Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Secrets by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

Book Details
Secrets by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur
Hardcover, 320 Pages
2011, Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 0061960470
Series: Book 2 of The Ivy

Synopsis
Gregory or Clint? Clint or Gregory? Matt, anyone? And what is Lexi up to . . .exactly? When we last saw Callie Andrews, she was caught on the horns of a dilemma. Lexi was threatening to expose all of her safely guarded, deeply buried secrets from high school, and Callie had just hooked up with bad-boy Gregory--despite the fact that she had a perfect (sort of) boyfriend and her BFF Vanessa had claimed (sort of) Gregory as her own. Yow. Entertaining, hilarious, addictive, scandalous, sexy, and smart, The Ivy series is an insider's look at freshman life at Harvard University. This isn't high school anymore!

Review
I absolutely loved The Ivy. Oh, the scandals, the frenemies, the boys, the binge drinking, and the occasional classes. How utterly wonderful. Secrets starts up right where The Ivy left off and continued the drama-filled prestigious college experience I loved. The story progressed nicely in The Ivy, but it was clearly a middle of the series sequel. The plot continued as expected, but nothing shockingly huge occurred.

Misunderstandings, both accidental and those caused with malicious intent, were definitely the theme of Secrets. Callie's relationships with both Gregory and Vanessa in this book were one constant misunderstanding after another. While it kept Callie constantly unsure of herself and where she stood with each of them, it often times caused me to wonder why no one ever seemed to talk to each other. Not just Callie and Gregory or Callie and Vanessa, but all the other characters as well. Does no one at this school gossip about their friends behind their backs in the normal curious manner? It seemed as though the only time anyone spoke of anyone else's situation it was usually mean-spirited, such as Vanessa purposely giving Gregory false information about Callie's feelings. It worked for the plot, but I can't imagine it playing out this way in real life.

Callie's incessant need to keep things from Clint became grating in Secrets. Seriously, just tell him about the video already. It really isn't a big deal. And why would she possibly continue to hide what Lexie's doing to her? Where is the benefit in that? I understood the motivation in The Ivy, as Callie was flustered having just had all of these things happen, but by Secrets, she really should have come to terms with events and gotten over whatever misplaced embarrassment she was holding on to.

I wished more new things were infused into Secrets. As I said earlier, the story progressed well, but there was nothing that made this book stand out from The Ivy. It felt as though it was missing the big, main event that would have made the novel outstanding. As it is, it's fun and entertaining, but can't compare to The Ivy.

As I understand it, there are two more books planned for this series. I can't imagine where the story will go from here. While nothing is completely wrapped up by the end of Secrets, it doesn't really hint at what's to come. While I liked Secrets, I'm hoping the future book will be scandalous, shocking, and able to stand alone.

Rating

Links
Lauren Kunze's
Twitter

Rina Onur's
Twitter

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