My Rating: 
I gave this book two stars, and I feel like that might have been being generous. I didn’t enjoy this book, while I didn’t hate it, I thought the book was okay, but this book definitely wasn’t my cup of tea, however, it’s very rare that I’ll start a book and not finish it even if I don’t enjoy the book because of the completionist in me, so I did finish it.
First of all, I would like to specify that this was an adult romance novel and there’s a lot of graphic sex and partying and all that fun stuff that rich people with no real responsibilities do in similar novels, so if already the premise doesn’t do anything for you, you probably just want to skip this review.
Elite by Carrie Aarons is sort of like what you would get if you mixed Gossip Girl and The It Girl , which is sort of like Gossip Girl’s slutty cousin mixed in with a soft-core porn on Cinemax.
I got this book from Kindle Unlimited . From what I understand, it’s the second book in a series, but that being said, it’s also a standalone book, so you don’t need to read the previous book to read this one.
The book revolves around Eloise Mason and Colton Reiter, the book darts back and forth between their different viewpoints.
Eloise is a privileged girl from Europe. She went to school at the Sorbonne in France, where she studies culinary arts and wants to be a master chef and own her own restaurant. She comes to the United States, to Jade Mountain University because she wants to experience college in the United States, she she decides to spend a semester abroad learning all about wine. Yes that was her actual major, she majored in wine studies.
Man, I wish I could’ve majored in drinking.
Colton, on the other hand, is idolized at Jade Mountain University because he rules the basketball court. He is treated like a god, and he gets everything he wants without even trying.
In other words, two extremely relatable protagonists for 99.9% of the book-reading population.
The two of them cross paths when Eloise is asked to join a “secret society” by the “it girls” of the University. Colton is captivated by the “sassy girl with the British accent.”
The rest of the story consists of parties, drinking, lots of sex, and of course there are buried skeletons that must be exposed.
And of course as always, the question is, will the boy get the girl, and will there be a happy ending?
The one thing I did like about this story what the character of Eloise. She isn’t your typical rich or mean girl.
Eloise wants a future. She came from poverty and she got her lucky break when her dad became a movie star and got discovered [this isn’t a spoiler, you find this out within the first page or two] and she actually wants to seek her own future. She wants to get an education and do something with her life. She also isn’t a mean girl, at all. She has a heart, and she deeply cares about all the friends that she makes throughout the story, and she deeply cares about Colton. She’s a much deeper character and less shallow than similar characters in similar stories.
She’s the reason I gave this book 2 stars and not 1 star.
I don’t really have much else to say about this book.
I mean it wasn’t the worst thing I ever read.
If rich girls, drinking, sex, romance, betrayal, and scandal are your thing you’ll probably like it.
If you liked the TV show and/or Gossip Girl books, but have grown up and/or moved on from them; this is like an adult version of them, Eloise would be your Serena, and Colton would be your Nate/Chuck [depending on if you prefer the book or TV show versions]. Jade Mountain University is a college version of Waverly Academy from the It Girl Series. So you’ll probably like this book as well.
Trigger Warning: There is a very graphic sex-scene that almost seems more like rape than consensual sex in this book [though it is consensual], but if you think that might be triggering for you, I would probably skip this book, as well. There is also a mention of a rape throughout the story, so just read with caution.