Will be thinking about this book for a long time! Captivating. I loved the unreliable narrator. I was rooting for the main character the entire book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The St, Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward!

Okay. So once again, we have a book that is just… marketed wrong?? This sounded so intriguing and also compared to Heathers (one of my all time favorite films!) but, unfortunately that’s not what I found in these pages.

This has been marketed as a mystery/thriller but this is actually, first and foremost, a coming of age story. And those are not my jam AT ALL. So had I know that, I wouldn’t have picked this up.

This does have a mystery/thriller ~aspect to it. But it’s the slowest of slow burns and all of that is the last, eh, 70 pages? If that? Which is… not what I look for in a mystery/thriller?

I also wish this had been more about the school. Maybe it had a creepy, storied past? But no. This was literally just mean girls being horrible to each other for 300 pages and some change. (And not even in the enjoyable, comedic Mean Girls way.)

So. Again. I think this was marketed wrong? Because this was compared to a bunch of things that I like but was nothing like those things. And because of that, I, the wrong audience entirely, picked this up and did not enjoy it. But if it had been marketed ~correctly, it could’ve found the right audience.

But anyway. The one thing I did like about this is that it did mental health rep SO WELL. I don’t know ~a ton about BPD but I feel like I learned a lot from this. This book handled all of that so well and that’s what I connected with most in this story.

Aside from that though, this just was not for me, unfortunately. Though if you enjoy coming of age stories, you should definitely pick this up!

And thank you to Book Club Favorites, Gallery Books & NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

I'm a lover of JR Ward's paranormal books and I enjoy seeing her stepping into additional genres like she has as Jessica Ward with this book.

The story is harsh, the characters vary from just shy of likable to loathe worthy.. And yet, Ward has created a really good read. Mostly I think, due to her extensive research and incredible descriptions of Sarah's mental health issues. Wow! I really felt like I was getting direct insight into Sarah's struggles. Poor Sarah to be so afflicted so young. She's hyper-intelligent yet saddled with such horrible effects of her bi=polar disease. This book is intense. The suspense is so well paced that it keeps you wondering from the first chapter to the end about what happens at St. Ambroses and who did it.

I have to give this book five stars for the research, the incredibly well-written characters, especially Sarah, and the suspense even though I kind of didn't like it. What does "kind of didn't like it" mean? There was no one I was into, the story is not uplifting with few happy points, and it could be hard to read. Kudos to Ms. Ward for still keeping me turning those pages!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC.

Sarah Taylor gets into a private school her mom submitted her to. It was to help her have a better life. But Sarah doesn't see that at first. She has had issues in the past and still suffers from being bipolar and she doesn't fit into this school. When the queen bee decides to target her to try to break her from bleaching her clothes to making copies of her letter her mother sent where she wrote about her past. She's trying not to let her break her

But when she decides enough is enough the bull turns out to have been murdered.

Sarah's mind messes with her and she doesn't know what happen. Did she have something to do with it? she can't trust her memories and so she makes it her mission to find out what happen even if it turns out it was her that did something.

This had its good and bad moments. There were parts I couldn't believe but I wanted to know what happen and who was behind the murder.



Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sarah Taylor is a very intelligent fifteen-year-old who has been accepted to St Ambrose School for Girls. It’s an elite institution and Sarah feels out of place the moment she steps out of her mother’s shabby car. The girls at St Ambrose are not going to be her friends but Sarah has bigger concerns. She is hiding a secret that they will never understand and it only gets more complicated as the semester progresses.

The St Ambrose School for Girls has a great premise and is well-written, but I found myself struggling with parts of it as it seemed to move quite slow at times. I never did connect with the main character, Sarah, although the meet-up with her mother was one of my favorite scenes in the book. Also, Sarah’s roommate, Strots, is an interesting character and someone I’d want in my corner. She lends a lot of color to the story. The author’s depiction of bipolar disorder was fascinating. I have no basis for comparison but it seemed to me that the author approached the subject with a great deal of sensitivity.

I was bothered by the presence of Nick, the RA on Sarah’s floor. It didn’t seem realistic to put a male RA in a female dorm at an all-girls school. I just don’t think that would happen. But, his presence is an integral part of the story so the reader has to overlook it. All in all, The St Ambrose School for Girls is an interesting book but it took me a while to finish it and at times it failed to hold my attention. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

This is a psychological thriller that takes place at a boarding school. The girls attending have a vast array of mental health issues that are brought to the forefront.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

When the main character was described as being bipolar, I was interested to see how that diagnosis would affect her time at the all girls school she had been accepted to.

The development of characters takes a long time before a murder occurs at St. Ambrose. Sometimes reality and hallucinations are difficult to tell apart. The people at the school that all had motives to kill the victim, were plentiful. If you like to figure out the mystery ahead of time, you may not be able to.
It will keep you reading to the end of the book.

I especially enjoyed the author’s prose and her style of writing.

Drumroll please....

I have a book to introduce to you that has quite literally, broke the internet.

If you are active on "bookstagram" you have seen the posts that have taken over social media and plagued our feeds. Well, there was no way in heck I was going to miss out on this one. The FOMO was kicking in and I ran on over to netgalley to request a copy for myself.

The St. Ambrose School for Girls, delivers!

Holy moly! What did I just read? I am a huge fan of boarding school/ College thrillers and this book right here was made for folks like me. I loved every minute of this book and I am left shaking after concluding.

Jessica Ward and JR Ward have come together to give us the BOOK OF THE YEAR! My fingers and toes are crossed that they turn this book into a movie, I would love to see it play out before my eyes.

Teaser :

A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Book of the Summer

Heathers meets The Secret History in this thrilling coming-of-age novel set in a boarding school where the secrets are devastating—and deadly.

When Sarah Taylor arrives at the exclusive St. Ambrose School, she’s carrying more baggage than just what fits in her suitcase. She knows she’s not like the other girls—if the shabby, all-black, non-designer clothes don’t give that away, the bottle of lithium hidden in her desk drawer sure does.

St. Ambrose’s queen bee, Greta Stanhope, picks Sarah as a target from day one and the most popular, powerful, horrible girl at school is relentless in making sure Sarah knows what the pecking order is. Thankfully, Sarah makes an ally out of her roommate Ellen “Strots” Strotsberry, a cigarette-huffing, devil-may-care athlete who takes no bullshit. Also down the hall is Nick Hollis, the devastatingly handsome RA, and the object of more than one St. Ambrose student’s fantasies. Between Strots and Nick, Sarah hopes she can make it through the semester, dealing with not only her schoolwork and a recent bipolar diagnosis, but Greta’s increasingly malicious pranks.

Sarah is determined not to give Greta the satisfaction of breaking her. But when scandal unfolds, and someone ends up dead, her world threatens to unravel in ways she could never have imagined. The St. Ambrose School for Girls is a dangerous, delicious, twisty coming-of-age tale that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

The story was very hard to follow with, Sarah, the main character. She is bipolar and she experiences blackouts, obsessive behavior and suicidal thoughts. She is brilliant but it seems like her disease prevents her from succeeding. Now since her first day at St. Ambrose she is being bullied by Greta. Greta is relentless in making her feelings known. Sarah tries to not let the bully get her down and finds friends and allies to help her survive. Now people are dying and a scandal unfolds, the world that she has build may unravel.

A murder mystery in a boarding school was a roller coaster of emotions. I got into half of the book but kind of skimmed through the rest just to find out what happens. I wanted to really enjoy this book because of J.R. Wards ability to write amazing stories, but this one seemed to be over written and dark. I feel like there was something missing from the story but could not put my finger on it. I liked the the approach that was taken on mental illness. I hope that as a reader you enjoy it.

Received ARC in exchange for voluntary honest review
3.5 stars

3.25stars--THE ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS by Jessica Ward is a young-adult, coming of age, suspense thriller set in 1991, focusing on fifteen year old Sarah Taylor and her first few months at the prestigious St. Ambrose School for Girls.

WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers. Although most of the characters are underaged teens, the subject of the story line is adult and dark.

Told from first person perspective (Sarah) THE ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS follows fifteen year old Sarah Taylor’s arrival at St. Ambrose School For Girls in the wake of winning an essay contest. Sarah does not come from money; she has won a scholarship to the all girl school but it is her need for Lithium that will set her apart. Sarah struggles with bi-polar disorder, and in this, she is about to meet her match in the school bully Greta Stanhope but all is not well at the illustrious school when secrets reveal a twisted scandal that results in a murder-suicide.

The world building follows the struggles of fifteen year old Sarah Taylor, a young woman who is battling a debilitating mental disorder where she will often disassociate, and in this Sarah doesn’t often know reality from imagination. There are plenty of issues behind the scenes at the St. Ambrose School for Girls, and these issues are about to spiral out of control. As the new girl at school, Sarah will become the target of Greta Stanhope, a target that will become aware of the secrets hiding behind the closed doors.

The secondary and supporting characters included Sarah’s roommate Ellen ‘Strots’ Strotsberry who has a past with Greta Stanhope, a past that is about to push Ellen in more ways than one. Greta ‘s own secrets become fodder for those in the know but money is power, and power is control.

THE ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is a slow building story line in which we only see one side of the story. Most of the conflict takes place off page wherein the reader is only witness to the fall-out and spiral. Most of the characters are not likeable including Sarah Taylor, although the reader may have sympathy for her struggles and her plight.

Throughout the story we are witness to Sarah’s endeavor to fit in but Sarah is so far outside of the box she becomes a target of those taking control. Befriended by her roommate, a sympathetic teacher and pharmacist, as well as the RA who is aware of Sarah’s emotional turmoil, Sarah hopes to move forward but secrets and lies begin to overwhelm a young woman who is unable to navigate the world as it is. The premise is intriguing and fascinating but felt stilted in its’ presentation; the characters are desperate and broken. As per the usual YA requisite trope parameters, the author included the mean girls, and the questionable and oblivious adults.



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Hearing amazing things from the plotline of The St. Ambrose School for Girls, I was excited to read it. However; the plot fell flat for me and I wasn't able to connect to any of the characters. As a reader, I ended up "not finishing this book" 15 percent in.

A complex psychological dark academia thriller! Overall I thought this book was okay. I liked the setting and thought the premise was interesting but certain parts of the story and characters fell a little flat.

One of my favorite reads so far this year.

This is much more campus/prep school thriller than Dark Academia, but it’s smart enough and atmospheric enough to be reminiscent of the latter.

Ward found some unique and interesting angles on the standard dark prep school drama, managing to hit on all the elements readers of this subgenre love while also putting her own spin on some of the more tropey themes.

The best of this is both the satisfying ending which carries a terrific sense of justice and the characters, who are all wonderfully drawn.

Our protagonist is a whip smart, awkward, and well-meaning girl who is bipolar, and while I’m not an expert on the disease by any stretch, this seems to be both an exceptionally well-researched and an extraordinarily empathetic portrait of the disease. Both she and her friend and roommate Strots are as delightfully unusual and easy to root for as they come, and the villains of the story are equally well-drawn.

Despite staying largely away from any academic content, the sense of place was still wonderfully well-rendered, and the suspense was marvelously chilling and gothic.

I really loved this book, the best school thriller I’ve come across in a while.

Personally, this book under delivered on the thriller part but over delivered on the coming of age story. I was ready for a dark academia murder with plenty of suspense but it was more of an exploration into mental illness in the 90s/2000s (couldn't pinpoint the time period) and high school girls. Sarah gets into the St. Ambrose School for girls, a prestigious class that will surely catapult her to stardom, at least her mother hopes. What we get is Sarah constantly battling within herself to stay on her medications and also fend off the bullies. There is a murder but it is all solved rather quickly. I think this book while it did capture my attention was marketed incorrectly.

DNFing because I am not into it. I’m 25% done and I just don’t care about the plot or characters. I was hoping for amazing things with boarding school vibes but it just didn’t work or get to any sort of conflict.

I really try to reserve one stars for books that I DNF…this one probably should have been a DNF. There were some moments that kept me going (like the actual story) and then other moments that made me almost fall asleep (like the way too ling descriptions of absolutely meaningless things that added nothing to the story). The (predictable) “twist” ending was a letdown even though that was probably the most exciting part.

DNF at 41% - The author's writing style was just not for me. The main character/narrator of this book is seriously mentally ill. I think the author tried too hard to bring that out through the way the character told the story. Because of that the writing felt choppy and often left me confused. I would need to reread parts to make sure I understood what was going on. This book was not for me.

Definitely not the book for me. As someone who battles from anxiety and depression, I just couldn't relate to these characters.

St Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward is a YA suspense standalone novel that takes place in a boarding school. When 15-year-old, Sarah Taylor arrives at the exclusive St. Ambrose School, she knows that she is not like the other girls in the school; as she has a bi-polar disorder. Especially since she was an unlikely candidate for the prestigious school, as her mother was the one who submitted her essay without her knowledge. She makes an ally out of her roommate, Strots (Ellen), who is an athlete, cigarette smoker and is gay.

St. Ambrose’s queen bee, Greta Stanhope, targets Sarah from the start, as she is evil and a classic mean girl. Greta constantly pulls vicious pranks on Sarah, making her life difficult. Nick Hollis, is a teacher who is assigned to the upper floors, and since he is very handsome, all the students adore him; of course, Sarah also is infatuated with him.

Sarah tries to hide her bi-polar disorder, as well as her previous attempts to commit suicide. We spent a lot of time seeing Sarah’s episodes that take over her mind; obsessive thoughts not in reality, blanking out, losing time, suicidal attempts, etc. This was very dark, somber and at times depressing, to watch a young girl going through her disorder with some confusing and detailed descriptions.

What follows is an exciting and wild last third of the book; when scandals are revealed, as well as murder; with everything at the school falling apart. I did like Strots, as she was always willing to protect Sarah from the evil girls. I was not a fan of the rest of the characters, which included Sarah. I also thought Sarah’s crazy thoughts were too much and a bit of overkill. The St. Ambrose School for Girls was an interesting, wild, suspenseful YA tale that had a decent finish.