Title: Diplomatic Immunity
Author: Brodi Ashton
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: September, 2016
When Piper Baird lands a scholarship at Chiswick Academy just a month into her senior year, she’s ecstatic. She finally has the chance to earn the prestigious Bennington Award – a prize given to outstanding student journalists that guarantees acceptance and a full ride to nearly any college of their choice. Chiswick is the perfect place for Piper to write a scathing and scandalous story on a diplomat’s child, and when she meets Rafael Amador, Piper knows that she’s found her scoop. There’s only one problem – she’s really starting to like Rafael, and publishing her story would only end up ruining his life and their relationship.
This book left me feeling underwhelmed, and throughout most of it I was very frustrated with the main character. Even though I understood where Piper was coming from with her intentions, there were times I just wanted to tell her myself that she needed to stop obsessing over her original story, because it was so obviously getting in the way of her personal life. Additionally, I found her “journalistic” skills and thoughts to be very annoying and inaccurate, as I myself am a student journalist and know that school papers and reports don’t work the way Piper thought they did.
However, the writing was mostly seamless and could be funny at times, and I really loved the different dynamics between all of the characters. Despite originally believing that some events and “scandals” would be bigger and more meaningful than they actually felt, I thought the plot followed through nicely, and the ending did make me want to read more. I would give this book a 6 out of 10 stars, and would recommend it for teens any ages.
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