The Academy

Bestseller Hilderbrand collaborates with her daughter, Cunningham, a recent high school graduate, for a dishy tale of New England boarding school life. It opens on fall move-in day, when Audre Robinson, head of school at Tiffin Academy, is blindsided by news that the school has jumped from 19th to second place in an influential magazine’s rankings, eliciting suspicion from rival schools that board president and top donor Jesse Easton has committed bribery. Jesse’s popular but wayward 19-year-old son, a student who goes by East, has carte blanche to do whatever he wants at Tiffin. Still, East pushes the envelope, forging a partnership with new girl Charley Hicks to build a speakeasy on campus, and flirting with beautiful 24-year-old history teacher Simone Bergeron. Meanwhile, the students—who include popular influencer Davi Banerjee—are captivated by an app where anonymous users share dirt on students and faculty. As pressure mounts on the school from an investigation into the ranking, explosive secrets come to light about Simone’s past and her encounters with East, while Charley and Davi forge an affecting friendship. The authors employ catchy narrative devices, such as the gossipy collective voice of a clique of Tiffin girls and SAT-word-riddled posts from Davi, and they give the main characters plenty of depth. Readers are in for a treat. Agents: Michael Carlisle and David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Sept.)