Assassins (Chanel Cleeton) Books in Order

The Assassins world takes Chanel Cleeton's taste for international settings and emotional tension and pushes it into much darker territory. Instead of campus drama or political scandal, the hook here is a secret academy in London that trains spies, computer experts, and assassins. The premise is sleek and high concept, but the book keeps its focus on the human cost of being shaped by an institution that values obedience above everything else.

Trust is in short supply.

The main character of Between Shadows is known only as X, which tells you a lot before the plot even gets moving. She has been taught to hide weakness, change identities, blend into the background, and survive by following rules that were handed to her long ago. That makes the book as much about identity as it is about action. If your whole life has been built around a mission, what happens when you start to doubt the people who gave it to you?

London gives the story a cool, shadowy feel, but the setting is more than decorative. The city suits the book's secrecy, its hidden corridors of power, and its sense that danger can be tucked behind any polished surface. Cleeton uses that atmosphere well. The result is a thriller that still feels connected to her romance roots, because attraction, longing, and emotional vulnerability keep slipping in where they are least convenient.

What carries the story from scene to scene is the mix of danger and disillusionment. X is not just trying to survive external threats. She is also reckoning with old lies, buried memories, and the possibility that the system she trusted was never what it claimed to be. That gives Between Shadows a more personal pulse than a gadget-heavy spy novel. The suspense matters, but so does the question of whether X gets to become a person instead of a weapon.

If you liked the international flavor of the International School books but wanted higher stakes and less softness, this is the Cleeton series to try next. It is fast, tense, and built around secrecy, revenge, and survival, with just enough romance to sharpen the emotional stakes. Even with a single book listed here, the series background is clear: stylish suspense, dangerous institutions, and characters trying to claw back control of their own lives.