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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Review: Taking the Reins (The Rosewoods #1) by Katrina Abbott

Book Blurb:

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.

My Review:

4 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Audiobook, Teen--

Brooklyn is starting her junior year at a prestigious boarding school called Rosewood, home to the wealthy, talented and famous. Brooklyn has decided that since she is the new girl, she can become anyone she wants to be, and she wants to take chances and be bold. Right off the bat she meets 2 cute new boys and a handful of girls who have the potential to be friends. Not to mention the fact that she can ride horses again! But things don't go as smoothly as Brooklyn dreamed they would.

This was a very fast paced story, probably the shortest audiobook I have ever listened to at around 4.5 hours, but I think the length was just perfect to tell the story. This was just a taste of the new life that Brooklyn has as Rosewood academy, the start of her new big adventure and spanned at most two weeks. I thought this was a great introduction to the characters as well as the world. This story seemed to focus a lot on potential romance and developing friendships.

As a side note, I was slightly confused about the whole situation about Brooklyn's parents and the fact she had a secret last name she could not even remember due to security purposes. She mentions her father works for the military, so I guess a spy maybe, but it was so vague and random. I hope this comes up in more detail later on in the series, otherwise I think it should not be includes at all.

The story has a love square- Brooklyn has 3 boys that she likes, 2 off limits and one ok but slightly secretive. (So this is an all girl school she attends, but that doesn't mean in the slightest that their is a shortage of boy problems). Let's start with Will, the boy she meets the first few minutes of arriving at the school and is instantly attracted to but there is a big issue he doesn't mention. Then there is Brody (my absolute favorite!), the brooding stable boy who has a secret he doesn't reveal, and then the former childhood star Jordan who is super awkward about his past. Brooklyn, who has no real experience with boys is for sure over her head. And it doesn't help that most of her friends are boy crazy. To be honest, a LARGE chunk of this book deals with Brooklyn and her friends obsessing and talking about boys.

At times the narrator would say some parts in an English accent and other's without which was very odd to me, and yes the character mentions she has a strange hybrid accent, but I felt like this was off and on and not very consistent (which was probably hard to determine for the narrator with that description). Overall, I think the narrator and the overall quality of the audiobook was really good and I would listen to more from this narrator, be it this series or others.

This was a fun fast read to start the series and I would love to read the next book- preferably in audio version because I enjoyed this adventure.

I received this title for reviewing purposes.

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