Last Christmas: The Private Prequel

****SPOILER ALERT**** For readers who haven't read beyond CONFESSIONS in the PRIVATE series, this book is best left unread. Details in LAST CHRISTMAS will ruin much of the suspense in the first four books of the series. LAST CHRISTMAS is a great addition to the series by Kate Brian. The story gives much needed background insight into Ariana Osgood, the Billings girl arrested for the murder of Thomas Pearson. The story begins near Christmas break of Ariana's junior year. When we meet Ariana in the first book of the series, PRIVATE, she is one of the privileged senior girls at Easton Academy. But in LAST CHRISTMAS, she is the naive, innocent roommate to Noelle Lange. Ariana is the good girl that does what is expected of her. She gets top grades, lives in the most respected dormitory, and has the perfect boyfriend, Daniel Ryan. Her mother couldn't be prouder of her. Daniel isn't 100% perfect though. He's incredibly jealous and protective of Ariana. At the Winter Ball, he torments Sergei, a Latvian exchange student, because he caught Sergei taking photos of Ariana throughout the dance. Ariana is to spend the two weeks of Christmas break at a ski resort with Daniel and his family. And Daniel is expecting her to have sex with him while they are there. They are both (supposedly) virgins, and Ariana didn't want their first time to be in a dorm bed. It's the final day before the school break, and Ariana has yet to finish an English paper. If she doesn't turn it in before 6pm, she will fail the assignment. So she has Daniel and his twin sister, Paige, head out without her. She promises to take a later train. But she gets sidetracked by Thomas Pearson. He has been showing up in unexpected places over the last few days. And he shows up in the deserted classroom building as she turns in her completed paper. In a split second, Ariana gives up fighting the electric attraction she's been feeling for Thomas. From that moment on, the snowball of her actions grows until innocent people start to get hurt. A snowstorm hits campus and strands Thomas and Ariana. Neither can be caught, because Headmaster Cox made it perfectly clear that anyone caught on campus who was not scheduled to be there will be expelled, no exceptions. LAST CHRISTMAS is the perfect companion to the PRIVATE series. Ariana's specter hangs over the entire series long after she is carted away for Thomas' murder. This gives an inside look to her growing mental problems after she becomes involved with Thomas. I believe it also gives a good basis for the spin-off series, PRIVILEGE, due out in December 2008.

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