Rampant!

In one of my recent posts, I was kind of making fun of Diana Peterfreund's latest book, Rampant. Viscious, man-eating unicorns being hunted by virgin teenage girls! I figured that was really plumbing the depths to find something original (i.e. something other than vampires and werewolves) to offer the whole young adult supernatural genre which is so insane right now. But after I finished scoffing, I actually read the book in question (what an idea!) - and it was kind of good! Girl power, the twist on the unicorn's fuzzy, sunny reputation... plus it dealt with some interesting, real-world coming of age stuff: Leaving the comfort of the home you've known all your life, dealing with unwanted sexual advances, making a name for yourself as a young person. It was more interesting than I had imagined. Plus, I liked her other books, so I don't know why I was surprised.

So let that be a lesson for you, friends: Don't judge a book by its cover! Bet you never heard that one before.

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?