The Astral Traveler’s Daughter by K.C. Archer

I so loved School for Psychics by K.C. Archer that I pounced on a copy of its sequel, The Astral Traveler’s Daughter, when it was made available by NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Read on for my take on this easy reading paranormal thriller.

Last year, Teddy Cannon discovered she was psychic. This year, her skills will be put to the test as she investigates a secretive case that will take her far from home—and deep into the past in the thrilling follow-up to School for Psychics.

With trepidation, Teddy enters her second year at The Whitfield Institute, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students master telepathy and telekinesis, investigative techniques and SWAT tactics for covert roles in government service. She has been obsessively tracking the movements of the Patriot Corps, a secret organization that seems to be behind a string of crimes on US soil—including the disappearance of her friend, Molly. She is not sure who she can trust with her findings: her friends think she is crazy and her teachers insist she focus on her schoolwork.

Teddy tries to do what she is told. She tries to forget about her missing friend, her long lost birth parents, her rivalry with other students, even her forbidden romance with an instructor. She learns to be a meat shield: a Secret Service operative trained to protect whatever dummy they throw her way. She learns to disarm explosive devices. She also learn to transport herself through time, as she begins to grasp astral travel (that is, if she doesn’t get lost in the time-space continuum). But Teddy has never been good at following the rules. So when an unexpected assignment leads her to the answers she’s chased for so long, and reveal a clue about her own past, she takes a risk that puts everyone else she cares about in danger.

The next book in the series that Kirkus Reviews called “Harry Potter with a cast of millennials,” K.C. Archer’s The Astral Traveler's Daughter is a heart-racing novel set in a world very much like our own—but there is more to this place than meets the eye.

This is the second book in the School for Psychics series by author K.C. Archer. As it picks up just a few months after the prior book left off and there is little in the way of backstory provided (and no prologue to guide you in), I’ll recommend that you read these books in order.

And you should, because The Astral Traveler’s Daughter is a lot of fun – I think in my review of the first book I described it as “A less angsty and depressing The Magicians meets a more grown up Harry Potter…at the police academy.” After further reflection, however, this series also feels a bit more like Kay Hooper’s Bishop/Special Crimes Unit and Bishop Files series and Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters series, if their paranormal agents honed their skills at a secret college before joining the FBI. Where the first book bounced between the supernatural aspects and the academy aspects (hence the millennial Harry Potter comparison), this book settles more tidily into the thriller category (with some paranormal aspects woven through.)

Teddy Cannon is aptly named, as she is impulsive and explosive. She’s also passionate and flawed, which is why she’s as fun as she is maddening at times. K.C. Archer keeps the action moving as Teddy searches for an organization of terrorist psychics, along with trying to uncover more information about her birth parents (and tries to reconcile the implication that her mother may not be one of the good guys). The characters’ skills continue to improve and evolve. This fast-paced plot throws in some twists and turns and as it juggles the mix of storylines. There is a lot going on this this book.

I couldn’t decide if ending felt little rushed or was I merely disappointed that I was nearing the end, as there were still questions left unanswered. In the end, The Astral Traveler’s Daughter left a good opening for the next addition to the series.

I’ll be waiting for it.