Book Review: "Alphas" by Lisi Harrison

THOUSANDS APPLIED. ONE HUNDRED GOT IN. ONLY ONE WILL WIN.

Eccentric billionaire Shira Brazille founded the super-exclusive Alpha Academy on exotic Alpha Island to nurture the next generation of exceptional dancers, writers, musicians, and inventors. It's a dream come true for one hundred lucky girls, but those not measuring up will be sent home at any time for any reason. The one left standing will win worldwide fame.  Who will it be?

SKYE HAMILTON

Known for her dance moves and ability to make super fast connections with boys, Skye plans on taking the alphas by storm-and lip kissing all 5 of Shira's hot sons.

ALLIE A. ABBOTT

Is one little initial away from superstardom. So when Allie J. Abbot's invitation to Alpha Academy arrives at her doorsteps, she does what any crafty girl would: commits identity theft. Can she keep up the charade?

CHARLIE DEERY

Beta-for-life Charlie is offered a last-minute place at the Academy, but there's an admission condition: dumping her boyfriend-Shira's son. It's hard to claw her way up when ninety-nine girls are waiting to sink their claws into her superhawt ex....

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, YOU'RE NOT AN ALPHA.

MY REVIEW:

Ok, I know what you are thinking.... Dave could not be reviewing this. Perhaps one of the girls made a mistake and signed on under his name.  Well surprise, it's me, Dave.  I happen to be thumbing through some of the books we got the latter part of this week, and saw a few copies of this one sitting there.  I always pick up a book to check it out regardless of what it is.  I was not in the mood for deep reading and for the fun of it, decided to check out a chapter or two for fun.  I kind of just started reading it, and the next thing I knew, about two hours later the book was done.  Believe it or not, it actually held my attention and wasn't really that girly as you's think.  I mean, give me a break... there were 5 boys in the book!

Anyway, now that I got past that, I actually really enjoyed reading this.  By the ending as well as a bit of research on the author, it was obviously a first in a multi book series.  The book is one I would suggest for light, fun reading in which you are looking for an enjoyable, quick read.  What really kept me going was that "Alpha Island" was futuristic and had a ton of awesome tech gadgets.  Basically the whole island was futuristic in ALL of it's technology.  The coolest was the A-Pod, a futuristic cousin of the I-Pod.  Sort of a "does it all" type of gadget, one cool feature that I can totally see people using in the future, especially the teenage girl or guy for that matter is that you can point your A-Pod at anyone else who has one, click a button, and that person's profile comes up.  I thought that was pretty neat.

So, what's the story??  Well, as stated above, 100 of the world's most talented girls **and 5 boys...I will keep adding that part in :o) ** comes to Alpha Island to basically compete for the ultimate prize.  Shira, who has made gazillions of dollars and basically owns just as many companies, inventions, and patents will give the will make the winner's dreams come true, giving them anything and everything they want.  With that said, the story really floats around the 5 main female characters, Skye, Charlie, Allie, Renee, and Triple Threat.  Also, a major part of the book does revolve around Shira's sons, but mostly one named Darwin.

Darwin and Charlie have been together ever since they were little and love each other dearly.  Charlie's mom "Bee" was Shira's right hand woman, so Charlie and Darwin spent nearly all of their lives together.  When someone backs out of the Academy at the last minute, Shira allows Charlie to take her spot instead of being shipped off to boarding school in New Jersey (HEY!! WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT BEING IN NEW JERSEY????).  The only catch is that her mom must resign because one rule is that no relatives of employees can participate and ALSO Charlie must give up her relationship with Darwin.  The catch on that one- she can not tell Darwin that she really still loves him more than anything and that his mom is behind the break up.

Now that you got the background, the rest i'll go through rather quickly as I do think this would be a fun book to read and what do you know, we have a few to give away!  The girls arrive on the island in their own personal jets that are custom tailored to their personalities and lifestyles.  The island, built in the shape of an "@" sign is enclosed in a dome.  Shira controls everything from the glass bubble railway system, to the hovering discs that the teachers float on to even the weather!  Charlie and the other 4 major players here all live in one little glass sort of condo, called the "Jackie O".  This first book in the series has a few different angles.  First of all, Shira has them all taking classes to better themselves, to understand that although they were the best at what they did back home, here they were all talented and all had flaws that could be improved upon.

The other part of the story revolves around Charlie and how she reacts to one of her own roommates, Allie J. (really an imposter named Allie A.), who writes music and is one of the most celeb girls on the island. The problem is that Charlie breaks up with Darwin at the beginning of the book, and well, Darwin happens to love Allie J.'s work.  The obvious here occurs with a love triangle between Charlie, Darwin, and Allie J. when they are all put into some of the same classes and are all stuck on a relatively small island.  The drama does have it's fun parts, as Shira's # 1 rule is that none of the girls can even think of getting together with any of her sons.  That is not the purpose of them being there, and for now they must block out boys from their thoughts (and desires).  Well, 100 girls, 5 "gorgeous, filthy rich" guys and drama is going to go down.

So, knowing that this will be the first on a series, the book sort of ends where I'd say a stand alone novel would probably be 1/5 of the way done.  By the end, 1 of the 5 main chicks has been sent home already, Allie J.'s true identity of Allie A. is found out, another of the 5 is injured and sitting on the "sidelines" for a bit, and well, let's just say that Charlie is not overly happy with the Darwin/Allie situation.  There is a bunch more things that go on in the book, from someone being accused of being a spy, to Charlie's hidden talent and accomplishment that even Shira doesn't know about to a ton of cool technological thing I left out that actually got me hoping to see them come to life in the future.  The A-Pod, which also doubles as a "texting" monster with firewalls and all, has so many features that I can actually see it being real in about 10-20 years and it got me anxious to get my hands on one!

Again, book 1 of a series, a fun read that I can't see anyone not thoroughly enjoying. For me, I was happy that I read it. As long as I can remember to get them, I will definitely continue on with the rest of the series as I am anxious to see more gadgets, explore more of the island that we didn't get to see in this book, and selfishly watch to see if Charlie eventually lands Darwin back.

DAVE