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School for Psychics #1
School for Psychics
An entrancing new series starring a funny, impulsive, and sometimes self-congratulatory young woman who discovers she has psychic abilities—and then must decide whether she will use her skills for good or…not.
Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful. She’s bright. She’s scrappy. She can also read people with uncanny precision. What she doesn’t she’s actually psychic.
When a series of bad decisions leads Teddy to a run-in with the police, a mysterious stranger intervenes. He invites her to apply to the School for Psychics, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students are trained like Delta Force it’s competitive, cutthroat, and highly secretive. They’ll learn telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. And if students survive their training, they go on to serve at the highest levels of government, using their skills to protect America, and the world.
In class, Teddy befriends Lucas, a rebel without a cause who can start and manipulate fire; Jillian, a hipster who can mediate communication between animals and humans; and Molly, a hacker who can apprehend the emotional state of another individual. But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she might belong, strange things begin to break-ins, missing students, and more. It leads Teddy to accept a dangerous mission that will ultimately cause her to question everything—her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.
Set in a world very much like our own, School for Psychics is the first book in a stay-up-all night series.
Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful. She’s bright. She’s scrappy. She can also read people with uncanny precision. What she doesn’t she’s actually psychic.
When a series of bad decisions leads Teddy to a run-in with the police, a mysterious stranger intervenes. He invites her to apply to the School for Psychics, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students are trained like Delta Force it’s competitive, cutthroat, and highly secretive. They’ll learn telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. And if students survive their training, they go on to serve at the highest levels of government, using their skills to protect America, and the world.
In class, Teddy befriends Lucas, a rebel without a cause who can start and manipulate fire; Jillian, a hipster who can mediate communication between animals and humans; and Molly, a hacker who can apprehend the emotional state of another individual. But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she might belong, strange things begin to break-ins, missing students, and more. It leads Teddy to accept a dangerous mission that will ultimately cause her to question everything—her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.
Set in a world very much like our own, School for Psychics is the first book in a stay-up-all night series.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 3, 2018
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February 24, 2022
Welcome to the troposphere.
Twenty-something Las Vegan (nothing to do with her diet) Theodora Delaney Cannon (Teddy) is in a bit of a bind. Seems she owes a Russian mobster two fifty large and he means to collect, even if it means going after her parents. Teddy is trying to do what she does best, reading gamblers en route to relieving them of their cash at the tables. But even that is a challenge, as she has been banned from every casino on the strip. Heavily disguised, she challenges the odds of being found out and is about to rake in a nice haul when her special talent goes all fuzzy, just about the time the dreaded Sergei and his enforcers show up. Luckily, there is a guardian angel looking over her shoulder, in the form of an NFL-large well-dressed man. He can make it all go away, see that mom and dad get to live out their lives with all their limbs still attached and that her owings are taken care of. But she will have to agree to sign up for a special school. Seems her gambling table bent was assisted by more than a garden variety ability to read people. Even though she was not aware of it, her particular talent was more on the psychic end of the gift spectrum. And her natural abilities might come in handy to the national security sorts who run The Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development. (Really? They couldn’t come up with a school name yielding a snappy acronym?) Not really much of a choice, so Vegas girl heads west, to an island a short boat ride from Fisherman’s Wharf, and the game is afoot.
X marks the spot for this special school - image from Marvel
Teddy had thought those fits she had been having were epilepsy. Nah, psychic power manifesting. Hormonal excess. But manageable with the right pharmaceuticals. Now she finds herself on a small island with a nice collection of her ability-rich peeps and has to face up to the challenge of toughing it out or bailing and going back to her somewhat desperate existence. Duh-uh. She picks up a few pals. Lucas can manipulate fire, which is an eye-roller, given that he is portrayed as a hottie. Jillian can communicate with animals, which is pretty cool. Molly is a hacker who can read people’s emotions. What? Deanna Troi was not available for the gig? Ok, ok, Troi was not a hacker. Looking to save a few bucks on casting by joining talents?
Brakebills University from The Magicians – or UBC for those of us with no magical powers – image from PBS
I do not know if there is a name already assigned to the trope. As far as I know this sort of thing originated in war stories, maybe as far back as Homer. An ethnically diverse set of guys (until recently, almost always guys, but more gender balanced now) meets in boot camp, then bond by facing a common enemy in the camp itself and then in actual combat. These would be people in their late teens or early twenties. The current fantasy wave has morphed the military boot camp notion with the prep-school coming of age novels that have been a literary staple for so long, changing the schools’ admissions policies to reserve spots only for the specially talented. The most recent example of the form I have read, and fairly recently, was The Philosopher’s Flight. The all-time killer in the category, for me, anyway, is the Harry Potter series. If we include graphic categories, the X-men, in sundry variations would be a perfect fit as well. One might further subdivide between superhero (The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters) and magical (Hogwarts) sorts. I recognize that this may be a distinction without a difference. Boot Camp Bonding will do for now, in this case, for the psychically skilled. (BCB – PSY Division). Of course, of course, it could also be Very Special Ed (where peculiar horses learn to talk?). But then, if Dick Wolf got the rights, it would probably become Law and Order – Special Police Unit. More on this later.
Sky High School - image from Disney
Generically, these days, young people with that special je ne sais quois are thrown together in a training camp, form alliances, make friends, enemies, frenemies, hone their talents, and are sent out to do battle against The Bad in the name of The Good. There is always a tough-as-nails DI sort, who seems a horror but has their best interests at heart. Check. A powerful head honcho trying to mold the team into a fighting force. (See Dumbledore, Professor X, and if the setting is an actual, military boot camp, the kindly general so-and-so, the one with a wiser, more global perspective). In this case headmaster Clint Corbett. Check. The formation of us-vs-them teams in camp. (Gryffindor vs Slytherin, the cools vs the nerds, the elders vs the youngers) Check.
In addition to the BCB forms, toss in a few more. Teddy is an orphan. Check. She was raised by foster parents who are very loving. But her real parents bought the farm, supposedly, in an auto mishap. Check. Well, maybe, maybe not. So, of course, once doubt sets in, she has to investigate. Check. The organization he/she works for is protecting a dark secret. Check. There is also a force of similar talent in opposition, and up to no good. Check. If this was any more formulaic it would have been in an algebra textbook. It also spews loose ends like an upended barrel of yarn balls in a houseful of cats. . Of course, such things are the ties that bind readers to volume 2, so, perhaps, forgivable, as this is an intro to a three-part series.
My favorite academy – with really nasty hall monitors – image from list25.com
Where a J.K. Rowling gave us amazing texture, literary grounding, and well-realized characters, Archer gives us mostly cardboard cutouts, so there is that. Again, though, there is time in a series to spread out character development, so fingers are crossed on that one. And it had nothing much to say about the world other than the same-ole-same-ole of how bad militaristic sorts seek to exploit special talents for dark ends, which are, of course, used to justify any means necessary. Admittedly, though, the author(s?) do fuzz the good-guys/bad-guys lines a bit, so there is that. There is more sex in this than in the Potter books, owing, I expect to the targeting of a reader demo a bit older than typical Potter readers. It is sort of YA, but if so, at the upper age range for that. The sex scenes are not graphic.
The rights have indeed been purchased and are under development by the CW or CBS or some combination. The book very much had the feel of something that was written for TV, as if a teleplay had been novelized. Psychics 90210, maybe?
The author? - image from IBM
I have no intel on who KC Archer actually is, but it is entirely possible that this is a name constructed of parts of several writers. No idea really. And maybe something entirely other. In fact, School for Psychics looks like it may have been put together by Watson after having been fed a few hundred pertinent novels. Or designed in a petri dish by some writerly microbiologists with access to CRISPR technology and a few barrels of tropus novelii DNA.
But is it readable, enjoyable, worth the time? Strangely, given all the snark above, if you can keep your eyelids properly moisturized, what with all the eye-rolling, and if you do not mind the formulaic construction, it is actually a fun read. Writers use tropes to write books for a reason. Readers keep reading them. Teddy is written well enough to gain your interest in her learning to harness the power within, in finding out what happened to her parents, and in her survival. There are enough twists (that are not entirely obvious) to matter. And what is that yellow house Teddy keeps seeing in her dreams? There is some creativity in the skill sets attributed to at least some of the characters. And the action keeps moving along quickly.
If you are looking for a pure entertainment, unencumbered by broader content, I see in my crystal ball that the School for Psychics is in your future.
Review first posted – February 16, 2018
Publication – April 3, 2018
Early copy gotten from NetGalley – Thanks, guys.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
As we do not know the actual author’s name(s?), there are no links to offer.
Twenty-something Las Vegan (nothing to do with her diet) Theodora Delaney Cannon (Teddy) is in a bit of a bind. Seems she owes a Russian mobster two fifty large and he means to collect, even if it means going after her parents. Teddy is trying to do what she does best, reading gamblers en route to relieving them of their cash at the tables. But even that is a challenge, as she has been banned from every casino on the strip. Heavily disguised, she challenges the odds of being found out and is about to rake in a nice haul when her special talent goes all fuzzy, just about the time the dreaded Sergei and his enforcers show up. Luckily, there is a guardian angel looking over her shoulder, in the form of an NFL-large well-dressed man. He can make it all go away, see that mom and dad get to live out their lives with all their limbs still attached and that her owings are taken care of. But she will have to agree to sign up for a special school. Seems her gambling table bent was assisted by more than a garden variety ability to read people. Even though she was not aware of it, her particular talent was more on the psychic end of the gift spectrum. And her natural abilities might come in handy to the national security sorts who run The Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development. (Really? They couldn’t come up with a school name yielding a snappy acronym?) Not really much of a choice, so Vegas girl heads west, to an island a short boat ride from Fisherman’s Wharf, and the game is afoot.
X marks the spot for this special school - image from Marvel
Teddy had thought those fits she had been having were epilepsy. Nah, psychic power manifesting. Hormonal excess. But manageable with the right pharmaceuticals. Now she finds herself on a small island with a nice collection of her ability-rich peeps and has to face up to the challenge of toughing it out or bailing and going back to her somewhat desperate existence. Duh-uh. She picks up a few pals. Lucas can manipulate fire, which is an eye-roller, given that he is portrayed as a hottie. Jillian can communicate with animals, which is pretty cool. Molly is a hacker who can read people’s emotions. What? Deanna Troi was not available for the gig? Ok, ok, Troi was not a hacker. Looking to save a few bucks on casting by joining talents?
Brakebills University from The Magicians – or UBC for those of us with no magical powers – image from PBS
I do not know if there is a name already assigned to the trope. As far as I know this sort of thing originated in war stories, maybe as far back as Homer. An ethnically diverse set of guys (until recently, almost always guys, but more gender balanced now) meets in boot camp, then bond by facing a common enemy in the camp itself and then in actual combat. These would be people in their late teens or early twenties. The current fantasy wave has morphed the military boot camp notion with the prep-school coming of age novels that have been a literary staple for so long, changing the schools’ admissions policies to reserve spots only for the specially talented. The most recent example of the form I have read, and fairly recently, was The Philosopher’s Flight. The all-time killer in the category, for me, anyway, is the Harry Potter series. If we include graphic categories, the X-men, in sundry variations would be a perfect fit as well. One might further subdivide between superhero (The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters) and magical (Hogwarts) sorts. I recognize that this may be a distinction without a difference. Boot Camp Bonding will do for now, in this case, for the psychically skilled. (BCB – PSY Division). Of course, of course, it could also be Very Special Ed (where peculiar horses learn to talk?). But then, if Dick Wolf got the rights, it would probably become Law and Order – Special Police Unit. More on this later.
Sky High School - image from Disney
Generically, these days, young people with that special je ne sais quois are thrown together in a training camp, form alliances, make friends, enemies, frenemies, hone their talents, and are sent out to do battle against The Bad in the name of The Good. There is always a tough-as-nails DI sort, who seems a horror but has their best interests at heart. Check. A powerful head honcho trying to mold the team into a fighting force. (See Dumbledore, Professor X, and if the setting is an actual, military boot camp, the kindly general so-and-so, the one with a wiser, more global perspective). In this case headmaster Clint Corbett. Check. The formation of us-vs-them teams in camp. (Gryffindor vs Slytherin, the cools vs the nerds, the elders vs the youngers) Check.
In addition to the BCB forms, toss in a few more. Teddy is an orphan. Check. She was raised by foster parents who are very loving. But her real parents bought the farm, supposedly, in an auto mishap. Check. Well, maybe, maybe not. So, of course, once doubt sets in, she has to investigate. Check. The organization he/she works for is protecting a dark secret. Check. There is also a force of similar talent in opposition, and up to no good. Check. If this was any more formulaic it would have been in an algebra textbook. It also spews loose ends like an upended barrel of yarn balls in a houseful of cats. . Of course, such things are the ties that bind readers to volume 2, so, perhaps, forgivable, as this is an intro to a three-part series.
My favorite academy – with really nasty hall monitors – image from list25.com
Where a J.K. Rowling gave us amazing texture, literary grounding, and well-realized characters, Archer gives us mostly cardboard cutouts, so there is that. Again, though, there is time in a series to spread out character development, so fingers are crossed on that one. And it had nothing much to say about the world other than the same-ole-same-ole of how bad militaristic sorts seek to exploit special talents for dark ends, which are, of course, used to justify any means necessary. Admittedly, though, the author(s?) do fuzz the good-guys/bad-guys lines a bit, so there is that. There is more sex in this than in the Potter books, owing, I expect to the targeting of a reader demo a bit older than typical Potter readers. It is sort of YA, but if so, at the upper age range for that. The sex scenes are not graphic.
The rights have indeed been purchased and are under development by the CW or CBS or some combination. The book very much had the feel of something that was written for TV, as if a teleplay had been novelized. Psychics 90210, maybe?
The author? - image from IBM
I have no intel on who KC Archer actually is, but it is entirely possible that this is a name constructed of parts of several writers. No idea really. And maybe something entirely other. In fact, School for Psychics looks like it may have been put together by Watson after having been fed a few hundred pertinent novels. Or designed in a petri dish by some writerly microbiologists with access to CRISPR technology and a few barrels of tropus novelii DNA.
But is it readable, enjoyable, worth the time? Strangely, given all the snark above, if you can keep your eyelids properly moisturized, what with all the eye-rolling, and if you do not mind the formulaic construction, it is actually a fun read. Writers use tropes to write books for a reason. Readers keep reading them. Teddy is written well enough to gain your interest in her learning to harness the power within, in finding out what happened to her parents, and in her survival. There are enough twists (that are not entirely obvious) to matter. And what is that yellow house Teddy keeps seeing in her dreams? There is some creativity in the skill sets attributed to at least some of the characters. And the action keeps moving along quickly.
If you are looking for a pure entertainment, unencumbered by broader content, I see in my crystal ball that the School for Psychics is in your future.
Review first posted – February 16, 2018
Publication – April 3, 2018
Early copy gotten from NetGalley – Thanks, guys.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
As we do not know the actual author’s name(s?), there are no links to offer.
April 5, 2018
2.5 stars. Hey, it's another school for magically-gifted youngsters! (or young adults anyway, though they act more like teenagers.)
Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Theodora “Teddy” Cannon is hiding her short black hair and slight build under a long blonde wig, weighted underwear that adds thirty pounds, and cheap flashy clothing. It’s all in an effort to fool the security personnel and facial recognition software at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There she plans to parlay her $5,000 bankroll (from selling her car) into enough money to pay back the $270,000 she owes to Sergei Zharkov, a vicious Vegas bookie, and her adoptive parents, who know Teddy has been living an aimless and trouble-strewn life but are unaware that she’s stolen $90,000 from their retirement account to make a partial payment to Zharkov. Teddy knows she has the talent to “read” other card players almost faultlessly ― it’s led to her being banned from all the casinos on the Strip ― and is confident that she can win big at Texas Hold ’Em if she isn’t spotted and kicked out. Her plan is working like a dream … until her talent suddenly abandons her in the middle of a crucial hand and she loses everything.
About that same time both Zharkov and the casino recognize Teddy ― apparently bad luck comes in threes ― and give chase. Teddy is mysteriously saved by a stranger, an NFL linebacker-sized man who springs several surprises on her: He knows who she is and how much money she owes, and to whom. Her ability to read other gamblers is actually a psychic ability. And he will pay back all her debts if she will come to the Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development, which is secretly a school for training psychically-gifted young adults.
Teddy is a rebel and a rule-breaker, but she’s smart enough to recognize a deal that shouldn’t be refused. A day and a plane and boat ride later, she’s at the Whitfield Institute on an island off the California coast, meeting other new students with a wide range of psychic gifts, from telepathy to animal-speaking to firestarting. So far so fun, but Teddy is also a loner with trust issues and has a hard time fitting in, especially when it becomes clear that she’s having difficulty getting a handle on her psychic gifts.
Stir in a hostile professor with a grudge against Teddy and the “Misfits” group she hangs out with, a couple of hot guys who are interested in Teddy, a conspiracy and a few mysteries, and you’ve got a breezy, fast-paced story that reads quickly. Unfortunately School for Psychics never really engaged me, for numerous reasons. The plot is somewhat choppy, occasionally skipping over periods of time or important events with a noticeable lack of subtlety or smoothness and glossing over elements that don’t really make sense (for example, how did Teddy manage to land herself almost $300,000 in debt when she had a near-infallible talent for gambling?). It’s also cliché-ridden, relying on over-familiar tropes like the misfits vs. the alphas and the main character who, initially at a daunting disadvantage talent-wise, develops ― surprise! ― an Extra-Special Super Cool Talent.
The characters are mostly one-dimensional and familiar types. Teddy, though more complex, isn’t particularly likable, though readers who appreciate rebellious and troubled protagonists may enjoy her more than I did. School for Psychics has a New Adult vibe (with no interest in a committed relationship, Teddy hops into bed with a couple of different guys) but the students at the Whitfield Institute act more like teenagers. It irritated me as a reader when Teddy and her friends made several poor decisions. In particular, there’s one mind-bogglingly bad decision toward the end that annoyed me so much that I couldn’t even make myself be interested in the details of how their caper went down. The far-fetched coincidences that enabled their scheme didn’t help. I skimmed through most of what was supposed to be a climactic scene, mentally rolling my eyes at the characters.
School for Psychics works reasonably well as the introduction for a new book series, if the concept interests you and if you don’t expect too much from it beyond set-up and character introduction. Reportedly the television rights to it have been purchased and the CW is now developing a drama based on this novel.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you!
Content notes: violence and some sleeping around, not explicit.
Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Theodora “Teddy” Cannon is hiding her short black hair and slight build under a long blonde wig, weighted underwear that adds thirty pounds, and cheap flashy clothing. It’s all in an effort to fool the security personnel and facial recognition software at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There she plans to parlay her $5,000 bankroll (from selling her car) into enough money to pay back the $270,000 she owes to Sergei Zharkov, a vicious Vegas bookie, and her adoptive parents, who know Teddy has been living an aimless and trouble-strewn life but are unaware that she’s stolen $90,000 from their retirement account to make a partial payment to Zharkov. Teddy knows she has the talent to “read” other card players almost faultlessly ― it’s led to her being banned from all the casinos on the Strip ― and is confident that she can win big at Texas Hold ’Em if she isn’t spotted and kicked out. Her plan is working like a dream … until her talent suddenly abandons her in the middle of a crucial hand and she loses everything.
About that same time both Zharkov and the casino recognize Teddy ― apparently bad luck comes in threes ― and give chase. Teddy is mysteriously saved by a stranger, an NFL linebacker-sized man who springs several surprises on her: He knows who she is and how much money she owes, and to whom. Her ability to read other gamblers is actually a psychic ability. And he will pay back all her debts if she will come to the Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development, which is secretly a school for training psychically-gifted young adults.
Teddy is a rebel and a rule-breaker, but she’s smart enough to recognize a deal that shouldn’t be refused. A day and a plane and boat ride later, she’s at the Whitfield Institute on an island off the California coast, meeting other new students with a wide range of psychic gifts, from telepathy to animal-speaking to firestarting. So far so fun, but Teddy is also a loner with trust issues and has a hard time fitting in, especially when it becomes clear that she’s having difficulty getting a handle on her psychic gifts.
Stir in a hostile professor with a grudge against Teddy and the “Misfits” group she hangs out with, a couple of hot guys who are interested in Teddy, a conspiracy and a few mysteries, and you’ve got a breezy, fast-paced story that reads quickly. Unfortunately School for Psychics never really engaged me, for numerous reasons. The plot is somewhat choppy, occasionally skipping over periods of time or important events with a noticeable lack of subtlety or smoothness and glossing over elements that don’t really make sense (for example, how did Teddy manage to land herself almost $300,000 in debt when she had a near-infallible talent for gambling?). It’s also cliché-ridden, relying on over-familiar tropes like the misfits vs. the alphas and the main character who, initially at a daunting disadvantage talent-wise, develops ― surprise! ― an Extra-Special Super Cool Talent.
The characters are mostly one-dimensional and familiar types. Teddy, though more complex, isn’t particularly likable, though readers who appreciate rebellious and troubled protagonists may enjoy her more than I did. School for Psychics has a New Adult vibe (with no interest in a committed relationship, Teddy hops into bed with a couple of different guys) but the students at the Whitfield Institute act more like teenagers. It irritated me as a reader when Teddy and her friends made several poor decisions. In particular, there’s one mind-bogglingly bad decision toward the end that annoyed me so much that I couldn’t even make myself be interested in the details of how their caper went down. The far-fetched coincidences that enabled their scheme didn’t help. I skimmed through most of what was supposed to be a climactic scene, mentally rolling my eyes at the characters.
School for Psychics works reasonably well as the introduction for a new book series, if the concept interests you and if you don’t expect too much from it beyond set-up and character introduction. Reportedly the television rights to it have been purchased and the CW is now developing a drama based on this novel.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Thank you!
Content notes: violence and some sleeping around, not explicit.
February 13, 2018
2.5 stars
The book begins as Teddy Cannon is gambling in Vegas. She is in disguise as she has been banned from most casinos. She doesn't count cards or cheat, but she does have an ability to "read" people. She knows what they are going to do and can make her moves accordingly. She owes a lot of money and needs to make it back so that she can pay off her debts and start over.
What Teddy sees as an "ability" is proof that she is "psychic". She is approached at the casino and offered a chance to work on her skills and to learn more about her abilities. Where? At a school for psychics of course. There she meets others with various abilities and they all must pass the test to study at the school.
Teddy seems to digress a little in age for me. At the beginning of the book she comes off as older and more mature. Yes, she is playing a role at the casino, but still her thoughts and mannerisms make her appear older. When she gets to the school, she suddenly feels like a teenager who can't decide what "hot" guy she wants to be with or what she is going to do.
She, and the other students do get to learn new skills and perfect the one skills they already possess to help their government. Plus, Teddy finds out some secrets about her past which also add to the intrigue and story-line. Also, this book has mystery, romance, the element of who can I trust, secrets, etc. Sounds like an interesting premise but it fell flat for me. Was this the case of "it's not you - it's me" I just had a hard time getting into this book. I think there are parts of this book that many will like but this just wasn't really my cup of tea.
I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
The book begins as Teddy Cannon is gambling in Vegas. She is in disguise as she has been banned from most casinos. She doesn't count cards or cheat, but she does have an ability to "read" people. She knows what they are going to do and can make her moves accordingly. She owes a lot of money and needs to make it back so that she can pay off her debts and start over.
What Teddy sees as an "ability" is proof that she is "psychic". She is approached at the casino and offered a chance to work on her skills and to learn more about her abilities. Where? At a school for psychics of course. There she meets others with various abilities and they all must pass the test to study at the school.
Teddy seems to digress a little in age for me. At the beginning of the book she comes off as older and more mature. Yes, she is playing a role at the casino, but still her thoughts and mannerisms make her appear older. When she gets to the school, she suddenly feels like a teenager who can't decide what "hot" guy she wants to be with or what she is going to do.
She, and the other students do get to learn new skills and perfect the one skills they already possess to help their government. Plus, Teddy finds out some secrets about her past which also add to the intrigue and story-line. Also, this book has mystery, romance, the element of who can I trust, secrets, etc. Sounds like an interesting premise but it fell flat for me. Was this the case of "it's not you - it's me" I just had a hard time getting into this book. I think there are parts of this book that many will like but this just wasn't really my cup of tea.
I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
March 23, 2018
Ok... so I was super intrigued by the premise of this book. Psychics?! I'm in... but wow this book was not what I was hoping or expecting at all.
Teddy our main character has a gift of being able to "read" people. She is offered a place in School of Psychics with others like herself that have different special abilities. I did not like Teddy whatsoever... felt like I was kind of reading a YA novel but Teddy was super immature to my liking but she's supposed to be an adult? But, haha I guess we all know one or two people that act like children lol :).
I thought the book would have picked up speed when Teddy arrived at this school but it fell extremely flat for me :(. I was so bored and had to put it down multiple times to finish this one. I'm not really into fantasy novels and unfortunately this one just wasn't for me.
2 stars for me on this one.
Thank you so much Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Publication date: 4/3/18
Published to GR: 3/23/18
March 30, 2018
School for Psychics by K.C. Archer is the first book in the new School for Psychics urban fantasy series. The main character in this series is Teddy Cannon, a twenty something college dropout who has gotten herself deeply in debt in her hometown of Las Vegas.
Teddy has been banned from every casino on the Vegas strip for “cheating” which she claims to have never actually done. You see Teddy has a sense for people and a weird habit of being able to read them so in order to pay off her massive debt she’s disguised herself to head back into the Bellagio to gamble.
Unfortunately for Teddy the night does not go the way she planned when she loses all her winnings to a stranger she hasn’t been able to get a read on. Then when the man she’s in debt to gives chase Teddy turns to a stranger who manages to hide her presence and offers her a spot in the School for Psychics claiming her “feel” for people is her ability beginning to form.
Before picking up School for Psychics myself I’d noticed that reviewers seem to feel this is either a hit or miss so I was curious how I would feel myself. Well, when finished I’m going to stay a bit neutral in my rating as I didn’t think it’s necessarily a bad book but it’s definitely not a great one either.
The biggest problem I see this one having and what will probably be repeated in many reviews is that this is supposed to be an adult main character, in her 20s, but other than gambling in a casino in the beginning of the book it really felt like I was following a young teen. As soon as Teddy hit the school in the book it was like she and everyone around her went back to high school instead of an undercover training program. It was secrets parties, cute boys and breaking all the rules…typical YA filler material. Now I love a good YA just as much as I do adult stories so this didn’t bother me as much as it might some but as far as the story it didn’t necessarily jump out and wow me either as I feel like it’s all been done before so far in this series but maybe it will improve as it goes on.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Teddy has been banned from every casino on the Vegas strip for “cheating” which she claims to have never actually done. You see Teddy has a sense for people and a weird habit of being able to read them so in order to pay off her massive debt she’s disguised herself to head back into the Bellagio to gamble.
Unfortunately for Teddy the night does not go the way she planned when she loses all her winnings to a stranger she hasn’t been able to get a read on. Then when the man she’s in debt to gives chase Teddy turns to a stranger who manages to hide her presence and offers her a spot in the School for Psychics claiming her “feel” for people is her ability beginning to form.
Before picking up School for Psychics myself I’d noticed that reviewers seem to feel this is either a hit or miss so I was curious how I would feel myself. Well, when finished I’m going to stay a bit neutral in my rating as I didn’t think it’s necessarily a bad book but it’s definitely not a great one either.
The biggest problem I see this one having and what will probably be repeated in many reviews is that this is supposed to be an adult main character, in her 20s, but other than gambling in a casino in the beginning of the book it really felt like I was following a young teen. As soon as Teddy hit the school in the book it was like she and everyone around her went back to high school instead of an undercover training program. It was secrets parties, cute boys and breaking all the rules…typical YA filler material. Now I love a good YA just as much as I do adult stories so this didn’t bother me as much as it might some but as far as the story it didn’t necessarily jump out and wow me either as I feel like it’s all been done before so far in this series but maybe it will improve as it goes on.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Read
January 30, 2018I inhaled this book, ignoring chores and work.
Stories about psychics that are written in first person sardonic are almost always going to draw me in, especially if the main character is a mess trying to be a better person, and so it is with 24-year-old Teddy Cannon, who we begin with in her hometown Las Vegas. She's dressed in a fat suit, as she has been blackballed from all the casinos, but she desperately needs money as she owes a quarter million to a loan shark. But she gets made by . . . a recruiter for a school for psychics.
Go to the school and have her debts cancelled and her parents' retirement fund restored, or be left on her own to deal with it? Gee, tough choice. Not. Except that it is for Teddy--which shows how serious are her trust issues, in spite of truly awesome adoptive parents. (the word adoptive is there for a reason.)
Teddy has always been able to sense when people lie, which contributes to those trust issues. But she takes the offer, and goes to the school, which is located on an island in San Francisco Bay. She expects at any time to be booted out, which extends to her extra helping of attitude. She likes to hook up with hot guys, but wants no part of relationships; she has a tough time making friends, she doesn't trust the instructors as far as she can spit into a wind.
She not only has to learn all the nifty stuff taught at the school, she has to learn to have friends, and how to trust your team--which, for her, is harder than the killer obstacle courses, grueling forensics classes, and so forth.
Then things start getting odd.
Okay, I usually roll my eyes at psychic schools that are related to Sekrit and Evil Government Labs. I also roll my eyes at love triangles. But Archer sold me on the government aspect of this story because it, like the psychic abilities, made sense. Archer draws from human nature in building the history of the government stuff. Equally, I liked the way that Archer drew on our own human senses in developing the psychic talents.
I really liked the way Archer develops the characters. Kate and Jillian were my favorites. There are plenty of hot guys, and though Teddy is drawn to two, her own issues get in the way of the usual Angsty Love Triangle road I've seen in too many novels, especially YAs.
I don't know that I'd call this YA. It feels like one, though the characters are in their twenties. They are in school, with stringent rules. There are adult relationships, though not on page. There is adult language.
I would have loved it as a teen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as an old bat. In fact, I want the next one NOW.
Copy provided by NetGalley
Stories about psychics that are written in first person sardonic are almost always going to draw me in, especially if the main character is a mess trying to be a better person, and so it is with 24-year-old Teddy Cannon, who we begin with in her hometown Las Vegas. She's dressed in a fat suit, as she has been blackballed from all the casinos, but she desperately needs money as she owes a quarter million to a loan shark. But she gets made by . . . a recruiter for a school for psychics.
Go to the school and have her debts cancelled and her parents' retirement fund restored, or be left on her own to deal with it? Gee, tough choice. Not. Except that it is for Teddy--which shows how serious are her trust issues, in spite of truly awesome adoptive parents. (the word adoptive is there for a reason.)
Teddy has always been able to sense when people lie, which contributes to those trust issues. But she takes the offer, and goes to the school, which is located on an island in San Francisco Bay. She expects at any time to be booted out, which extends to her extra helping of attitude. She likes to hook up with hot guys, but wants no part of relationships; she has a tough time making friends, she doesn't trust the instructors as far as she can spit into a wind.
She not only has to learn all the nifty stuff taught at the school, she has to learn to have friends, and how to trust your team--which, for her, is harder than the killer obstacle courses, grueling forensics classes, and so forth.
Then things start getting odd.
Okay, I usually roll my eyes at psychic schools that are related to Sekrit and Evil Government Labs. I also roll my eyes at love triangles. But Archer sold me on the government aspect of this story because it, like the psychic abilities, made sense. Archer draws from human nature in building the history of the government stuff. Equally, I liked the way that Archer drew on our own human senses in developing the psychic talents.
I really liked the way Archer develops the characters. Kate and Jillian were my favorites. There are plenty of hot guys, and though Teddy is drawn to two, her own issues get in the way of the usual Angsty Love Triangle road I've seen in too many novels, especially YAs.
I don't know that I'd call this YA. It feels like one, though the characters are in their twenties. They are in school, with stringent rules. There are adult relationships, though not on page. There is adult language.
I would have loved it as a teen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as an old bat. In fact, I want the next one NOW.
Copy provided by NetGalley
April 7, 2018
I am fascinated by any book with "powers" featured in the plotline. Growing up, I loved the idea of harnessing a secret power just like Samantha from Bewitched! School for Psychics is about an elite, most secretive school on Angel Island helping psychics learn their respective gifts. The first book in a new series, this one left us on part of a cliffhanger, so that you are encouraged to pick up the next book to find out what happens next.
Teddy Cannon is our protagonist, she's discovered reading cards at a Poker table in a Vegas casino and we follow her as she comes to terms with her birth parents and their history, along with all her new friends at school. They all have different psychic abilities and it was super interesting to learn more about the differences. However, this book was a slog for me for about the first 2/3's of the book. I didn't want to pick it back up again, wasn't interested in the plot or the characters, frankly I was just bored. The last 1/3 I couldn't put down. It was a riveting race to the end and I had to know how it would end. Not sure yet if I'll pick up the next book in the series. I think there were just too many side characters that I had a hard time keeping them all straight.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Teddy Cannon is our protagonist, she's discovered reading cards at a Poker table in a Vegas casino and we follow her as she comes to terms with her birth parents and their history, along with all her new friends at school. They all have different psychic abilities and it was super interesting to learn more about the differences. However, this book was a slog for me for about the first 2/3's of the book. I didn't want to pick it back up again, wasn't interested in the plot or the characters, frankly I was just bored. The last 1/3 I couldn't put down. It was a riveting race to the end and I had to know how it would end. Not sure yet if I'll pick up the next book in the series. I think there were just too many side characters that I had a hard time keeping them all straight.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 3, 2018
I am conflicted about this one. It really grabbed my interest when I glanced at the blurb, which was surprising because I don't read a lot of books like it. It's a fantasy about people with special abilities, so I thought it could go one of two ways: it could be about kids or teenagers and be a YA, or it would be about more mature characters and go darker, which I would have found refreshing. I was wrong. It is about characters in their early twenties, but they aren't very mature. They really read more like horomone-ridden teenagers. Is it a YA? There is a little bit more sexy time than is common in YA, but it's not graphic. What is it? Who wrote this? I found it to be a bit of a guilty pleasure. I enjoyed it even though I had problems with it, so I'm going with a three star rating.
Teddy has made a lot of bad decisions in her life, but she's probably at her lowest point. She's secretly stolen money from her loving parents to fund one last gambling run to pay off her HUGE debt to a very scary man. She's been banned from every casino in Las Vegas, so she's gotta do this in a disguise. Things seem to be going well... she's using her uncanny ability to read the table, she's up quite a bit of money, and she's starting to feel that elusive little feeling called hope. Then things go fuzzy and she loses everything.
Fearing for her own safety and that of her parents, a weird opportunity presents itself: a kind stranger has appeared who seems to know more about her than he should. Clint says that ability to read when people are lying she's been using can be much much more: she's psychic. He is trying to recruit her to a school for people with similar gifts where they're trained and tested and eventually go on to do very important work. We're talking saving lives here. He's willing to bail her out of the huge hole she's dug herself into if she agrees. What choice does she have?
From there, we're introduced to lots of new characters. They all have some kind of ability to hone at the school. There's one that can communicate with animals, one who gets messages from the dead, an empath hacker... and of course, the bad boy covered in tattoos who can create fire with his mind. That's right. He's literally hot... so hot he's been given the moniker Pyro. I was both rolling my eyes and amused by that one. Was it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? I hope so. Turns out her tenure at this school is not so much guaranteed, and Teddy will have to work hard to keep her place. As if learning how to use her powers, getting in the best shape of her life, and memorizing police procedure isn't enough to manage, strange things (stranger things?) begin to happen at the academy. Missing students and lots of secrets, the school may not be what it seems.
I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Simon & Shuster, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.
Teddy has made a lot of bad decisions in her life, but she's probably at her lowest point. She's secretly stolen money from her loving parents to fund one last gambling run to pay off her HUGE debt to a very scary man. She's been banned from every casino in Las Vegas, so she's gotta do this in a disguise. Things seem to be going well... she's using her uncanny ability to read the table, she's up quite a bit of money, and she's starting to feel that elusive little feeling called hope. Then things go fuzzy and she loses everything.
Fearing for her own safety and that of her parents, a weird opportunity presents itself: a kind stranger has appeared who seems to know more about her than he should. Clint says that ability to read when people are lying she's been using can be much much more: she's psychic. He is trying to recruit her to a school for people with similar gifts where they're trained and tested and eventually go on to do very important work. We're talking saving lives here. He's willing to bail her out of the huge hole she's dug herself into if she agrees. What choice does she have?
From there, we're introduced to lots of new characters. They all have some kind of ability to hone at the school. There's one that can communicate with animals, one who gets messages from the dead, an empath hacker... and of course, the bad boy covered in tattoos who can create fire with his mind. That's right. He's literally hot... so hot he's been given the moniker Pyro. I was both rolling my eyes and amused by that one. Was it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? I hope so. Turns out her tenure at this school is not so much guaranteed, and Teddy will have to work hard to keep her place. As if learning how to use her powers, getting in the best shape of her life, and memorizing police procedure isn't enough to manage, strange things (stranger things?) begin to happen at the academy. Missing students and lots of secrets, the school may not be what it seems.
I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Simon & Shuster, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.
September 25, 2018
This is a difficult book to review if only because a lot of people are going to be put off by the topic in general. Do we really need another book about kids that go to a magical school no one knows about?
The answer here, for me, is yes!
The Writing
K.C. Archer has done a beautiful job of writing a fast-paced, interesting and well put together novel in School for Psychics. It would be unfair to say that this isn't original because Archer's school is very different from those I've read about in the past. Additionally Archer has a way of drawing the reader in. I didn't want to put this book down!
Romance
One of the best written awkward teenage romances I've read in awhile. I love how you think maybe it will be one way, and then it's not. It's not insta-love; it's insta-lust at times; but that is real and does happen. Especially to teenagers. There are both sweet and awkward moments between our lead gal and the primary love interest. Just like in real life.
Lead Gal is a "Bad Girl"
I love our lead gal and her genuine bad girl status that is established right away in Chapter one. She has an authenticity that spoke to me. I was, personally, far from the best teenager (lol). I got in trouble, a lot, not just from my parents; but from law enforcement and at school. So I connected with our lead gal. I also sympathized with her as it was clear that many of the things happening to her were, perhaps, not all her fault. Many were just a 'side effect' of her psychic ability being erratic. I think for many teens, whether it's psychic ability or hormones, it's difficult to really figure out the world around you. And events can be experienced in such a vivid way, when you are a child/teen, that they tend to be overwhelmed. This confusion with the world, inability to trust anyone and difficulty fitting in is all brilliantly portrayed by Archer in School for Psychics. It doesn't matter 'triggers' or 'creates' the feelings you have (be it ESP or not) because at the end of the day these feelings manifest in the same way. Archer does a great job of correlating this urban fantasy book with real life situations.
Overall
School for Psychics is a clear example of why you can't judge a book by it's troupe. Just because you've read something similar before doesn't mean that the book in front of you isn't just as good, or even better, than the five books you read this year with a similar theme. And let's face it, we all love the kids going to a special school troupe. Why? I think it's often because we wish we were special enough to be pulled from our current existence into a magical world where we are important. Let's face it, it's all about standing out (in some way, shape or form) and feeling critical to events and people around you. Archer captures all this and more in her characters and intricate plot. I just need the second book now!
For this and more of my reviews please visit my blog at: Epic Reading
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
The answer here, for me, is yes!
The Writing
K.C. Archer has done a beautiful job of writing a fast-paced, interesting and well put together novel in School for Psychics. It would be unfair to say that this isn't original because Archer's school is very different from those I've read about in the past. Additionally Archer has a way of drawing the reader in. I didn't want to put this book down!
Romance
One of the best written awkward teenage romances I've read in awhile. I love how you think maybe it will be one way, and then it's not. It's not insta-love; it's insta-lust at times; but that is real and does happen. Especially to teenagers. There are both sweet and awkward moments between our lead gal and the primary love interest. Just like in real life.
Lead Gal is a "Bad Girl"
I love our lead gal and her genuine bad girl status that is established right away in Chapter one. She has an authenticity that spoke to me. I was, personally, far from the best teenager (lol). I got in trouble, a lot, not just from my parents; but from law enforcement and at school. So I connected with our lead gal. I also sympathized with her as it was clear that many of the things happening to her were, perhaps, not all her fault. Many were just a 'side effect' of her psychic ability being erratic. I think for many teens, whether it's psychic ability or hormones, it's difficult to really figure out the world around you. And events can be experienced in such a vivid way, when you are a child/teen, that they tend to be overwhelmed. This confusion with the world, inability to trust anyone and difficulty fitting in is all brilliantly portrayed by Archer in School for Psychics. It doesn't matter 'triggers' or 'creates' the feelings you have (be it ESP or not) because at the end of the day these feelings manifest in the same way. Archer does a great job of correlating this urban fantasy book with real life situations.
Overall
School for Psychics is a clear example of why you can't judge a book by it's troupe. Just because you've read something similar before doesn't mean that the book in front of you isn't just as good, or even better, than the five books you read this year with a similar theme. And let's face it, we all love the kids going to a special school troupe. Why? I think it's often because we wish we were special enough to be pulled from our current existence into a magical world where we are important. Let's face it, it's all about standing out (in some way, shape or form) and feeling critical to events and people around you. Archer captures all this and more in her characters and intricate plot. I just need the second book now!
For this and more of my reviews please visit my blog at: Epic Reading
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
June 8, 2018
Excellent book! Our heroine discovers she’s psychic when she is trying to make enough money gambling to pay off some loan sharks and is thwarted by another psychic. She is recruited for a school that trains people with psychic abilities to work with the CIA, FBI, police, etc.
At the school she meets others with a variety of psychic traits. She also learns to accept friendships and work with a team.
This is a great book with well developed characters and an exciting story line. Can’t wait for the next book in the series!
At the school she meets others with a variety of psychic traits. She also learns to accept friendships and work with a team.
This is a great book with well developed characters and an exciting story line. Can’t wait for the next book in the series!
April 5, 2018
*3.5 stars rounded up.
I don't have to be psychic to hear you groaning about yet another book set in a school for extraordinarily talented young people. Yes, it is an overused plot device...and the reason is because it works so well. (As evidence, the fabulously successful Harry Potter series.)
In this first offering in a proposed new series being written by author K.C. Archer (and who the heck IS K.C. Archer??), the main character is twenty-two-year-old Theodora "Teddy" Cannon, a Stanford dropout who lives in the garage apartment belonging to her adoptive parents in Las Vegas, NV. Teddy has a severe gambling problem and is hugely in debt to a scary Russian loan shark AND she has been banned from most of the casinos. Her skill? She can 'read' other players, knowing when they are faking a good hand.
On this night, she is disguised and making one last attempt to make a big killing at the poker tables when she blows it all, is spotted by security, but is ambushed/rescued by a man claiming to be an FBI agent, offering her a position at Whitfield Institute in San Francisco, where her psychic talents can be developed and perhaps put to use to help her country.
After a night of soul-searching, Teddy is on the plane to SF the next morning and takes a ferry to the school on Angel Island, where she meets a band of fellow 'misfits.'
Through the first semester, things are pretty much as the reader would expect from this trope: personality clashes, problems with instructors, cliques, flashes of extraordinary ability, with a healthy dash of sexuality thrown in. Teddy lives up to her last name, being a bit of a 'loose cannon.'
But as semester two kicks off, the students are offered an opportunity to work on an FBI murder case to try to prove the innocence of a convicted killer. The twelve remaining first-year students are divided into two groups: "Each group will get the same information, but essentially, it's a race against the clock--and each other--to find anything we missed and make sure justice is done." (Boy, does this sound like The Innocence Project at Northwestern University or what??)
While visiting the inmate at San Quentin prison, Teddy has an unexpected connection with another prisoner who gives her some unsettling personal information and sends her life in a different and possibly dangerous direction. With this turn of events, the book becomes a real page turner.
Knowing there is a series in the works, I was worried there might be a cliffhanger-type ending. Well, there are some ends left dangling and there's a bit of a final teaser, but this first book does reach a satisfying conclusion.
Teddy is an interesting, resourceful character who does grow as a person and learns from her mistakes. The 'bad guy' was fairly easy to spot, even for a non-psychic. :) The plot falls somewhere between ya and adult fiction, with the writing style leaning towards ya and the subject matter occasionally verging into adult territory with some sexuality.
Many thanks to Dana Trocker, Associate Director of Marketing @Simon & Schuster, Inc. for offering me the opportunity to read an arc of this new thriller through NetGalley. I will look forward to reading more of this series.
I don't have to be psychic to hear you groaning about yet another book set in a school for extraordinarily talented young people. Yes, it is an overused plot device...and the reason is because it works so well. (As evidence, the fabulously successful Harry Potter series.)
In this first offering in a proposed new series being written by author K.C. Archer (and who the heck IS K.C. Archer??), the main character is twenty-two-year-old Theodora "Teddy" Cannon, a Stanford dropout who lives in the garage apartment belonging to her adoptive parents in Las Vegas, NV. Teddy has a severe gambling problem and is hugely in debt to a scary Russian loan shark AND she has been banned from most of the casinos. Her skill? She can 'read' other players, knowing when they are faking a good hand.
On this night, she is disguised and making one last attempt to make a big killing at the poker tables when she blows it all, is spotted by security, but is ambushed/rescued by a man claiming to be an FBI agent, offering her a position at Whitfield Institute in San Francisco, where her psychic talents can be developed and perhaps put to use to help her country.
After a night of soul-searching, Teddy is on the plane to SF the next morning and takes a ferry to the school on Angel Island, where she meets a band of fellow 'misfits.'
Through the first semester, things are pretty much as the reader would expect from this trope: personality clashes, problems with instructors, cliques, flashes of extraordinary ability, with a healthy dash of sexuality thrown in. Teddy lives up to her last name, being a bit of a 'loose cannon.'
But as semester two kicks off, the students are offered an opportunity to work on an FBI murder case to try to prove the innocence of a convicted killer. The twelve remaining first-year students are divided into two groups: "Each group will get the same information, but essentially, it's a race against the clock--and each other--to find anything we missed and make sure justice is done." (Boy, does this sound like The Innocence Project at Northwestern University or what??)
While visiting the inmate at San Quentin prison, Teddy has an unexpected connection with another prisoner who gives her some unsettling personal information and sends her life in a different and possibly dangerous direction. With this turn of events, the book becomes a real page turner.
Knowing there is a series in the works, I was worried there might be a cliffhanger-type ending. Well, there are some ends left dangling and there's a bit of a final teaser, but this first book does reach a satisfying conclusion.
Teddy is an interesting, resourceful character who does grow as a person and learns from her mistakes. The 'bad guy' was fairly easy to spot, even for a non-psychic. :) The plot falls somewhere between ya and adult fiction, with the writing style leaning towards ya and the subject matter occasionally verging into adult territory with some sexuality.
Many thanks to Dana Trocker, Associate Director of Marketing @Simon & Schuster, Inc. for offering me the opportunity to read an arc of this new thriller through NetGalley. I will look forward to reading more of this series.
May 4, 2018
Theodora "Teddy'' Cannon is an intelligent, strong and spirited woman, but sometimes her personality just leads her down the wrong path. But really, if you can read people....really read people....see when they are lying, bluffing, etc....why not use that talent to win at gambling? Teddy doesn't care that every casino in Vegas has banned her. She just puts on a disguise, and goes anyway. She owes money to some dangerous people and then took money from her parents to help pay that loan....she has to win. Without getting noticed. But she does get noticed. Not by security. But by a representative of a school. Turns out, Teddy isn't just talented at reading people. She's psychic. The Whitfield School trains psychics for law enforcement and military programs. It's a tough place where everyone has to earn their spot. When students start disappearing, Teddy learns there is more going on behind the scenes at Whitfield than most realize. Can she and her misfit friends figure out exactly what's going on?
This was such a fun book to read! The plot is creative and entertaining. The story had me hooked quickly. Teddy makes some bad decisions, but I still really like her as a main character. She has flaws, but she's loyal to her friends. Whitfield has a lot of secrets, and Teddy is determined to find them out. This book is a great start to a series! I can't wait to find out what happens next! I will definitely be reading the next book when it comes out!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
This was such a fun book to read! The plot is creative and entertaining. The story had me hooked quickly. Teddy makes some bad decisions, but I still really like her as a main character. She has flaws, but she's loyal to her friends. Whitfield has a lot of secrets, and Teddy is determined to find them out. This book is a great start to a series! I can't wait to find out what happens next! I will definitely be reading the next book when it comes out!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
January 28, 2018
You can also read my reviews on WP: https://anisabookreviews.wordpress.co...
Teddy can play poker. And she is in debt. She is desperate to get out of trouble. If she could just play one more time. But this last time at the Bellagio will come with more than she bargained for. Clint Corbett.
Teddy Cannon is a self-assured, witty, twentysomething, with special talents. She can read people. Her gut taught her to trust her instincts at an early age. Not just in the sense of non-verbal and social psychological cues, but in the sense that she knew what they were thinking. An unexpected meeting will Clint will change her future. He is a recruiter for the Whittmore Institue, a school for Law Enforcement Training and Development who will use their talents to secure the future of the nation.
The narrative hinges around a 24-year old that is navigating her way through her extraordinary psychic abilities at a special college. As she hones in on her telepathic ability, she forges out great friendships with the other first years. Her classmates are all unique with distinct personalities and abilities. Two groups emerge from the first year. The Misfits, Teddy's group and the Alphas with extraordinary abilities. Her group the Misfits and the Alphas are pitted in a competition which fuels the rivalry of the teams. However, it is Teddy who puts herself in grave danger when she discovers she can see into other's past and uncovers information about her deceased parents. She has a target on her back and she is not sure who she can trust.
The School For Psychics moves at a steady pace and has an interesting storyline. The novel flows easily and effortlessly and it was easy to get lost in the story. I enjoyed the journey in a psychics world - and the author played the abilities out with realism. The recurring dream was also an interesting way to discover Teddy's backstory. One criticism of the novel is that the dialogue at times seemed to be younger than the characters age. If the heroine of the story was 18 years old, I think that the story would have jived better. The story is plot driven and not overly poetic. However, this is a seriously fun story that may be the start of an entertaining series.
Thank you, NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and KC Archer for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Teddy can play poker. And she is in debt. She is desperate to get out of trouble. If she could just play one more time. But this last time at the Bellagio will come with more than she bargained for. Clint Corbett.
Teddy Cannon is a self-assured, witty, twentysomething, with special talents. She can read people. Her gut taught her to trust her instincts at an early age. Not just in the sense of non-verbal and social psychological cues, but in the sense that she knew what they were thinking. An unexpected meeting will Clint will change her future. He is a recruiter for the Whittmore Institue, a school for Law Enforcement Training and Development who will use their talents to secure the future of the nation.
The narrative hinges around a 24-year old that is navigating her way through her extraordinary psychic abilities at a special college. As she hones in on her telepathic ability, she forges out great friendships with the other first years. Her classmates are all unique with distinct personalities and abilities. Two groups emerge from the first year. The Misfits, Teddy's group and the Alphas with extraordinary abilities. Her group the Misfits and the Alphas are pitted in a competition which fuels the rivalry of the teams. However, it is Teddy who puts herself in grave danger when she discovers she can see into other's past and uncovers information about her deceased parents. She has a target on her back and she is not sure who she can trust.
The School For Psychics moves at a steady pace and has an interesting storyline. The novel flows easily and effortlessly and it was easy to get lost in the story. I enjoyed the journey in a psychics world - and the author played the abilities out with realism. The recurring dream was also an interesting way to discover Teddy's backstory. One criticism of the novel is that the dialogue at times seemed to be younger than the characters age. If the heroine of the story was 18 years old, I think that the story would have jived better. The story is plot driven and not overly poetic. However, this is a seriously fun story that may be the start of an entertaining series.
Thank you, NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and KC Archer for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
May 17, 2018
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Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review!
4.5/5 Stars
Teddy Cannon has always been great at poker, playing the tables in Vegas like a pro. Things change when she has a run in with the law and discovers that she is psychic. Teddy is given the opportunity to attend a school specifically to help train psychics and help them develop their abilities in order to one day work with the government. Once there, she teams up with a group that calls themselves The Misfits to solve a new mysterious crime that has surfaced at the school.
I loved this book way more than I thought I would! I love the idea of magical schools and have always been interested in psychics so I was very excited about this book! I really liked learning about all the different types of psychics attending the school and found their powers very intriguing! I thought the plot and story line was fun and it went by fairly quickly. The writing style flowed nicely, making for a very easy read. It's definitely full of your typical YA tropes, but it was so entertaining I barely noticed.
Each character is unique and flawed in their own ways, making them feel like real people. I found Teddy to be extremely relatable and I loved her witty banter with the other characters. I do think that she acted more like a teenager than a 20 something year old, but I still enjoyed her character none-the-less. I was able to call who the villain of the story was early on, but that didn't deter from my enjoyment of the book overall.
Overall, super fun and quick... I'm definitely going to be picking up the sequel when it is released! ALSO WHO IS K. C. ARCHER!? YA GIRL NEEDS TO KNOW.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review!
4.5/5 Stars
Teddy Cannon has always been great at poker, playing the tables in Vegas like a pro. Things change when she has a run in with the law and discovers that she is psychic. Teddy is given the opportunity to attend a school specifically to help train psychics and help them develop their abilities in order to one day work with the government. Once there, she teams up with a group that calls themselves The Misfits to solve a new mysterious crime that has surfaced at the school.
I loved this book way more than I thought I would! I love the idea of magical schools and have always been interested in psychics so I was very excited about this book! I really liked learning about all the different types of psychics attending the school and found their powers very intriguing! I thought the plot and story line was fun and it went by fairly quickly. The writing style flowed nicely, making for a very easy read. It's definitely full of your typical YA tropes, but it was so entertaining I barely noticed.
Each character is unique and flawed in their own ways, making them feel like real people. I found Teddy to be extremely relatable and I loved her witty banter with the other characters. I do think that she acted more like a teenager than a 20 something year old, but I still enjoyed her character none-the-less. I was able to call who the villain of the story was early on, but that didn't deter from my enjoyment of the book overall.
Overall, super fun and quick... I'm definitely going to be picking up the sequel when it is released! ALSO WHO IS K. C. ARCHER!? YA GIRL NEEDS TO KNOW.
April 16, 2018
The School for Psychics by K.C. Archer
First book in the School for Psychics series
1.75 stars
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1
Villain Scale: 2
Character Scale: 1.75
Cover Thoughts: That giant blown up face in the middle of a pretty background ruins this cover for me.
Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
First book in the School for Psychics series
1.75 stars
This novel follows Teddy Cannon, a misfit gambler who has been banned from the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. She can’t kick the habit especially because she owes thousands to a dangerous man threatening her adoptive parents. Teddy has never been proven to be a cheater, but her ability to tell when people are lying has come in handy at the poker table. When Teddy is offered an opportunity to attend a school for psychics, Whitfield, that trains them to be operatives in government fields it seems to good to be true. The challenge Teddy faces is to pass her exams and not get kicked out of the school that can save her from destruction. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into this novel. It seemed like a fun novel and who doesn’t want to read about a school of psychics? However, this book is bland and not at all what I was expecting. It’s racked full of clichés. Here is an example:
“Haven’t you wondered why you can do things other people can’t?”
This feels so much like the famous scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that I thought I was reading it for a second.
The dialogue in general within this novel is incredibly mediocre and unless I was told that this was an adult novel I wouldn’t have guessed that because the writing style seems juvenile and clunky. It’s also hard to buy that some of these characters are adults because the things they say are so cringey that I was getting second-hand embarrassment. Archer’s writing style can be very fast, but it can also be slow and I found that there was no good balance between the two. Either I was flying through the pages or forcing myself to carry on. Another problem I had was that there were so many major plot points being introduced past the 50% marker. When I’m reading a novel, I love to have new things introduced, but when new major plots are being added in without hugely impacting the story it becomes frustrating. For instance, there is a whole plot introduced in the spring semester of the story where the class has to solve whether a man killed his girlfriend or not. It was too much and it did nothing for this story. The ending I found to be the hardest to get through and stay entertained. I can’t really put my finger on it, but at a certain point I felt like the story was going nowhere particularly exciting and the plot was detrimental to the characters that I felt like I had to keep reading. I found myself getting a little bored at the climax of what was supposed to be a setup for the sequel.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
The main female character is Teddy. I am not a fan of Teddy at all. She is the epitome of a Mary Sue. I haven’t come across many of those lately and I was starting to think that writers were moving from this 2000s writing trope, but nope. Teddy’s power is a one-of-kind psychic ability that is just oh so rare and special. Also, Teddy is selfish. I haven’t read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, but I’ve heard all the characters are unlikable and it made me wonder if Archer was trying to capture this type of character in the similar setting that Grossman used. All I know is that even characters in the novel were calling her out for only going to people to get something to serve herself instead of genuinely caring about the people around her. In fact, I highlighted three quotes of people calling her out on this and did she change? Not really. She claimed she did, but I surely didn’t see that in her actions.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1
The Villain- I called it from the beginning of the missing blood vials. It was obvious and nobody saw it, which is completely baffling since these are all highly trained government specialists. I just don’t buy that the dean of the school didn’t see what was so stinking obvious and in everyone’s faces. Obviously, if this is the case the government is failing and everyone needs to be fired.
Villain Scale: 2
There is a wide cast of characters. The school is divided into Misfits and Alphas. Teddy and all her friends are misfits because they have never utilized their powers for success and have felt more like outcasts because of them. It makes sense that there would be two types of people who would utilize their powers, but none of the characters really stuck out to me. All of the characters were clichés of their ability. For instance, one of the characters that Teddy has a one-night stand with is a pyrokinetic and he is angsty and emo. Every pyrokinetic in film is angsty except for Charlie from Firestarter who was angry and vengeful and she was the best. Teddy’s roommate can also talk to animals and she is your stereotypical hippie who does yoga in the nude. Molly, an integral character, is a hacker and an empath. She exhibits all the usual hacker clichés, but it is amped up because of her inability to escape everyone else’s emotions. It’s hard to appreciate characters when they all represent an archetype and never expand past what the author presents to us. Then there is Clint, the dean of the school, and he feels like a younger Dumbledore and I just wasn’t buying him. Also, Teddy sleeping with her professor was just awkward and unnecessary.
Character Scale: 1.75
Overall, The School for Psychics had promise, but I wasn’t all that extremely impressed with it. I wish that I had enjoyed this novel more than I did, but this novel just wasn’t for me. I would, however, recommend it to fans of special schools that focuses more on the actual school.
Cover Thoughts: That giant blown up face in the middle of a pretty background ruins this cover for me.
Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
February 8, 2019
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Meet Teddy, a young girl from Las Vegas who has a knack for reading people at the poker tables. We learn that she is down on her luck, living out of her parent’s garage, having recently been kick out of Stanford. Her adopted parents hope that she will get her life together, but that’s not very likely since we meet her, sneaking into a casino having stolen all of her parent’s savings and hoping to make it big at the poker tables. She is in disguise because she has been banned from every casino for what they believe is cheating although they can’t prove it. She just has a knack for knowing when people are lying. It is something she has always had sixth sense. It hasn’t encouraged her to have a lot of trust for her fellow man keeping her at arm’s length from every relationship. Teddy needs to win big because she owes money to a Russian mobster.
Well, she gets taken for all of her cash at the poker table and just before she gets found out by the mob help comes in the form of a huge linebacker of a man named Clint. Through mind control he whisks her out of the casino and offers her a way out. It turns out that he believes Teddy has psychic ability and that is why she can read people so well at the card table. He invites her to attend a special school that develops psychic ability in order to help different law enforcement agencies. To turn her life around, get out of the trouble she is in and be able to develop her abilities to do good in the world is what make Teddy agree to enrol. The story continues as she completes her first year, but not without a mystery to solve including the secret of her past, and learning lots about herself and allowing friends to make the difference in her new world.
I loved this book! I couldn’t wait to keep reading each chapter to see what was going to happen next. I found the characters were well developed, three dimensional and you were invested in what was going to happen to them. The whole psychic angle was so much fun, especially as you got to learn of all the different kinds of psychic abilities. I’m just saying - I wouldn’t mind some heat - am I right ladies! Don’t worry - all PG. The mystery was exciting and since Teddy is adopted, secrets from her past including who her parents are become of interest. Since psychics can’t “read” other psychics, Teddy never knows fully who she can trust and who is on her side.
This is billed as book 1 so I hoping this is one of a multiple book series. Teddy has completed one year of her program so I’m guessing there could be a book each year of her school. I can’t wait until the next book will be released.
Meet Teddy, a young girl from Las Vegas who has a knack for reading people at the poker tables. We learn that she is down on her luck, living out of her parent’s garage, having recently been kick out of Stanford. Her adopted parents hope that she will get her life together, but that’s not very likely since we meet her, sneaking into a casino having stolen all of her parent’s savings and hoping to make it big at the poker tables. She is in disguise because she has been banned from every casino for what they believe is cheating although they can’t prove it. She just has a knack for knowing when people are lying. It is something she has always had sixth sense. It hasn’t encouraged her to have a lot of trust for her fellow man keeping her at arm’s length from every relationship. Teddy needs to win big because she owes money to a Russian mobster.
Well, she gets taken for all of her cash at the poker table and just before she gets found out by the mob help comes in the form of a huge linebacker of a man named Clint. Through mind control he whisks her out of the casino and offers her a way out. It turns out that he believes Teddy has psychic ability and that is why she can read people so well at the card table. He invites her to attend a special school that develops psychic ability in order to help different law enforcement agencies. To turn her life around, get out of the trouble she is in and be able to develop her abilities to do good in the world is what make Teddy agree to enrol. The story continues as she completes her first year, but not without a mystery to solve including the secret of her past, and learning lots about herself and allowing friends to make the difference in her new world.
I loved this book! I couldn’t wait to keep reading each chapter to see what was going to happen next. I found the characters were well developed, three dimensional and you were invested in what was going to happen to them. The whole psychic angle was so much fun, especially as you got to learn of all the different kinds of psychic abilities. I’m just saying - I wouldn’t mind some heat - am I right ladies! Don’t worry - all PG. The mystery was exciting and since Teddy is adopted, secrets from her past including who her parents are become of interest. Since psychics can’t “read” other psychics, Teddy never knows fully who she can trust and who is on her side.
This is billed as book 1 so I hoping this is one of a multiple book series. Teddy has completed one year of her program so I’m guessing there could be a book each year of her school. I can’t wait until the next book will be released.
February 3, 2018
2.5 stars
In many ways, this story is much like the gazillion YA books in which teens discover they have some super-special abilities and are recruited to attend a secret school. Cue in misfits vs. popular/mean kids, a bit of potential romance, some secret goings-on, etc. The School for Psychics is for a bit older crowd (so the drinking and sex aren’t quite as taboo) but the dynamics are similar for much of the book.
I liked Teddy for the most part and the premise has potential, but it was limited by a number of inconsistencies and things that made no sense. I also became frustrated many times with Teddy for ignoring the obvious.
Despite the story’s shortcomings, I had no trouble reading to the end and it was a mostly enjoyable diversion. But it wasn’t enjoyable enough to induce me to read the next book in the series.
In many ways, this story is much like the gazillion YA books in which teens discover they have some super-special abilities and are recruited to attend a secret school. Cue in misfits vs. popular/mean kids, a bit of potential romance, some secret goings-on, etc. The School for Psychics is for a bit older crowd (so the drinking and sex aren’t quite as taboo) but the dynamics are similar for much of the book.
I liked Teddy for the most part and the premise has potential, but it was limited by a number of inconsistencies and things that made no sense. I also became frustrated many times with Teddy for ignoring the obvious.
Despite the story’s shortcomings, I had no trouble reading to the end and it was a mostly enjoyable diversion. But it wasn’t enjoyable enough to induce me to read the next book in the series.
March 28, 2018
Teddy is in a downward spiral. Making bad decisions that are quickly catching up to her, putting herself and her adoptive parents in some real trouble. Her only choice? To go to the School for Psychics - where her debt will be wiped clean - she'll just need to serve four years of her life... and that's providing she even passes the entrance exams. (Which we know she does, because hello... this is just BOOK ONE!)
This eclectic cast of characters are in their 20's... not teenagers anymore, but not quite full adults yet either. Oh, don't get me wrong, when I was in my 20's, I certainly thought I was an adult.. but nope... hell, I'm in my 40's now and still don't feel like an adult so.... 😉 They're sent to this school for various reasons and all have their own skills to bring to the table... and their own secrets to keep.
As with any type of school, we have the split in cliques - for the School of Psychics we have the Misfits and the Alphas. Who doesn't love rooting for the underdog?! This book is full of YA cliches, with the smoldering bad boy, rebellious leading girl who finds her way, a puzzle to be solved, etc. - all interspersed with romance. I am NOT complaining. Personally, I found this book HIGHLY entertaining. I flew through this read and am SO glad that it's the first in a series! The ending left something to look forward to without it being abrupt and still finding a little closure.
I really enjoyed the sarcastic humor throughout this story and found this easy to read and action packed. It really wants me to try and move things with my mind again (never worked as a child, but hey.. maybe now 🤷). I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for book two!
Couple of tid bits for you all - seems K.C. Archer is a pseudonym and I can't seem to find for which author and I'm DYING of curiosity! If you know, please do tell! Also, I hear a rumor this has been optioned by the CW for a series... I think I may have to give this a look!
Happy reading all - seriously, give this a shot if you're into psychic abilities and YA fodder... and ENJOY!
Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for this advanced copy in return for my honest opinion!
This eclectic cast of characters are in their 20's... not teenagers anymore, but not quite full adults yet either. Oh, don't get me wrong, when I was in my 20's, I certainly thought I was an adult.. but nope... hell, I'm in my 40's now and still don't feel like an adult so.... 😉 They're sent to this school for various reasons and all have their own skills to bring to the table... and their own secrets to keep.
As with any type of school, we have the split in cliques - for the School of Psychics we have the Misfits and the Alphas. Who doesn't love rooting for the underdog?! This book is full of YA cliches, with the smoldering bad boy, rebellious leading girl who finds her way, a puzzle to be solved, etc. - all interspersed with romance. I am NOT complaining. Personally, I found this book HIGHLY entertaining. I flew through this read and am SO glad that it's the first in a series! The ending left something to look forward to without it being abrupt and still finding a little closure.
I really enjoyed the sarcastic humor throughout this story and found this easy to read and action packed. It really wants me to try and move things with my mind again (never worked as a child, but hey.. maybe now 🤷). I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for book two!
Couple of tid bits for you all - seems K.C. Archer is a pseudonym and I can't seem to find for which author and I'm DYING of curiosity! If you know, please do tell! Also, I hear a rumor this has been optioned by the CW for a series... I think I may have to give this a look!
Happy reading all - seriously, give this a shot if you're into psychic abilities and YA fodder... and ENJOY!
Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for this advanced copy in return for my honest opinion!
April 14, 2018
Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
When I first started SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS, I wanted to compare it to Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS, but I’ve changed my mind. They both feature new adults who are sent back to school to learn to master their talents, but the characters in SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS are way more likeable and realistic, and the school year structure is both satisfying and builds up to the next book.
The main character, Teddy, isn’t easy to like at first. She can read people, know when they’re bluffing, but with her powers wavering unpredictably, she’s gotten herself in serious trouble with a Vegas mob boss. She is nearly blackmailed into going to the school.
The school itself is mysterious, the teachers are harsh and the cliques brutally separated. I did enjoy that the cliques had to blend by the end, both because the teachers assigned groups but because the stakes were that high.
The woo-woo aspects of the characters’ psychic powers was kept at bay by the science and training classes the students attended. It was a great blend between mysticism and FBI procedure.
With conspiracies all around her, Teddy is never sure who to trust; her teachers, her fellow students, the mysterious stranger who promises to tell her the truth about her parents… All have their good points and manage to keep the mystery going throughout the book. Even though the book felt a bit more like a YA novel than I would have liked, I’m already looking forward to the second book.
When I first started SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS, I wanted to compare it to Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS, but I’ve changed my mind. They both feature new adults who are sent back to school to learn to master their talents, but the characters in SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS are way more likeable and realistic, and the school year structure is both satisfying and builds up to the next book.
The main character, Teddy, isn’t easy to like at first. She can read people, know when they’re bluffing, but with her powers wavering unpredictably, she’s gotten herself in serious trouble with a Vegas mob boss. She is nearly blackmailed into going to the school.
The school itself is mysterious, the teachers are harsh and the cliques brutally separated. I did enjoy that the cliques had to blend by the end, both because the teachers assigned groups but because the stakes were that high.
The woo-woo aspects of the characters’ psychic powers was kept at bay by the science and training classes the students attended. It was a great blend between mysticism and FBI procedure.
With conspiracies all around her, Teddy is never sure who to trust; her teachers, her fellow students, the mysterious stranger who promises to tell her the truth about her parents… All have their good points and manage to keep the mystery going throughout the book. Even though the book felt a bit more like a YA novel than I would have liked, I’m already looking forward to the second book.
January 27, 2018
huge thanks to Netgalley & publisher for providing me with an arc! all opinions are entirely my own.
it took me eleven days to finish this book because i was just completely bored out of my mind.
there’s nothing particularly wrong with it – i just didn’t click with anything: the writing, the characters, the plot, none of that made me excited enough to want to pick this book up after i set it down. and i guess i’m in a slump now because forcing yourself to read mediocre books when you don’t want to is the worst.
first things first, the plot.
teddy cannon is a 20 something gambling addict from vegas. when we first meet her, she’s been expelled from stanford and is in a casino trying to make some money tô pay off a huge debt to a russian mob. and she fails, big time.
she’s desperately searching for a way out of the casino without being recognized by the very strong, very mean dudes who are looking for her when a guy comes seemingly out of nowhere and saves her by hypnotizing them – or something – and making them forget about her.
then he tells her she’s a psychic. and she has a place in a psychic school the FBI is running.
so, that’s a pretty interesting base plot for me, right there. i love the kind of books that take one fantastic or supernatural element and throw them into a contemporary setting. so a psychic college? i was sold.
unfortunately, neither the writing or the character development did anything to hold my interest in this story. i’ll just have to come right out and say it: this writing was bad.
the entire book was written in very short sentences comprising very long paragraphs. the author apparently didn’t know that commas were a thing and you can actuslly write a sentence made of more than five words – and you don’t have to state the character’s name at the beggining of every. single. new. sentence. it felt choppy and every time i realized she was doing it again, it would take me right out of the story because i was too annoyed at the style. and there was absolutely no atmosphere set throughout the entire book; it just felt like i was reading a very dry op-ed piece.
also, this author commited what i consider to be the #1 crime in writing: unexplained time jumps. this book takes place during a whole year. instead of describing what happened during that time, she’d talk about things that happened over the course of a few days and then jump to months and months ahead, and just expect you to go along with it. when you tell me teddy gets a new roommate, shows them exchanging a few words and in the next paragraph you talk about how they’re such good friends now, i’m not going to believe you just because – i want to see that relationship being developed, otherwise i’ll be very skeptical about the whole thing.
tying right into that, the characters and the character development were awful. although the 3rd person narrator was constantly telling me what teddy was supposedly like, it never showed. so although i know what teddy was supposed to be like, i don’t really believe it because she never acted accordingly. the same goes for the rest of the secondary characters, and those were even worse, because they were barely featured, unless it was in a way to serve the plot, so there were no organic connections between any of them.
and also everyone was just so fucking juvenile. newsflash: you’re in college, not in a gossip girl-esque high school setting. all of these twenty somethings ran around the whole time acting like teenagers. if i wanted to read a high school contemporary, i would’ve picked up one.
i’m giving this two instead of just one star because i reserve my one star ratings for book that actively make me angry, and this one didn’t make me feel anything at all. it was completely lackluster.
it took me eleven days to finish this book because i was just completely bored out of my mind.
there’s nothing particularly wrong with it – i just didn’t click with anything: the writing, the characters, the plot, none of that made me excited enough to want to pick this book up after i set it down. and i guess i’m in a slump now because forcing yourself to read mediocre books when you don’t want to is the worst.
first things first, the plot.
teddy cannon is a 20 something gambling addict from vegas. when we first meet her, she’s been expelled from stanford and is in a casino trying to make some money tô pay off a huge debt to a russian mob. and she fails, big time.
she’s desperately searching for a way out of the casino without being recognized by the very strong, very mean dudes who are looking for her when a guy comes seemingly out of nowhere and saves her by hypnotizing them – or something – and making them forget about her.
then he tells her she’s a psychic. and she has a place in a psychic school the FBI is running.
so, that’s a pretty interesting base plot for me, right there. i love the kind of books that take one fantastic or supernatural element and throw them into a contemporary setting. so a psychic college? i was sold.
unfortunately, neither the writing or the character development did anything to hold my interest in this story. i’ll just have to come right out and say it: this writing was bad.
the entire book was written in very short sentences comprising very long paragraphs. the author apparently didn’t know that commas were a thing and you can actuslly write a sentence made of more than five words – and you don’t have to state the character’s name at the beggining of every. single. new. sentence. it felt choppy and every time i realized she was doing it again, it would take me right out of the story because i was too annoyed at the style. and there was absolutely no atmosphere set throughout the entire book; it just felt like i was reading a very dry op-ed piece.
also, this author commited what i consider to be the #1 crime in writing: unexplained time jumps. this book takes place during a whole year. instead of describing what happened during that time, she’d talk about things that happened over the course of a few days and then jump to months and months ahead, and just expect you to go along with it. when you tell me teddy gets a new roommate, shows them exchanging a few words and in the next paragraph you talk about how they’re such good friends now, i’m not going to believe you just because – i want to see that relationship being developed, otherwise i’ll be very skeptical about the whole thing.
tying right into that, the characters and the character development were awful. although the 3rd person narrator was constantly telling me what teddy was supposedly like, it never showed. so although i know what teddy was supposed to be like, i don’t really believe it because she never acted accordingly. the same goes for the rest of the secondary characters, and those were even worse, because they were barely featured, unless it was in a way to serve the plot, so there were no organic connections between any of them.
and also everyone was just so fucking juvenile. newsflash: you’re in college, not in a gossip girl-esque high school setting. all of these twenty somethings ran around the whole time acting like teenagers. if i wanted to read a high school contemporary, i would’ve picked up one.
i’m giving this two instead of just one star because i reserve my one star ratings for book that actively make me angry, and this one didn’t make me feel anything at all. it was completely lackluster.
April 13, 2018
This was tagged as “Harry Potter with millennials” which is sort of accurate.
But not really.
Teddy is our main character, a twenty year old who dropped out of college and is living with her parents. I guess that’s where the millennial comes from? She is excellent at gambling, particularly poker, and has a huge debt she owes to some shady guys. She is banned from most casinos in Vegas, but goes in a fat suit and wig anyway. Yep.
She gets caught and recruited to a school for psychics. Turns out that’s how she was so good at poker.
The school for psychics is a private initiative that trains people with psychic talents to go on to work with the government. They have liaisons with the FBI and CIA.
The school is more like a college, since everyone is in their 20s. But it’s also like high school, since they can’t leave the grounds and there’s a no drinking rule. Seriously.
That was my big issue with this book. These are adults who are in a college setting, but are given teen rules like no drinking, no sleeping together. So it’s like a bunch of college students went back to high school and act like high schoolers. That sounds like a nightmare I had once.
There are Teddy’s classmates who are an interesting bunch. There’s Pyro, who is pyrokinetic. That’s just his nickname that he came up with himself. No one told him it’s lame if you have to have your own nickname. But he’s a cool character, no pun intended. He was a cop before he was recruited, and has a lot of actual real world experience, unlike most milinneals.
There is also Jillian, a pet psychic who is hysterical. She’s Teddy’s roommate and I would love to meet her in real life. She’s just that awesome and brightened every scene she was in.
They take classes to hone their psychic abilities, improve their physical strength, and work with the FBI to help with cold cases. It was interesting. And I’m glad it wasn’t a bunch of teenagers telling the FBI what to do. That seems so unrealistic in teen fiction, so it seems better coming from adults, some who have worked in law enforcement.
There are a lot of tropes here, the adopted main character who is gifted, a secret conspiracy, powers as the plot demands, etc. The story itself is engaging and I finished it quickly.
But I have had issues with how it has been marketed. It’s hard to combine Harry Potter, which was a children’s series, with millennials, who are in their college years or beyond. Sure there’s a magic school, but that’s it. There’s a school for adults who act like teens with rules that treat their students like children. It’s kind of a mess.
I did enjoy this book, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I’d borrow before buying or committing to this series.
I’d like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this arc.
But not really.
Teddy is our main character, a twenty year old who dropped out of college and is living with her parents. I guess that’s where the millennial comes from? She is excellent at gambling, particularly poker, and has a huge debt she owes to some shady guys. She is banned from most casinos in Vegas, but goes in a fat suit and wig anyway. Yep.
She gets caught and recruited to a school for psychics. Turns out that’s how she was so good at poker.
The school for psychics is a private initiative that trains people with psychic talents to go on to work with the government. They have liaisons with the FBI and CIA.
The school is more like a college, since everyone is in their 20s. But it’s also like high school, since they can’t leave the grounds and there’s a no drinking rule. Seriously.
That was my big issue with this book. These are adults who are in a college setting, but are given teen rules like no drinking, no sleeping together. So it’s like a bunch of college students went back to high school and act like high schoolers. That sounds like a nightmare I had once.
There are Teddy’s classmates who are an interesting bunch. There’s Pyro, who is pyrokinetic. That’s just his nickname that he came up with himself. No one told him it’s lame if you have to have your own nickname. But he’s a cool character, no pun intended. He was a cop before he was recruited, and has a lot of actual real world experience, unlike most milinneals.
There is also Jillian, a pet psychic who is hysterical. She’s Teddy’s roommate and I would love to meet her in real life. She’s just that awesome and brightened every scene she was in.
They take classes to hone their psychic abilities, improve their physical strength, and work with the FBI to help with cold cases. It was interesting. And I’m glad it wasn’t a bunch of teenagers telling the FBI what to do. That seems so unrealistic in teen fiction, so it seems better coming from adults, some who have worked in law enforcement.
There are a lot of tropes here, the adopted main character who is gifted, a secret conspiracy, powers as the plot demands, etc. The story itself is engaging and I finished it quickly.
But I have had issues with how it has been marketed. It’s hard to combine Harry Potter, which was a children’s series, with millennials, who are in their college years or beyond. Sure there’s a magic school, but that’s it. There’s a school for adults who act like teens with rules that treat their students like children. It’s kind of a mess.
I did enjoy this book, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I’d borrow before buying or committing to this series.
I’d like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this arc.
May 3, 2018
School for psychics 3.75⭐️
Can be compared to the Magicians and harry potter. Academy for magical humans in this case psychics.
The relationships were very rushed, but I guess if you are stuck at a boarding school type situation you better become friendly to everyone.
I dont know how to explain this book without giving things away. I really enjoyed the writing style and the story flowed nicely. The students had to go through training, assignments, missions and cause some trouble along the way.
Can be compared to the Magicians and harry potter. Academy for magical humans in this case psychics.
The relationships were very rushed, but I guess if you are stuck at a boarding school type situation you better become friendly to everyone.
I dont know how to explain this book without giving things away. I really enjoyed the writing style and the story flowed nicely. The students had to go through training, assignments, missions and cause some trouble along the way.
July 31, 2022
Kurcze nie spodziewałam się że to będzie takie dobre
I need book 2 like right now
@/wydawnictwo czemu postanowiliście nie wydawać u nas kontynuacji
I need book 2 like right now
@/wydawnictwo czemu postanowiliście nie wydawać u nas kontynuacji
March 23, 2018
I first learned of this book last year and requested it through NetGalley a couple weeks ago when I saw it pop up on someone’s book haul list. I liked the title, hated the cover, and thought the synopsis was interesting. I decided to give it a try.
The story quickly appealed to me. I took a liking to the protagonist, Teddy, within the first few chapters when she’s at a casino gambling to set her life straight. When she’s recruited for the School for Psychics, my interested perked up even more because I wondered what that would be like, and I was compelled to sympathize with her as she reflected on the many ways she has fucked up and now feels like a disappointment, which led her to take the opportunity the school offers. I was hooked on this story until Teddy got to the School for Psychics and then everything went downhill.
I read about half of the story before giving up on it. I didn’t like the writing and was annoyed by the characters and numerous inconsistencies in the plot. The book is listed as “General Fiction (Adult), Sci Fi & Fantasy” on NetGalley, but as I read, it became increasingly obviously that the novel is YA. There is a level of maturity missing from the plot and the characters that makes me unable to believe this novel is intended for adults. Furthermore, the quick inclusion of a love triangle and the messy navigation of it strikes me more as YA, where such things often occur. (Sidenote: I’m annoyed by and tired of love triangles, unless it’s done well, which hardly ever happens.)
It was also difficult to keep track of the passage of time, and that’s not because the characters’ psychic abilities were messing with it. Events that occurred a day before in one paragraph would be said to have happened weeks before in the following paragraph. That wouldn’t have been a problem (I guess) if characters and their relationships were shown to have developed over the time passed, but that didn’t happen. It still seemed as if the event had occurred only the day before. It made me confused about when things happened and what exactly is the status of the characters’ relationships.
And the school itself was not appealing at all. It’s supposed to be an academy training psychic 20-somethings how to be FBI operatives or work in other law enforcement organizations, but instead it was like a high-school filled with immature teens. It just didn’t work for me.
The premise of the story is interesting and the protagonist was easy to like, but the story didn’t work because it needed more development. I could see where the author was going with this, and I wanted to go there too, but I couldn’t stand the inconsistencies. I couldn’t make it to the end.
Overall: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/2
One of the reviews I’ve seen of it on Goodreads describes it as —
— I totally agree.
As posted on Zezee with Books.
The story quickly appealed to me. I took a liking to the protagonist, Teddy, within the first few chapters when she’s at a casino gambling to set her life straight. When she’s recruited for the School for Psychics, my interested perked up even more because I wondered what that would be like, and I was compelled to sympathize with her as she reflected on the many ways she has fucked up and now feels like a disappointment, which led her to take the opportunity the school offers. I was hooked on this story until Teddy got to the School for Psychics and then everything went downhill.
I read about half of the story before giving up on it. I didn’t like the writing and was annoyed by the characters and numerous inconsistencies in the plot. The book is listed as “General Fiction (Adult), Sci Fi & Fantasy” on NetGalley, but as I read, it became increasingly obviously that the novel is YA. There is a level of maturity missing from the plot and the characters that makes me unable to believe this novel is intended for adults. Furthermore, the quick inclusion of a love triangle and the messy navigation of it strikes me more as YA, where such things often occur. (Sidenote: I’m annoyed by and tired of love triangles, unless it’s done well, which hardly ever happens.)
It was also difficult to keep track of the passage of time, and that’s not because the characters’ psychic abilities were messing with it. Events that occurred a day before in one paragraph would be said to have happened weeks before in the following paragraph. That wouldn’t have been a problem (I guess) if characters and their relationships were shown to have developed over the time passed, but that didn’t happen. It still seemed as if the event had occurred only the day before. It made me confused about when things happened and what exactly is the status of the characters’ relationships.
And the school itself was not appealing at all. It’s supposed to be an academy training psychic 20-somethings how to be FBI operatives or work in other law enforcement organizations, but instead it was like a high-school filled with immature teens. It just didn’t work for me.
The premise of the story is interesting and the protagonist was easy to like, but the story didn’t work because it needed more development. I could see where the author was going with this, and I wanted to go there too, but I couldn’t stand the inconsistencies. I couldn’t make it to the end.
Overall: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/2
One of the reviews I’ve seen of it on Goodreads describes it as —
“Filled to the brim with clichés, shrugs characters, and The Magicians’s adult Harry Potter vibes with a hint of Quantico.” — Ann’s Review
— I totally agree.
As posted on Zezee with Books.
March 27, 2018
This is an enthralling start to a new psychic series. The Whitfield Institute is gathering and training young adults with psychic powers to hone their talents, so that they can work with the FBI, police and other law enforcement to keep the country safe.
Teddy is a very successful gambler – so successful that she has been banned from every poker table in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, she needs to make a lot of money very quickly, so disguises herself to get into a poker game at one of the big casinos. Teddy has always been able to when someone is lying, so calling a bluff in poker is second nature. What she does not realise, is that this is a manifestation of her psychic ability. Even less does she realise, that the “flat-out gorgeous” guy at her table is not what he seems, and this is the one time that her ‘6th sense’ is going to go seriously wrong. Her only option is to take up Clint’s ‘offer’ of enrolment at the Whitfield Institute.
The set-up at the Whitfield Institute is very familiar – the recruits fit neatly into two teams – the Alpha jocks, and the Misfits. Teddy, of course, is a Misfit. Everyone gets a room-mate (something utterly inconceivable to any non-American – why can’t they have their own rooms, like adults?). Teddy is paired with Jillian, who converses with birds. The tutors come in ‘nice’, ‘sadist’, ‘nice & handsome’, and ‘irresistible’. Apart from the faculty, there is also a recruit, who sets Teddy’s pulse racing.
It was very fast-paced and twisted all over the place. Adversaries become friends, and friends start acting in suspicious ways. Teddy has always been bad at relationships, and always looked after number one. Now, she needs help, and has to finally choose where to place her trust.
There are secrets everywhere, covert missions, mental breakdowns, students who want to save the world, love affairs …. It all reminded me so much of the glossy US TV series “Quantico”, but with the addition of psychic talents (and better characters!). Hopefully, it will remain at this high level, and not descend into a ridiculous third series as “Quantico” did.
I really enjoyed this rollercoaster story, and I look forward to the next instalment.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Teddy is a very successful gambler – so successful that she has been banned from every poker table in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, she needs to make a lot of money very quickly, so disguises herself to get into a poker game at one of the big casinos. Teddy has always been able to when someone is lying, so calling a bluff in poker is second nature. What she does not realise, is that this is a manifestation of her psychic ability. Even less does she realise, that the “flat-out gorgeous” guy at her table is not what he seems, and this is the one time that her ‘6th sense’ is going to go seriously wrong. Her only option is to take up Clint’s ‘offer’ of enrolment at the Whitfield Institute.
The set-up at the Whitfield Institute is very familiar – the recruits fit neatly into two teams – the Alpha jocks, and the Misfits. Teddy, of course, is a Misfit. Everyone gets a room-mate (something utterly inconceivable to any non-American – why can’t they have their own rooms, like adults?). Teddy is paired with Jillian, who converses with birds. The tutors come in ‘nice’, ‘sadist’, ‘nice & handsome’, and ‘irresistible’. Apart from the faculty, there is also a recruit, who sets Teddy’s pulse racing.
It was very fast-paced and twisted all over the place. Adversaries become friends, and friends start acting in suspicious ways. Teddy has always been bad at relationships, and always looked after number one. Now, she needs help, and has to finally choose where to place her trust.
There are secrets everywhere, covert missions, mental breakdowns, students who want to save the world, love affairs …. It all reminded me so much of the glossy US TV series “Quantico”, but with the addition of psychic talents (and better characters!). Hopefully, it will remain at this high level, and not descend into a ridiculous third series as “Quantico” did.
I really enjoyed this rollercoaster story, and I look forward to the next instalment.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
May 3, 2018
We follow a snarky millennial protagonist with a gambling problem as she learns to use her psychic abilities (it's why she's so good at poker) at a secret government school in San Francisco. The protagonist has a lot of baggage to work through, but she does good job of growing as a person as well as learning how to open herself up emotionally. It's fun to be inside her head throughout the story.
The plot clips right along, with fairly straightforward prose and no particularly surprising twists. The "big twist" was telegraphed from so early in the story I still haven't decided whether it was a little clumsy or it was meant to be another way to show that Teddy has been trusting people more than she ever used to.
The underlying conflict revolves around a pretty interesting discussion about morality and safety, which I liked, and I'm looking forward to seeing that theme explored more thoroughly in the sequel.
Folks who enjoy The Magicians should definitely pick this up. It's great for anyone looking for magic school stories, for urban fantasy that isn't explicitly about solving mysteries, and for really solid depictions of young people with complex friendships.
Review copy courtesy of Net Galley.
The plot clips right along, with fairly straightforward prose and no particularly surprising twists. The "big twist" was telegraphed from so early in the story I still haven't decided whether it was a little clumsy or it was meant to be another way to show that Teddy has been trusting people more than she ever used to.
The underlying conflict revolves around a pretty interesting discussion about morality and safety, which I liked, and I'm looking forward to seeing that theme explored more thoroughly in the sequel.
Folks who enjoy The Magicians should definitely pick this up. It's great for anyone looking for magic school stories, for urban fantasy that isn't explicitly about solving mysteries, and for really solid depictions of young people with complex friendships.
Review copy courtesy of Net Galley.
April 2, 2018
3.5 Stars
Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*
Though I struggled to get invested at first, this was one of those books that got better as it went on. For my review though, I've decided to make some good ol' lists!
Likes:
- In the beginning, Teddy was unlikeable, but she was realistic. She was someone who had made a lot of bad decisions, ones that led to having a gambling problem, and owing a lot of money to a bad man, and stealing money from her parents to pay off some of her debt. Even when she got to the school, which was her last chance to turn her life around, she kept making bad decisions, like showing up to her entrance exam late because she was hungover and had spent the night with a guy. But then she started trying to change, and in some ways she did, in other ways she didn't, in other ways still she took a while but eventually started to get there. And I think the same can be said for all the characters---none of them were too perfect, and all of them were frustrating to read about at times. It was completely believable though. People aren't perfect, people make bad choices, people don't communicate everything, people don't change overnight, and some people don't change at all in some ways. So the characters were not easily likeable, but I appreciated how realistic they were.
- The book had some relationships that didn't go as expected or that didn't last long, but that was believable too. Some acquaintances never become more. Some friendships are temporary. Not every person you're attracted to becomes someone you date. And this bit of realism kept the friendships and relationships unpredictable.
- The book had its funny moments, and Teddy could be relatable, at times, as a fellow millennial.
- The plot started a bit slow-paced but got more gripping as the book went on.
Dislikes:
- Teddy made some decisions that didn't make sense to me. Like lying to Clint when there were strange and possibly dangerous things happening, and like automatically trusting certain people even though she had major trust issues in general.
- At the beginning, the book seemed to be full of cliches and stereotype characters---the brooding bad boy with black hair over his eyes and tattoos, the hacker friend, the "alphas" and "misfits" cliques, the tough female drill sergeant instructor (whom I'm immediately pictured as Jane Lynch for some reason). While I can't say these really changed, they did become less noticeable as the story filled out, and some of the characters were shown to be more than just their stereotype.
- Sometimes characters (who, supposedly, could not read minds) seemed to know/understand things that they shouldn't have. This wasn't a big deal, it didn't cause any plot holes or anything, it just bothered me each time it happened.
- At the start of the book, Teddy mentioned having epilepsy, but it was quickly revealed to just be a side effect of her psychic ability. There was really no point in even including that. It just kind of makes the disability seem like it's not a real thing.
- Sometimes things happened a little too perfectly.
Overall Thoughts:
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book, but it wasn't bad. There were a few things that didn't quite make sense, but the realism of the imperfect characters definitely stood out to me in a great way.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes realistically flawed characters and relationships, psychic/telepathic powers, and a bit of mystery.
Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight
Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*
Though I struggled to get invested at first, this was one of those books that got better as it went on. For my review though, I've decided to make some good ol' lists!
Likes:
- In the beginning, Teddy was unlikeable, but she was realistic. She was someone who had made a lot of bad decisions, ones that led to having a gambling problem, and owing a lot of money to a bad man, and stealing money from her parents to pay off some of her debt. Even when she got to the school, which was her last chance to turn her life around, she kept making bad decisions, like showing up to her entrance exam late because she was hungover and had spent the night with a guy. But then she started trying to change, and in some ways she did, in other ways she didn't, in other ways still she took a while but eventually started to get there. And I think the same can be said for all the characters---none of them were too perfect, and all of them were frustrating to read about at times. It was completely believable though. People aren't perfect, people make bad choices, people don't communicate everything, people don't change overnight, and some people don't change at all in some ways. So the characters were not easily likeable, but I appreciated how realistic they were.
- The book had some relationships that didn't go as expected or that didn't last long, but that was believable too. Some acquaintances never become more. Some friendships are temporary. Not every person you're attracted to becomes someone you date. And this bit of realism kept the friendships and relationships unpredictable.
- The book had its funny moments, and Teddy could be relatable, at times, as a fellow millennial.
- The plot started a bit slow-paced but got more gripping as the book went on.
Dislikes:
- Teddy made some decisions that didn't make sense to me. Like lying to Clint when there were strange and possibly dangerous things happening, and like automatically trusting certain people even though she had major trust issues in general.
- At the beginning, the book seemed to be full of cliches and stereotype characters---the brooding bad boy with black hair over his eyes and tattoos, the hacker friend, the "alphas" and "misfits" cliques, the tough female drill sergeant instructor (whom I'm immediately pictured as Jane Lynch for some reason). While I can't say these really changed, they did become less noticeable as the story filled out, and some of the characters were shown to be more than just their stereotype.
- Sometimes characters (who, supposedly, could not read minds) seemed to know/understand things that they shouldn't have. This wasn't a big deal, it didn't cause any plot holes or anything, it just bothered me each time it happened.
- At the start of the book, Teddy mentioned having epilepsy, but it was quickly revealed to just be a side effect of her psychic ability. There was really no point in even including that. It just kind of makes the disability seem like it's not a real thing.
- Sometimes things happened a little too perfectly.
Overall Thoughts:
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book, but it wasn't bad. There were a few things that didn't quite make sense, but the realism of the imperfect characters definitely stood out to me in a great way.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes realistically flawed characters and relationships, psychic/telepathic powers, and a bit of mystery.
Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight
March 26, 2018
When the chips are down and the going gets tough, what would you do? Teddy decided to go to school! It isn’t just any school, it is a school for psychics and for some reason, the dean thinks she has special abilities and has promised that all of her troubles will go away if she enrolls. Teddy has money troubles, she stole from her parents, and she owes a Russian mobster loan shark quite a chunk of change, and going to The Whitfield institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development will save her bacon.
SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS by K.C. Archer may sound like a young adult book, but our heroine, the brash Theodora Cannon is far from a teen. Okay, and it must be asked, if she is psychic, gambling her life away in Las Vegas and in debt past her eyeballs, how could the institute dean think she is psychic? Ahh, that is part of the plot!
Follow along as Teddy, Ms. Attitude Extraordinaire goes to school, makes friends and gets herself into one intriguing situation after another, because there is more to Teddy than meets the eye. There is also more to the dean, and one super sexy instructor as school is in session and Teddy discovers that, yes, she does have psychic powers, but no, she will not become a pawn in a game of mental war, even if she gets a chance to learn more about her past!
Quirky, and definitely out there, I have to say, I really liked this one and K.C. Archer had me from the get-go! Typically shady bad guys, fascinating classmates and a mystery or two that unfold with surprising answers. I guess if I were psychic, I would have known how it ended, glad I’m not, this was a fun read. I definitely am looking forward to the next book in this new series.
Series: School for Psychics - Book 1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 3, 2018)
Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Print Length: 368 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News: http://tometender.blogspot.com
SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS by K.C. Archer may sound like a young adult book, but our heroine, the brash Theodora Cannon is far from a teen. Okay, and it must be asked, if she is psychic, gambling her life away in Las Vegas and in debt past her eyeballs, how could the institute dean think she is psychic? Ahh, that is part of the plot!
Follow along as Teddy, Ms. Attitude Extraordinaire goes to school, makes friends and gets herself into one intriguing situation after another, because there is more to Teddy than meets the eye. There is also more to the dean, and one super sexy instructor as school is in session and Teddy discovers that, yes, she does have psychic powers, but no, she will not become a pawn in a game of mental war, even if she gets a chance to learn more about her past!
Quirky, and definitely out there, I have to say, I really liked this one and K.C. Archer had me from the get-go! Typically shady bad guys, fascinating classmates and a mystery or two that unfold with surprising answers. I guess if I were psychic, I would have known how it ended, glad I’m not, this was a fun read. I definitely am looking forward to the next book in this new series.
Series: School for Psychics - Book 1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 3, 2018)
Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Print Length: 368 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News: http://tometender.blogspot.com
March 4, 2018
Filled to the brim with clichés, shrugs characters, and The Magicians's adult Harry Potter vibes with a hint of Quantico. Seeing as I only made it through the first two or three episodes of the former show, this book was unfortunately not the one for me. I wish it was.
I had no attachment to any of the characters whatsoever, whether it was the way they were portrayed or just the lack of substance that came with all of them; the weird potential love interests galore thing going on with the MC only added to my disinterest.
I like the idea of School for Psychics? An adult with a questionable life has to seriously re-evaluate everything she's ever known and deal with some otherworldly jazz. Theme-wise, the "whole people don't simply do things without benefit to themselves" stuff that ended up dumped over the MC's head was one of the more appreciated aspects of the book.
Kind of blah, but I couldn't connect with this–characters, plot, and all. Forgive the crude comparison because I can't seem to think of a better way to describe it. Reading the book was like clapping for a comedian who forgot every single line and lacked humor to begin with.
Toward the end, when revelations were being made and whatnot, nothing really stuck with me. It was like "Oh, okay, that's nice I think." Sigh.
Even though I probably won't be reading the sequel, applause to the author for building an interesting world for some interesting characters.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC :))
I had no attachment to any of the characters whatsoever, whether it was the way they were portrayed or just the lack of substance that came with all of them; the weird potential love interests galore thing going on with the MC only added to my disinterest.
I like the idea of School for Psychics? An adult with a questionable life has to seriously re-evaluate everything she's ever known and deal with some otherworldly jazz. Theme-wise, the "whole people don't simply do things without benefit to themselves" stuff that ended up dumped over the MC's head was one of the more appreciated aspects of the book.
Kind of blah, but I couldn't connect with this–characters, plot, and all. Forgive the crude comparison because I can't seem to think of a better way to describe it. Reading the book was like clapping for a comedian who forgot every single line and lacked humor to begin with.
Toward the end, when revelations were being made and whatnot, nothing really stuck with me. It was like "Oh, okay, that's nice I think." Sigh.
Even though I probably won't be reading the sequel, applause to the author for building an interesting world for some interesting characters.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC :))
March 7, 2018
The down side of reading ARCs is that you have to wait extra long for the sequel..................
Teddy is the main character in this novel; a 20 something year old Stafford drop out with a heavy mountain of gambling debts, two extremely loving adoptive parents - and a psychic gift she'd always assumed was epileptic episodes.
Teddy is about to be snagged by casino goons after trying to win back some of her debt when Cliff; a recruiter for a top secret school on an island off the coast of San Francisco; steps in and offers Teddy a deal she cannot refuse. All of her debts erased, if she gets on a plane in the morning and enrolls in school. She'd be cut off from the outside world, unable to tell her friends and family her whereabouts or the truth. But she'd learn how to control her gift; and be trained to use it along side the FBI.
This book was reallllly interesting the whole time. There is the progression of the characters and all of their powers, along side a mystery of a break in on campus where vials of blood along with genetic research are stolen, a mysterious yellow house that frequents Teddy's dreams, the elusive truth about Sector 3, and the question of which student or faculty member (s) have a dark and hidden agenda.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
I hope it's soon.
I really hope it's soon.
Teddy is the main character in this novel; a 20 something year old Stafford drop out with a heavy mountain of gambling debts, two extremely loving adoptive parents - and a psychic gift she'd always assumed was epileptic episodes.
Teddy is about to be snagged by casino goons after trying to win back some of her debt when Cliff; a recruiter for a top secret school on an island off the coast of San Francisco; steps in and offers Teddy a deal she cannot refuse. All of her debts erased, if she gets on a plane in the morning and enrolls in school. She'd be cut off from the outside world, unable to tell her friends and family her whereabouts or the truth. But she'd learn how to control her gift; and be trained to use it along side the FBI.
This book was reallllly interesting the whole time. There is the progression of the characters and all of their powers, along side a mystery of a break in on campus where vials of blood along with genetic research are stolen, a mysterious yellow house that frequents Teddy's dreams, the elusive truth about Sector 3, and the question of which student or faculty member (s) have a dark and hidden agenda.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
I hope it's soon.
I really hope it's soon.
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