Welcome to the Van Helsing Academy: a rehabilitation center for vampires, shifters, and witches who don’t like to follow the rules.Mina can’t remember anything about the night she was attacked. All she knows is what she’s been told: she got separated from her team during a mission and turned up two months later covered in cuts and bruises alongside two dead vampires.After being blamed for their … vampires.
After being blamed for their deaths, she is sentenced to three years at the supernatural rehabilitation center, the Van Helsing Academy.
As Mina searches for answers, lies are slowly unraveled and alliances forged. Soon she will uncover a secret plot that threatens to destroy her family legacy and ignite a war between the supernatural factions.
Van Helsing Academy is the first book in a new YA paranormal romance series. No harem. Perfect for fans of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, and Mythos Academy by Jennifer Estep.
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Be still my heart! This series is action packed from the very first word. There is never a dull moment, and I loved everything about it! A new world where mists of shadow have fallen down, and suddenly one must fight to discover th secrets and danger waiting on the other side. Lines will be crossed, enemies turned into friends, and nobel intentions abused by a well rehearsed liar. Don’t turn your back on anyone if you want to remain alive.
Mina may have finally found a reason not to trust her instincts. They seemed to have let her down in the most spectacular fashion at the worst time possible. When she finds herself in the most unusual and most deadly of circumstanes, it’s anyone guess if she will even survive the night. When help and friendship is extended through an act of kindness she gives, her world is turned upside down in an instant. Truly nothing will ever be the same again. Will life very go back to normal for her, or will her new normal be everything that she has been needing and never knew it?
I have fallen hopelessly in love with this fascinating world. The paranormal creatures that I love are trying to live their life. However living life on your terms can be the hardest goal you ever strive for. Mina finds more then hate and sworn enemies on the unusual path she is forced to walk. What she finds next is anyone’s guess. I can’t wait to see what happens next!!
Stacey O’Neale is a formidable writer, and I am already blown away by this series. I am on pins and needles to see what follows this incredible story filled with amazing characters and wonderfully compelling storyline. This is a must read for all paranormal fans. It will satisfy your sweet tooth and so much more!!
When I first laid eyes on Van Helsing Academy I was like oh I got to read this. I have been into vampires, witches and shifters for a long time now and I love the TV show Van Helsing. I have also become attached to academy books lately too. I love the setting in the academy books with the school and all the paranormal creatures and how they all interact with each other.
When I picked up Van Helsing Academy I will have to admit it was not what I was expecting in an academy book but oh I love the twist that it portrays. Van Helsing Academy is different from other books I have read by the fact that the students attending Van Helsing have done something bad or have committed murder and are being rehabilitated for their crimes while other academy books the students are being taught how to use their powers.
Mina Van Helsing wakes up in the hospital and is told that she has been in a coma for a couple of months. She was told that she was caught on camera killing two vampires. Mina has no memory of what happened to her while she was away but she doesn’t believe that she killed anyone.
Mina is put on trial for murder and is convicted and sent to Van Helsing Academy where she hopes she can find answers to what happened to her that awful uneventful night.
At the academy Mina knows that she has a lot of enemies and her life is in danger because of whom and what she is. She knows she can’t trust anyone at the academy and makes a few enemies like the Queen B’s. But Mina does make a new friend while she is there too. She also meets a guy at the academy that causes her temperate to sky rocket every time she is around him.
As Mina is searching for the answers she needs she soon learns that something is going on between the witches, vampires and the shifters. A war between the paranormal creatures is brewing.
Van Helsing Academy is a great introduction into a brand new world of vampires, Witches, Shifters and humans. The world building is just awesome and the characters were just great. I loved how they all got along but at the same time they didn’t either. I also liked that the world setting was in present day or like our real world but then add in vampires, witches, and shifters.
I was hooked from the title and the first page of course. Once I dived into this magical world of Van Helsing Academy I was lost among its pages and didn’t come up for air until I had read the whole thing. The world around me was gone and in its place was Mina’s. I can’t wait to read more in the Van Helsing Academy world with the next book.
Van Helsing Academy is one book that I highly recommend to all vampires, witches, and shifters. And if you like the TV shows like Van Helsing or The Vampire Diaries then you are going to love Van Helsing Academy. One click your copy today!
For some reason, even though YA isn’t my favorite, I’ve been reading a few lately including this one. However, I think this is the best one I’ve read recently. Yes, the protagonist is only 16, but she’s a very mature 16, and I frequently forgot she’s not older. This book is about how Mina is trying to find out why she killed two vampires, and she must infiltrate the Van Helsing Academy to do it. (Again, speaking of things that aren’t my favorite: academy books.) Even when something happened which I can’t really talk about because spoilers, Mina handled it much better than some adults I know. I also adored Keira probably almost as much as Mina, and I hope she’s in the next one which I am really looking forward to. This was a pleasant surprise, and I highly recommend it. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.
Mina is an interesting girl who goes through lots of character growth. She makes friends with a shifter, learns that the world isn’t divided into good people (reapers) and supernaturals (witches, shifters and vampires) – and confronts the Lie she believes about herself.
Sacha is just wow. I have a new appreciation for werewolves.
I liked the sly references to Dracula.
The book’s heat intensity (and nudity for fun) is a little too high for YA, making it a college YA or NA read in my opinion.
If you like stories like Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead) and Grimm (TV series), you’ll like this.
Can’t wait for book 2.
The name Van Helsing caught my eye because I really like the movie with Hugh Jackman. However, this story revolves around Mina, a 16-year-old who is part of the Van Helsing family and is part of the family business of monster hunting or reapers as they are best known as. Instead of killing monsters, a lot of them are sent to a medieval type school for rehabilitation that the council or order of reapers believes they committed. Out on a mission Mina ends up getting badly injured along with a teammate and is sent to the Van Helsing school for rehab because she is accused of the unlawful deaths of 2 vampires. While there she discovers a secret plot of rebellion by the supernatural community and Mina goes undercover at the school to try to prove her innocents and uncover the secrets of the rebellion.
I loved this!!! It’s so fast-paced, and I loved that the romance was between Mina and Sacha, not Mina and Cassius. After mixed messages, Sacha went for what he wanted, and I loved that about him.
Kiera is an amazing friend, and her development was awesome!! I’m really looking forward to the next book!!
I also want to see what Mina becomes without the stifling influence of her father 24/7.
This book was fun to read. I was a little confused at first as to what the Van Helsing Academy was, but I’m pretty sure it’s like a juvenile detention facility for vampires, shifters, witches, and the occasional human teenager who works as a Protector of the Covenant (or Reaper). I’m not positive of the exact ages of those serving there, but it seems to be teenagers or teen-equivalent. A pleasant educational experience instead of more traditional punishment. That might seem lenient until you find out that most of the students there are innocent. (It’s a place one is “sentenced to” rather than a place you “apply for the opportunity to attend.” Though, 20% in, the main character states that the place is not a prison, so that point has been driven home.)
I would recommend this book who enjoy Young Adult speculative fiction/ urban fantasy with a bit of mystery and a touch of paranormal romance. I enjoy reading these types of books, especially as I am a speculative fiction author. The Oglala Lakota tribe is mentioned in the story in a fairly positive light, and I appreciate that.
The main character has her ankles shackled and hands cuffed behind her back, a practice outlawed in some real-world areas, which showed me how harshly they treat even juvenile offenders prior to a hearing.
One of my favorite parts in the book reminds me of a scene in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. (The roommate jokingly asks if the MC has killed anyone today. The MC says she hasn’t but that there’s still time. In the 10 Things movie, the dad asks if Kat made anyone cry today, and Kat responds that she hasn’t but it’s only 4:30.)
At 74% in, I honestly thought someone else would turn out to be the villain, based mostly on who mentions the use of wall chains the most, but I was wrong. I kept turning the pages because there are two mysteries at play- the one that’s obvious from the start and one that comes out later. (I’m excited for book two because of that second mystery.)
I love how the book included a discussion of the different types of attraction. The book has a really great cover that certainly matches the story. The title obviously works well. Some nudity and intimacy is woven into the book, but it’s on par with other YA novels. I didn’t find any editing mishaps.
Not judging others without getting to know them feels like the theme of this book. I imagine Kiera was the most fun character for the author. The order of everything in the story makes sense, and each scene had a good cause and effect to roll to the next. I could relate to being punished when I hadn’t broken a rule. The setting sounds like such a beautiful place, which is such a contrast to real-life juvenile rehabilitation detention centers, it really cemented how different the academy is meant to be.
The character Kiera reminded me of my spouse, based on the enthusiasm for helping a relationship bloom; but also reminded me of my Existence character Jez thanks to a mutual love of pink decor. The descriptions of Sacha remind me of my descriptions of my Existence character Heath. (Our books don’t have much in common beyond supernatural characters. Yet somehow, it reminds me of my fictional people! This is part of why I loved the book so much.)
It holds a mirror up to society in that there are real-life people who have been punished for crimes they didn’t commit, for wrongs that aren’t really their fault. I bet this flame will be fanned in the second book, and I’m looking forward to that.
I’ve been on Stacey’s Squad for several years, and love that her newsletter comes to me on Goodreads. That is how I received a free copy to read and review honestly. Book Two is coming August 25! It’s on my Amazon Wishlist.