Tuesday 25 February 2014

(Review) Taking The Reins (The Rosewoods, #1) - Katrina Abbott

Title: Taking The Reins (The Rosewoods, #1)
Author: Katrina Abbott
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary, Romance)
Format: ebook
Publisher: Over The Cliff Publishing
Date Published: January 28, 2014

Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads)


Brooklyn Prescott (if that’s even her real name) is the new girl at The Rosewood Academy for Academic Excellence, now that she’s moved back to the States after two years living in London. Rosewood, a boarding school for children of the rich and famous and known for its celebutantes, is missing just one element important to any junior’s education: boys. But luckily for Brooklyn, and the rest of the Rosewood girls, there’s a boys’ boarding school, The Westwood Academy, just a few miles away.
On her very first day, Brooklyn meets Will, a gorgeous and flirty boy on campus to help with move in. But is he who she thinks he is? And what about Brady, the cute stable boy? Or Jared, the former child actor with his grown-up good looks who can always make her laugh? As Brooklyn settles in at Rosewood, she’s faced with new friends, new challenges and new opportunities to make herself into the girl she always wanted to be. Whoever that might be.
Taking The Reins is the first installment of The Rosewoods, an exciting new Young Adult series for readers who love fun, flirty love stories.
Review:

I received an ebook copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Taking The Reins tells the story of a recently-moved Brooklyn Prescott to an all-girls school. I actually really like the light-hearted way the story was told. Nothing too provocative or complex, just a really good, world-building, introductory book that would serve really well as a springboard for more complex issues. The story itself has some really good points but at times I felt it lacked some depth, but it really just fitted well with the simplistic feel of the story. 

Brooklyn's journey into the well-cushioned world of celebrities and wealthy teens started off pretty mild - room mixups, troublesome schedules, mean deans and liking the wrong boy? Yeah, I didn't really see the last one coming but I'm glad the story didn't go off too complicated with that plot because that would've ruined it for me. She and Emmie has such a good friendship and it would've been sad if they had boy issues so early in the story. 

The abundance of characters introduced so quickly into the story threw me off a little bit but it was understandable, we'd want to hear about them early to get to know them one by one. I'm really glad the author has given each character their appropriate screen time and that each one was given a distinct personality. The girls were pretty decent ladies themselves, i'm really glad no one was being snobby and creating unneccesarry drama. As for the boys, the whole thing seemed a little too "dating game" at the dance part but there couldn't have been a better way to introduce them all. I'm really rooting for Brady right now although he maintains to be an enigmatic character still. 

I enjoyed the story for what it was, nothing too complicated and intense for an introductory book. I recommend it for anyone wanting a relaxing, light right. 

Rating: ♚♚♚♚

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