This was a fast read that was pretty entertaining. I liked Teddy enough as a main character, though she did sometimes fall into the trappings of the edgy girl who shuts people out. I did like the number of different psychics that Archer brought to this story, giving specific skills to specific characters. From an animal medium to an empath to a pyrokinetic, the various skills are in different characters instead of just making them all under one umbrella term and type. I am kind of frustrated with other overused plot devices that are present, such as the dreaded love triangle that Teddy is in between her classmate and one of her teachers, as I think that it would be nice to have a female protagonist who isn't so concerned about her love life when other more pressing matters are at hand. But that said, I think I know what team I'm on, because apparently I can rail against it but still be invested in it! I was most intrigued by Clint, the man who recruited Teddy, because he seems to have a pretty interesting back story. I'd like to know more about him, personally, but as the series goes on maybe we'll get some info in that vein.

A solid read but not captivating enough to pick the next book in the series.

The School for Psychics by K.C. Archer was part X-Men, part Ocean’s 11, and part Hogwarts for intuitives. The story follows Teddy, a young con artist who finds herself being recruited by the School for Psychics after her gambling luck comes under surveillance. From there the story takes place at the School where we meet a variety of characters each with their own psychic ability- one can set fires with his mind, another can communicate with animals, some receive premonitions and so forth. We uncover family secrets and a shady government organization who is using some of the recruits for ulterior purposes. There’s romance, espionage, mysterious disappearances, and good conspiracy theory with some dark overtones. I liked how this book focused on the psychic arts as I believe this is an untapped genre in fiction today considering most books center on witches, vampires, werewolves, etc. I wish the government and military were left out of the story as I felt it detracted from the fantasy and psychic elements of the plot. The first few chapters had me hooked, but I found myself struggling to finish the book. It was a little slow paced for my liking and there were too many characters that were included which was confusing at times. The twist at the end wasn’t satisfying because a character that was only briefly introduced to us at the beginning, ended up being the main culprit. There seems to be a sequel in the works and I probably would be interested in reading it as there are some mysteries that I would like to see solved. Overall I enjoyed this refreshing story-line and hope to see the intuitive genre gain some momentum.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for allowing me to read The School for Psychics, by K. C. Archer. Teddy’s psychic skills serve her well, but businessmen in Las Vegas aren’t excited to have her in their casinos. But, she can’t resist gambling one more time to win and gets in over her head once again. Trying to elude being picked up by casino guards, she is whisked away by Clint, who explains he can save her if she will just join the School for Psychics and work for the government. What an adventure for Teddy. She meets other psychics, gets into lots of troubling situations, and almost discovers where to find her missing mother. This is an action packed adventure that leaves you waiting for more adventures from this school of Misfits!

This book is good. I found it really entertaining and worth to read. It has medium pace plot, so you won’t be bored or getting too much thrill.

Telling a story about a girl with untrained mind power with a messy life and having trust issue then get recruited to a special school and she seen it as the second chance., to start over. Little did she know, that the new place lead her to a new adventure and many flashbacks to her past.

The book has x-men style ability and I find difficulty in knowing exact age of our characters, it says 20’s but they are too impulsive they seem like teens. The thing that I dislike actually the covers itself. It doesn’t capture the excitement of the book.

Thank you #netgalley for providing the arc

The publisher, Simon and Schuster reached out with an ARC of this book, probably based on my review, and love for The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman. Of course I can't NOT read a free book, but it really wasn't my "style". It was touted as a good snowy day read, and I did read it on a snowy day. I had some difficulty finishing it, but I did. Beware reader for all the cliches! This book is about a young adult with "psychic" ability and is intercepted by another person with this type of ability and "invited" to a school/training academy with others that have some type of "super" abilities. Somewhat I guess along with Harry Potter line, but with adults. A bit long, the protagonist is a bit annoying and I just wasn't invested in her, or wanting something better for her, or even for her to fail. Perhaps just not given enough background on her before the "action" started. This is supposed to be part of a series, which I don't think I will partake.

Amazing! Reader beware, you are about to embark on a great adventure where nothing is quite what it seems. Don't fall for tricks and take care who you trust, not everyone is who they seem to be. No spoilers here, but I will say this, I can't wait for book 2!

Loved the storyline but didn't like the main character. Teddy drove me crazy for almost the entire book. I didn't like her and thought she was very abrasive and self-centered. I did start to like her at the very end of the book. I thought the storyline, while not original, was very well written. It kept me captivated. I did think that the book raised more questions than answered them. Saying that, I need to read book 2 to see if they are answered there.

The School for Psychics: A Novel, Book 1 by K. C. Archer tells the story of Teddy, an adopted girl, kicked out of Stanford, who has over $200,000 in debt to a mobster. One thing about Teddy though, she has an incredible ability to know positively when people are lying. This skill helps her immensely at the poker table, but makes her keep her distance from others in life. She is recognized for this skill by the Whitfield Institute, a government and privately funded school for psychics. She is recruited to this secret school and learns to harness her abilities. She later learns that the school might not be training the psychics for good in solving crimes, but perhaps as weapons to become psychic assassins.

I actually liked this book and couldn’t put it down once I started. While the character’s aren’t always the best, they add to the plot and help shape the story. At times the Institute seemed more like a High school than a college, but overall it was good. I know I was surprised at the end. There is a bit of romance in this book as well. I’m excited to read the next book in this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy of the book in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

This book took me by surprise. The layers in this story is wonderful. It keeps you hooked from the first page. Teddy is a woman that a lot of people (including herself) don’t understand. The author did a wonderful job as to make you think that this is a possibility and that there is a school like it. Do not think this book is going to be an adult version of Harry Potter. There is no magic in this book. Just simple believable mind powers that the author makes you believe could be possible and who knows it just might.

The characters and story line is so well written that you know what they are going to do but at the same time you still have the ability to make a mistake about what they did and how they handled them. Personally, I expected this book to go a complete different way then it went. I, for one, can not wait for the next book in the series to come out to find out what happens to Teddy and the rest of the misfits.

I recommend this book to everyone that enjoys a captivating read. Be fore warned though that you may wind up reading it all night long.

I really liked the book... but it was missing a bit of depth... i found some parts were very long and i could skip a few paragraphs and not be missing anything except for a few descriptions that were not necessery. I also found a bit strange the relationship between pyro and teddy. The guy seems to be perfect... and all of a sudden... we kind of dont know what happens.

I liked the x men vibe the book has to it. I tought it had some harry potter ressemblance as well.

Overall, i liked it and would like to read a sequel to see if the author can bring more to the characters.

While I thought the premise of the book was quite interesting, I sadly ended up not enjoying it as much as I hoped I would. I found the writing a little uneven and the characters a little flat. And while Teddy was an interesting enough main character, some decisions she took throughout the book did frustrate me a bit. Without spoiling anything, I found her blind trust in certain characters (well one specific character in particular) rather unbelievable. And while the story does suffer from recurring cliches, fans of the genre will probably enjoy the book.

This book was okay. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it well enough. It did have quite a few typographical and grammatical errors, but I am hoping that those will be fixed before actual publication. The story revolves mostly around Teddy, a young woman who has messed up her life every time she's been given a chance to improve it. She is a chronic gambler, and she has just recently lost quite a bit of money -- including some she stole from her parents -- in Vegas. Just as she as about to get scooped up by a loan shark, she is rescued by a man who tells her she is a psychic and asks her to come with him to a school for psychics. He agrees to cover her debt with the loan shark if she will successfully complete a year at his school. So... Teddy does what any rational thinking human who is backed up against a wall would do: she goes to school.

The plot thickens from there, with some mystery and intrigue thrown in, and overall, it's a pretty entertaining book. The pace moves right as it should -- not too slow, not too fast -- and some of the characters are really likeable. A few of the characters are a little too flat for my taste, and the fact that Teddy doesn't figure out who the "bad guy" who is pulling all the strings is until the last few pages is a little unrealistic to me, as I figured it out pretty early on, but still. It was a good enough book. It's not a long read or an especially hard read. Give it a shot on a lazy Saturday when you don't have a lot to do. You might enjoy it.

DNF at 30%

While I give points for how entertaining Teddy's narration is and how fun some of the dialogue is, the rest of it is just...not very good. I think you'll have a better time if you go into the book expecting something original, with great world (school?)-building and characters, but mindless fun full of overused magic school tropes.

I really liked the first few chapters. Teddy came across super well as the confident, brassy twenty-something woman that she is. But the moment she walked through Whitfield's door, she turned into a 16-year old YA protagonist, swooning at the first hot guy she sees. Said hot guy, Pyro (*eyeroll*), is the worst of love interest cliches--bad boy attitude, dark hair, no sense of personal boundary, sexually aggressive.

If that sounds like your jam, go for it. But if you were hoping for something akin to X-Men, with a bit of meat to it, then you're best off looking elsewhere.

Was hard to get invested into. Was just okay for me.

This debut novel by K.C. Archer is the start to a new modern fantasy series, School for Psychics. The storyline was wildly addicting and I really had to pace myself so I could fully enjoy it.

We follow a group of characters in their early 20's who are attending an institute to enhance their psychic abilities. Each character has their own set of unique skills and we get to watch as they refine their capabilities. The descriptions during these intuitive scenes felt well researched and realistic. The school setting of this story was also very reminiscent of Harry Potter which helped fuel my interest.

This book was not just focused on the supernatural though. There was a large focus on government training and how these extraordinary people fit into the judicial system. Students learn that while they need to master their own abilities, it's crucial to trust your team members and empathize with unfamiliar struggles.

You couldn't help but adore each of these misfits. While the main character was often frustrating, she definitely demonstrated a lot of growth by the end of the book. There was also a mystery element woven through this story as well but it was sadly obvious which characters were responsible, making the twist hardly shocking.

While this is technically a new adult book, it often read like young adult which was a bit of a missed opportunity. Nevertheless, I'm beyond excited for this series to continue on and can't wait to see how all of the characters will continue to grow!

I was thoroughly entertained with this novel about Whitfield School for Psychics. When Teddy is recruited as as student, she has no idea what she has signed up for as she feels coerced because she is only getting out of a huge debt to a loan shark for gambling. But clearly she has special talents; she's just not sure what they are as she has never tapped into those abilities with anything other than a "feeling" about other poker players and the hands they play. She has no idea what she is in for: secrets abound revolving around her birth parents, treason, murder, government interference, and betrayals. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Although I'm not usually a fan of paranormal or psychic novels, this one kept my attention to the end--especially as it leads us to a sequel!

I had a hard time getting into this book. The premise sounded pretty good. It's basically a pseudo sci-fi version of Harry Potter with somewhat older characters. Exploring different psychic powers and how they could be put to a good use is awesome. It falls short in the execution, especially with the main character, Teddy.

I found her to be pretty unlikeable. She's a loner and, despite being inside her head, she comes off as too harsh. And that doesn't really change during the book. I questioned her motivations at times not because it would be a stretch for the character but because the groundwork wasn't there to make it believable. Another thing that bothered me about the character is the way her power set changes. I don't know if the author changed their mind about what Teddy should be able to do or what. Her abilities change more rapidly and more distinctly than any of the other characters and it felt out of place.

There are some good moments to the book too. I was drawn in by the first few chapters because they made Teddy seem interesting. The different psychic abilities are fun to see in action. And the execution of the school itself, i.e. its purpose, how it comes together, etc., is fantastic. Unfortunately, it just isn't enough to make me want more.

Grown up Harry Potter fans, rejoice. Here is a novel that includes all of the quirkiness and entertaining features of Harry Potter, in a much darker and adult setting. While Harry Potter contained a school for witches and wizards, the Whitfield Institute is a school for those that excel in more extra-sensory skills, such as mind-reading and telekinesis. The School for Psychics takes a fascinating look at abilities that are still beyond most people’s everyday lives. A world that most of us can’t even imagine being a part of.

We meet Teddy in Las Vegas, where she has gambled herself into a corner. She’s an epileptic with the ability to read people. She has bounced around through school and jobs. Teddy is a lost soul. She is drifting with no real ambition or direction. Living in her adoptive parents garage and in trouble with a Russian mob loan shark, there really isn’t anywhere for her to go when The Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development is thrown on her table.

Teddy is a protagonist to be liked. She may not always make the best decisions, but she is relatable, funny, and spunky. K.C. Archer does a great job of making Teddy a three dimensional character with real faults and attributes. You want to root for Teddy. You hope for Teddy to succeed. You groan when Teddy fails or again falls into old behavior patterns. It’s always important for me to be able to connect on some level with the main character in a book. To have something about her be identifiable to me. K.C. Archer accomplishes that with Teddy. In fact, most of the characters in this novel are well written and intriguing. Teddy’s roommate Jillian, who can communicate with animals, is endearing and funny. Molly, an empath, is rather tragic and weak.

K.C. Archer’s story weaves and twists and turns leaving me unable to wait to turn the page. I sped through this book wondering what was going to come next. The Whitfield Institute is both mysterious and unusual. The setting of San Francisco’s Angel Island is the perfect location for a book about a supernatural school with supernatural students. I dare anyone who enjoys paranormal fiction to be able to put this book down.

Books in serial format tend to be some of my favorites, as I enjoy connecting with the characters. Knowing that the last page of the book doesn’t mean that I’ll never see them again. I will anxiously await the next book in this series. Truly wondering what is next for Teddy and her band of Misfits. (So please, K.C. Archer, don’t be teasing with that “book one” thing.)

Don’t read this book if you’re looking for a book based in reality. While there may very well be psychics and empaths and clairvoyants among us, and even a school for them, it’s unlikely that you’ll find one on every corner. For me escapism is the best part of reading, and this is clearly a work of fiction. Or is it?

I really enjoyed this book. It isn't ground breaking in that it uses many of the familiar story lines and ideas that you've definitely seen before in Harry Potter or the Magicians. If you go in with an open mind, this is an enjoyable read. Its quick, a little messy but fun. The main character takes a little while to warm up to and the story is a little bumpy but it does keep the reader engaged and wanting to know more. I got caught up in the story and wanted to know how it ended. This is an enjoyable but predictable read. Interested to see what book brings and would recommend it for folks who like YA but wants a slightly more adult cast.