The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

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?

Review:

I've been dying to read The Ivy ever since I first heard of way back in '09, and I have to say, now that I've read it, it was well-worth the wait. No doubt about it.

To me, The Ivy is like Gossip Girl goes to college meets Lauren Conrad's L.A. Candy series with just a bit more substance then both of those reads have combined, which left it to be a mix I absolutely adored!

The Ivy tells the tale of Callie, a girl who's just about to start her first year at the highly prestigious Harvard University. In high school Callie used to be one of the most popular girls there; she never had any trouble making friends, getting the good grades, and having all the boys drooling over her, and she expects to collage to be the same way of course. Though, as she is soon about to find out, it won't be that easy, because first of all she has three kooky but somewhat lovable roommates, but is one out to ruin her reputation? Second of all, her boyfriend of several years has just broken up with her, but is he hiding a major secret? Third, she has Harvard's queen bee out to get her as well. Last of all, she's having boy trouble, major, major boy trouble. You see, not only does she have an ex who she can't seem to get out of her mind, but she has Gregory, the guy who loves to make her mad, Matt, the sweet, nerdy, and charming boy who has a heart of gold, and Clint, the rich socialite who she would do anything to really, really love. Now, it seems that freshman year will be anything but simple. Though, will she be able to survive it? Only time will tell!

I really, really liked Callie. She was funny, sweet, and all around good person, though that never stopped me from wanting to shake some sense into her sometimes, which made her even more lovable in my eyes. I enjoyed seeing her have hobbies besides just chasing boys around. Also, I found her three roommates to be absolutely hysterical; my favorite out of the three, though, would have to be Mimi. Further more, it always proved to be interesting to see Callie go through her days at Harvard because it never failed to provide drama, drama, and some laughter, but the one thing that made Callie the most relatable and someone I never ceased to root for, in my opinion, was her ability to make mistakes and learn from them; it's an important quality to have I have to say. Plus, this wouldn't be a complete if I didn't talk about the boys at least once. Matt was amazing, by far one of my favorite's of Callie's guys. I especially liked his expose about sexism at Harvard because it really was eye-opening and made me think. Further more, Gregory was swoon-worthy and sarcastic, though he was imperfect in almost all ways when it came to dealing with his possible liking of Callie. Also, my favorite non-Callie boy was OK, who was just a complete riot.

Besides the characters, my other favorite part of The Ivy was its setting, because I loved the fact that Kunze and Onur included some of Harvard's history, legacies, and clubs among other tidbits in it.

Further more, the plot was filled with fun and drama, and when mixed with the easy-going writing, it was easy to fall right into this book and finish in a few short hours. I especially loved how while it was told from Callie's third person narrative, it also included little snippets from the other characters lives because it always seemed to provide a new little twist.

I'm not really one to say whether or not it did an accurate job of portraying college life because of the fact I'm still in high school, but from what I've read from other reviews by people who have experienced college life, it seems to them at least that it does a good job of portraying the social and study part of it.

In all, The Ivy proves to be the perfect breezy end of summer read and a new series to keep an eye out for because I have a feeling it can only get better and better from here.

Grade: A-

The Ivy will be released August 31, 2010.

Source: Publicist at HarperCollins. Thanks, Melissa!