July 13, 2009

Ivy League Novels

Just finished the fourth book of a sort of cute series called the Secret Society Girl series by Diana Peterfeund. The series revolves around a secret society at a “fictional” Ivy League school called Eli College (please) which elects to include women among its taps after decades of men-only pledge classes. We have a protagonist, Amy, a feisty lit major who gets involved in all kinds of mayhem, some romance, etc., throughout the four YA novels. They’re pretty fun. Maybe I was entertained (I did read all four of the books) because I’m drawn to easy-going reads these days, or maybe because I enjoyed my sorority experience in college. I don’t know. The plots are fun and goofy at times, but some serious issues arise (albeit briefly), as well (kidnappings, domestic violence) which made them a little more gripping than pure fluff.

While reading the author’s acknowledgments in the back of the fourth book, I noticed that she thanks the Romance Writers’ Association, which rather surprised me. It never crossed my mind that these books might be considered “romance” literature. But what do I know? Tap and Gown was the final book in the series, and evidently with her next book, which will be released in August, the author is taking on the ubiquitous fantasy genre with a story about girls and scary unicorns. I guess the unicorn is the one mythical creature that hasn’t been done to death in the YA genre yet, so… good for her?

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