Review - Elite - Rachel van Dyken

Title: Elite
Author: Rachel van Dyken
Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Release Date: July 9th, 2013
Series: Eagle Elite #1
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Synopsis via Goodreads

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.

My rating:

So I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I hated this book at chapter one. I hated it so much it almost ended up in my don't-ever-read pile. The protagonist, Trace, seemed spineless and naive--characteristics that are annoying in their own right but unbearable paired together. By the tenth time I'd rolled my eyes I thought I'd save myself the pain of reading it and move on.

And I am SO GLAD I convinced myself not to.

Seriously. 4.5 fantastic freaking stars to the fresh, original and dangerously intriguing first installment of Rachel van Dyken's (whom I now tip my invisible but stylishly feathered hat to) Elect Series.

So now that I got the bad news out of the way, the good news is that I loved this book. It may've had its faults and I'll get to those later, but I loved it.

It starts out with Tracey "Trace" Rooks coming to her new school and immediately being introduced to the rules by a very rude and astoundingly attractive group of boys. Now, initially I thought I was in for something paranormal. Mysterious school. Mysterious guys. Mysterious rules. Eventually, I learned that paranormalcy wasn't the case. Nope. It was just a small group of people called the "Elect" (which seemed to be synonymous with "pretentious, self-entitled, self-centered dickheads") that ruled the school. Or, to be specific, it was Nixon, their leader and Trace's love interest that ruled the school. And when I say "ruled the school", I mean it. He, an alleged student, got to control when and what people got to eat for crying out loud.

Remember how I called Trace spineless and naive? Yeah, not so much. She didn't take kindly to their rules and she suffered the consequences. This book took "hazing" to the next level. Aside from that, though, I really liked Trace. Well, after I got over my initial hatred. When she wasn't a crying mess from all the crap she took from the other students, she was intelligent and witty. I admired her for sticking through the hazing and for her determination to create a better life for herself and her grandfather.

And then we have Nixon, with whom I had mixed feelings about. I hated him in the beginning, too. Calling him an asshole would've been much, much too mild. He humiliated Trace constantly, and then claimed it was to protect her. (Which turned out to be true in the end, but when I didn't know that, I despised him.) He had this air of infallible arrogance about him. Maybe the arrogance was justified by his unquantifiable amount of wealth and power over EVERYTHING EVER but it was still aggravating. By the time he and Trace began their Romeo & Juliet-esque love affair, he'd redeemed himself a bit, but he was still a jerk.

Imagine my surprise when their romance ended up being my favorite part. Once Nixon stopped being a douche and we learn the real reason he was being a douche, it was easy to accept. With the end's "big reveal" also came the big reveal for Trace and Nixon. Their relationship was all kinds of endearing.

His breathing turned shallow. He closed his eyes and mumbled, "It was always supposed to be like this. Always."

They had swoon-worthy moments as well as steamy moments, and I soon found myself rooting for them. I'm a sucker for old, forbidden love, what can I say?

The thing is: I spent the majority of this book confused. If you don't like being confused, I don't recommend this book. Actually, I take that back because the big reveal is well worth it. Trace's world becomes utter chaos, and I loved the unraveling of her past and how Nixon and the Elect and her family tied into it.

The only problems I had with this book were the following:

1) They were supposed to be in college, but the atmosphere and the dynamic screamed high school. I had a hard time swallowing it.

2) The pacing was too fast. Things happened back to back to back and there wasn't a period where I could rest and think about all the things that were happening to Trace. I just wished R.v.D. had just slowed it down a bit.

3) The potential for a love triangle in the next book. I'm all for Team Nixon at this point, but I don't want there to be a love triangle at all. The sad part is, I'm 100% there will be one with the feelings (rapid feelings, at that) Trace developed for...someone who isn't Nixon.

Other than that, Elite provided just enough originality and arresting drama to keep me hastily turning the pages (or pressing the screen, since I read this on my Nook.) Bravo R.v.D. for turning this heavily sarcastic skeptic (that's me) into a fully-fledged fan and keeping me entertained when I was trying to escape from the heavy boredom of summer homework assignments.

 **ARC courtesy of Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**