Skip to main content

Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund

So Real Life intervened last week in the form of the plague, and Villa Angie was torn asunder. We are just now managing to square our shoulders and shake off the gloom. In my plague-ridden state, I still had the presence of mind to send DH out for my copy of Rites of Spring (Break) the day it came out, and reading it got me through. That and the phenergan shot. Ouch! Unfortunately, it's taken till now to review it. So this comes after much grinning, applauding, and re-reading of the most favorite of parts (of which there were several).

In this third installment of the Ivy League Novels, Our Girl Amy finds herself sludging through the gloom that is New Haven in late winter/early spring, wondering who named her whipping girl in the latest intercollegiate secret society rumble. Meanwhile, her ex-friend-with-benefits makes a sudden reappearance in her life and the already nigh unto crippling confusion factor gets ratcheted up a dozen or so notches. Fortunately, the annual Rose & Grave spring break excursion to Cavador Key looms on the horizon and Amy is given a chance to escape and recoup. Her only problem now is avoiding getting in the water while living on an island for an entire week. Natch.

This book...how I loved this book. I loved the increasingly mature way Amy deals with her friends. Her experiences with Jenny in the previous volume have made her more sensitive, I think, to the delicate emotions and motivations at work among her fellow Diggers. Despite their rank, wealth, brains, looks, or attitude. I loved how the class of D177 coalesces in this book. They stand up for each other. They notice things. They're not so quick to judge. And I loved that Poe takes it upon himself to give Amy swimming lessons. Because the swimming lessons? They are top notch. And the sneak peak at the first chapter of the fourth and final Ivy League Novel? It is tinglingly good. If only it wasn't a year till it comes out. Ah, well. Either way, Diana Peterfreund is now on my automatic buy list.

I hereby confess: I find myself with a sudden craving for Life Savers.

Links
Book Daze Review
Darque Review
Love, Finny Review
Teen Book Review

Comments

  1. Anonymous6:37 PM

    OMG. Wasn't it fantastic?!! I'm so with you, especially on the re-reads. I loooved the swimming lessons. And the shower scene ;-)

    LOL @ lifesavers. I can't believe it'll be a whole year until the next one comes out, but having the first chapter of the next book meant I closed the book on a high. Josh is so funny!

    Okay, I'll have to stop squealing and generally behaving like a fangirl now - it's almost midnight, I'm off for a four-day training course tmrw, and still have to pack!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Utterly fantastic, Li. Shower scene=bliss. I'm so bummed we have to wait so long for the last book. And I hope everything ends the way it should. ;-) Good luck with your training!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Angie - It was well worth the wait, right? :) I was so happy that it ended the way it did, and of course I can't wait for the next one either! (the year will fly by...lol) Thanks for the DR mention. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Perfect ending, Kimberly. Although, I was particularly pleased to have that sneak peak into chapter one of the fourth book. Just to, you know, cement things.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

I can't quit Jennifer Echols . Not that I really try that hard, but I read her new ones and often feel as though I'm still searching for that one in possession of that certain something that will make me feel the way  Going Too Far did. Like I couldn't put it it down. And definitely like I didn't hate either of the main characters after the fact. Well, I found it with Such a Rush . I read this 300+ pager in a single night, which clears up the question of whether or not I couldn't put it down. And I finished it definitely not hating either of the main characters. I didn't finish it loving them both unreservedly, though. I loved Leah with my whole heart from page one and that never changed. My feelings regarding one of the Hall brothers remain complicated. More to come on this in a bit. On a side note, I'm delighted that Such a Rush is Ms. Echols' hardcover debut. It's a meticulously designed book, a pleasure to hold in my hands as I stayed up way

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood 's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis  on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work an

Review | Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

It really is a pretty cover. And dragons. I love them so.  It's been far too long since I've read a book in which dragons played any kind of primary character role. They do here, and they are probably my favorite aspect of this book. But more on that later. It's probably worth noting that I, like the rest of the world, was aware of Fourth Wing and the collective losing of BookTok's mind over it. I mean, it was kind of thrilling to hear that you couldn't find a copy anywhere—in the sense that I love it when books are being consumed and loved. And when that happens in such a way that it takes publishing by surprise (for lack of a better way to phrase it) so much so that they have to scramble to print more. So I did the sensible thing and bought the ebook. And then I proceeded to do the not-so-sensible-but-extremely-Angie thing and not read it. There was a cross-country move tucked in there somewhere between the buying and the reading, but more on that at a later date