Review: Elite (Eagle Elite #1) by Rachel Van Dyken

For Tracey Rooks, life with her grandparents on a Wyoming farm has always been simple. But after her grandmother's death, Tracey is all her grandfather has. So when Eagle Elite University announces its annual scholarship lottery, Tracey jumps at the opportunity to secure their future and enters. She isn't expecting much-but then she wins. And life as she knows it will never be same . . .

The students at Eagle Elite are unlike any she's ever met . . . and they refuse to make things easy for her. There's Nixon, gorgeous, irresistible, and leader of a group that everyone fears: The Elect. 

Their rules are simple.

1. Do not touch The Elect.

2. Do not look at The Elect.

3. Do not speak to The Elect.

No matter how hard she tries to stay away, The Elect are always around her and it isn't long until she finds out the reason why they keep their friends close and their enemies even closer. She just didn't realize she was the enemy -- until it was too late. 

 

It has been a VERY long time since I have a read a book this quickly. I just devoured it. I tried so hard to slow my reading down but I was completely addicted from the first page. I have found a new author to follow and a new series to worship. I feel like we may need to have a group chant of "WE'RE NOT WORTHY", actually. Jeez. I loved this book.

Okay, let's get to something constructive other than me just gushing about the book. I've read quite a few New Adult novels lately and I really enjoy most of them. This one is a New Adult novel but it really goes off the beaten path of others in this genre. To be honest, I've never read anything quite like it and these days, that's not a comment that I can hand out willy-nilly. 

The characters ... I love discussing characters and even though I'm a little ashamed of it ... I kinda enjoy tearing characters apart. Meaning, I don't want to read about this perfect character in this perfect world with perfect hair, yadda yadda blah. It gets boring. Perfect is boring. Now screwed up ... screwed up is good. Everyone has a little cringe-worthy issue. Everyone. If you think that you don't then yours is worse than everyone else's. That's just how it works. Anyhow, these characters are screwed up and I love it!! I like being able to watch the metamorphosis of a character ... going from bottom of the barrel to the top or even the opposite of that. Rachel Van Dyken can write a perfectly flawed character. AND when she's piling more crap on top of her poor creations, she keeps it believable. I have seen more than one author just butcher a book because the characters are just all wrong, all the time, all over the damn place.

Oh, there's also not any down time in this novel. I didn't find myself getting bored or skimming sentences and paragraphs, no. I wanted to read every single last word. That's a pretty big thing for me. I've read so many things that I can just get ... disinterested ... faster than others might because more than likely, I've read what you're trying to do in your novel and I know EXACTLY where you are going next. But that just didn't happen with Elite. I had no freaking clue what was going to happen next and not knowing was exciting as hell!

I have other books that I'm supposed to be reading right now but I couldn't resist buying the next installment of Eagle Elite because I just had to know what was going to happen and so far, it's just as good as the first!! I'm going to be a lifetime fan of Rachel Van Dyken. I can't say enough how amazing this book really was. Bravo!

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