Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook performance: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️

by Alexis Henderson (Sept. 17, 2024) – Many thanks to @prhaudio for the free audiobook of this gripping, atmospheric read that blends fantasy and reality in unsettling ways. Below is my honest review.

When Lennon Carter answered a phone call in an old phone booth in an empty parking lot, she thought her life was about to end. Little did she know, it was about to begin. The call, congratulating her on her admission to a college she didn’t apply to and has never heard of, leads her to a hidden campus in Savannah, Georgia, where she, along with her classmates, has been selected to hone their skills in the power of persuasion. Pushing their minds and bodies to their limits in the pursuit, allies and enemies are revealed, faculty test skills and morals, and the campus is at risk. As Lennon’s skills evolve under the guidance of her mentor, she begins to uncover dark secrets about the campus and the sinister motivations of people she thought she could trust.

I was all in for this one from the very first chapter! Lennon was such a compelling character who evolved so much from where we meet her to the book’s conclusion. This is a fantasy book but rooted in the real world, which makes the entire story unsettling in an excellent way. She grounds the story of harnessing power not in magic but in training and skill while also making the mundane powerful (elevators and phone booths take on a magical element). While Lennon and her advisor, Dante, are the central characters, Henderson creates a chilling world with magical undertones that make this book feel like an adult, violent take on a Hogwarts-like institution. I really, really enjoyed it!

Tracie Frank narrates the audiobook and does an excellent job with many characters of varying ages and backgrounds.

What’s a book you are hoping to read before the end of 2024?