Watch Me/Jody Gehrman/308pgs/College Setting

If you love the stalker movies that the Lifetime channel used to show, then put the kettle on because this is your cup of tea!  Kate Youngblood is a creative writing professor and recent divorcee in a small Ohio town.  After the small success of her debut novel and a painful awareness of her oncoming middle age, Kate has hit a slump in her life.  Feeling unwanted and unnoticed, she throws herself into work in the hopes of gaining tenure.  Through all of her frustrations, a pair of watchful eyes follows her life on campus.  With a pair of "intense" and "piercing" blue eyes that would make any YA author swoon, student Sam Grist purposely inserts himself into Kate's life at every turn in the hopes of one day claiming her as his own.  Unaware of his predatory plan, Kate finds a writing prodigy in her student and takes Sam under her wing, all the while ignoring that small burst of attraction she feels for him in return.

The narrative jumps back and forth each chapter between Kate and Sam's perspectives, allowing the reader to understand the competing motivations for the two leads.  Neither of the characters are incredibly likeable, but the story is entertaining and follows a quick pace.  I think the author could have stood to push the envelope further with the main relationship, but I recognize I have a penchant for the lurid, so in all the novel could be considered "complete."  Watch Me is a worthwhile read for those seeking out a thriller of sorts.

Scandal/Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur/326 pages

Callie Andrews, when we last left her, had been accused of being the Ivy Insider, the person who was writing articles exposing the seedier side of the Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard. She suspects her archrival Lexi is behind it all, but how to prove it? And to top it all off, Gregory, her almost boyfriend has disappeared to avoid the questions about his father's questionable finances. The four roommates plus the three boys from across the hall band together to figure out what's what.

I started this series when I was sick last month and finished it this month while fighting off yet another nasty bug. This was the perfect thing to read while recovering. My other choice would have been The Poisonwood Bible which I'm reading (and not really into) for my book club next month.

Rivals/Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur/364 pages

Callie decides to tackle her problem head on and comes clean on the front page of the Crimson with her secret, thereby taking the ammunition out of Lexi's hands. While she becomes a hero to most, there are still snickers and lewd comments from some. Now that everything is out in the open and Clint doesn't care about the scandal, life should be good, but it's not to be. She still gets cut from the magazine because Lexi has to exact some revenge. And there's the small problem of Gregory, the guy from across the hall. She can't decide if he is evil or wonderful.

Because of three days of fever, I was able to sit and read these ebooks straight through. Honestly, if we had had the fourth in ebook form, I would have been all over it. However, I wasn't interested in paying over $5 for any of them. I don't know if it was my weakened condition or pure enjoyment that kept me reading, but I do have the book on reserve and hope I get it soon. I'm still wondering how a front page story in the Crimson didn't make it back to UCLA where Callie's dad is the head of the mathematics department, since her parents are still in the dark.

Secrets/Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur/313 pages

Callie has only told one person, Vanessa, about the scandalous secret she's been keeping. So, when her arch nemesis, Lexi, starts blackmailing her with the secret, she figures that Vanessa sold her out for a spot in the Hasty Pudding Club. After all, what are best friends for? Callie must start running errands and doing Lexi's bidding to keep her secret and land a spot on the magazine since Lexi is the editor. Adding to the drama, Callie has fallen hard for Clint, Lexi's ex, and the feeling is mutual. Somehow, too, her grades aren't what they used to be.

Hopefully, by the end of her first year, Callie will not only learn to wear appropriate clothing, but she will also log out of public computers.

The Ivy/Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur/312 pages/First in a series

Callie Andrews is starting her first semester at Harvard. She's from a distinctly middle class Southern California family, so learning the ins and outs of the Harvard crowd will take some time. Luckily, she has three roommates to help her: Vanessa, a New Yorker with all the right connections but who tries too hard, Mimi, a foreign party girl fresh from rehab, and Dana, a studious and very religious girl who just wants to do the right thing all the time. Soon Callie finds herself in the middle of a romantic triangle, vying for a position on a school magazine and trying to find time to study (and shower for that matter.) Soon an embarrassing incident from her past may ruin everything.

I got this as a "Free Friday" selection on my Nook months ago. Overall, it's a pretty addicting story. I'd rate it way higher than the Gossip Girl series that I started reading back when my daughter was. I just wish a girl who is smart enough to get into Harvard could figure out to wear winter clothes in Cambridge in the winter. But, I'll read the next one.