Oh, if only this novel had come out when I was a child. I would have been smitten with everything about Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. Truth be told, I'm still smitten with it now!

All Kelcie Murphy wants to do is find a way to attend The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. She'd do anything to find her way to this school famous for training the world's best warriors, including doing everything to train herself beforehand.

Thankfully, she was able to pass the tests required to get into the school. In doing so, Kelcie learned something about herself. She's a Saiga, which grants her many different abilities. Now she must learn how to control them.

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts is SUCH a fun read. Seriously, where was this book when I was little? I would have gobbled it up and begged for more. Oh wait, I'm still doing exactly that right now, aren't I? I hope that is a solid indication of how amazing this book is.

Everything about this book is designed to draw the audience in, from the pacing to the world and everything in between. There's always something happening on the pages, yet you can still tell that they're establishing a world for future books, which is fantastic because this series must go on! (Please?)

The characters were funny and cute. Together they make for a well-rounded group – which is perfect. I think that most kids reading this will find a character they can connect with, making it easier to relate to the magical world that these kids are tromping around it.

I was pleasantly surprised by all of the action and danger found within these pages. Once again, I am confident that a younger me would have adored this book with all of her little heart. So please read Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts.

Kelcie Murphy has never known her parents, but when she is attacked by fairies on a school field trip, she discovers a whole world she never knew about exists, and that the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts (AUA). Kelcie finds herself enrolled at AUA and starts to learn about this world's history, and who she is. Honestly this has been one of my all time favourite magic school books. It is filled with Celtic mythology and Gaelic words, but as a reader you aren't left feeling lost since Kelcie is learning all about this mythology and the Gaelic words as well. Not only that, Kelcie is such a likeable character, and she feels so real. This is definitely a book I recommend to anyone looking for something similar to Harry Potter, Amari or the School of Good and Evil!

This was such a great middle grade fantasy adventure books. I think this is one of the newer middle grade academia books that I hope people start pushing towards children hoping to get interested in reading instead of HP. I think it will engage young readers and get them excited to pick up other middle grade fantasies.

Here's a Celtic version of teens at a school of magic, the first in a series.

Kelcie begins as a foster child, living in a group home in the human world, after being rescued from Boston Harbor.

When she turns 12, she ends up journeying to the Otherworld and being enrolled in the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts which trains warriors to protect the Lands of Summer.

Kelcie makes friends. There are escalating attacks that they fend off together. She struggles to control her growing powers, and to be true to herself.

This is the description for the book "Brimming with Celtic mythology, action, and danger, Erika Lewis's Kelcie Murphy and The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts introduces readers to a new kind of magical school and a warrior who must choose with which side of an epic battle her destiny will lie."

This description is not wrong; there was action, danger, and Celtic mythology. Kelcie is a kick a** character, that doesn't know her own history or powers. The adventure we all go on to find the answers was fantastic.

I cannot wait to read book 2 (no pressure Erika Lewis).

A fantastic middle-grade that delves into Celtic mythology! Perfect for kids (or anyone) who loves Percy Jackson, Aru Shah, and Amari Peters!

I really enjoyed this story. It had the Harry Potter air about it, but it was so much more. This story had so many great themes running through it. Along the way, lessons are learned about family, teamwork, the value of yourself and those around you, honesty, and more.

It was great to see the main character evolve from being a street urchin who felt completely worthless in the world to fully coming into her own as a self confident young girl who knew full well her power and where she belonged in the world.

I look forward to reading future books in this series to see where Kelcie’s life heads next.

Orphan Kelcie Murphy is used to being excluded or overlooked, and fending for herself even when she's supposed to be taken care of by the foster care system. It turns out that she's a Saiga, descended from those able to wield elemental magic. She's dying to attend the Academy of Unbreakable Arts to learn to use this power, as well as find out who her parents really are.

This book borrows heavily on Celtic mythology, with its creatures and different forms of magical powers. The Otherworld contains the magic that our world doesn't and had been embroiled in a magical war not too long before the book opens. It's divided into Summer and Winter Courts, where the fairies aren't supposed to cross from one side to the other. A powerful object would allow Winter to overpower Summer, and Kelcie's tied to it. Plenty of students don't trust her because of the Saiga heritage, even though she didn't know what it meant. Distrusted and doubted, Kelcie has poor control of her magic and is targeted from the very start.

I really felt for Kelcie, as she endured a lot as a foster kid and doesn't expect much from other children. Even when she crosses into the Otherworld, she doesn't receive much better at first. She does make a handful of good friends, and this is what allows her to grow and thrive. Kelcie learns who she is: not just who she's descended from, but what kind of person she truly is in times of trouble. It's a new kind of magical school, with teachers that care about students and don't necessarily put them all through unnecessary harm in the name of teaching lessons. That being said, magic can be very dangerous, especially if there's no control. I liked seeing positive adult role models for Kelcie, and that she learned to trust these adults as well as friends.

As a middle-grade heroine, she's responsible for saving the Academy and potentially the world she had just learned about. This feels believable and will be great for kids to read about.

A fun magic school book that will appeal to fans of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. Kelcie doesn't know what she's in for when she follows two fairies into a tree which dumps her at the Academy of Unbreakable Arts. Although it follows a formula that many others have done before (kid in the modern day "real world" ends up with magical powers and goes to a school to learn how to use those powers), I enjoyed reading the story of Kelcie and her friends and look forward to their further adventures.

I loved this book! I love books with magical schools. The characters are fantastic. I really enjoyed all the different magical abilities and mythology tidbits. I will definitely pick up the next book in this series when it comes out. This is a new favorite!

I was looking forward to this book because I usually enjoy MG books - especially those set at magic schools - and the synopsis looked like something I would love. However, I failed to connect with the main character at all. The book is very plot-based, which is fine, but the events zip along with no real weight to any of them. It just feels rushed.

I felt like I was reading a list of 'this happened then this happened then this happened' and while it should have all been very exciting it was just boring and implausible and didn't make a lot of sense. It also felt like it had been cobbled together from other MG magic school books and that was irritating. Like the beginning gave me major Percy Jackson vibes.

I can imagine liking this more if I were the target audience and hadn't been exposed to a lot of other books in the genre, but for me it was a disappointment.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Starscape for providing an e-arc for review.

An entertaining, yet formulaic and predictable story of an orphan who finds herself at a school of magic where she must learn to harness her powers and discover her hidden past. I can see 5th-7th graders enjoying this book, but it does little to differentiate itself from other stories set in schools of magic.

Loved this story and it's great reading an MG read that has more Celtic Mythology in it since I don't usually see much with Celtic Mythology in it. This is about Kelcie, a human who was raised a foster child in the human world and who one-day transports and finds herself at The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts where she gets tested and admitted as a Saiga, which is one of the most ancient beings in the Otherworld. She gets to learn to train how to fight with combat training and learn how to use her powers. She discovers that she's related to the Otherworld's most infamous traitor.
Kelcie can't remember when she was a kid or much about her parents or who they are or anything. She learns and makes friends in the academy and has to figure out who she is and remember her past, her parents, and what happened when she was little. She and Niall have a cute little budding romance and she and Brona have a great friendship. This has a great glossary to help with terms relating to Celtic Mythology in the back.
Comparing this to Percy Jackson and Harry Potter doesn't seem very accurate though because this story is all its own. It did feel like it was a little slow in parts but overall it was enjoyable and a great read.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge/Starscape for letting me read and review this fun MG read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Starting out I was just as confused as the main character was as what was going on. But then the book sucked me in. I couldn’t put it down. It has great world building and character development. It keeps you guessing as to who is evil and who is good. I hope there will be a sequel.

I am loathe to compare all mythology related middle grade books to Percy Jackson. But the opening sequence of Kelcie Murphy is so reminiscent of the first chapter of The Lightning Thief that it is impossible to ignore. "Troublemaker" child accused of something she didn't do? Check. Missing/unknown parents that the foreboding adult seems to know something about? Check. While I truly wanted to enjoy this book, the first couple chapters as well as some of the clunky writing just didn't do it for me. DNF'd this book.

Thank you for the arc copy. I liked this book. The strongest point was for.me the characters. They Were diverse and strong and complimented each other. I liked the Quest and the story. It was very magical. But i kept comparing it to Harry Potter. Thank you to netgalley for this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

I was really excited to get an arc of this book and be allowed to read it. I used to love books like this when I was younger and I was hoping I would get to re-experience that in this book. I had a couple of issues with the book, but overall it was what I was hoping it would be.

The characters are probably the strongest part of this book. Kelcie makes for a good main character. She’s someone who you can root for while also being sure of what she wants to gain by joining the academy. She was likeable and her actions made sense with her past. Especially since she seemed to grow desperate to follow the rules and stay at the academy.

The side characters were just as good. The rest of Kelcie’s fianna were strong. Each had their own motivations for joining the academy and wanting to succeed. They weren’t given the deep-dive treatment that Kelcie was, but it was also clear that they weren’t side characters or characters written to be thrown away. The group meshed well together and built off each other to form a believable group with solid dynamics.

I have a couple of issues that I mention later but one of them is that I thought the beginning dragged a bit. However, I’ll give my kudos to Lewis. When the book picked up the pace and started to dive more into the training and action side of the story, it was good. The author introduced characters and talents that led to really interesting fight scenes. It might have been nice for their group to have a Cat in their fianna. I doubt it would have extremely changed the story, it just might have been cool to see how a Cat was interwoven into the fights.

The plot was interesting. I’ll admit that I’m still not positive what to think about this story. The plot was an interesting one that kept the book moving at a good pace with decent growth. My problem is…I guess it just didn’t feel well-explained. Everything felt like it was explained in a rush and I honestly still don’t know why she was able to remove the lids, why removing them was bad, why the other person had control. This might be a series that delves deeper into this, but the plot (as interesting a premise as it was) left me kind of scratching my head.

I have a couple personal issues with this book that stopped it from being a 5-star read for me. One is that I felt the beginning dragged a bit and then suddenly introduced a lot of people and terms to know. I was overwhelmed and often scrabbled to remember who was being talked about at the moment. It was a bit of a struggle. Another personal problem I had (and this one is definitely personal and nothing to do with writing or pacing) is that I really wish book series like this would stop adding romance. I get why they do, it’s just not something that works for me in books like this anymore. I’ll give this book that it was only hinted at/starting, I just wish it hadn’t been there at all.

This book was an interesting experience for me. I really enjoyed these characters, even side characters that barely got mentioned. My personal favorite minor character is Roswen. I don’t even know why, just something about her. The characters were well-written and had an interesting dynamic. The action scenes and fights were a lot of fun to read. Whether it was them fighting creatures or trying to solve a challenge, it was fun and unique. The world felt well-built. My problems are that I struggled a bit at the beginning to get into the story and then it felt like everything and everyone was thrown on top at once. Also, the plot around the eye just really confused me. I must have missed the part where everything was clearly explained, but who knows. This was an interesting book and premise though. If there’s a sequel, I’d probably read it.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book, my thoughts are my own.

THIS BOOK. WAS. AMAZING.
I loved the carefully woven bits of mythology and the way the author paced the story.
As a Slytherin this definitely appealed to me as the people said it would. Also one of my favorite things, a magical school !
I loved that Kelcie was a foster kid, with magic that is associated to a traitor, it made it that much more interesting when learning about her, the magic and the world. This very much has a harry potter vibe so far as in, we get a full year in the novel.
I really enjoyed the competition aspect of the book when they had to compete for a place at the academy and how we are suddenly transported into the magical world. It felt like we were learning with her and was reminiscent of one of my favorite middle grade novel "Nervermoor".
Overall a great beginning to a series, cannot wait to see where this goes !!

4/5 stars.
Bookarina

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts is a novel in the style and tradition of Harry Potter - and indeed, there are quite a few similarities. Kelcie is an orphan, with no memory of her parents, and one day, a person she's known most of her life turns out to be a magical watcher, one who has known who she was all her life, even as she had no knowledge of magic, and that person's actions lead Kelcie to the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts (AUA) - a school for students of magic, most of whom have magic that they were unable to access before starting at the AUA. There are, however, quite a few differences as well, which makes this a fun and entertaining adventure.

Kelcie was found, as a 4 year-old with no memory of her past, in Boston Harbor; from there, she was enrolled in the foster care system, where she experienced a childhood spent moving from foster placement to foster placement, some at least all right, some bad, some worse. At 12, having moved to yet another placement and thus another school, Kelcie is attacked by an ice fairy while on a field trip to a museum. This attack leads Kelcie to a magical transport system, and thus to the AUA, on the first day of school - and from there, things get interesting.

Kelcie is a scrappy, self-motivated survivor, taught by her years in the foster care system to look out for herself and to trust cautiously, if at all. Accepted to school and placed in a fianna - a cooperative group - Kelcie finds herself in an environment unlike anything she could have imagined, with magical powers she had no idea existed and has no idea how to control, and one school year to prove she belongs there, lest she not be invited back for a second year. This is a wonderful novel for anyone who enjoys stories about kids overcoming their pasts, as well as being a well-written piece of fantasy. I sincerely hope there were be a sequel - or perhaps a series. Recommended for middle grades to adult.

I am providing this review in return for being given a preview copy of the novel by NetGalley.

This book was an utter joy! The story slaps you in the face right off the bat and we're sunk into this magical world of magic, monsters, and betrayals. Kelcie (she's is a fierce and loyal heroine if ever there was one) takes to her new world right away; it almost feels natural for her. She hasn't had a real home, so she begins to see this as a new beginning. Right away, things start to go awry, and with the help of her friends, battles creatures and realizes her own power.

The story was much like Harry Potter in the sense that Kelcie is abandoned with nothing but a trinket. She's thrust into a magical school and befriends the underdogs. But the similarities end there. Kelcie, unlike Harry, doesn't take anyone's bull. She embraces her power right away and she doesn't rely on her friends. That isn't to say her friends don't help because they're pretty awesome.

Seeing a disabled B character truly shine is another reason to read this. But I won't give too much away.

Braided with Celtic lore, this book will hit all the right beats for fantasy lovers. Readers are going to devour this book!