Recently, I was complaining to my sister about one of my pet peeves in fiction: stories featuring an academic or student that is vague about that character’s area of interest or research. Get specific about it! Include some nerdy tangents! Don’t just have a character vaguely be described as an art historian or a classicistRead More
Obsession and Betrayal in Academia: Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian Review
Short, punchy, and dramatic, Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory (Little, Brown 2025) is a character-driven novel about obsession, devotion, and manipulation set against the backdrop of academia. Adrian’s novel is structured as the MFA thesis of Roberta “Robbie” Green, who becomes embroiled in the betrayals and intricacies of her thesis advisor’s marriage. Simone is the enigmatic and beautifulRead More
A Slow Burn Work of Art: Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey
For Audrey Lind, working with clay still evokes memories of her favorite professor. The woman’s zeal for art history ignited Audrey’s own academic career—and her tweed blazers and British accent kindled her first female crush. After fate brings Audrey back to Northshire University to teach, she’s thrilled to be working alongside her former mentor, butRead More
A Literary Love Story of the Moment: Liquid by Mariam Rahmani Review
This novel has been a hard one to write a review for. Mostly because of the upheavals happening, and my subsequent desire to try and locate the text as best as I can in the current moment. Because, reader, it truly is a novel for the times, of the times. So here is the earliestRead More
Academic Lovers to Enemies to Lovers: The Headmistress by Milena McKay
Amazon Affiliate Link Everyone knows the old saying, “be careful what you wish for”. For Professor Samantha “Sam” Threadneedle, the main character of Melina McKay’s moody and dark academia romance The Headmistress, that adage becomes very true. Three Dragons Academy, a remote all-girls boarding school that has been her home since she was an orphan leftRead More
Witches Under Modern Systems of Oppression: How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! At the top of the T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School’s leaderboard is Shay Johnson. One of the most impressive and successful witches among her peers, this almost guarantees her the coveted Brockton Scholarship which would allow her to register to the university of herRead More
A Return to Dragons: Magdalene Nox by Milena McKay
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Magdalene Nox by Milena McKay, was published on November 21, 2023, and takes the reader into the world of Three Dragons Academy for Girls. It is a story thirty years in the making, and gives us a peek into the mind of the newRead More
The Secret History Meets The Breakfast Club: The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link At a private boarding school, five writers are selected for the elite writing group called the Circle: Beth, the “townie” who feels very much out of place; Sarah, Beth’s former roommate who carries her own secrets about the school; Spence, who struggles to carve out her own identity while also benefiting fromRead More
A Queer Indigenous Fantasy with Dragons: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The people on the remote island of Masquapaug have lived out of the eye of the colonizers, the Anglish, for many years. That is, until fifteen-year-old Anequs is selected by a dragon hatchling, quickly gaining the ire of the Anglish authorities who have strict parameters around who and how someone might possessRead More
Nat reviews Something’s Different by Quinn Ivins
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Of all the tropes in the world, the twin swap was not one that I would have thought myself a fan of, and yet… I might be now, after reading Something’s Different. Caitlin Taylor is an unemployed PhD grad who hasn’t been able to find a job inRead More