Review of Academy of Assassins by Stacey Brutger

Academy of Assassins by Stacey Brutger

Academy of Assassins #1

Published on 29 October 2017

ONLY ONE THING STANDS BETWEEN HUMANS AND THE DEADLY SUPERNATURAL WORLD…THE ACADEMY OF ASSASSINS.

Abandoned as a child and unable to remember her past, Morgan was raised as a hunter, one of an elite group of fighters sworn to protect humans from the dangerous paranormal creatures who invade our world…creatures such as herself. Her life changes the day she’s summoned to the Academy of Assassins, a school that trains witches and hunters to eradicate paranormals who prey on humans. Her first assignment—find and eliminate the killer who is using the Academy as their own personal hunting ground.

As Morgan delves deeper into the investigation, she will need to dodge assassination attempts, avoid the distraction of romantic entanglements with the devilishly handsome security expert, Kincade, and his maddeningly overprotective teammates, while keeping the volatile magic in her blood concealed from those who would use it for their own purposes. When the danger increases and the school is threatened, Morgan must unearth her missing memories before someone finishes the job they started so long ago—killing her and unleashing a plague that will consume the world.

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*This is a reverse harem story,  it contains a consensual relationship between multiple people (usually one woman and several men). If this is not something you're comfortable reading, that's okay. We all have our tastes in books, but please do not go after this genre's books, their authors, or the readers, because it's "offensive" or whatever. It's 2019, live and let live, y'all.

** At the time of posting, this book is available via Kindle Unlimited.

Gather round, readers, and let me tell you about this book that I've read four times. I am that in love with this series. I'm pretty scattershot in this review because #TeamNoSleep, so bear with me because I love this book.

Right from the beginning, Stacey Brutger plunges us into the suspense of Academy of Assassins with our heroine, Morgan Moran, dangling from the eaves of the coven's manor's rooftop as she watches a squadron of Hunters go off to what she knows in her gut to be their certain deaths  in her woods if she doesn't go with them. She joins up with her hellhound partner, Ascher, and they battle the beasties that bump in the night and, while, things go awry, Morgan makes it through the night and back home in time to be summoned by her foster father. Her foster father is The MacGregor, the head Hunter at the coven house, and he assigns her to investigate a series of murders at the Academy of Assassins while she attends Hunter classes.

Some of my favourite characters of Academy of Assassins are Drayven, Morgan, Ascher, and Ryder. Drayven is a jovial supernatural (I'll let y'all learn what kind because eek!) who is quick to welcome Morgan when she comes to the academy. No stand-offish butthead behaviour from him, unlike some people. Morgan is in his friend circle tout de suite. Ryder has 'love at first scent', forget bonding, forget predestined mates the fates determine, he loves Morgan from that first moment that she intervenes on his behalf. Ascher is Morgan's rescued hellhound who becomes her partner in her solo Hunts for supes that cross over from the other side of the rifts. Tell me y'all know me enough by now to know that I will always root for the dog. Morgan has a simple outlook on life. To live is to to Hunt. Everything she does revolves around Hunting. She has two mysterious gifts from her unknown past, a line of fae runes carved into her back that act as a creature-detection device, and a torque that acts as a dampener for her magic. Since she's Amnesia Girl, she uses her gifts to Hunt. Go Morgan! Morgan also gives absolutely zero fig newtons about your status or species, if she claims someone as hers, be it family, friends, classmate, or fellow living being, she will dive headlong into any danger that pops up, not giving one figgy pudding iota about her safety if it means helping them. Morgan is goals.

One thing I disliked about Academy of Assassins was how easily it was to figure out who Morgan's harem members were going to be. I much prefer the romantic whodunnit guesswork style of harem books. A few chapters in and you know who's in, now it's just a matter of when they join the group. Another thing I disliked was Kincade's initial treatment of Morgan, he was a pretty big jerk about the 'women as Hunters deprives a man of his mate and it's selfish of her to do that' thing and I kept wishing Morgan would put a steel-toed boot in a certain place.

Overall, I'm rating Academy of Assassins a shiny 4 stars and 1 sexytimes flame. I'm not saying this is The Great American Novel, it's a paranormal reverse harem romance that's a smidgen predictable. But I love it and I enjoy it. If polyromance is something you're into, y'all should check this out.

Stacey Brutger lives in a small town in Minnesota with her husband and an assortment of animals.
When she's not reading (from the towering stack of books she can't resist buying), she enjoys creating stories about exotic worlds and grand adventures...then shoving in her characters to see how they'd survive. She enjoys writing anything paranormal from contemporary to historical.

You can follow Ms Brutger at

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Well, that's it for this review, do you know how much I hemmed and hawed over this thing? I kept rewriting this in different review styles. Did I want to go in depth? Did I want to gloss over? Did I want to word vomit? What? I wound up just screeching "screw it" and retyped the whole thing this evening and here we are!

Since this is LGBT Pride Month and I'm an out and proud member of the community, I'm dedicating this month's charity choices to LGBT organisations. Zebra Youth is my local LGBT Youth Organisation, so we'll start with them! If you're of the mind and means to donate, I'm sure the folks at Zebra Youth can put your donations to good use!