I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from The St. Ambrose School for Girls, but I’m glad I gave it a chance! It started off a bit slow, and I wasn’t sure where it was going, but once the second half picked up, I was hooked. The suspense and intrigue kept me on my toes, and the twists were definitely unexpected.

The main character, Abby, was complex. Her journey through the mysterious events at St. Ambrose kept me invested, and as the secrets of the school slowly unraveled, her determination and strength shone through. I loved seeing her piece everything together, and by the end, I couldn’t wait to see how it all wrapped up.

Sarah Taylor is the newest student at St. Ambrose School for Girls. She becomes the target of mean girl, Greta.

I enjoyed the second half of this book a lot more then the first. I found the beginning to be extremely slow and incredibly boring, but I did become more invested towards the middle of the book. The murder mystery aspect was definitely what kept me going by the end of the book. The book dives into some darker topics such as bullying, depression, bipolar disorder and suicide. Sarah is definitely an unreliable narrator, which I love in books. I found her to be very multilayered and interesting to follow. I also really liked her roommate, Strots.

A gripping coming-of-age novel set in an elite boarding school where secrets, power struggles, and personal demons collide.

Unfortunately I was unable to download this book before the archive date, so I'm not able to leave a review. I look forward to reading and reviewing books by this author in the future.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this one, and that made me request this book. However, I think maybe I am just growing out of the YA genre as a whole because this one just didn't capture the attention the way I wanted it to. Overall I did really like the concept, and the writing was good too. But the characters and themes just weren't as developed or deep as I wanted. I do think others would really enjoy this one, and I would still really recommend it to those that enjoy YA stories!

Thank-you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada, and Jessica Ward for the eARC.

I am giving this book 3 stars because I recognize that it's not a bad book by any means, and I am sure the audience meant for it will highly enjoy it, but I just feel like the way it was pitched does nor align with the actual contents and I therefore felt a bit bamboozled.

Due to its mention of someone ending up dead and its description as a "complex psychological thriller," I expected a classic murder mystery. However, the murder itself doesn't happen until the last 20% or so of the book.

I also found it to be extremely verbose and at times found myself struggling to continue reading and losing track halfway through a thought.

Overall, not what I thought I was getting myself into, but I do know the type of audience to recommend this to.

Perhaps not as thrilling as the synopsis made it out to be, The St Ambrose School of Girls was still an engaging story and one that wasn't easy to predict. I enjoy the writing and found it easy to read. It definitely made me curious to explore Ward's backlist.

This was a good read that I was invested in finding out what was going to happen next. It has received many great reviews so I would recommend you give this one a go.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. I thought perhaps there might be something a bit more sinister going on than just a tale of mean girls, bullying, and perverts, but it turned out that was honestly enough to hold my interest. The author's characters and dialogue are both believable, and she throws in the occasional quip that made me snort, like - ."What is this, Clue, girls' school edition? Her main character, Sarah, goes off on some wild tangents, and delivers a few lengthy speculative soliloquies that I could have done without, but otherwise this was an engrossing and entertaining read.

I think I was out of the target readers for this novel. As much as I love JR Ward, I think I have aged out of this YA thriller.

It was good, very dark and atmospheric. Well written but imagine EMO Mean Girls that's how I pictured these characters. I think at almost 40 now, my tastes in novels has grown, but this author is still writing the same types. It wasn't a win for me, but my neice loved it and has now started all the books by this author. So it was a win for the teenager, but not the gorwn adult.

Definitely not my typical read but I'm so happy I got to read this. I would definitely recommend if you are in the market for a new book.

Title: The St. Ambrose School for Girls
Author: Jessica Ward
Genre: YA Thriller
Rating: 1.50
Pub Date: July 11, 2023

I received a complimentary eARC from Simon & Schuster Canada via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Slow • Atmospheric • Cliché

📖 S Y N O P S I S

When Sarah Taylor arrives at the exclusive St. Ambrose School, she’s carrying more baggage than just what fits in her suitcase. She knows she’s not like the other girls—if the shabby, all-black, non-designer clothes don’t give that away, the bottle of lithium hidden in her desk drawer sure does.

St. Ambrose’s queen bee, Greta Stanhope, picks Sarah as a target from day one and the most popular, powerful, horrible girl at school is relentless in making sure Sarah knows what the pecking order is. Thankfully, Sarah makes an ally out of her roommate Ellen “Strots” Strotsberry, a cigarette-huffing, devil-may-care athlete who takes no bullshit. Also down the hall is Nick Hollis, the devastatingly handsome RA, and the object of more than one St. Ambrose student’s fantasies. Between Strots and Nick, Sarah hopes she can make it through the semester, dealing with not only her schoolwork and a recent bipolar diagnosis, but Greta’s increasingly malicious pranks.

Sarah is determined not to give Greta the satisfaction of breaking her. But when scandal unfolds, and someone ends up dead, her world threatens to unravel in ways she could never have imagined.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Dark academia is a genre I don't dabble in often, yet somehow I was drawn to the cover of this one. When I requested it, I hadn't realized it was written by the author of the beloved Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Everything about this, screams stay clear, and yet I didn't listen. Big mistake!

This book didn't work for me on so many levels. Firstly, it reads so young, coming across extremely juvenile. The mean girl, teenage vibes were just too much for me, I was basically rolling my eyes on every page. Secondly, it's marketed as a mystery, but it took forever for the murder to even happen. Thirdly, the descriptions are so in-depth and took over the narrative. The first person perspective from someone living with bipolar disorder was interesting and chaotic, yet there were so holes in the character development.

Overall, The St. Ambrose School for Girls was incredibly hard to finish, and probably should have been a DNF. It felt like a story that had been told time and time again. In my opinion, Jessica Ward, who also writes as J.R. Ward, needs to stick to the paranormal romance genre. It was bad for so many reason, especially for older readers.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• no one!

⚠️ CW: mental illness, bipolar disorder, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, suicide, self-harm, eating disorder, bullying, body shaming, death, murder, sexual content, homophobia, adult/minor relationship, pregnancy

This book was a very difficult one for me to get through. I was really intrigued by the synopsis but unfortunately the story was not as gripping as I thought it would be. I wanted a little more from the characters. The mystery of what happened was interesting.

Sadly, I just couldn’t get into this novel.

This pains me as Ward has a knack for creating atmosphere, and tension filled stories, and I was really looking forward to this dark academia thriller.

I do feel that a large reason for my not being able to connect with the book was be due in part to the number of potential triggers that this book held, which might have affected my reading experience. These include: mental illness, bullying, self-harm, suicide, eating disorder, underage sexual relationships.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for my digital copy of this novel to read and review.

I love J.R. Ward’s other books but this one I just couldn’t finish. I didn’t like any characters and I found the story so boring .

DNF at about 10% in. Just couldn't get into this at all.

Thank you netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely eat YA thrillers UP! Perhaps one of my favourite genres… so when I read the synopsis for St. Ambrose School for Girls, I knew I had to get my hands on it! Unfortunately, the story did not work for me and I’ve been left with so many questions!

Ultimately this story felt like a ton of red herrings that went nowhere… I love a book that can throw me off the trail but those ends still need to be tied up! They need to make sense! The pacing was a bit strange, there was so much build up, the plot comes to head at about 80% and so we get a fairly quick and unsatisfying resolution.

I wish that the investigation portion of the story could have been more thoroughly explored and that the meticulously laid “motives” would have come together a bit better.

The St. Ambrose School for Girls is the dark and twisted story of an exclusive boarding school for girls in Massachusetts. Its walls contain the secrets and scandals of not-so-innocent fifteen year-old girls fighting for acceptance, or in other cases, for power.

This story is part thriller, part coming-of-age, and is an ultimate page-turner. If you enjoy Sally Thorne or Brownyn Fischer with a darker twist, this may be the book for you! This is the perfect murder mystery to curl up with on a rainy fall day!

Read if you like:
🔪 Murder mysteries
🧠 Mental health rep
🏛 Dark academia
😱 Scandals

⚠️ Potential trigger warnings: mental illness, bullying, self-harm, suicide, eating disorder, underage sexual relationships, homicide (may not be an exhaustive list).

🙏 Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the gifted electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn’t put it down.
I just loved all the characters. I highly recommend this book.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I just could NOT get into it. I had read reviews that it was a slow burn, but I never got to a part where I was engaged enough to want to keep reading.

No review on GoodReads as I avoid posting if I review a title as under 3/5 stars.