ARC Review: Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley

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Book summary:

Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.
So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him.As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out. At any cost.
Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust...and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.

          When my friend Zemira read this one and couldn't suppress her excitement about this book it was my cue to go and request it as I knew I'd enjoy this one too. I did, which is not a surprise. But what surprised me was that all this military talk didn't bother me the slightest.

          Our main character in this story is Sam, who finds herself in men's world. Being raised in a military family it was a surprise and not to see her taking the same steps as her bothers before her and joining the military. A bit controversial move for some members of Denmark Military Academy but for some highly offensive. Even though she knew that the training and living up with high expectations would be hard for her, she couldn't even dream that not only military officers but rather her mates will try to turn her life into a living hell. Not only try, but rather succeed in that.

         It would be insane but not to admire Sam on her persistence and strength which she showed in this book. How even in the worst moments she didn't give up and kept going, fighting and going forward, never backward. Even though at moments it was cruel, it really made her stronger and fierce. But Rites of Passage is not just cruel and dark, but it has a rather nice romance. Which starts as a simple crush Sam has on her drill sergeant and grows and develops into a nice romance, which is persistent and fierce like both of them are.

        Only reason why I couldn't think of this book as a perfection is its ending. I really wish it was a bit more closed as this was it leaves space for a possible sequel which in my opinion feels unnecessary.

Rating: 4.5 stars. 

Until the next time,

*Note: An ARC of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, HarperCollins. Thank you!