The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy

By: Anne Ursu

Narrated by: Elise Arsenault

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed author of The Real Boy and The Lost Girl comes a wondrous and provocative fantasy about a kingdom beset by monsters, a mysterious school, and a girl caught in between them.

If no one notices Marya Lupu, is likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s because of what everyone knows: that Luka is destined to become a sorcerer.

The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city of Illyria, but that doesn’t matter. Every young boy born in in the kingdom holds the potential for the rare ability to wield magic, to protect the country from the terrifying force known only as the Dread.

For all the hopes the family has for Luka, no one has any for Marya, who can never seem to do anything right. But even so, no one is prepared for the day that the sorcerers finally arrive to test Luka for magical ability, and Marya makes a terrible mistake. Nor the day after, when the Lupus receive a letter from a place called Dragomir Academy - a mysterious school for wayward young girls. Girls like Marya.

Soon she is a hundred miles from home, in a strange and unfamiliar place, surrounded by girls she’s never met. Dragomir Academy promises Marya and her classmates a chance to make something of themselves in service to one of the country’s powerful sorcerers. But as they learn how to fit into a world with no place for them, they begin to discover things about the magic the men of their country wield, as well as the Dread itself - things that threaten the precarious balance upon which Illyria is built.

©2021 Anne Ursu (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

What a amazing book

The begging was a little boring but the end was amazing and had such a plot and a twist in the book. It had such a great ending

Not all “truths” are true

Great for a middle schooler who has anxiety, as this character has. She learns not to blame herself especially for untruths others have told her.

Great book

This book is SO good. I read it in paper then got it on audible so I could listen to it with family members that do not have time on their hands. The book is amazing. Like most books it starts of slow. I put the book down but had so many questions that I had to pick it up again. Once it got on a roll I could never stop reading. Amazing twists and suspense to keep your gears turning. And a satisfying end worth its weight in gold...
And magic

Excellent

I liked this book. This is an exciting story. I would definitely read a whole series!

Amazing book

Impossible to stop listening to loved it. It is a very fancifully woven story with intricate details!!

Captivating Narration

I had read lots of reviews about the story itself. But they didn’t hold when I listened. The narration was fantastic and hypnotic. In the end I was hoping this wasn’t a stand alone book. But so far, seems to be.

Thank god it’s over!

O my good part was the ending. I refuse to return books because they flag your account. I would recommend reading anything else

Negative vibe throughout

I am all for positive messages for girls, but this drags on and on in a negative fashion throughout the whole book to get to a “girl power” finale. Eh.

How to stand out

In a literary world awash in magic academies, how to make one more story stand out. The approach here in book 1 is to turn it into a morality play, which sometimes felt to me like a dramatized lecture. Once the goat got loose, I felt the text became more of a story, but unevenly so. The parents, the teachers, the sorcerers all sounded too cardboardy. The moral significance of everything was expressed by reverse mansplaining. I have no issue with the cultural premise nor the actuality of the academy; just the packaging.

If there were to be a second book, I would check it out, fingers crossed.