The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘young adult’

Reed’s boyfriend Josh is still in jail for the death of his roommate Thomas. But Reed is bound and determined to prove the police wrong. She finds there are two people who can give an alibi for Josh, but to do so, they must make their affair public knowledge… something neither are willing to do.

It ends up though that this relationship may not be the juiciest drama at Easton when Reed finally learns who killed her fling Thomas.

There’s also drama building in the Billings house after the “popular” girls get the entire house in trouble. They *can’t* stay in this house a week before finals. OMG!

I know that is a VERY short description, but if I say another word, something will be given away.

Until about 50 pages left in this book, I thought it kind of stunk. Yes, Reed was FINALLY standing up for herself against the Billings girls and was the only one not thinking of partying through this crisis.

But boy, let me tell you, the last 50 pages make up for the rest of the book. My mouth dropped about that time and stayed dropped the rest of the book. Before this turning point, I was going to give the book 1 or 2 bookmarks, but Kate Brian does it again and I have to give Confessions 5 bookmarks.

The funny thing about this book is I’ve actually had it for a few years. My husband got it for me when I started reading seriously. He thought it looked like something I’d like. Little did he know it was the forth in the series. I read it before I realized it too. I was a little confused and it definitely didn’t have the same affect as it did now when I know the players and what has happened before in the series.

Private Series:
1. Private
2. Invitation Only
3. Untouchable

In Kate Brian’s Untouchable, it’s time for Thanksgiving break. Things are starting to look up for Reed. The girls have finally accepted her as one of their own, she is getting over Thomas, someone has been arrested in connection with his death, and she’s started to spend some time with a new boy. The new boy, however, is Thomas’ roommate, Josh.

And just as soon as everyone leaves for break, except Reed and Josh, everything starts to go downhill. The two are caught together and are banned from seeing each other the rest of the break. Josh is being questioned AGAIN about Thomas’ death and when the girls come back, they have some startling news. Josh came to Easton after being kicked out of his former school for a scandal. Now he may be involved in another one.

Good news? The real murderer of Thomas is arrested!

Kate Brian is still amazing me with her plots. This book, just like the rest kept me reading. She keeps putting in twists and turns that I would never have imagined. I’m starting to get used to her writing, so by the end of the book, I had a better of idea what to expect around the corner, but it was still a great addition to the series.

I give Untouchable 3 bookmarks. There really wasn’t anything wrong with it, it’s just been a couple of days since I finished it, and I don’t feel as passionate about it as I have the others after a couple of days after.

Private Series:
1. Private
2. Invitation Only

Reed’s life at Easton is bittersweet. She has just got a bed in the most prestigious girl house, Billings, but her boyfriend, Thomas, is missing. And things are just getting more dramatic. A new man, large and in charge Whit, is now part of Reed’s life and she has to decide if the potential to go to a very secretive party is worth going behind Thomas’ back. The aforementioned party? Only The Legacy. And it’s just as it sounds. Only legacies can get into the party, and only those who go back generations can get an invite. Reed soon decides, she has to get to that party. All of Thomas’ friends keep saying he is sure to be there.

But things aren’t peachy keen in the Billings House. Reed has to get up at the crack of dawn to make the beds of the other girls and clean their rooms. And don’t think cleaning windows is beyong her duties. Reed’s roommate is still devastated that her former roommate got booted and will stop at no lengths to make sure that Noelle and the popular girls go down for getting her kicked out. To make sure that happens, Reed gets blackmailed into spying on the girls. And she ends up finding A LOT more than she expected.

Sticking with the pace of the first book, Invitation Only  is full of drama. From sun up to sun down, the drama for Reed just continues to add up. This was a very quick read. All the drama kept me turning pages and wanting more. There was also a little mystery in this book, yearning to know where Thomas has disappeared to. And let me tell you, you will definitely be surprised when you find out where he is. I know I was shocked.

Kate Brian does a great job and diving back into the lives of teenage girls. She has the popular girls testing Reed to see if she’s worthy, she has them picking on her and the boy drama is always there. She does a great job of reminding us what we went through when we were this age, even if it wasn’t to this scale at a private, prestigious school.

I have this entire series on my shelf waiting for me to devour it and if it continues to please as the first two have, I will definitely be going back and reading in the future. I give Invitation Only 5 bookmarks. With and ending like this, you can’t help but love it and want more and more.

Private Series by Kate Brian
1. Private

I am sooo excited for a new challenge in 2010. I had a great time this year reading through the A to Z Challenge and couldn’t wait to find one for 2010. I wasn’t sure what kind of challenge I was looking for, but as soon as I saw this one, I knew.

There are different levels of this challenge. Here they are:

*The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.

*Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels.

*Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.

*Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.

I am going to go for the Just My Size YA Reading Challenge. I know I can do more than 12, but so far this year, I’ve only read 47. From Thanksgiving to the New Year, I plan on reading at least 5 more. I am just not sure if I can read 50 YA books. I still like to branch out and mix it up! I can’t wait to start compiling the books! WAHOO!

Killer Cruise was a book I randomly stumbled upon while trying to fill out my A to Z Challenge (heard that one much lately?). And, similar to my other random choices, I really liked it.

The book is about New York socialite Ashley who goes on a cruise for her 16th birthday. Something comes up at work for her parents, so she goes with her 2 best friends, her boyfriend, her half sister and her boyfriend and her frenemy (which is her mom’s best friend’s daughter and Ashley’s biggest competition).

Within the first day, the drama starts and not until they’re back in New York does it start to calm down.

Freak accidents start to happen and it all goes back to Taylor who went missing last year. Is Ashley’s new crush, smoothie-maker Logan, behind all of the scandal? Like I’m really going to tell you.

There were some parts of this book I really like. I like that they used real movies, books, shows etc. When you talk about Project Runway, I know what you’re talking about. I hate when authors use made up titles. I have no idea what the shows about!

I also thought it was cute that each time the girls went somewhere, we always knew what they were wearing. From head to toe. This made it easy for me to imagine each one, each day.

Now there were some things I didn’t like about this book. And it makes me feel old to say this

1. Why is a 15 year old allowed to go on a cruise without any supervision? Yes, her older half sister is on board with her and yes, papa knows the captain, but are they really going to babysit? Doubt it. I don’t believe this is reality. I think it shows false hope for kids. And this is a young adult book, so those are the readers it’s geared towards.

2. The first day on the ship, the first day Ashley sees Logan, she already tells him she likes him. YIKES! Forward much? I know teens are love crazy, but this made me nervous to have kids.

3. Ashley didn’t hang out with her friends very much. There were days where she’d go all day out with a boy and not even see them. I couldn’t imagine bringing along my 2 bff’s on a cruise and ditching them for almost an entire week. This is another instance I don’t think parents would want their kids reading this book. When I was 20 years old and went to Mexico, I wasn’t allowed to leave my dads side, or be alone because he was afraid I’d get kidnapped. When you’re not in America, you don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You can’t just be running around with a stranger in the Bahamas and not be nervous that you may or may not get snatched.

4. One sentence: 16 year old sleeping in the same bed as a boy!

Ok, now I feel like an old prude after reading this book.

I didn’t start thinking about young adult books in this light until recently when my future sister-in-law was telling me one of the things that made her not love Twilight was that Edward stayed in Bella’s room. These books are geared towards teens and young adults. That’s not something they need to be reading about. I never thought of that, but I agree. My parents would NEVER have let me do that. Yes, Twilight is not real, but if Bella and Edward do it, why can’t I?

Although I ranted a lot about this book, I liked it and had to change my mind a few times about who the bad guy was before it finally came out. I give Killer Cruise 3 bookmarks.