Vengeance

Vengeance
by Kate Brian
Private series, book fourteen

Following the murder of her newly discovered father, Reed is reeling. Billings House has been destroyed and that seems to represent the state of her life. She chooses to use the money her father left her to rebuild Billings House, a symbol of hope and home to Reed, and hopefully the same for future generations. As construction begins, though, so do ominous accidents. Reed's life has never been simple since coming to Easton. Can Reed discover the culprit and survive long enough to see Billings return?

Though this was not my favorite book of the series, I thought that Kate Brian did a good job ending Reed's story. This poor girl has been through it all, but by the end she is surrounded by people who love her and she has a clear and bright future. The road getting there was certainly bumpy, but Reed takes charge of her own life and continues until she is certain things will finally work out smoothly.

Though an unbelievable amount of ungodly things happen to Reed, almost enough to make the whole setting of this series circumspect, it is a full-on guilty pleasure to read. What was really surprising, though, was how along the way Kate Brian managed to take readers on a real emotional journey with the main character. Reed grows tremendously from a self-conscious girl, in awe of the older, cooler Billings girls, and generally easily swayed by any hot guy that comes her way, to a girl who finally knows her own heart and can hold her own amongst the social elite. This is a girl who becomes a savvy businesswoman and the leader of an elite secret society...I mean social group. It was amazing to see where, and who she ends up being, at the end of this series.

For me, this was a bittersweet read. It was well done and time, I think, but I will also heartily miss the way that my palms would begin to sweat as soon as I knew I could get my hands on the next Private book. *sigh* The hunt must begin for another soap-opera series...any recommendations?