Lauren Kunze

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: With a great protagonist, steamy romance, humor, and all the college drama, this was an addictive new adult contemporary read.

Opening Sentence: Callie Andrews struggled under the weight of two enormous cardboard boxes which, in a typical move, she had stacked one on top of the other: confident that she could gandle the load.

The Review:

California girl Callie Andrews has been accepted into the prestigious Harvard University, so she is golden or at least she thought. She doesn’t have extravagant clothes, or a lot of connections, but she doesn’t seem to have a problem attracting guys. Gregory is her totally gorgeous neighbor who happens to be the biggest jerk she has ever met. Then there is her ex-boyfriend, Evan, that broke her heart and betrayed her trust. Next there is Matt, the sweet guy who is totally crushing on her, but she just sees him as a friend. Last but not least there is the amazing Clint, who seems to be too perfect to be true. Yeah, she has some serious boy problems that just seem to get more and more complicated.

She also has three wonderful roommates that can’t decide if they are her best friends or worst enemies. As she juggles her crazy social life she also has to try and pass all of her classes and live some of her dreams. Will she make it through her freshman year of college or will the pressure be too much?

Callie is a funny girl with a crazy life. She doesn’t really quite know how to fit in at Harvard, and there is a lot of trial and error on her part. She is more of a t-shirt and jean type of girl in a world filled with Prada and Gucci girls. But she is beautiful without trying, which seems to be a pretty big turn-on for a lot of guys. She is a little flighty at times and she makes a lot of mistakes, but deep down she is a good person. I found her an easy character to love, and I could really sympathize with her situation.

The cast of secondary characters was pretty large, so I’m not going to go into detail about all of them, but I will tell you about a few of my favorites. Out of all the guys Gregory was by far my favorite. Yes, he is a total man whore and he can be pretty mean at times, but that is mostly a front he puts on for people. He is actually a pretty sweet guy, and I just loved him to bits. My favorite roommate is Mia. She is pretty much foreign royalty, so she acts like she doesn’t care what people think of her, but really she is just insecure. All the secondary characters are fun and they made the story interesting and filled with drama.

This was a funny and sexy read that was immensely entertaining. Once I picked it up, I was so engrossed. I actually finished it in one sitting. The writing style was unique, but it did get a little confusing at times. There were moments when it would jump from different POV’s, and I got a little lost sometimes because of it. The romance in the story was sexy and filled with lots of delicious tension. The story was funny and had lots of dramatic moments. There is quite a cliffhanger at the end of the book, but luckily the next one has already been released. I would recommend this to anyone that is looking for a fun new adult series.

Notable Scene:

“You should have seen her the other day,” Vanessa said. “She was just too cute! Jumping around asking everyone if ‘Wigglesworth’ didn’t sound just like it was straight out of Harry Potter!”

Callie’s eyes narrowed, and she waited for the upperclassman to look at her like she was an overgrown eleven-year-old. Instead, if possible, he smiled even wider. “I love Harry Potter.”

I love you, too. I mean… “I love it, too!” Callie cried.

“Hmm.” Vanessa shrugged. “Maybe the two of you should get together and read it sometime….”

Callie froze. Keep feet planted on ground, she instructed herself.

“I’d love to…” the upperclassman started.

You would?

“… but unfortunately my girlfriend gets very jealous.”

FTC Advisory: Greenwillow/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of The Ivy. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.… (plus d'informations)

I'm thinking somewhere around 3.5.

Let me start by saying, this series should have wrapped up with 2 books. NO reason whatsoever to drag it to 3, not to mention four books.

I like the flow, I like the characters, even though 70% of the time they ALL piss me the hell off. And I like the story, in general.
What pisses me off are a few things:
1) When there's a comedy of errors, it's cute and fun and funny. It helps induce angst and normally helps the story progress. But there's a limit to the number of errors and the ridiculous sequence of those errors.
2) The "articles" at the beginning of every chapter - *yawn*
3) Callie Andrews is a world class idiot and her "secret" was the dumbest ever. That's not something to ruin her life. She's not a fucking celebrity. Who gives a shit if she was video taped having sex in high school. She made it an issue just be her actions and reactions.

If it weren't for the 3 above points, this story would have received a 5 star rating for being a nicely written, cool idea, and fun story to read.

Onto book 3. Sigh.… (plus d'informations)

Recommended

Callie Andrews is back for a third book of Harvard adventures. It is the start of the second semester and Callie has 2 guys interested in her. Everyone at Harvard is freaking out about their grades, they are partying and studying a lot. Callie can no longer take the stress of working on Harvard’s campus magazine and works to COMP for the campus newspaper. Drama ensues in relationships, roommates, social clubs and campus clubs. Callie finally tells her friends what happened with her high school boyfriend in hopes that she will no longer be blackmailed about it. Again, the book ends with a major cliff hanger in anticipation of the 4th and final book of this series.

I think this is a good series to have in a school library. It appeals to college bound girls, who like to read about college life. This particular series is appealing because it takes place at Harvard, the characters are funny, likeable and not perfect. Although they are all gorgeous. The rumors about Harvard’s centuries old social clubs are interesting to read about. The story is very realistic. I like how many of the students are portrayed as actually interested in their studies. The conversations they have in their study groups are at an intellectually high level. The authors do not talk down to readers. The only thing to note for high school are the scenes alluding to sex and drinking at parties. None of it is really over the top, given that it’s a college campus.

I think it is a good addition to a school library for pleasure reading. It is not tied into the Commom Core and could not be used in the classroom. But I would recommend it to girls for a fun, quick, weekend read. If your library is going to buy this book, I would recommend buying the first 2 books in this series. It would be difficult to understand the story by just starting at the 3rd book.… (plus d'informations)