The Ivy

The Characters:

???

The Story:

I picked up this book, and the others in the series, at the library because the covers were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunate that’s where my interest in this story ends. I never connected with any of the girls in the dorm. I was a teeny bit interested in the romance between two of the characters (I can’t even remember their names now) but not enough to keep reading.

The Random Thoughts:

***DNF so no rating

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: With a great protagonist, steamy romance, humor, and all the college drama, this was an addictive new adult contemporary read.

Opening Sentence: Callie Andrews struggled under the weight of two enormous cardboard boxes which, in a typical move, she had stacked one on top of the other: confident that she could gandle the load.

The Review:

California girl Callie Andrews has been accepted into the prestigious Harvard University, so she is golden or at least she thought. She doesn’t have extravagant clothes, or a lot of connections, but she doesn’t seem to have a problem attracting guys. Gregory is her totally gorgeous neighbor who happens to be the biggest jerk she has ever met. Then there is her ex-boyfriend, Evan, that broke her heart and betrayed her trust. Next there is Matt, the sweet guy who is totally crushing on her, but she just sees him as a friend. Last but not least there is the amazing Clint, who seems to be too perfect to be true. Yeah, she has some serious boy problems that just seem to get more and more complicated.

She also has three wonderful roommates that can’t decide if they are her best friends or worst enemies. As she juggles her crazy social life she also has to try and pass all of her classes and live some of her dreams. Will she make it through her freshman year of college or will the pressure be too much?

Callie is a funny girl with a crazy life. She doesn’t really quite know how to fit in at Harvard, and there is a lot of trial and error on her part. She is more of a t-shirt and jean type of girl in a world filled with Prada and Gucci girls. But she is beautiful without trying, which seems to be a pretty big turn-on for a lot of guys. She is a little flighty at times and she makes a lot of mistakes, but deep down she is a good person. I found her an easy character to love, and I could really sympathize with her situation.

The cast of secondary characters was pretty large, so I’m not going to go into detail about all of them, but I will tell you about a few of my favorites. Out of all the guys Gregory was by far my favorite. Yes, he is a total man whore and he can be pretty mean at times, but that is mostly a front he puts on for people. He is actually a pretty sweet guy, and I just loved him to bits. My favorite roommate is Mia. She is pretty much foreign royalty, so she acts like she doesn’t care what people think of her, but really she is just insecure. All the secondary characters are fun and they made the story interesting and filled with drama.

This was a funny and sexy read that was immensely entertaining. Once I picked it up, I was so engrossed. I actually finished it in one sitting. The writing style was unique, but it did get a little confusing at times. There were moments when it would jump from different POV’s, and I got a little lost sometimes because of it. The romance in the story was sexy and filled with lots of delicious tension. The story was funny and had lots of dramatic moments. There is quite a cliffhanger at the end of the book, but luckily the next one has already been released. I would recommend this to anyone that is looking for a fun new adult series.

Notable Scene:

“You should have seen her the other day,” Vanessa said. “She was just too cute! Jumping around asking everyone if ‘Wigglesworth’ didn’t sound just like it was straight out of Harry Potter!”

Callie’s eyes narrowed, and she waited for the upperclassman to look at her like she was an overgrown eleven-year-old. Instead, if possible, he smiled even wider. “I love Harry Potter.”

I love you, too. I mean… “I love it, too!” Callie cried.

“Hmm.” Vanessa shrugged. “Maybe the two of you should get together and read it sometime….”

Callie froze. Keep feet planted on ground, she instructed herself.

“I’d love to…” the upperclassman started.

You would?

“… but unfortunately my girlfriend gets very jealous.”

FTC Advisory: Greenwillow/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of The Ivy. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Well, in my defense I picked this book up during its free kindle giveaway and started reading it while I was in the hospital and wanted something very light. And to be fair, I am not this book's intended audience. I don't watch Gossip Girl or Housewives or any of the other "same theme" shows mentioned in so many of these reviews. That being said, the book was as light and substance-free as you could possibly want a book to be (unless, of course, we're talking about mind-altering substances).

First, what I liked: I enjoyed this book as a kind of anthropological study. In Part 1 of my study, I learned how my midwestern liberal arts college education has exactly zero in common with an Ivy League education, if Kunze's descriptions are to be believed, which seems reasonable. I enjoyed the descriptions of the social setting at Harvard, seeing how residence life, social life, and academic life were really a different beast than anything I ever knew. I never aspired to great academic heights, but I enjoyed taking her picture of Harvard and trying to imagine how I could have fit myself into it. (It would have been a disaster. I don't have the social or academic spine for something so competitive.)

In Party 2 of my study, I finally realized that I have been out of college for ten years. I have a hard time believing it. I still have this feeling like I just graduated and I'm barely out in the real world. But in Kunze's story, we have an academic setting that is full of cell phones, Facebook, and computers taken to class. These things are completely foreign to what my college time was like. We had just discovered the grand and beautiful use of PowerPoint, back in my day, and warnings that "Wikipedia is not an acceptable source to cite" on a research paper didn't start being made until my senior year. :p So that's a little depressing.

But as anything other than a social study, this book was kind of ridiculous. The characters were one-dimentional. At the end of chapter one, I could already tell you exactly what was going to happen to all of them, and with a couple of exceptions (the story ended before the full plot rolled out, and there was a lot more substance abuse than I expected), I was right on all counts.

The hardest thing for me to understand is the protagonist's A-1 stupidity. Here is a girl who is a "soccer prodigy," smartest girl in her high school class, and experienced in the ways of relationships. You need these things to get accepted to a place like Harvard, so that's okay with me in this case. Kunze sets Callie up as an outsider by making her blonde (huh?), from California, and not wealthy. I would expect a girl like that to have some common sense and a touch of good judgement, but Callie has neither. She spends the entire book drooling over boys (who all fall in love with her because apparently she emits magical pheromones... can't think of any other explanation for why all these dudes think she's so great. All she does is get drunk and ruin their shirts over and over again), drinking too much, smoking weed, and trying desperately to get accepted by people that she doesn't understand. And, of course, somehow managing to perform brilliantly in her classes and extracurriculars along the way.

I didn't realize the book was the first in a series when I started reading it, and was therefor kind of satisfied when it ended with Callie's life pretty much ruined. "Haha!" I thought. "She's paying the consequences for all her seriously bad judgment." Nah, not really. We just need three more books before all can be resolved into a happily ever after where she gets the grades, the rich hot dude, and the social acceptance we always knew she deserved desired. I don't think I'll be reading those. ( )

THE IVY may not be the most accurate portrayal of freshman year at University, but that's besides the point: Rina Onur and Lauren Kunze fully succeeded in writing a fun, dramatic, boy-filled novel that I kept me distracted for hours.

While THE IVY exaggerated some aspects of college life, there were definitely situations that happen on campuses across the country. For me, this novel was a perfect balance of reality and fiction - too much reality would be horribly boring, too much fiction and I wouldn't have related to the characters. Every time I stumbled across a phrase or situation I recognized, like moving into the dorms or Thirsty Thursday, a little lightbulb popped on and I was pulled just a bit deeper into the story.

I honestly can't discuss this book without mentioning that there are many, many boys within its pages. Good looking boys, I might add. This fact may not pull in those male readers, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing quite a few of those boys in book two. *daydreams*

Speaking of boys, this book definitely has a romantic plot line... or two... or three. The main character is apparently a boy magnet and is never without at least one admirer. Best of all, being such a boy magnet allows for different types of romance... there's a tension-charged relationship and a sweet relationship. Something for everyone!

THE IVY may not be a new or revolutionary concept for a novel, but Onur and Kunze did a phenomenal job with this familiar plot and I, for one, will be reading any subsequent novels. THE IVY is relateable, despite some of the far-fetched material, and extremely amusing! ( )

THE IVY, by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur, is a story about starting over and growing up. Everyone who has gone away to college can relate to this book in more ways than one, whether it be making new friends, succeeding in classes, or balancing social with academia. The Ivy takes a deeper look into the highs and lows of choosing what is important in an extremely stressful environment of Harvard.

Never have I read a book where I felt like I was reading about myself. This book took be back to my university days and the many chances I took while trying to find myself. Being alone in a new place, trying to make new friends, and participating in everything that you are interested in is what college is all about. But when you mix in social status (yes it still exists in college), new relationships/friends, and still trying to succeed in classes, you learn very quickly that it is easier said than done.

I wished everyone could see Callie the way she was versus how she acted and dressed. By reading from her POV, I felt connected to a normal girl just trying to fit in. Her roommates were obsessed with their own lives while Callie was dealing with some serious complications. The big secret that Evan was hiding was so huge, my heart broke when it was revealed. I knew it would come back to stab her in the back and like all things, it did.

Another great thing about this book is the fact that it is co-authored, and I never knew the wiser while reading. The weaving of characters and situations were seamless even though two writers thoughts were being portrayed. I enjoyed the characters that Callie befriended and came across. I felt some things were predictable and inevitable for Callie and these relationships but I have a feeling that will change throughout the series. My only disappointment was that it ended...with a cliffhanger! I am dying to read the rest of the series now! ( )