Georgia Kostopoulou

 

I hadn’t read a romance book in a while and a New Adult one set at Imperial High seemed like a good choice at the time! It was definitely a time well spent!

Elianna Bennett had just returned from Japan, where she had been living with her uncle for the past few years, after the sudden death of her mother. She was killed by a passing by car, that disappeared right after the accident. Elianna and her brother suffered from the loss of their beloved mother, but it has been years since then. Now, she is a senior at Imperial High, the best school in the country, where her father is the headmaster. It’s her first day at school and she is already anxious about it. Though her day get’s even worse due to a grey-eyed and gorgeously looking guy from the wrong side of the town. He was provoking and arrogant and someone ought to put him in his place.

Julian Rivera was having a game before starting his senior year at Imperial High, when he came across this spirited young lady. She really made his day! So when he realized she was a fellow classmate, he could not refrain from pranking her. After all, everyone knows how big a teaser he is. Except for the new girl!

The two of them start behaving like little children, having scream fights and pranking each other to no end. They play this cat and mouse game, while it is pretty clear to their friends that they have feelings for each other. However, it takes some time to Julian to realize it, but when he does, he doesn’t want to push things or rush anything. It’s different for Elianna though. She doesn’t need that. She doesn’t need love or a relationship in her life, especially with someone like Julian. She needs to concentrate on her studies and get the grades she wants so much. This kind of thinking by each of them makes their love story slow as no one is actually making a first step and right when you think they will actually get together, something happens and they all apart.

The main characters act so childish sometimes that it feels they are younger than the age the author positions them. The arguments they have and the constant pranking and misunderstandings feel a bit immature. But I can understand that at least the latter can happen to many people of different ages, so it pretty much made sense and it really served the story.

Julian seemed to be the more mature of the two of them. It felt like he had a more difficult life, that he had been through experiences that taught him some very useful life lessons. Even though he seemed a bit dangerous, he was well minded. Elianna felt like a girl that was used to having everything she ever wanted, being raised in a proper wealthy family looking down to people from the other side of the town, who didn’t have as much as she did. And that was another obstacle on their relationship too.

I really liked the rest of the characters in the story. They seemed like a really good group of friends with some of their own stories being developed on the side. I would like to see also where their stories lead them.

Overall, it was a book that I read really fast! A book that I enjoyed!