The Academy (Elin Hilderbrand) Books in Order

The Academy books move Elin Hilderbrand out of Nantucket beach houses and into the world of elite boarding school life. Co-written with Shelby Cunningham, the series is set at Tiffin Academy, a New England school where reputation matters almost as much as education. That setting changes the energy right away. The pressure is younger, faster, and more social, with students and staff living on top of one another and every mistake ready to become public by dinner.

This is an ensemble story. In The Academy, the cast stretches from influencers and transfer students to teachers, administrators, and admissions staff. Some characters are trying to protect their image. Some want to reinvent themselves. Some are simply hoping to survive the year without being exposed. A gossip app called ZipZap keeps making that harder.

Everyone at this school is performing, and almost everyone is hiding something.

The core tension is not one neat mystery. It is the collision of status, ambition, money, friendship, and desire inside a closed system. Tiffin wants to look polished, competitive, and prestigious. Underneath, the dorms need work, the social hierarchy is unstable, the adults have blind spots, and the students are very good at finding one another's weak points. That makes the books feel brisk, dramatic, and a little addictive.

The Thoroughbreds pushes the story into senior year, when college applications, last chances, and old grudges make everything sharper. Couples wobble, friendships splinter, staff jobs are on the line, and even a stray email attachment can carry real weight. The series understands that school drama feels enormous when you are inside it, and it lets that emotion stay big without mocking it.

Read these in order. Tiffin is a world with ongoing consequences, and the pleasure comes from watching alliances shift and secrets travel. If you want Hilderbrand with dorm rooms, chapel bells, campus scandals, and a lot less sunscreen, this is the series to pick up next.