Book Review: The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy

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Feb 20

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

It’s hard to be a girl in the patriarchal world Marya has grown up in. While her brother Luka is on the fast track to become a sorcerer (and one of the nation’s elite protectors), Marya is constantly in trouble.

Dragomir Academy, hidden away in the distant mountains, is where bad girls go. If they’re lucky (and learn to mind their manners), Dragomir grads can end up working as support staff for important sorcerers. If they’re not — well, at least they can’t cause trouble miles away from civilized society. At first, Marya is determined to follow all the rules and show that she’s not trouble after all. Gradually, though, she realizes that the men in power are hiding dangerous secrets and that sometimes good trouble is worth the risk.

I am clearly the target audience for a middle grades boarding school novel about taking down the patriarchy through education and fabric crafting, so I am happy to say I really enjoyed this lovely little fantasy. I recommend it.

(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)

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AMY SHARONY is the founder and editor-in-chief of home | school | life magazine. She's a pretty nice person until someone starts pluralizing things with apostrophes, but then all bets are off.

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Amy Sharony

Amy Sharony is the founder and editor-in-chief of home | school | life magazine. She's a pretty nice person until someone starts pluralizing things with apostrophes, but then all bets are off.