Tessa

Shelfbrooke Academy

By: Kayla Tirrell

Narrated by: Megan Meyer

Length: 5 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Tessa never dreamed of going to Shelfbrooke Academy, but the summer before her senior year, a lawyer visits her family saying she’s a long-lost descendant of the D’Villes - one of the founding families of the school. Encouraged by her parents, she leaves everything she knows behind to finish her studies at the prestigious boarding school.

Once there, Tessa’s ties to the D’Villes give her access to all the perks Shelfbrooke has to offer - secret meetings, private rooms, hot guys.

But when Tessa and Angelo, the artistic student she can’t seem to stop thinking about, are paired for a school project, Tessa discovers not everyone shares the same love for the D’Ville name. Many would delight to see their fall from grace, while others are willing to do anything to climb to the top.

How far is Tessa willing to go to learn more about her past while trying to follow her heart?

Tessa is a modern retelling of the classic novel, Tess of the d’Ubervilles. It’s the second book in the Shelfbrooke Academy series (a collection of retellings that can all be listened to as standalones) that promises to be a lot more fun than the original!

©2019 Kayla Tirrell (P)2019 Kayla Tirrell

A good story about growing friendships!

A nice book with great characters involved in building friendships and romance.
The narrator did a great job of bringing each individual character to life!

Cute story!

A sweet, clean, high school romance! a cute story about a private school with rich and scholarship kids.

Enjoyable YA story

What an adorable story! I don’t read or listen to YA stories often and I really don’t know why. I always end up feeling slightly nostalgic and reminiscing a bit. So I really liked Tessa. If you can imagine going from wanting to be the popular girl to all of a sudden being tossed into the worlds you’ve dreamt of for so long. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I really enjoyed Angelo. I felt like he was really a strong-willed young man.

Anyways, this was a super cute story that kept me fully engulfed. Megan Meyer was a great narrator. I liked her voice. She pulled off a teenager very well. She brought a fun, kind of upbeat feel to the story. I appreciate when a narrator can add a bit of their tone to the story.

Great story

This was a great story. It was packed full of ups and downs, twists and turns! Narration was top notch!

Tessa

A sweet YA story that left me with the feeling that good still exists. Tessa experiences the drama and bullying that unfortunately occurs quite frequently these days. Fortunately her true friends were there and she was able to be her true self.

Kayla Tirrell once again gave a very real portrayal of the drama that young adults can face. I love her positive message.

Megan Meyer delivered a great performance.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

Academy!

Academy books are big and it is hard to make one from another. I think this one was a good one. I never got it confused with another and enjoyed everything from the writing to the narration.

(4.5 stars) - YA spin on Thomas Hardy's classic

Kayla Tirrell has a gift for taking books that I hated in high school and turning them into stories that I enjoy! While this Tessa is trying to figure out how to live with a name that she doesn't really feel any connection to, she's discovering that it comes with complications she'd never realized, and she's not entirely sure she wants to deal with any of it.

Angelo is one of the complications of Shelfbrooke - he's hot, then cold, then hot, then cold, ugh, those artistic temperaments, lol. Tessa's naive and ignorant of the manipulative games that are the norm at her new school, but it's what Angelo is used to and he's been burned before so he's struggling with being all in when it comes to trust.

As is not unusual for high schoolers, they frequently respond with their emotions even when their own heads are cautioning them to be wary, but expert manipulators know how to lie with truth as well as which buttons to push & so they do.

I liked that the MCs developed, recognizing & learning from their mistakes, especially Angelo realizing the errors in his snub the snub club thinking - including a key moment of hypocrisy, as in Hardy's book. I especially liked that the ending was not just happy (take that, Mr Hardy!) but had the MCs take the high road

*Clean romance level: sweet kisses
*Language: a couple of d*mns & a half dozen h*lls

Cute story with typical (private) highschool drama

Okay, so it might be typical, it might not be typical but it’s the stereotype that is shown throughout every form of media. The rich classes “are above” the other kids and won’t ever want to mingle. That kind of vibe. And of course, we have our main character who doesn’t follow that habit and well, that’s not so well recieved with the “top 5”

Although the whole idea for the story might not be a new invention, the story is cute, the characters are loveable (apart from those who are not worth it to be loveable, each story has thosr too!) and the drama is definitely there but not over the top. All in all a very lovely story about (overcoming) prejudice and (develope better) values and trust.

Voice isn’t bad either, well pronounced but not always as clear as to whether the character is thinking something or saying that something. Bit annoying sometimes but mostly it just becomes evident if you keep on listening (I tend to pauze and/or hit repeat too soon)

enjoyable fun YA romance

An enjoyable fun fast clean YA story. This engaging storyline includes drama, humor, family, frenemies, miscommunications, secrets, and love that kept me reading page after page. The characters are interesting, relatable and had chemistry. I loved how they recognized and learned from their mistakes in this addicting story. I voluntarily listened and reviewed and can't wait for more from this fantastic author.

Tessa

Tessa finds out she is related to one of the founding members of Shelfbrooke Academy. She enrolls for senior year. She finds out right away that old money families rule the school. Tessa must decide if she wants to be part of the elite group or be herself. The romance that starts between Tessa and Angelo is sweet.