ARC Tour & Review: The Ivy by Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur

Freshman year at Harvard--glamorous parties, blossoming friendships, steamy romances, and scandalous secrets. Skip the campus tour and get right to the good stuff: classes are for scoping guys (and their Facebook profiles), not taking notes. The library is for study dates (the medieval history stacks get a lot of action), not studying. And success is a 4.0 GPA... plus getting into the most exclusive parties. How will Callie--a California girl with brains, beauty, and big dreams--and her three roommates survive?

Wow-o-wow! Half the time these authors had me wanting to be back at college and the other half of the time I couldn't believe how glad I was that I had already graduated and was done with the whole shebang, it's still a toss up as to which won the majority. Either way I was really enjoying coming along for the ride on this one and watching Callie start her first day of college at Harvard. I went to West Virginia University, and while it's a fantastic school (Go Mountaineers!) I'm not, nor was I ever an Ivy leaguer but it sure sounds like a different world. Don't get me wrong, we had brilliant minds and probably twice the amount of partiers but regardless I was out of my element a little bit with this world. What fun I had though soaking it all in.

Callie must get used to living on the east coast, acclimating to college life, living with three other girls who are all sporting their very own look and attitude and dealing with a very cute, very arrogant boy who happens to be living right across the hall, fun coincidence right? These girls have their work cut out for them and they're in for a wild ride. But also a totally fun one to be sure.

These authors give readers scandals worthy of US Weekly, really cute and nice upperclassman guys, bitter and devious girls out to make freshman's lives a living hell and don't forget the classes, the parties and the drama, drama, drama! Did I mention the drama? When it's hard enough to get through your classes and homework, how is it possible to tell the different between friend and foe, right and wrong and ways to avoid getting in deeper and deeper? But seriously, I really kind of fell in love with this book and the characters and the story line - pretty much the whole kit and caboodle. Kunze and Onur set the stage for a great series and although I was a little worried with how things were left at the end of this one, I'm practically drooling over what's to come in their next book.

I gave The Ivy 4 shamrocks!!!!