Private
Author: Kate Brian
ISBN: 9781416918738

I was excited to get my hands on this little novel. Private by Kate Brian is the first in the Private series about Reed Brennan, a small town girl from Pennsylvania who wins a scholarship to Easton Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut.

Reed will do ANYTHING to fit in. When she learns about the fabulous Billings girls- girls who live in the Billings dorms on campus who are the brightest, most beautiful and best on campus, Reed is determined to become one of them.

After scoring an invite to sit at the Billings girl’s lunch table, Reed is thrilled. She has her golden ticket to popularity, but popularity doesn’t come without a price tag. Reed has to complete many tasks for the Billings girls that she isn’t sure she wants to do.

When the hottest guy on campus, Thomas, starts to pay attention to Reed, the Billings girls aren’t happy. They hate Thomas, and Reed must decide what’s more important: her relationship with Thomas, or her new-found “friendship” with the Billings girls.

I love stories like this; a good YA novel that is fluffy and fun, but still keeps me hooked. For some reason, the world of the wealthy and privileged fascinates me (cough obsessed with Gossip Girl cough) and this book was no exception.

Though I feel like the topic of private schools and mean girls has definitely been done before in many different novels, I still wanted to keep reading. At times, I was eerily reminded of Cecily Von Ziegesar’s It Girl Series because of some glaring similarities, but for the most part, Kate Brian tells an original story.

If you’re looking for a quick read (and I mean quick) consider reading this book. Of course, if you get hooked like me, you need to read the next 8 in the series, but if they’re all as quick and enjoyable as Private, that shouldn’t be a problem at all.

4/5