Growing up, I was intrigued by books about boarding schools. As an adult, it’s easy for me to look back and see that I was searching for stories about people different than me going to school somewhere that couldn’t be more opposite than the Midwest public school that I attended. While walking the shelves, I found One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks and instantly knew my younger self would have loved this one.

One Year at Ellsmere tells the story of Juniper and her first year at Ellsmere, a prestigious boarding school she was only able to attend because of the scholarship she won. Showing up on her first day, Juniper is worried, but she knows that she excels at academics, so this shouldn’t be too hard. After meeting her roommate, Cassie, Juniper realizes that the friendship part may be more difficult than she thought. Hopeful that academics will make up for her awkwardness, Juniper is ready for school to begin. At orientation, Juniper and Cassie’s bound strengthens when the queen bee of the school, Emily, picks on Cassie and Juniper jumps in to defend her. This unfortunately draws Juniper into Emily’s sights, leading Emily down a path to make her life at school difficult. Labeling Juniper the school’s special ‘project,’ Emily and her friends are determined to get Juniper expelled. While the school year progresses, the girls continue to clash while Cassie shares stories with Juniper about the school, its history, and the students who attend. One particular rumor of interest involves the Ellsmere sons, the forest, and a mythical beast that is rumored to roam in said forest. This intrigues Juniper, but with Emily out to get her, she focuses on how to outsmart Emily at her own game.

My younger self would have loved this story, but my older self felt like the story was fairly predictable. The characters of Juniper and Cassie made up for this though as they were easy to like and believable. Juniper was independent and headstrong, while Cassie started as mousy and meek, but grew more confident and fierce as the story progressed. The mean girls were a tad one-dimensional, but that wasn’t a dealbreaker for me. I hope that the author writes more in this world as the ending sets up perfectly for more!