Joe Schreiber

Con man Will Shea may have met his match in scammer Andrea Dufresne as they make a high-stakes deal that will determine who gets to stay at Connaughton Academy, one of the most elite and privileged preparatory schools in the country, and who must leave.

Con Academy

Briar's Reviews

Con Academy by Joe Schreiber is a mysterious Young Adult novel that keeps the readers on it's toes!

Con Academy is a novel following Will Shea who is a young con artist. He makes his way into Connaughton Academy and plans to make some cash quickly before leaving the Academy behind. When he enters into a competition for who can get cash the quickest with another young scamming con artist, things begin to go every direction but the one Will planned.

First of all, the pun of the academy's name is priceless. Connaughton Academy? It's a great pun! 

The novel starts out slow and boring as it explains the basic information about the characters. Despite almost putting it down in the first few chapters I kept going. There seems to be no clear plot movement in the first few chapters and I wasn't entirely sure where the novel was going to go. Once I was about halfway into the book, the plot movement changed drastically from slow to addicting. It's almost like a different author picked it up and changed the pace. The pace changed was great and it's what had me hooked and eager to find out what the scammer characters had in mind.

All of the characters didn't have much growth. I found the characters to stay the same the entire novel, almost like it is for the younger generation of Young Adult. Despite the minor character growth, the characters are still fun and amusing to read about. The hi jinks the characters get in is thrilling.

The novel is definitely aimed towards the younger end of Young Adult. I felt like the readers the original Harry Potter was made for, the preteens, would love this sort of novel. Constant movement in the plot, funny situations and silly hi jinks.

Overall, it was a cute novel! I liked to read it and I would suggest it to anyone who wants a quick read with a surprise ending! A Young Adult ending similar to something that Gillian Flynn would do - unexpected and one you won't see coming.

Four out of five stars! 

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.