I'm not sure this is really what I was expecting, but it was fine. It does read like a debut, and the characters feel so stuck as their architypes, which was the most frustrating part to me. I did appreciate the frank and realistic look at abusive relationships for teens, though I think the narrator struggled with the right tone in the audiobook.

While not a huge hit for me, I will definitely be recommending it to my teens.

I love a boarding school mystery, and Briarcliff Prep did not disappoint.

Likeably bratty, as all good boarding school protagonists are, Avi's seemingly perfect life starts to hit some snags. I literally could not put this one down. It was fast-paced, the characters well-developed, and the sensitive content was handled with care.

I just finished this Advance Reader Copy of Briarciff Prep. It was very well written on a timely topic—teen dating violence.

Dating violence can happen to anyone. The best thing for prevention is open communication with your children.
Books are a great way to start difficult conversations with your children. I recommend reading this one with your teens.

Briar Cliff prep is a historically black boarding school. It’s a prep school that leads out to HBCUs. For our main character, she has looked forward to her time at Briarcliff all her life. It’s a family tradition and she’s going to meet her sister there. Her sister is on her last year and is ready to graduate. But not everything is fun and exciting at Briarcliff. You see her sister is in an abusive relationship. Avielle watches her sister, seeing the signs of abuse. Seeing the signs of violence. Trying to understand why her sister stays in abusive relationship. This book really gets into the feels. It starts out really slowly, but I did enjoy the look at an HBBS. Because the conversations they had on the things that they get to study or look into if things are banned incurrent society in certain states like Florida. So that made this book. Interesting enough to keep turning the pages. I won’t lie the only reason I finished the book was to see if the sister lived. That is the entire really long reason to finish a book, but it is a story of domestic violence. I’m not going to tell you if it if she lives, but one of the things this book does extremely well is the aftermath. The aftermath of a girl saying he’s abusive. This book gets into the sisters arguing over why the abuse sister doesn’t want to make it public. She says it won’t matter what he did it’ll be how classmates see it. She will be a lesser person for being abused and he’ll maintain his status quo, even though he’s an abuser. And she’s right! We see how modern teenage lives play out on social media and how an accusation like this would absolutely play out in a high school. There are not enough YA books that talk about domestic violence in high school, but we know what happened. I found this book was real. There are some a little out there events, but the real way things were happened, the real conversations of why you don’t leave, or how hard it is to leave, the real thoughts of a sister going why is my older sister staying? Why is why does this person stay with their abuser? Very real and at the end the book was worth it! One just has to get through a lot of prep, and a lot of beauty pageant talk in the beginning.

I really need to learn how to read the synopsis of books. I thought this was like a romance book or something. And while it was, it was so much more than that. This book is a look at prep schools that no one should ever have to know.

Ok so this was different. There WAS some romance. Avielle and Q’s relationship was so adorable. They had so much in common. And he took such good care of her. Even when she was holding some emotional baggage, he was there to constantly help her. Even when she didn’t want it. I thought adding the romance was a good addition to the book to help make it lighter.

But like I said, it wasn’t ONLY romance like I thought. It was most definitely a coming of age story that featured Avielle. But it was a little weird because the big thing that happened in this book didn’t really happen to her, but to someone else in her family. It was different to see something like that happening from a different perspective than the person it’s happening to. I felt so sorry for her and I felt so sorry that she was being blamed for all the things she was. She was only 15! I wasn’t a fan of how they made her feel. It just felt really gross.

Now the characters I was like ehh about. Like I said I liked Q, but every other guy in this book was so gross and misogynistic. Even her brothers were gross. I HATED the way she was treated by all the men in this book. Everyone except Q and her dad. But even they seemed to have said anything way too late. She deserved better. Like man, she had all these people that were supposed to be taking care of her, but they were more just being overbearing and it was so annoying.

The ending was weird too. It went so fast. I wanted to see more of how her sister was afterward. And I wanted to see more of what happened when he got caught. So much happened all at once. I wasn’t a fan of how fast it went. It just seemed like a whole lot of stuff that would happen after that, that we should know about after having read all the before stuff, we miss. I think this is the first time I’ve ever said this, but this book could have stood to be a little longer. Other than that, I loved the writing style of this. I usually don’t care about prep/boarding schools, but this one hooked me into it. I wanted Avielle to win so much that I found myself rooting for her outside the book.

This was a good book that I was not expecting at all. I say I need to read synopsis more before I start adding them to my TBR, but this one just so happened to be really, really good. And now I see she has another one coming out and I can’t wait! Peppins is going to be an author I keep on watch.

This audiobook tells the story of Avi who is attending the same boarding school her family have attended in the past, Briarcliff Prep, a historically black private school. Her older sister Belle also goes to the school and once Avi arrives and settles in, she begins to get to know some of her sister's friends, including Logan, her sister's boyfriend. While meeting all of the classic YA elements such as young love, school drama and navigating difficult relationships, this book also goes beyond that to explore domestic violence and black empowerment. The audiobook version was good, the narrator was easy to listen to. Overall it is a good book and great to see more OwnVoice YA books coming out! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

I listened to the audiobook of Briarcliff Prep, which had some issues (described below). However, let me begin this review with the actual story content. The book was really well written. I had major feelings for the main characters and the difficult situations they found themselves in. The situations were portrayed very realistically, in my opinion. I was pleased that things weren’t wrapped up in a nice package at the end but that there was some ambiguity and longer-lasting repercussions from the characters’ actions. I believe that many teens will be able to relate to this book on some level. I hope that the book can help them identify warning signs of manipulation and potential abuse in their current and future relationships. The first half of the book is mostly about the main character settling into the (fictional) historically Black private girls’ boarding school and navigating new teachers, friendships, rivalries, and activities. The second half of the book is where the meat of the story lies. The book is well worth the read for any high school student.
My caution is for those who want to listen to the audiobook. The narrator made this book somewhat difficult to listen to. Her pauses are so long and so numerous - and don’t always reflect natural spoken or written breaks in speech/text. I sometimes thought a new sentence was starting when she was, in fact, continuing the previous sentence. I got through the book listening at 1.25 speed but I still found the pauses excessively long and sometimes confusing.
So: story, 4 stars. Narration: 2 stars. I recommend you READ this one!

I really enjoyed this book.

I work in an high school and know that so many students will love the representation. It also shows how a young girl navigates a whole new world. Perfect for kids first entering high school and learn how to handle new situations.

The sibling bond is also so special. The sisters go through things and deal with bad situations and I love how they are there for each other.

Overall I definitely recommend and put this book in our library.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

How do you navigate social constructs and stand up for yourself? Fabulously written story of going after what you want and standing up for yourself. Finally a story that addresses YA toxic relationships and consequences of speaking up.

I am a sucker for boarding school novels, so I couldn't wait to read this glimpse into life at an elite Historically Black Boarding School (HBBS) in Atlanta.

<i>Briarcliff Prep</i> is the story of Avi, a first-year student at an all-girls HBBS that her sister also attends. Her brothers are at the brother school, Preston Academy, across the street. Avi is quickly inducted into the traditions of the school as well as the social politics of her new peers. She is surrounded by women who look like her and encourage her to read literature by Black authors. She is thrown into a very competitive academic enviroment with very high expectations, and at times she is challenged in meeting those expectations. Avi struggles in her math class, but finds herself falling for her math tutor, Quincy. And she struggles with finding her spot on the school newspaper.

While all of that is going on, Avi can also see a strange dynamic developing between her sister, Belle, and Belle's boyfriend, Logan. Logan is one of the most popular students at Preston, and Belle and Logan as set to be the king and queen bee of the social scene. But something isn't quite right there. Avi doesn't trust her gut at first, but soon the signs become too clear to be ignored. Can she help her sister realize this before it's too late?

<i>Briarcliff Prep</i> is a novel about Black identity and Black joy, but it is also novel about the dangers of dating violence. I loved that Peppins was inspired by her time at Spelman college. My favorite parts of the novel were the "world building" bits at the beginning where Avi gets to experience her new school for the first time as a student. Briarcliff is challenging but it also provides Avi with a strong sense of community that can be found at boarding schools and small liberal arts colleges (I was always so jealous of my friends who went to women's colleges!).

The dating violence plot is very slow to develop. The first half really focuses on the school, the academics, and Avi's budding romance with Quincy. In that sense, the plotting here was a little uneven and I struggled to get into the story. I knew what was coming, based on the blurb, and couldn't focus as much on the joy because I was waiting for the sinister elements to appear. I think that affected my early reading experience and my overall perceptions of the book upon completion. I think this is symptom of the book trying to do two key things at the same time, but also just indicative of a debut novel. Peppin shows immense promise as a writer who can appeal to actual teens and tell stories we haven't read it, but I did struggle a bit with wanting to continue reading early in the book -- I almost DNFed this at several points.

HOWEVER, this book is not FOR me. It was not written for me. It was written for the young people I see in my library every day who will eat this premise up! I can think of so many students who I know I can hook into reading this because of the aspirational setting at Briarcliff, the fun politics of boarding school, and the dark drama of dating violence. <i>Briarcliff Prep</i> will certainly be a book I will be purchasing for my library and recommending to students.

A few notes on the audiobook: I did listen to the audiobook for this, and found it to be as expected. The narrative quality and production quality were solid and nothing distracted me from getting immersed in the story. I would recommend this on audio, as it was a smooth and easy listen!