Academy 7 -- Anne Osterlund

Aerin Renning:  An escapee from a slave planet, a quick learner and excellent fighter.  It is imperative that she stay out of the limelight, as she's in the sector illegally.

Dane Madousin:  An affluent and rebellious young man with a huge chip on his shoulder.  He's sarcastic, hot-headed and intelligent.  He can't help but attract the limelight, just because of who he's related to -- though his heart-throb good looks don't hurt, either.

Both have been accepted to as first years to Academy 7, the most prestigious school in the Alliance.  Except for their Dangerous Secrets, they have nothing in common...

Sorry.  I really did enjoy this one -- we don't get a lot of boarding school/sci-fi romances in the YA section, sadly -- but the basic plot is just tailor-made for Movie Trailer Voice. 

I do suspect that if I'd picked the book up on a grouchy day, my feelings would have been vastly different.  When Dane was introduced as a Young Hot Head Arrested for Disregarding Orders From A Superior Officer in Order to Rescue a Man From a Forest Fire, I could almost hear the Top Gun theme -- and then when that scene was followed up by this dialogue:

"You know you've been fired, right?"  Pete growled.

Dane shrugged.  Firefighting was not exactly his dream job.  He knew better than to dream.  (page 22)

That told me that Dane was going to be a Tortured Soul on top of everything else, and that would just make it all the better.  (Like an action hero version of Logan Echolls.)

I was a bit surprised that way out in future space, brown skin would be considered "exotic", especially given that before her father's death, Aerin had traveled quite a lot and (one would assume) seen sights much more "exotic" than page 34's "exotic young woman about Aerin's age sat perched, one leg crossed over the other, on the corner of a table.  Olive-brown skin gleamed at her throat where she had failed to secure the top top buttons of her uniform, and the girl's black eyes glittered at the shimmering image cast upon the wall."  I dunno.  That annoyed me.  But, to be fair, I only met Aerin during her escape, so it isn't like I really know all that much about her life before Academy 7. 

Anyway.  Mean girls, romance, family troubles, long-kept secrets, children attempting to fix the mistakes of their parents, being on the outside looking in, being on the inside desperate to get out.  We've all read the Squabble Squabble to Hate to Shared Detention to Tentative Friendship to Misunderstanding and Big Fight to Make Up to Lurrrve and Smoochies storyline, but it works for a reason.  There weren't any real surprises, and it was had a pretty high cheese factor, but that can be satisfying sometimes.  And I happened to read it on the right day.

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Book source:  My local library.

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