Rush - by Elizabeth Gordon (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Emma Chapman, Joan Didion-quoting debate champion from the Upper West Side, has worked tirelessly to ensure she'll be accepted to a top college. It's a shock when she's rejected everywhere she applied--including the Ivy League universities her parents attended--except for Laurel University. Laurel may be known as "the Princeton of the South," but it may as well be another planet.

To Emma's surprise, there are things she likes about Laurel. The campus is beautiful, and she makes fast friends with her suitemates, Mei, Carmen, and Lauren. It's the first group of friends Emma's ever had, and it feels good--really good. Plus, there's Mac Griggs, the laidback, all-American boy of campus dreams, who definitely seems to be flirting with her. . .

Although she's not exactly a tailgate type of girl, Emma reluctantly agrees to go through the ultimate Laurel rite of passage--the Hunger Games-like process known as Recruitment. Soon, she and her suitemates are in the throes of sorority rush, gamely rolling their hair and making small talk about deb season. Despite her best efforts, however, Emma finds herself rejected by all but the least desirable house on campus--Alpha Beta Mu.

Naturally, Emma takes to her bed. But with the help of her suitemates--and Mac, who is becoming an increasingly permanent fixture in her life--she embarks on a campaign to make ABM not a joke of a sorority house, but a quirky alternative to typical Greek life. Late nights of beer Jenga, a campus-wide puppy yoga event, and an emergency bake sale all contribute to saving ABM from oblivion. And along the way, Emma discovers that she just may save herself as well, not to mention falling in love.

Rush is a smart, knowing, fresh take on what it is to come of age--a story of finding who you are, what matters to you, and learning how to meet the chaos that life is bound to bring your way.

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