sequel soon!

Full review is on the blog:
http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2013...

[Amber J (Thereadingwitch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I try to express only my most honest opinion in a spoiler-free way. Unfortunately, there is still always a risk of slight spoilers despite my best efforts. If you feel something in my review is a spoiler please let me know. Thank you.

After her mother dies and she survives a fire at the factory where she works. Ava is attending Blythewood. Afraid she won't be able to fit in with all the rich people and worried about her own sanity. She begins to make friendships, but Blythewood is more than just a school. It's a whole different kind of world.

Likes:
~Forbidden romance
~Mysteries within mysteries
~A bit spooky
~Interesting ending

Dislikes:
~Took forever to get into
~Bit boring at times

I was over 75% of the way through this book before it got interesting. I honestly only stuck with it as long as I did because I loved the author's Demon Lover series that she wrote under a pseudonym. However, the last quarter of the book was really good and I enjoyed it. All in all, I give this book 3.5 stars. I will be continuing the series.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why on earth this isn't marketed as YA I don't know. It falls right in line with the I'm secretly from faerie and only I can (fill in the blank) because I have special powers. There are competing love interests, all romance, no sex, and a parent/family mystery that needs to be sorted before the protagonist can discover herself. Midway through, it starting feeling like a 1 of 3 and I was getting prepared to be very annoyed (I hate it when books don't announce that they're the start of a series). That doesn't come to pass, although the door is certainly open for a follow up.

So, all that said, every time I read a Carol Goodman novel, I have a very strong sense that I already know this story. I don't know if it's becasue she's been reworking the same tropes since *The Lake of Dead Languages* of if she's really good at tapping into some zeitgeist. Whatever it is, I continue to enjoy them, although I find them increasing less mesmerizing and powerful. Given the ones previous to this, explcit paranormal romances written under the pseudonym Juliet Dark, perhaps she's dividing her work -- some things appropriate for one name, some for the other.

[meghann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the Fairwick Chronicles series that this author wrote under the pseudonym Juliet Dark. The first book in that trilogy is one of my favorites. So I was interested in giving her YA series a try. I was not disappointed. I am such a slore for books set in boarding schools. Throw in a bit of the supernatural, and I'm in.



Who doesn't want to go to a school where you learn to use magic and train to kick some ass and save the world?



I loved how the teachers at Blythewood were just as interesting as the students. I hope we learn more about them in the second book. And OMG I so called the secret about Ava's father.



I can't wait for that to get out, and I hope it does in the dramatic way I'm picturing. The preview of book two that was included did concern me a little. I don't quite get how they got there from the ending of book one, but I'm sure all will be explained.

[Sarah]

Carol Goodman's Blythewood is absolutely marvelous. Thoroughly researched, she creates a truly believable setting. You can feel Blythewood's real and fictional locations under your feet. From the physical details (shirts are only called shirtwaists &c.) to the pronounced issues of class, Goodman captures both the physicality and emotionality of the times. I was especially impressed that while the main 3 characters grew closer together, their class conflicts never completely died — or were left forgotten as they became better friends.

Her characters — especially the girls of Blythewood — were electric and full with natural chemistry. Nathan Beckwith, personally, hit all the my right notes for the angsty, rich, ne'er do well YA hero (Possibly my favorite type of YA hero.) Raven, the romantic lead, though playing the role of a guardian angel, never oversteps in to Avaline's agency or competence.

If I have one quibble, it's that I saw the main(ish) twist coming. That said, while some may call this book a slow bun, the plot was intricate, and it never felt too long, lost my interest, or left me bored. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel.

[Melenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this audio book. The audio was well done and so was the story.

[Sarah]

Sadly this is another book I have zero interest in finishing. I'm just feeling very detached from the story at 16%. The writing is overly descriptive when it doesn't have to be, barely anything has happened and it reminds me too much of A Great and Terrible Beauty.

The trees beside the station were thrashing in a sudden gust, the rain spitting like an angry cat, and the air smelled like singed wires. I had the feeling that if we stood here a moment longer, we'd all be blown away into the river.
We get it, a storm is starting up. I can't be bothered with 500 pages of metaphors and poetic descriptions of wind. Definitely not a terrible book, but not my cup of tea.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Set-up (adapted from Goodreads)
Avaline Hall is not having a good year. When Blythewood begins, she is a poor factory girl that has recently lost her mother. Things get steadily worse for Ava for a while - a tragic fire and a mental institution among other set backs - but then Ava meets her grandmother and learns more about her mother and the girls' boarding school that her mom attended - and was expelled from. Now heading to Blythewood herself, Ava is not sure how her wealthy classmates will react to her lower class background. But Ava is determined to unravel the mysteries of her mother's past, the identity of her father, and find the boy who saved her from the factory fire. Ava hopes that the Blythewood School will give her the answers she seeks. She never guessed what she would actually find there.

Five reasons Blythewood was the perfect Fall read for me

1) Historical Fiction + Fantasy = Win - Blythewood takes place in 1911 and two well known historical events bookend the plot. I really like when an author adds a dose of of historical truth into a fantasy book. For some reason it grounds the story into reality and makes it seem even more believable. The two tragic events included in Blythewood are particularly fascinating. I'm not going to tell you what they are, because I thought it was more fun - and horrifying - to discover them for myself. The event in the beginning, especially added some darker undertones to the book and worked well to create an overall creepy atmosphere in the story.

2) Boarding School - There is an overabundance of boarding school plots out there, including ones featuring mean girls, secret passages and haunted woods. But despite all that, the Blythewood School is enchanting and surprising. Not everything is what it seems in this story, and I enjoyed discovering those moments for myself. On the surface, Blythewood is a wealthy girls' boarding school, but there's a lot more to the school and these girls than that. We meet a lot of colorful characters: students, teachers and other residents of the Blythewood neighborhood. I have a few favorites, and I'm hoping that we get to know them all more deeply in the future. One favorite thing about this school is the role that bells play in their history as well as purpose. It's not mythology that I've seen used a lot, but reading about bells used to fight demons in another recent book, I've been fascinated by its lore.

3) Atmosphere - The creepy atmosphere in this book is delicious: The moody boarding school with endless secrets. The time of year - fall descending into winter madness. An interplay of light and dark also underlies the plot of Blythewood, which gives the book a spooky feel. The balance between the two themes keeps the story from becoming too dark and heavy, but is also a debate within these characters that I foresee will carry throughout and direct the future of the series. In this book, I especially like that it is not immediately clear what the lighter and the darker sides are. Part of the charm of this story was unraveling that for myself. I've seen some complaints about the pacing of the story, but I thought the flow of this book added richness to this tale, and I enjoyed becoming deeply immersed in this world.

4) Romance - A slowly developing forbidden romance is one of my most favorites to read. From the beginning of Blythewood, every scene shared by Avaline and Him is charged with tension. The simplest gesture is shivery and meaningful, and I can't wait for more. I have high hopes for these two, especially in light of revelations we learn about Ava at the end of the book.

However, there is also another boy in this book, whom the author seems intent on reminding us about. While I like his character too, I never really felt much between him and Ava, and I'm hoping that his part in this story is going to be more important than only adding to an annoying triangle. The author gives hints to this fact, so I'm crossing my fingers. But as I said, there is a clear winner for me (and for Ava, I think).

5) Avaline Hall's path - Coming from a poor labor background, experiencing some truly strange and frightening phenomenon, before all of a sudden entering a school with girls at the top of the social ladder, Avaline struggles with her self worth, as well as where she fits in the world. Those thoughts got to be a bit much for me a few times, for the most part, I could sympathize with her perspective, and I grew to really care for her as this story progressed. I especially like the direction that Avaline's life takes towards the end of this book. I'm very interested to see how she handles certain revelations in the future.

Most of all, Blythewood made me eager to discuss the story with someone and desperate for the next book in the series. Please read this book so that we can talk about it!

Love Triangle Factor: Difficult to tell at this point, but I'm going to say somewhere between None and Mild, and I'm going to remain optimistic that it will stay that way.
Cliffhanger Scale: Low. This story wraps on an interesting revelation, but there is no immediate danger.

[~*Ellie*~ (Taylor's Version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is 🤩. Like I cannot stress how much I looooooveeee this series I have read it so many times. The romance is beautiful and the creativity takes you back in time but it almost feels like a different world. Genius writing!
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Okay so apparently that was the "review" I wrote for one of my favorite books of ALL TIME!! That's really just sad.
Crass-1/5-I'll be honest, I haven't read this in a hot minute. But that's okay, I know that this book is mostly clean and the most "crass" you'll get is a guy goggling at a girl's ankles🤣
Swearing-1/5-again mostly clean. I forget if the swearing is just in the later books or not...
Sexual-0/5-the romance is super clean until the third book, but we get there when we get there
Violence-1/5-it gets more violent in the third book, but its YA for a reason and you gotta have some conflict in there. Right?
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Let me just say that I devoured this series when I first read it. If you look at the dates read also read this in two days during the school year. I really can't tell you how much I love this series and how sad I am that it is no longer in print. But no worries! Check ebay or a used bookstore if you want to buy them for a cheap price. (I saw some at Chamblin book mine in Jacksonville on vacation). One thing I loved was the fact that the romance was actually part of the story, but the love interest was part of the plot. It kinda annoys me when the love-interest is JUST a love interest cause why should I love this character. I think the love-interest in this book was my FIRST EVER book boyfriend. Hmm. How far have I come...*starts counting book bfs*

Another thing I loved was the fact that this had real plot. Like Oh my word. I cant broooooo. I swear this book is addicting. I mean imagine a harry potter esque but not like its so hard to explain. And to prove that this book is amazing and you should most definately go buy it...I have read this over six times I read this the first time like two years ago at the most three.

Anyway...yes i realize that this book is another goddess like heartless, but maybe i went a little overboard...nah!!
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Playlist 🎧
-Cheap thrills-Sia
-Love Story-Taylor Swift (this book is the definition of forbidden romance)
-Enchanted-Taylor Swift
-Ours-Taylor Swift
-I'm only me when I'm with you-Taylor Swift
Well I promise I did my best. If you read this book please comment more suggestions so I can add them to the playlist imma go make.

Well if you made it this far, what are you doing!! go read this book!! Happy reading luvs 🌸🌸

[Jessie Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a proud Blythian, Blytheus would approve of my reading this.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Stars: A delightful boarding school book with a pinch of magic and a dash of mystery!

Avaline Hall at sixteen is alone since her mother passed away. Ava, though, bravely found employment at the Triangle Waist factory. She spends endless hours sewing seams on sleeves. On this particular day, Ava is madly sewing to meet her monthly quota to make rent. Right before the final bell of the day rings, Ava looks up and sees a strange man in an Inverness Cape talking to her foreman. Warning bells go off in her head, it is the same man that so frightened her mother. Instinctively she looks to hide, a strange boy grabs her hand and urges her to duck down and crawl out. Suddenly, fire breaks out, and Ava and the rest of the girls try to scurry to safety. The mysterious boy guides Ava to the roof, but they are pursued by the man in the cape. Ava climbs to safety on a ladder but then she falls, remembering nothing more. She wakes up in hospital with strange memories. Thankfully, after a few months her grandmother finds her, and Ava discovers she is going to be attending Blythewood her mother's alma mater. Once at Blythewood, Ava learns that things are not as they seem. She is plunged into a world of secrets, magic and mystery. Will Ava learn to still the ringing bells in her head and fit in at Blythewood?
What I Liked:
*I adored the adult series, The Fairwick Chronicles, by this same author and I was sad to see the series end, but thankfully, Ms. Goodman delivers another magical and intriguing YA series that has won me over. This book is packed full of magic, mystery, paranormal and more. It is set in a boarding school at the turn of the twentieth century. The school is steeped in secrets, and there are some startling things waiting to be discovered in the woods. If you are a fan of detailed paranormal books with a boarding school setting, definitely get your hands on this book!
*I loved all the stories, lore and legends incorporated in this book. Ms. Goodman is a master story teller, and I was stunned at the creativity and ingenuity of this book. There is plenty of fresh and new in this one as well as some well loved old themes. I thought the inclusion of the bells was definitely exciting and original, and I adored all the stories.
*The book incorporates many of the themes that were pertinent to the era. Such as the sharp division in classes. Blythewood is known for its long history of elite, high standing wealthy students. It becomes clear that the prejudices and lofty ideas of high society run deep. Many of the girls born in high class families look down their noses at the working class girls. There is also another theme of prejudice that the staff of the school holds against the paranormal entities in the woods and beyond. Are the fey and magical creatures all evil, bent on destroying humans or are some of them good? I liked that this book was about breaking down barriers, and learning to let go of long standing erroneous ideas. It takes courage to break away from traditional ideas, and I admired Ava and the others for learning to see things through unbiased eyes.
*This book is heavily steeped in mystery. Once Ava arrives at the mysterious Blythewood school, you get the strong sense that not everything is as it seems. There is something hiding in the old building, and the new students are soon initiated into Blythewood and all its secrets. I loved the mysterious atmospheric setting and I thoroughly enjoyed uncovering all the magical secrets of Blythewood!
*There are plenty of exciting twists and turn in the stories that will keep you on your toes. I especially liked at the end when the traitor in the school was exposed, I was certainly caught off guard. Ms. Goodman does a terrific job of diverting you from the real culprit. I also liked the big event that was included that occurred in 1912 at the end.
I appreciated that this reached a satisfying conclusion. There are plenty of unanswered questions lingering for future books, but I was happy that I got a solid ending, no cliffhanger or nagging story lines left undone!
*This is a perfect book for a teenager of any age as there is nothing inappropriate in it. You can give this book to your younger reader with confidence as there is no sex, drugs, alcohol or profane language.
And The Not So Much:
*When Ava first arrives at Blythewood, it is apparent that something disturbing has happened. When it was finally revealed that a girl had gone missing, I was expecting more drama and suspense surrounding this event, but for the most part it was treated like no big deal. I would think that a girl vanishing would be something that would have everyone on edge and on high alert, I was especially disturbed that her mother was not more upset or grieving over her disappearance. I would have preferred more buildup and attention to this event.
*Ava's grandmother suddenly comes to the rescue and scoops her up out of the hospital at the beginning of the book. The grandmother is completely undeveloped and practically nothing is revealed about her. Where was the grandmother all these years? Were she and her daughter estranged? Why did the grandmother not have any contact with Ava before this? I need to know more about the grandmother.
*The romance is not fully developed. There are hints and sparks of attraction throughout, but not until the final pages does it appear to be finding its footing. I am a bit concerned because during the final scenes, it alludes to a possible love triangle. I am hoping that a love triangle does not rear its ugly head in the next installment!
*I was left wondering about Ms. Frost's role in the story. Was she truly innocent and being manipulated? It isn't exactly clear what is going on with her.

Blythewood is a delightful and exciting new YA series that fans of Juliet Dark should snatch up and enjoy. Even though it is a YA book, it is mature, and I think both adults and teenagers will enjoy it! If you love books with a magical and mysterious boarding school setting with plenty of suspense and paranormal, definitely snatch this one up! I highly recommend it!

Favorite Quotations:
"Many thought the war was over and that evil had been defeated. But evil is never entirely vanquished; it just goes underground and emerges somewhere else."
"My mother always said that men who oppose women's education are afraid of women becoming too strong because they themselves are too weak."
"I should have been braver, but sometimes the hardest thing to do is to remain yourself."
"Aye lass, that is where I'm from, but your true home is with the ones ye love and I've come to care for the creatures on both sides of the woods."

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

[starryeyedjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't had the best of luck with boarding school novels lately.  So many of them are flat and contain the same old, same old:  magic, mystery, and secrets, and they're all very blasé about it.  So, it was with some trepidation that I began this audiobook, despite knowing that several of my friends had already loved the story.

I don't know if it's the combination of a truly worthy protagonist and a brilliant audiobook narrator, but I can safely say that I am back on the boarding school bandwagon.  I loved Leslie Bellair's narration in Tarnish, so I was fairly certain she'd do Blythewood justice.  Bellair beautifully portrayed Ava as a girl who's not quite sure of her sanity and also not certain of her place in the world.  I'd say she far-exceeded my expectations when it comes to the narration.

My first instinct is to compare this story to Harry Potter because there are quite a few similarities, but that would be doing this book a great injustice because as far as writing and story go, the two books couldn't be more different.  Historical fiction and fantasy combine in this story to create a magical world shrouded in mystery. Blythewood is magical realism at its best, as far as I'm concerned, and setting the story in the early 20th century made it that much more enjoyable for me, especially when other events from history coincide and intertwine with the story.  This book is far from light, and including real-life tragic events from history gave the book a more realistic feel, making it all the more engaging.

These events also play an important role in Ava's life...Ava who's already suffered a tragic loss of her own. It's all a bit much and has Ava questioning her sanity, but she's a survivor.  She's not perfect and she doesn't have the ability to magic herself out of a jam; she's just a girl who's trying to make the best out of a bad situation.  And along the way, she makes some friends, both among her peers at school and among her teachers and their acquaintances, but she also makes a truly menacing enemy, one who may know Ava's story better than she does.

Another aspect of this story that I found particularly intriguing was the balance between light and dark, between good and evil.  I think when it comes to magic in a story, it's always important to highlight the differences but also to stress that there are gray areas, even if the opinion is not popular.  The Darklings, the fae, and the other inhabitants of the Blythe Wood are just such a gray area, and I can't wait to delve further into that magic in future installments.

I also need more of the romance from the next book.  The relationship that develops in Blythewood is forbidden in nature and very slow-burning, so much so that I wondered if anything would even become of it in this book.  Especially when the author seemed to be pushing another love interest into the mix.  Though nothing develops with that young man, there are indications that his presence is important and that even if Ava doesn't have feelings for him, he clearly does for her.  I'd buy into that romantic aspect more if I had been shown his feelings rather than having been told about them by another character.  Either way, it's going to be interesting to see how this all develops, especially after certain revelations at the end of this book.  Ava is going to have to overcome some prejudices and come to terms with who she really is before anything can really happen, though.

Honestly, I don't think any review I write can effectively convey the awesomeness of this story.  It's slow-going at first but well worth the build-up.  It's such a unique take on faerie lore intermixed with that of angels and demons and everything in between.  I was disappointed to learn that it wasn't a stand-alone as I'd originally thought, but I'm also elated to know that there's more of this story to be told.  I haven't had my fill of this magical world yet, and I am ever so intrigued by those Darklings and whatever else lurks in the shadows of the Blythe Wood.

This review can also be found at The Starry-Eyed Revue.

[Branwen Sedai *of the Brown Ajah* · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death...."


Avaline Hall has had just about enough of heartbreak and misfortune. Her mother has died of a laudanum overdose, her best friend perished in a factory fire, and she has just escaped from a mental institution where she was admitted under suspicious circumstances. But all that is about to change. The grandmother she never knew existed has stepped forward to take her under her wing. And she has been admitted into her mothers alma matter, Blythewood. But this school is much more than it appears. Dark secrets and a plethora of mysteries surround it. And Avaline is going to have to unravel them all if she wants to survive.

Okay, truth time. I absolutely bought this book for two reasons; the absolutely gorgeous cover, and the fact that it is a book about a boarding school with secrets. I am an absolute sucker for stories like this! The romance, the intrigue, the mystery...I just can't seem to get enough! Well, I was really lucky in this instance because Blythewood ran circles around my original expectations. Not only is the writing fantastic and the characters really believable and easy to identify with, but the storyline really drew me in. I don't want to say too much about it, because I really don't want to give it away at all, but I will say that this was one of the most original plots I have come across in a long long time. I was taken completely off guard throughout the book and it kept me on my toes as I tried to figure out what would happen next.

This was a great book and a wonderful addition to the YA genre

[Natasha (books_n_dreams) · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book is really hard for me to get into which really sucks because I am intrigued, but this is the first book I've read in a long time that I just can't push through it the rest of the way. Really sucks, but oh well. I am glad though Penguin sent this book to me cause I wanted to read it, but it looks like right now after only making it about 100 pages into it that I might just have to set it down and hopefully give it ago some other time.

But I'm not saying this book sucks, the writing is well down, the overall idea is neat, but it just wasn't my own cup of tea. Hopefully I will be able to sit down and get back into it, but after 16 days of trying to get further in this book, right now I'm just gonna have to stop.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 20%. So boring.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I enjoyed the first half of this book, then the story got bogged down in the middle. It does pick up towards the end. The historical setting is interesting and I liked the characters.

[Coral · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book very confusing at the beginning but once I understood it, it was okay. I found it confusing because I thought it was hard to tell what was real and what was just in Ava’s head.
I really enjoyed the writing style though. I enjoyed it because it made me feel like I was right there with Ava. I might read the next two books because of the writing style.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Embarking on Blythewood, I was hesitant. I read the first few pages on Amazon preview before I accepted the review copy, mostly because of an ambivalence to paranormal stories, particularly those about angels. I really liked the writing and the sample and decided it was worth a try. I should probably make use of this sampling technique more often, since I often DNF within the first twenty pages. My instincts on Blythewood were correct: the writing is beautiful, the world building compelling, and it was indeed worth my time.

Carol Goodman, Goodreads informs me, has written adult fiction with much success for years. Blythewood is her debut young adult novel. Though I’ve not read any of her adult novels, I suspect that the writing is similar. Personally, I think it’s beautiful. However, Blythewood‘s got a slower, more measured pace than most young adult novels. I suspect Blythewood will have the most appeal for YA readers who also enjoy adult fiction and aren’t as driven by action and quick pacing. I realize it sounds like I’m saying this is a flaw, but I honestly don’t think it is; I just want you guys to know what to expect.

The setting of Blythewood delighted me. Set in the 1910s, Goodman blends history with the paranormal. There are paranormal explanations for big events of the time and I just love the way that she did that. The history nerd in me was overjoyed at these moments when the historical elements came to the surface. On top of the actual events, there’s some great stuff about votes for women and unions. Plus, there’s a brief foray into Bellevue.

Added to the historical elements is a complex and fascinating fantasy world. There’s a lot going on in the world building, but I think it all comes together pretty well. At the end, I was still left with some questions, but it feels like Goodman has a plan. There are a bunch of creatures, most of whom I’ve met before in lore and some which I have not. It took me a while to stop rolling my eyes at the Darklings, because, hey, you’re supposed to be singular and in Leigh Bardugo’s novels, but I came around.

What I like best about Goodman’s world is that it’s not black and white. Initially, it appears like there’s good and evil, as taught at Blythewood, the boarding school Ava goes to where girls are taught to fight faerie creatures. Ultimately, nobody’s really entirely evil, at least not always. I like that the villains have pasts and motivations, and the parallels between racism and the treatment of the faerie creatures are strong. The struggles inside Blythewood, though fantastical in nature, mirror the struggles taking place outside in ordinary human lives.

The characters are not perhaps the most lively and lifelike, but I do think they’re interesting. I’m not emotionally attached, but I’m enjoying their arcs thus far. Much like the creatures, the humans initially seem easy to categorize, but Ava keeps learning that there’s much more to her classmates and teachers. Sometimes I’m ready to dismiss someone and write them off as one thing and then they would develop in new unexpected ways. For this reason, I have hope that I’ll come to care for these characters along their journey.

The weakest part of Blythewood by far is the romance, which follows the traditional paranormal romance tropes. If those work for you, then obviously the romance here will, but they don’t work for me. Ava is entranced by visions of the boy who saved her from the Triangle Shirt Waist fire. He’s compelling and magical. They instalove all over each other. Though they don’t actually declare their feelings, there’s a bit of world building that explains that they two are in love. On the plus side, though, there’s not really that much time spent on the romance, so it wasn’t a huge detraction.

I’ve got Ravencliffe coming up next on my reading list and I’m looking forward to more of Ava’s journey. There’s a lot more that I want to know. I only hope that Goodman can convince me to care about this romance in the next book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where, oh where can I begin with this book?



Blythewood had me back and forth, and constantly debating with myself, about my opinion on this book. Before beginning I was bouncing of the walls with excitement, within the first few chapters I found myself to be a bit disappointed, then when things started to take off I couldn’t get enough, afterwards I was confused, and finally I fell in love with the ending.

Blythewood starts with a poor girl named Avaline Hall, Ava for short, who is working in a clothing factory. Her and many other poor girls, including her best friend Tillie, are locked into a room every day to work for a ridiculous amount of hours, and are paid very little. When they leave for the day, each girl is even searched, just to make sure she isn’t stealing any fabric or thread…

Ava hasn’t always worked in the Triangle factory, sewing sleeves. Before her mother committed suicide by drinking landrum, Ava worked for her; sewing and selling hats. But since her mother passed Ava has struggled to pay the bills and life is hard. When the Triangle factory catches fire one afternoon, there is no way out for the girls inside, Ava has no idea what to do. Some of the girls are running around wild, other girls are jumping to their death out the window. Ava’s best chance is to go to the roof with Tillie.

After slipping and falling, when Ava tries to climb across to the roof of the building next door, she’s saved by a pair of strong arms…who belong to a boy with dark eyes and hair…and wings. She can’t believe her eyes. She must be dreaming there’s no way he can have wings. The next thing she knows, she’s in a mental hospital, drugged up and accused of having mental issues. Six months pass, before Ava finally leaves this hell hole, and is greeted by a lady, who claims that she knows her grandmother, and that they’ve been looking for Ava.

Upon her arrival at her grandmother’s house, Ava learns a lot of herself and her mother. Ava has always known how much her mom loved Blythewood, and would speak about the school often, but still Ava didn’t know much about it. Her grandmother, a rather snarky thing, informed her that Ava’s mother got pregnant in her senior year at Blythewood, and ran away. Not even her grandmother knows who her father is.

Even though Ava just arrived, and hasn’t even settled in yet, she is told that her interview to Blythewood is in three days and they have a lot of work to do before then.

Upon being accepted, Ava is worried that people might judge her due to her mother’s history, but that is that last thing she worries about when final going to the Blythewood initiation in the forest and sees all the creatures that live within it. Fey. Blythewood isn’t just any school. Besides doing homework and studying for finals, Ava and her friends are learning to fight the creatures in the forest and search for Nathan’s twin sister Louisa who was lost in the forest weeks ago.

Ava also discovers who her dark angel is, and why his around her at the perfect moments; right when she needs him. Things aren’t as they seem, right when Ava thinks she knows, there’s always something else.



Overall Blythewood is a new and refreshing take on the fey world. The characters were enjoyable, and the mysterious boy Ava is always seeing is definitely a bad piece of man candy! Who doesn’t like one of those? I sure do.

The beginning was a bit slow for me, but the middle quickly sped up, and the ending shot it out of the park! I couldn’t believe the ending. I mean I did have my suspicions but I would have never guessed it!



If I had to point out a flaw, it would be the part left out. You don’t really know who or what Ava’s dad is, what happens to the librarian Ava contacts, or her moms past. The reader does get small glimpses, but not the full story. But this isn’t something I’m upset about, or something that I would mark the book down for in stars. Why? Because this is only the first book in the series, and I’m hoping these things will be revealed in later books.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several of Carol Goodman's adult books previously and always enjoyed them so I was intrigued to read Blythewood – her foray into the young adult paranormal realm.

The book opens quite bleakly, and without any paranormal shades which I found quite refreshing. The story is allowed to build slowly atop the back of its main character, a 16-year old girl who has lost her mother and working in a factory to avoid starvation. At this point I wasn’t quite clear on the setting and time of the story, but the details for both slowly build unobtrusively over the course of the story and a fairly well known historical event is used as a slightly gimmicky but also slightly brilliant vehicle for the story. Other less obvious events and historical figures are thrown in here and there as well proving that Goodman does know how to pepper a tale with details to enhance the overall feel.

From the factory setting we move to a boarding school, very familiar to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts in many details, including a great hall and flying birds. There is even a loner caretaker and ‘evil’ teacher. In fact, the similarities are so obvious that a certain plot twist was telegraphed long before it was revealed. There are also similarities to another young adult series, the House of Night by P.C. Cast. So much so, that by the end of the book I was convinced that a subsequent book to continue the story will probably have a certain teacher aligned more with the side opposing our young heroine. I might also add the main protagonist is also clearly a ’chosen one’ with powerful and rare abilities.

All that said, in spite of the aforementioned tropes and similarities, I enjoyed the book. There are fantastic creatures, messages of tolerance, and wonderfully creative objects in this world (i.e. the candelabellum). I think the series has a lot of potential if it can veer away from what’s been done before and focus on the original concepts. I’d be willing to read the next in the series just to see where else the girls of Blythewood go next.

I received an ARC of this book at Comic Con 2013.

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could kick myself for waiting so long to read this book. I haven't enjoyed a book so much since Harry Potter. I was completely taken in by the Blythwood Academy and all its residents. Especially Avaline Hall.

Avaline Hall really isn't like the other girls. She's lived apart from most of the society girls, even though she's a legacy. Her mother attended the famous Blythwood Academy but was dismissed for mysterious reasons. After Avaline's mother dies, she's sent to her Grandmother, who immediately gets things underway for Avaline to follow in the Hall tradition. Once she gets to Blythwood things start to change, mysteries are revealed--including the mysterious boy who saved her from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Is he friend or foe?

After reading the first few chapters, I was hooked. Carol Goodman has created a world that will suck you into its pages. I don't want to give too much information away, because it will take away from the story. Suffice it to say, I was glad I had the second book, Ravencliffe on hand so I could continue the story. This is a highly-recommended book from me! Read it. You won't regret it.
Read more at http://www.toreadornottoread.net/2015...

[Jacquelyn Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not one to usually pick up a fantasy, but when I do, it’s usually an urban fantasy. I much prefer when a book, like this one, is based in the real world. I don’t tend to like books that are high fantasy... I need realism. With that being said, I had such high hopes for this book.
It started off well, I really like the main character but the middle just lacked in the plot’s depth. Not enough was going on for me to care. Plus the romance made me think of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, so it didn’t feel original.
The book finally started to pick up in the end. I had guessed the very last “twist” that was mentioned, but not the (spoiler alert) ship sinking.

The ending was compelling enough to make me interested in reading the second book... but let’s see if I actually ever do pick it up or not.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the setting and the world that was created, but the execution was all over the place. The main character seemed a bit obtuse about things. Some parts dragged while others went to fast. And in all, things just seemed kind of predictable.

I will probably read the next in the series because I want to see what happens to some of the other characters and to see the world fleshed out a bit more, but in all, this was kind of disappointing.

[Kristiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini sudah cukup lama ngejogrok (ini bahasa apa, ya?) di tbr saya. Sejak awal liat covernya, sukaaa... Akhirnya, kesampean juga bacanya.
Buku ini cukup menyenangkan untuk dibaca. Agak lambat sih, alurnya, tapi ga bikin saya bosan :)

[Karissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had this book on my shelf for quite a while to read. I really enjoyed Goodman’s adult Demon Lover series, written under the name Juliet Dark, and was excited to read a YA novel by her. While there were parts of the book I really enjoyed, mostly the book just felt really long and slow moving.

Avaline (Ava) Hall has had a rough life. Her mother is dead and she’s been forced to work in a clothing factory to make ends meet. When the factory catches on fire, Avaline is saved by a winged boy and put into an asylum because of her ravings. Things take a turn for the better when Avaline’s mysterious grandmother rescues her from the asylum and Avaline ends up attending the mysterious boarding school that her mother went to, Blythewood. Blythewood is not even close to being a normal girls’ school. It has many dark secrets of its own and its students are trained in dark arts that aid them in a war Avaline (and the rest of humanity) didn’t even know was happening.

This is mostly a historical fantasy/paranormal read, the story is set in the early 1900’s. There were a lot of things I liked about this story. I enjoyed reading about Avaline’s struggles as a working girl in that time period and about the horrible working conditions the girls faced. This is something that is still going on in parts of the world and it was good to read about it and get some insight into it.

I also enjoyed the mysterious Blythewood school and the creepy woods that surrounded it. I love the mixture of mythology and faerie throughout the story.

Ava is an interesting character. She is definitely a survivor and seems much older than her classmates because of everything she has gone through. She makes a couple very good friends at Blythewood and as the book progresses she really starts to enjoy and depend on her friends. Ava doesn’t know a lot about her mother’s past or her father, she spends the majority of the book trying to unravel these mysteries.

There are a lot of important side characters in this book. Helen and Daisy are Ava’s roommates and they play a large role in the story. Nathan is the son of the headmistress and his younger sister was lost to the woods. Nathan drives a lot of the story in his search for his sister. Lastly there is Raven, the mysterious not-so-human boy who saved Ava during the factory fire.

Of course woven into all the above is a battle between light and dark that is threatening all of humanity. As Ava learns more about this she finds that things are not as black and white as they first seem.

Unfortunately despite my excitement to read this book there were a number of things I didn’t like about the story. The largest one is the pacing. There are vast portions of the book that just move very slowly, where our characters seem to be biding their time and just waiting for the next shoe to drop. These parts felt very long. I really think that this book could have been much more engaging if it had been tightened up some.

I also felt that while some parts of the story were very creative (the era it was set in, Ava’s background as a factory worker) some of it was very predictable and typical of YA paranormal literature. I was looking forward to something as beautiful and magical as Goodman’s Demon Lover series; and there is some of that here...but again there were parts that were very slow and very predictable.

Overall this ended up being an okay historical paranormal read. I wanted to love it but I didn’t, the book was just too cumbersome and moved too slow at parts. That being said I did love the era the story was set in and enjoyed some of the mythology and elements of faerie throughout. The characters were fairly engaging and fun to read about. I would tentatively recommend if you enjoy historical paranormal reads that focus on fae mythology.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book! I just wish that it didn't take me so long to finish it! Nothing against the writing, I've just been very busy with my summer internship (which is a shame because I usually read the most books during the summer months).

But, onto the book itself...

Firstly, I could not have been more thrilled with the historical setting the author chose of early 1900s New York. There are few things I love more than a good piece of historical fiction, and this book did everything right. The story unfolded beautifully smack in the middle of a real historical period. The details of the era were everywhere making the reading a very rich experience. Furthermore, Ava was a delightful and strong willed heroine who I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying on this journey.

The story begins with Ava working at a the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, until it tragically catches fire (a nice historical tie-in). She's just struggling to stay on her feet after her mother passed away leaving more questions than answers. However, Ava isn't just an average working girl. Ava hears bells and chimes in her head, especially when there is danger. She is also being followed by a mysterious man and begins to see some very strange things. This includes being rescued by a very handsome young man who she swears has a set of wings. These instances intrigue the reader and draw them deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding Ava and her late mother. As it turns out, most of these mysteries lead back to a place called Blythewood Academy.

Blythewood Academy is a mysterious school where young women of distinction are sent to be educated. Ava knew her mother longed for her school days there, but Ava always assumed it was because of the typical boarding school pastimes young women shared and enjoyed. However, their education is about more than just learning to be good hostesses or good mannered young wives. These women serve a much greater purpose that involves defending our world against mysterious, otherworldly threats.

I greatly enjoyed watching the mysterious unfold as I progressed through this book. No one is who you think they are and Ava must learn quickly what is truth and what are lies at her new school. There is romance, mystery, fantasy, and historical details abound.

Honestly, I am quite eager to start the next book soon! I apologize it took me so long to review! But this book definitely falls around 4 to 4.5 stars. I would have given it 5 if the romance was a little less insta-love. However, don't let that deter you! This book was really a great pleasure to read!

[Tegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Blythewood

Author: Carol Goodman

Type: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Tea: Strawberry Rose Champagne Oolong from Teavana. Has hints of other teas that you love, but brings its own twist entirely.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Oh Carol Goodman, you are a genius. I always thought so, but you solidified this opinion with Blythewood. Having been an avid Carol Goodman fan for years I couldn't wait to get my hands on Blythewood, and I was not disappointed!



Blythewood has aspects of two of my favorite series, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling and the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray, but Ms. Goodman made this world entirely her own. I've been looking for a series to love as much as those and I think I found it here.



Blythewood is a mysterious boarding school that is not quite what it seems. Our main character, Avaline, discovers the school and she, herself, are so much more. This book is full of excitement, fairy tales, mysteries and page turning twists.



Avaline is different than the whiny female main characters that are often seen in today's young adult novels. She is strong, determined and smart. She has a mystery to solve and she does just that. She is surrounded by a smart, strong group of friends. These are not often seen in young adult novels today either. I applaud Ms. Goodman on her characterization, not just of the students, but of the faculty and townspeople. There are so many little things mentioned that I just want to learn the answer to, but sadly must wait! Also the villain is entirely unique and I had no idea what was going to happen.



I've read books dealing with angels/fallen angels before, but they were handled very poorly, to the point where I couldn't finish the novel (the Fallen series by Lauren Kate being a prime example). At first I was leery seeing they were in Blythewood, due to my former disappointment, but Ms. Goodman handled them flawlessly! They're strong and beautiful characters. And the whole novel wasn't about a girl being ridiculously obsessed with an unattainable boy. Yes, there is a love story, but there is so much more. And the love story in this novel is more feasible and easier to relate to.



Being very interested in folklore and the Fae, this story was perfect for me. This novel has nuances of Ms. Goodman's adult novels, making it a great crossover novel, and a great introduction for new fans! I absolutely cannot wait for the next book and hope that I won't have to wait long!



Thank you Carol Goodman for finally writing the young adult novel I've been searching for.