Frankie Brooks knows what she wants in life: to become the world’s next great fashion editor. All she needs to do is get into the elite American Fashion Academy in New York City. If she gets in, her life plans will be going right on schedule. Anna Wintour, watch out.
But after Frankie messes up one too many times—hey, it’s hard keeping up with classwork and an acclaimed fashion blog—her parents come up with entirely different plans for her future: Military school. How is Frankie, the least athletic person in the world, who knows absolutely nothing about the military, going to survive a whole semester at the famed—and feared—Academy?
With students who seem to be totally uninterested in her, a course-load that’s even more difficult than at her old school, and the weird athletic War Games competition Frankie has to join—her life is way harder than it used to be. And no one, including her roommate Joni, seems to understand Frankie at all.
As she learns how to cope in about a million drills, a hundred different specialized classes, and is maybe even falling for super-hot and super-smart cadet Jack Wattson, can Frankie prove to everyone that being a fashionista doesn’t mean she can’t succeed?
2 Drink Me Potions
**The Academy comes out May 22, 2018**
Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review
I’m not sure quite what to make of The Academy but if I could sum it up in two words, it’d be discipline + fashion-obsessed.
Do those 2 words even go together? Have you ever really thought of them in the same context? ‘Cause I didn’t. Before.
Frankie was kind of a naive and spoiled girl at the beginning of the book. She didn’t like to the follow the rules, but at least she felt guilty for the things she knew she did wrong. And it wasn’t a matter of me hating her or anything. Frankly, sometimes I felt for her and was totally on her side of things with the injustice of her situation, and sometimes I just wished she’d get it into her head that she should listen to what people are saying to her. It was all very confusing sometimes!
Being sent to military school for an amateur fashion blogger sounds like a recipe for trouble. She’s free-spirited in some sense, and everything that flows through her brain wasn’t altogether very serious at first. Yet her character lacked the fun and lightheartedness of other fashion-loving protagonists like those seen in The Devil Wears Prada or the Shopaholic series.
Going into the book, I was rather excited. I needed some lighter fluff after the heavier sci-fi/fantasies I’ve been diving into lately! And for the most part, The Academy delivered enough of that for me. The plot centres on Frankie finding her way through military school and where she fit into it all. Her upbringing in her community that reared her towards self-thinking and sometimes pure selfishness/disrespect for others wasn’t ALWAYS her fault, but it was nice to see her develop an attitude of pride for her country and those who serve for the greater good of all. I liked that this didn’t mean she had to give up her love of fashion in order to do that, which to me is a greater message that says you can grow and become better while still maintaining the good in that you love doing.
The love interest, Jack, was nice. Yep, nice. I can’t think of too many other words to describe him. Physically he’s strong and tall and the kinda guy you’d want to hover and protect you from the bad in the world. Personality-wise, he’s sweet and worthy of putting your trust in him.
But. Yes, there’s a but. It’s like something’s missing. It’s like this is your general packaging of an altogether great-guy-that-your-protagonist-should-totally-fall-for. He has some back story that makes us feel for him (and the main character), but he’s just not too memorable. Their LOVE STORY isn’t too memorable.
The relationships with the few other secondary characters were all right too. I personally liked Frankie’s roommate, Joni, a lot. Out of any other name thrown out into this story, she’s really the only other person who features greatly. Frankie’s friendship with her kept her grounded when the going got tough, when it seemed their TAC officer was out to get her or all the training in the world just couldn’t help her get any better. I liked that there was emphasis on another relationship besides the romantic side that got highlighted because friendships are just as important.
I mean, there’s not too much more to say about this book. It had a good message to send out. Frankie grew up a bit and became someone I could be more proud of than she was initially. And then it ended. Very abruptly, I might add. I’m not sure if the author was planning on adding anything else after, but I suppose it left it a bit more open-ended for you to interpret/imagine how it could’ve turned out. It was happy, don’t get me wrong! But all together, at the end of the day, not too memorable after the last pages were closed.
Overall Recommendation:
The Academy did its best to create a fun story that also had a good message at the end about learning some discipline while maintaining the good pieces of who you are even as you grew for the better. Frankie was an all right protagonist, although she could be rather naive and wrong in her actions at times. While the romance and friendships created in this military school were nice, some of it lacked that extra umph that would’ve helped translate this story into something more memorable. When all is said and done, this book was fast-paced and NICE, but not profound enough to make it stick out in a genre full of similar stories.
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