Book Review: The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

 
The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

Publisher:Greenwillow Books

Publish Date: August 31, 2010

Hardcover, 320 pages
Young Adult

My Review:
Why I read this:  I like prep school and college novels, Diana Peterfreund really turned me on to the college set novels with the Secret Society Girl series.  I was intrigued with the writeup and wanted to read it.


How is the novel driven:  Character - this is all about Callie, her roomates, and some other guys in her circle of friends, how they relate to each other and how things change for them.


My thoughts: The Ivy starts off as what I think of as a typical way to start college.  I remember my freshman year and it seems like very rarely does your roommate really match your personality.  And maybe there is good reason - the world is not full of people just like us.  Callie's roommate's are rather diverse in personality.  There is Dana, status-crazed East Coast Prep School Vanessa, Mimi who is a party girl through and through and Callie who is a typical California girl trying to fit in the more uptight world of the East Coast Ivy League school.  Across the hall you have the hottie, Gregory, OK, the foreign prince, Adam, the straight-laced equlvalent to Dana and Matt who is just an all-around good guy.

Then the parties start and the groups form and the elite organizations on campus start recruiting and things go crazy.  Callie and Vanessa become close friends even though they have a rocky start.  Callie also finds a boyfriend who is the dream boy of the school, but that causes ire with dream-boy's ex-girlfriend.  And then there is Matty who also seems to have fallen under her spell and Gregory whose spell she has fallen under.

The Ivy is like a soap opera from start to finish it's a who's dating who, who likes who, who hate who, etc.  But it's a lot of fun.  There was literally one scene in this book that had me laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face.  There are serious scenes and there are heartfelt scenes.  The book is an amazing roller coaster ride of the first months away at college and I enjoyed every minute.  I can't wait to read more of these roommates and what trouble they will find themselves in next and whether certain friendships will be restored or not.

Plenty of laughs, a lot of fun and the craziness of the first semester of college are all in this and make it a really fun read.  This isn't deep, but it's completely entertaining.


My Rating: 4.5/5.0

About the Book:
Congratulations! You have been admitted to the most prestigious university in the world. Now what are you going to do?

Callie Andrews may not have money or connections or the right clothes, and she may have way too many complications in her love life, what with—

Gregory
the guy she loves to hate

Evan
the guy she'd love to forget

Clint
the guy she'd love to love

and Matt
the guy she really should love

—all vying for her attention.

But she has three fantastic roommates (best friends or her worst nightmare?) and a wholesome California-girl reputation (oops) and brains and beauty and big, big dreams.

Will it be enough to help her survive freshman year at Harvard?


About the Authors:
Lauren Kunze grew up in Piedmont, California, and is the author of The Ivy. She enjoys reading, running, theater, writing bad poetry, and making Rina read her writing. At Harvard, Lauren studied English and neurobiology, and she has indefinitely deferred graduate school to focus on creative writing.

Rina Onur grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and collaborated on developing the storyline for The Ivy. She enjoys traveling, new restaurants, the Mediterranean coast, and reading Lauren's writing. After majoring in Economics at Harvard, she has worked at investment banks and in private equity management, where she comes up with story ideas when the boss isn't looking.
The Ivy Website
The Ivy on Facebook
Lauren's Author Page
Lauren on Twitter
Rina on Twitter



FTC Information: I received this book through Good Golly Miss Holly's Book tours for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.