Saturday, February 6, 2016

Book Review: Speaking Greek (Foreign Exchange #1) by Selena Laurence


Tess Richardson is from a family that’s all about the law. She follows the rules, and works hard for everything she has. When she gets accepted to junior year abroad and an internship at an International shipping company, she knows that doing things the right way has paid off. Then she meets Nico Stephanos and all the rules fly out the window.

Nico has always been the golden boy. Handsome, smart, and the son of a Greek billionaire, he gets what he wants, when he wants it. With a father as rich and powerful as his, he’s got the world by the balls—until the day the woman he’s falling for becomes his family’s greatest enemy. Now Nico is faced with a choice—the life he knows, or the girl he thinks he loves.






Speaking Greek is the first book I've read by Selena Laurence and it will most definitely not be my last! I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns that this book went down. It held surprises at almost every turn. From start to finish, it quickly held my attention and pulled me deeper into its grasp.

I REALLY enjoyed the juxtaposition of the two main characters, Tess and Nico. They were absolute polar opposites and it was interesting to see how (and if) they would meet somewhere in the middle. Tess is this staunch rule-follower and Nico most definitely is not. Nico would rather make and break some rules than even learn what rules were already set in place. This constant good/evil battle made the novel quite interesting and most definitely aided in the fact that I couldn't put Speaking Greek down.

The novel itself was ... interesting ... you're thrown into the lives of this prominent Greek family and I found myself almost as floored as Tess was at the way that Nico behaves. Tess had a lot of spunk and sass and man, did she stick to her guns. She's that immovable rock ... the one whose convictions are so strong that you're not sure if you should envy them or feel sorry for them. I really enjoyed her as a character. Nico, I didn't have as strong of feelings towards. He's a cool character and I liked him but there wasn't that magnetic draw that brought me to love him.

Like I said, lots of twists and turns and characters that you'll enjoy. There was only one thing that I just didn't like about the book. It's a small thing but I just didn't get the significance of it to the story. At the beginning of each chapter, you see notes either from Tess or other foreign exchange students that they post in a chat room. I'll be honest, if that is totally taken out of the book, it wouldn't hurt it in the least. I found that it sometimes detracted from the story because what was going on in the actual chapter most of the time had nothing to do with what was written at the beginning in the little chat message and it was a little confusing.  I was never sure if the message would be something that pertained to the chapter I was getting ready to read or not but most of the time, it didn't. Personally, I could have just done with out it.

I've already put some more books by Selena Laurence on my To Read list and I hope that I'm able to get to them soon. She creates some interesting characters and the story was pretty entertaining.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *



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