Tap & Gown by Diana Peterfreund

I was having a truly mediocre day. Nothing was going right. I couldn't snap out of it. And the whole thing was rapidly approaching a complete wash. In a last ditch attempt to jar my mood, I went out to check the mail. An ARC of Tap & Gown was waiting for me and presto! Crappy day salvaged. Ironically, writing this review has been hard. Truth be told, I've actually been avoiding it. And it's not because I didn't love it. Because let me tell you, I loved this book like George Harrison Prescott loves women. No, I've been avoiding it for a much more cowardly reason. You see, I kept getting a lump in my throat every time I went to write it. Because writing it would mean it was really over. The book, the series, the whole Amy at Eli saga. And, yes, I know Rampant will be out soon and I am seriously looking forward to that. But this series will always hold a special place in my heart and it's hard to see it come to a close. Even the kind of close that leaves you with a big, ear-to-ear grin on your face.

Amy's made it to her last semester at Eli. Time is running out and she has a thesis to
write
finish, a brand new boyfriend she'd like to spend some "quality" time with, and an appropriate replacement Digger to find who will supposedly take her place within the tomb of Rose & Grave. And though she's studiously avoided thinking about it up until now, she also has to deal with her own personal post-traumatic fallout from the events at the end of spring break. Feeling rundown, anxious, and like senior year is kicking her butt seven ways from Sunday, Amy finds herself the unexpected recipient of rather a lot of attention from a few very hopeful, very accomplished undergrads. Of course, in true Bugaboo fashion, when she does stumble across the perfect tap, her potential choice comes complete with the kind of baggage guaranteed to scandalize the venerable patriarchs of R&G. It seems she is once more surrounded by secrets, some of them harmless, and some of them poised to wreck everything she's worked so hard to achieve.

Amy is such a strong character. She's an everygirl and, as a result, it's just so dang easy to empathize with her, particularly when we've had the opportunity to follow her through four books and watch her progress from an uncertain, unwelcome, uncomfortable-in-her-own-skin fledgling Diggirl, to a confident lynchpin member of a whole new order of Rose & Grave. Perhaps most satisfactory of all, she becomes brave in her honesty. Even when it scares her. She learns to be careful with (and protective of) the relationships she formed in her time at Eli. She understands how she fits into the larger scheme of things and she knows what (and who) is important. Frankly, I was proud of the girl. I have to say, it is extremely gratifying to finish a series feeling like the characters would be people worth knowing, like it played out the way it was meant to, like the author knows the score. Diana Peterfreund delivers with Tap & Gown.

I hereby confess: It was good for me.