Saturday, October 17, 2009

-Review: The "Private" Collection by Kate Brian

The Private Collection consists of the first four books in the series, although there are now 10 total.

My summary:

Reed Brennan is so excited to be accepted into the prestigious Easton Academy, but she soon learns is more to the school than just great academics and a beautiful campus. The girls of the Billings House always go on to become great things, but looks can be deceiving and she soon realizes that some privileges aren't worth the secrets that come along with them.


The covers for these books aren't the worst, but I will say they give off the wrong impression of the series. If I were to judge by the covers I would say that these books are like the Gossip Girl series (and the many other similar series) but there is much more to the Private novels than just little rich girls spending daddy's money--they're filled with mystery and twists and turns that will keep you hooked.


I really enjoyed Reed's character, even though I cannot relate to her in the least. I would never do some of the things she did just to be accepted. I feel for her, for some of the things that happen to her, and found myself wishing she could just catch a break. When she's first introduced, she's very much a follower, and as the series progressed and I saw her start to stand up for herself, I was proud of her. By the end of the fourth book I felt like I knew her in real life.


I've loved Kate Brian ever since I read Privilege. When I read it I had no idea it was a spin-off series of Private. I read somewhere (a blog, maybe?) That 'you should read the first four Private novels before reading Privilege' to better understand the plot. I found this to be true, however I was still able to understand and thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) enjoy the first two Privilege books--it's become one of my favorite series.

I loved these four books almost as much as I did the first two Privilege books. It was spoiled a bit since I accidentally read Privilege before Private, but I did enjoy them anyhow.



2 comments:

Tales of Whimsy said...

Good review :)

Sara said...

I love love the Private series, I read the whole series in about a week! The mystery aspect just makes it so much better! I can't wait for the 11th book to come out :) It's good to hear that the Privilege series are good, they're next to read on my reading list.