Series: Eagle Elite #1
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: July 9th 2013
My Rating: 2.5 cups
Source: NetGalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):
When I won the annual Eagle Elite College Scholarship lottery, I was thrilled. After all, my grandma had just died and I wanted to take care of my aging grandpa -- he couldn't be a farmer in Wyoming forever. And graduating from Eagle Elite meant opportunity.
But I wasn't counting on meeting Nixon.
Nor was I counting on the rules of the Elect.
1. Do not touch The Elect.
2. Do not look at The Elect.
3. Do not speak to The Elect.
And worst of all? Don't discover the secret they hide, because in the end, you may just realize... it's about you.
*This is a New Adult Book, blood, violence, cursing, sexual references, and drug use. Not recommended for those under 17.*
You know how sometimes you get so excited about a book, you get these really high expectations? This was what happened to me with Elite. I read the blurb and I immediately wanted to read the book. I was sure it had mystery, angst, drama. And the warning got me even more curious.
The book started okay. I always enjoy the "small town girl gets to leave her small town and have a chance at a career she never would've had otherwise" stories. And this book had the potential of being very good. But then something happened.
The first thing that bothered me was the bullying. There's a lot of bullying in this book. Bullying that I didn't understand. Don't get me wrong, I think all bullying is pointless and stupid and it should disappear off the face of the Earth, but the amount of bullying in this particular book make no sense to me. Especially when you get to the end of the book and you get to have some answers to a few of your questions about the characters. What amazed me even more was the person doing the bullying at first, but most of all his reasoning. The "I'll treat you like crap so others won't" mentality never quite worked for me. I wanted to like Nixon. He seems like the kind of bad boy most girls fall for, but I felt he was a little bipolar at times.
The second thing that I didn't exactly understand was Tracey's attraction to Nixon. He might be sexy, he might be dangerous and something completely different than all the boys she's ever known before, but he treats her like crap. Why would you give a guy like that the time of day, I have no idea. She's also a little too weak for my taste. She didn't stand up for herself nearly as much as she should have. I would have at least told a few of the mean kids to eff off.
The only thing that really kept me going in this book was the mystery behind Tracey and Nixon's families. I kept wondering who they were and how they were related. And, I must confess, I kept hoping there was something supernatural about the book. It could have been anything, really, because there were a lot of things that pointed in a very subtle way in that direction.
I really wanted to be amazed by this book. It had a lot of potential and it had some elements I've never read about before. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me :(
