A review by lucy_rain_and_cupcakes
A Whole New Crowd by Tijan

4.0


Taryn used to be a thief, she has a juvenile record to prove it. Then she was adopted by a rich couple from the other side of the town, so she packed up her old life, left her old criminal family and moved in with her new wealthy family. If only life is that easy. Taryn's classmate knew about Taryn's past, and requested of her "skill". Then the most popular and powerful guy from school showed interests in her. One thing will leads to another, Taryn will soon find out nothing is as it seem, and she will be questioning everything. She will stop at nothing to find the answer.

A Whole New Crowd was one of Tijan's early work that I've hoped it would be published one day (!!). Although it has been quite sometime, after reading the new published version of A Whole New Crowd, I've noticed some differences from the old version.

This book is a young adult genre, which means Taryn and Tray don't actually engaged in any sexual activities until nearly end of the book. (I am not a perv, beside Ms Tijan doesn't write steamy sexy scenes. But I am quite certain the pre-published version was more in the new adult genre, if you know what I mean).

A whole New Crowd is combination of Fallen Crest High and Carter, you get a mixer of both series. Like Fallen Crest High series, you have your crazy high school type of dramas, then like Carter, this book have drugs and crimes elements.

Like most of Tijan's books, the "parents" in A Whole New Crowd were conveniently absent.

I thought this book started out strong, everything I like about Tijan's book were there, but then the high school dramas gets old pretty fast. Throughout the book Taryn was pretty hang up on her ex-boyfriend, she would keep going back and forth with the same inner struggles, which was a bit annoying,

When I first read this book (old version), I given 5 stars, and I loved it. However, this time around (new version), I thought it was good, I liked it but I don't quite love it. Mainly because the repetitive scenarios that can also be found in other Tijan's books.

I felt Taryn's character was too similar to Sam from the Fallen series. Tray's character didn't quite stood out for me, compare to other Tijan's leading male characters.

I do however enjoyed the story-plot, the "suspense" and the "twist" in the end of the book.

If you are new to Tijan's work, you should definitely pick up A Whole New Crowd. It's entertaining and Tijan's writing style is quite addicted. If you are already Tijan's fan, I wonder what you guys think of this book.