The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy Blog Tour

This story began sliding onto bookshelves Tuesday, October 12th, and I imagine it began getting snatched back off just as quickly as it was stocked!

Welcome to the 8th stop in a Blog Tour celebrating Anne Ursu's latest adeventure, The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy

About the Book:

If no one notices Marya Lupu, it’s likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s because of what everyone knows: Luka is destined to become a sorcerer.

The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city, but that doesn’t matter. Every young boy born in Illyria may possess the rare ability to wield magic, to protect the country from the terrifying force known only as the Dread. For all the hopes the family has for Luka, no one has any for Marya, who can never seem to do anything right. But even so, no one is prepared for the day that the sorcerers finally arrive to test Luka for magical ability, and Marya makes a terrible mistake. Nor the day after, when the Lupus receive a letter from a place called Dragomir Academy — a mysterious school for wayward young girls. Girls like Marya.

Soon she is a hundred miles from home, in a strange and unfamiliar place, surrounded by girls she’s never met. Dragomir Academy promises Marya and her classmates a chance to make something of themselves in service to one of the country’s powerful sorcerers. But as they learn how to fit into a world with no place for them, they begin to discover things about the magic the men of their country wield, as well as the Dread itself — things that threaten the precarious balance upon which their country is built.

My Thoughts:

As I began working my way through the beginning of this story, hearing about the upcoming testing of Marya's brother, the hope he possessed sorcerer's powers, and the mysterious Dread that consumed villages, and the lore of witches, I wondered and wondered, is any of it real?

In the story, I mean...

Marya has been told all her life of these things, and she believes them. It all sounded so controlling though. The boys will save us, there is a horrible thing they keep at bay, and some dangerous women threaten them all.

When Marya was whisked away to Dragomir Academy for Troubled Girls, things sped up. So many new mysteries and dangers and people to trust or not. And the more she learned and experienced, the more Marya questioned and noticed. "...everyone kept saying pretty words to her, but terrible things seemed to lie underneath." As we all must come to realize, sometimes it is only ourselves we can expect the truth from. This is a startling and lonely realization to be faced with. And when Marya begins to see through the stories and begins to feel the threats are not only from the dangerous Dread, she runs towards the frightening truth, not away from it.

I loved this story!

About the Author:

Anne Ursu is the author of the acclaimed novels The Lost Girl, Breadcrumbs, and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. The recipient of a McKnight Fellowship Award in Children’s Literature, Anne is also a member of the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and an ever-growing number of cats.