Book Review: Private (Book 1) by Kate Brian

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Genre: Young Adult/Fiction

Plot: Tradition, Honor, Excellence…and secrets so dark they’re almost invisible

Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy — the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. She feels like she’s on the outside, looking in.

Until she meets the Billings Girls.

They are the most beautiful, intelligent, and intensely confident girls on campus. And they know it. They hold all the power in a world where power is fleeting but means everything. Reed vows to do whatever it takes to be accepted into their inner circle.

Reed uses every part of herself — the good, the bad, the beautiful — to get closer to the Billings Girls. She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing-packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. And they’ll do anything to keep their secrets private.

Opinion: OoOoOo…it’s starting to feel like high school again! I started reading this series when I was in high school, and my oh my was I HOOKED. I recently found this series again and figured I would relive the overly dramatic and pretentious characters that make up this wonderfully snooty tale. It’s the story we all know and love, a scholarship girl comes to a prestigious academy and chases after the rich and popular preps that inhabit it…and don’t forget the scandals!

Reed Brennan has just been accepted at Easton Academy on scholarship, and the chance to get away from her family couldn’t have come sooner. Coming from Pennsylvania and from a family that just barely makes it financially, Reed is about to enter a world where money and power is everything. Soon after her arrival at Easton, Reed comes face to face with the elite “Billing Girls” who have the entire campus wrapped around their fingers. Unfortunately for Reed, her first impression with the girls is anything but positive, and she finds herself in the firing range of the girls tormenting and dangerous requests. Determined to make a place for herself and enter Billings, Reed goes to extreme lengths to become accepted.

So let’s start with Reed, our wonderful main character. To me she feels…how shall I put this…desperate? I am constantly rolling my eyes at this girl for allowing this HORRIBLE girls to treat her like they do. They are VICIOUS. Though she did stick up for herself once or twice, the reader will constantly find her cowering down to Noelle and the rest of the Billings girls. Though when I do think back to what it was like in high school, I can understand her actions to a point. The need to be accepted among your peers, especially females, is crazy. Plus if Reed can infiltrate Billings, she will then have the world at her finger tips.

As Reed becomes consumed in the upscale lifestyle and mysterious Billing girls, she is also enraptured by the gorgeous Thomas. Thomas is surrounded by the popular crowd but it doesn’t take him long to start chasing after Reed. Thomas has a wonderful “bad boy” feeling about him, so it is no wonder that this is the first male character that us female readers will fall in love with. What becomes of their relationship is shocking, and this is where our story will truly pick up and start to become dark and twisted.

This series is PACKED with scandals and dirty little secrets. Think gossip girl, but at a boarding school where everyone just gossips to each other. Most of the characters in this story come from a lot of money and have family members that had previously attended Easton, making many of these characters “legacies”. With such money and power surrounding our main character Reed, it’s obvious that there is bound to be some trouble afoot. I guarantee that you guys will FLY though this Series. I am already on book 6 and I still can’t put these down. Though I would have LOVED to do a review of each book, which just doesn’t seem possible with how quickly I am devouring this series again.