This was a great start to a book series about Kira Adams, a young and brilliant, self-taught scientist. I am very much looking forward to reading Academy One when it is published as I am intrigued to find out how it will be written as both the sequel and a standalone novel. I love that the book starts with Kira's accomplishment winning a prestigious science award followed by her return to real life and the debts awaiting her and her mother. It was realistic that winning an award didn't take away all of the problems you were facing before the good news. ( )

Kira Adams is a High School Junior and a scientific genius. She is also the main caretaker for her mother who has cancer. They are deeply in debt to the local loan shark. But Kira has taken to entering scientific contests which offer cash prizes to supplement the family income.

Things change a lot when she wins a very prestigious contest which requires her to travel from her home in California to Stockholm, Sweden, to pick up her prize. The only problem is that she has entered the contest fraudulently. One of the requirements is that she bas a Ph.D. that she earned no more than a year earlier. She didn't lie; she left the line indicating when and where she got her Ph.D. blank. But another of the award winners is suspicious and really causes her trouble.

However, she has done her own research and has written a brilliant paper which draws the attention of Dr. Gregory Munn who runs a prestigious lab in Oakland which is near her home. He offers her a job working in his lab. Unfortunately, her supervisor is the same jerk who caused her problems in Stockholm and who seems determined to teach her nothing and force her to quit. Luckily, she does make friends with some of the other scientists and she also finds a home that fits her much better than trying to fit in at her High School.

When she discovers a procedure that brings a rat back to life, she quickly learns that science can be a cutthroat sort of game. Everyone wants her discovery. She's kidnapped along with her nemesis Will and taken to Russia where she is forced to share her procedure and pressured to join a rich man's stable of young scientific geniuses. Until she manages to escape...

This was an exciting thriller. filled with all kinds of action and lots of tension. I really liked Kira in all her brilliance and social awkwardness. The story had a nice group of supporting characters including her best-and-only friend Lauren and the many young scientists at Dr. Munn's lab. ( )