Review of Elite (Eagle Elite #1)

Synopsis

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.

Review

So this book has me torn. Whilst I did enjoy it overall, Elite certainly has its faults. My main issues were all surrounding the believability of the storyline. I can’t go into much detail due to the fact they are all pretty big spoilers so I’m going to be brief. The storyline started off strong but as we started to get into the twists and revelations the plot started to unravel slightly. Once you find out who “The Elect” are it makes absolutely no sense for them to be so powerful in a College that is full of the children of world leaders and other immensely powerful people.

The school itself also didn’t make sense, from the people who ran it to the way that all the students acted like they were 13 rather than 18 -22. Oh and they have uniforms.

SPOILERS (can be read if you highlight)

So this school is ran by the mafia. Yes you heard me right, apparently people like the president of the USA are sending their children to a college ran by the Chicago mafia. Children of mafia parents rule the school and boss around the aforementioned children of Presidents. As well as being the biggest bully / in charge of everyone at eagle elite, people ask for Nixon’s autograph a lot (who knew the mafia were such celebrities).

At the end of the book we find out that Trace didn’t win the eagle elite scholarship lottery. Her rich mafia grandpa simply enrolled her in the school under her real surname (that she didn’t know). It is never mentioned who the actual winner of the lottery was and nor was it ever mentioned (until the very end) that Trace is registered under a different surname to what she goes by. Nixon somehow never noticed her surname when he was doing all the things like arranging her lunch pass, elevator pass etc. Also when she arrives The Elect mention (without her telling them) that she is the lottery winner, why would they think that when it isn’t actually true?

It just seemed to me that when the first part of the book was written the author hadn’t yet decided what was going to happen later in the book and she simply never got around to changing the stuff that then didn’t make sense. Throughout this book I felt like I was reading an early draft that hadn’t yet been checked for content issues.

I really wasn’t sure what to think about the romance in this book. Whilst I love reading about a good dysfunctional romance, Trace and Nixon take dysfunctional to a whole new level. Nixon and his friends do some horrible things to Tracey that you couldn’t imagine being easily forgiven (if ever) then once they find out… something, they start to be nice to her and she instantly forgives them. I did like Tracey and Nixon’s connection; they have so much chemistry and passion together. At the moment I do not like Nixon as a love interest, whilst Trace could forgive him for being a huge ass I cant that easily. I much preferred Chase as a potential love interest as he appeared to show some humanity towards Trace. Well, until…. Something else that is a spoiler I can’t mention.

Now on to what I liked about this book. I loved the authors writing, she captured the emotion brilliantly and I really felt for Trace. I even teared up slightly at one point. Other than the parts that don’t make sense and could do with being explained or changed I enjoyed the storyline. I liked both the poor farm girl at a school of rich people element and what it later twisted into. The unique plot was a nice refreshing change to read.

This is the first in a series and I do plan to pick up book 2. Hopefully reading it will have this book make more sense and I also want to see what happens next. I was certainly hooked in and fascinated by the ending. I do think Elite shows a lot of potential for improvement later in the series and for other books by this author. I am looking forwards to reading something else by Rachel Van Dyken. I was unsure what rating I was going to give this book, either 2 or 3, simply because it has me wanting to read the next book I will give it 3.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, this has not affected my opinions or rating in any way.*

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Laura