The Secret Society Girl Series by Diana Peterfreund

Posted by Jen on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 @ 1:13 pm

Yesterday was the release of Rites of Spring (Break), the third installment of Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl series. I bring this up for two reasons.

First, from a reader’s perspective. Go out and buy it. I personally haven’t read it yet because in my hobbling state, I haven’t been able to make it to a Barnes & Noble. But it’s on order from Amazon and should get here this week. How am I so certain you should go out and buy it if I haven’t even laid eyes on it yet? I loved the first two, Secret Society Girl and Under the Rose. I bought them at the same time, way after their releases, and read both over the course of one weekend. Actually, that’s not quite correct. I didn’t read them. I devoured them.

Summing up the story is hard for me because there’s a lot of different elements mixed in. College life, mystery, romance, feminism and friendship. Basically, the premise of the first book is: Amy Haskel is a college student who gets tapped for one of the most notorious secret societies on campus. And in the country. A secret society that has never accepted a female tap. Her friendship with her roommate and her relationship with her boyfriend both suffer as she gets propelled into the world of rituals, pranks and threatening messages from powerful patriarchs who are angered about the admission of women into their club. It’s a light-hearted read. Fun, fast-paced and intriguing. And I loved the pop culture references.

The second reason I’m mentioning this is from a writer’s perspective. Diana is an inspiration to me. I think a lot of this is due to me reading her blog because I read her journey from aspiring writer to full-time published author with multiple contracts. There’s one more book in the Secret Society Girl series, and she has a YA fantasy series coming out about killer unicorns. She’s talented. She worked hard. And she went for her dream. It’s really, really inspiring for me to see such a success story when I’m trying so hard to get to that point myself. Trying to keep at that writing career dream when you know the statistics of getting published and when the rejections pour in is hard. But keep at it because it does happen. The right time. The right idea. The right agent. And if you do make it, the hard work will be so worth it.

I’m going to post several more reviews for authors who inspire me throughout the week. So, you should check back. Because they all rock.