In a Facebook group I’m in, I stumbled upon Bad Girls Academy. The author was looking for more reviews of the first book in this Secret Agent Girl series. I read the sypnopsis and it sounded really promising. A school for teenagers to be trained as a spy? That sounded like something I needed to read. A big thanks to the author for providing me an ARC to read and review!
A Broken Girl. A Deadly Secret. And A Mission That Will Change Her Forever.
Henley Greene used to have the sort of life you see in the movies. A loving father, a stable homelife, and a future she was looking forward to. One horrible, tragedy-filled night changed all of that forever. Now, after having bounced around foster care for years, Henley is fending for herself on the streets. That is, until she’s recruited to a very prestigious, and very unique, academy.
Empire Academy breeds the best spies the world has ever known, and they see something in Henley that is worth nurturing. But things won’t be easy. After years on the streets, Henley doesn’t like rules, and Empire is nothing if not structured. They’ll bend her until she breaks and push her past the point of no return all in the hopes of turning her into a world class spy.
But, when her first mission involves a man Henley believes might have something to do with the death of her father, she’ll put everything aside to get to the bottom of things.
That quest will send the girl down a rabbit hole of danger, espionage, betrayals and government secrets that threatens to swallow her whole.
Friends will become enemies, enemies will become lovers, and by the end, the truth about her father will change both Henley and her place in the world forever.
Review
I was really excited to start Bad Girls Academy. The idea of reading about a character being trained to be a spy at a pretty fancy school sounded really interesting. This book isn’t that long and I finished it within a day. Unfortunately, this book didn’t meet up to my expectations!
The beginning of Bad Girls Academy is pretty exciting. It’s clear Henley has been living on the streets for awhile after multiple foster homes didn’t work out. She never met her mother and lost her father a few years ago. One night, her friend is very sick and when she’s trying to find some antibiotics, her life changes for good. Empire Academy wants to recruit her to train to be a spy.
That’s where things got complicated for me. We get to read a bit of her being introduced, but that’s about all we read about this school. Well, they have a little mission after Henley is there for a few days. Other than that, we don’t read about classes, what the school is like, etc. The characters don’t really come alive to me. They’re introduced, but I don’t feel like I know them at the end. That makes it really hard to connect with them.
Like I said, we don’t read about classes, etc. Then all of a sudden, Henley hears there will be a mission that could have something to do with her father and she wants in. That’s very understandable, but it’s weird that she’s even considered. She’s had no training and has been at this school for a week? Henley is challenged by other students, but is able to win. We barely read about this happening. I felt we were missing a lot of important details.
It’s clear from the start that Henley is going to play in an important role in whatever is going on. I think this would’ve been more interesting to see her going to classes, training, getting to know her classmates and then she slowly starts learning about her past. Maybe have some clues dropped here and there. Bad Girls Academy flies through this whole part of the story.
Bad Girls Academy stays close to the surface. We contstantly read that Henley thinks people are hot, why is this important? Henley also starts caring for one of her classmates, Charlie. While I can understand there is some type of connection, speaking of love so quickly is a bit too much.
Bad Girls Academy had such an interesting concept, but I’m just missing information and details. There’s a lot of action, but that doesn’t give me much story to connect with the characters. I hate not loving a book, but there’s just too much missing for me. I have the second book as well, so I’m going to give it a try. I’m hoping we get more details and history that I’m missing here. Henley is an interesting character, so I hope to get more of her!
Books that are set at schools are definitely favorites of mine. What was the last book you read that was set at a school or boarding school?
