An Academy for Liars

By:

Alexis Henderson

Spice Scale

Number of books

1 Published

KU

❌

Audiobook

✅

Series Status

Complete

Interconnected

N/A

Overall Rating

Coming Soon

An Academy for Liars follows Lennon Carter, a young woman reeling from betrayal and a life going nowhere, who receives a mysterious phone call inviting her to Drayton College, a hidden school of magic in a secret pocket of Savannah for people with a dangerous gift called persuasion. At Drayton, students learn to wield their will like a weapon—bending minds and, in rare cases, reality itself—through grueling, often bloody exercises that blur the line between training and cruelty, while Lennon discovers she has an exceptionally rare ability tied to opening portals. Under the guidance of her charismatic, morally gray adviser Dante, she becomes captivated by the moss-draped campus and its power, even as she uncovers the college’s dark history and realizes that mastering her magic may mean facing the corrupting pull of absolute power and deciding how far she’s willing to go to protect her new world.

Jamie’s review

I had high hopes for this one and although it fell a little short, there were things I liked. I liked that the FMC and MMC were both Black. I like the dark academia vibes, the persuasion, illusion, and time traveling abilities, the rats (Gregory ❤️), the plot twists at the end, and the writing.

But the characters were so flat and unemotional, almost robotic. I had a hard time rooting for any of them. But especially Dante and Lennon, like how are there any feelings there? They speak to each other like they're in a business meeting. Zero chemistry. What was that? Are they in love or are they negotiating contract terms?

ALSO, it took awhile to figure out what was real and what was a dream or an illusion. Which was the intent but I am NOT a dreams person, I don't think they mean anything and I really don't want to hear about them, as Erica can attest. So, I found this more annoying and less mysterious than the author intended, I'm sure.

Unresolved questions, lack of character depth, pacing was off… it had potential but I just couldn't get invested.