Review: Elite (Eagle Elite #1) – Rachel Van Dyken

Posted 23 August, 2013 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review: Elite (Eagle Elite #1) – Rachel Van DykenElite by Rachel Van Dyken
Series: Eagle Elite #1
Published by Forever on 14 April 2013
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Pages: 256
Format: ARC
Source: Netgalley
Buy on Amazon
1 Stars

Blurb from Goodreads:

When I won the annual Eagle Elite College Scholarship lottery, I was thrilled. After all, my grandma had just died and I wanted to take care of my aging grandpa -- he couldn't be a farmer in Wyoming forever. And graduating from Eagle Elite meant opportunity.

But I wasn't counting on meeting Nixon.

Nor was I counting on the rules of the Elect.

1. Do not touch The Elect.
2. Do not look at The Elect.
3. Do not speak to The Elect.

And worst of all? Don't discover the secret they hide, because in the end, you may just realize... it's about you.

*I received a free ARC of Elite from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

Elite is one of those books that seemed to have all of the ingredients necessary to make sure I wouldn’t like it. It is actually the first time I’ve given one stars to a book since I started my blog, so I’ll try to be specific in my dislikes – because we all know that what I don’t like may very well be exactly what you’re looking for!

At the beginning of Elite, Trace is moving from Wyoming to Chicago to start a new school, her grandma passed away not long ago, and Trace entered some kind of lottery to be accepted into a very elite school, where most of the country’s future leaders and important business-people attend college. As soon as Trace finds herself alone in front of  the building she’s moving into, three boys come to harass her, talk down to her and tell her to follow the rules. Nice welcome committee, right?

The leader of the welcome committee is her roommate’s brother, and his name is Nixon – yeah, like the former president. And Monroe, that’s the roommate, talks about Nixon as if he is the devil incarnate. He makes the rules in this school, and he can make or break a person as well. So even as Trace loathes Nixon, she can’t help but be attracted to him. Because he is part of the elite, and he is so beautiful, even if he is nasty. And the waffling starts. Trace and Nixon are both hot and cold so quickly it’s kind of hard to follow, and Nixon is compared to both a god, God, Satan and a devil within a very short span of sentences.

Trace also realizes soon that there is a family secret she knows nothing about, she finds a necklace that makes her think of words in a language she doesn’t know, and Nixon is upset when he sees it. She finds some money from her grandma as well, and it turns out it’s in bills that haven’t been made since the sixties. Because of the allusions made by Trace at the beginning, it is pretty predictable where it all will go, and who the elite is, and what her family secret might be.

So to me, this is a typical YA story of a naive farm-girl who meets a rich and handsome boy, hates him but falls in love with him instantly anyway, and there’s a love triangle. There is also quite a lot of jealousy going on, Trace is a little petty at time, and quite often, the characters will toss in different brands for shoes, bags and clothes just to show how rich and cool they are. And the cherry on top is the slut-shaming, which is truly not warranted in any story IMO, and even less so in Elite, because Trace is a virgin.

That said, the writing is good, there are hardly any errors or typos, and it is easy to see that the author has a plan when she starts writing, and she sticks to that plan. It’s just that the elite plan really isn’t my kind of plan. So if you’re into books where the hero can be a total ass, where the heroine falls in love with him quickly, and you want a little bit of mystery on top of the romance, you might love Elite, I know several of my bookish friends did.

Monroe could be a supermodel. No, I take that back. She could be the girl that tells supermodels how to be supermodels. She was ridiculously beautiful, making my mind immediately transport to every single book I’d read in the past year that warned me against girls who looked like her.

Geez, that boy had more mood swings than grandma when she went through menopause.

Nixon licked his lips. I could see the ghost of a smile dancing across them. This was the most I’d seen him smile… in forever.

Nixon smelled like the hot guy. Seriously, they should bottle him up and put him in stores. He’d make millions, not that he needed it.

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Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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0 responses to “Review: Elite (Eagle Elite #1) – Rachel Van Dyken

  1. Oh no, insta-luv and a love triangle..blah. To bad you didn’t like this one but sometimes you just can’t love it even if you try. 🙂

    I have one online college course this semester, I am slowly getting myself back into the college thing..lol. My class started Monday..so I am reading a lot of Crime Scene Investigation instead of happy books..lol. Wish you the best of luck with your studies! 🙂

    • Crime Scene Investigation, eh? That sounds pretty interesting. And it’s great that you can do online courses. It’s fun to be back to studies, I think. I really enjoy the challenges that brings me.

      Yeah, it was blah in my opinion, but I have seen other readers who enjoyed it. Can’t win them all.

      Thanks for stopping by Stormi, and good luck wiht your class, too.

    • That’s true, Brandee, not every book is for every reader. I thought I’d like it before I started.. I’m glad my review was still good. I never like writing the negative ones!

      Thanks for stopping by, Brandee 🙂

    • Thank you for your nice comment, Naomi! I really don’t like writing reviews for the books (luckily, there are only a few) I don’t enjoy.

      Have a great week!

    • It’s always nice to know we’re not alone, especially when it comes to books that seem popular. Nixon was a true asshat, I agree!

      Thanks for stopping by, Ruby 🙂

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