Privilege by Kate Brian

It’s not fair. Ever since Ariana Osgood was arrested for the murder of Thomas Pearson, her life has been nothing compared to the luxury of how it used to be. So what if the Brenda T. Trumball Correctional Facility for Women is one of the nicer places she could’ve been sent? Who cares if she’s still allowed to wear her precious fleur-de-lis necklace because of her father’s bribery? That doesn’t change the fact that Ariana is still locked up for at least twenty years. But Ariana knows she can’t stay at the Brenda T. much longer; she can’t stand knowing that her future has been lost. And so she waits and cleverly plots her escape, because Ariana is willing to do anything to get a second chance at a life of privilege.

As a fan of Kate Brian’s Private series, I knew I had to check out its new spinoff series, Privilege. What I got was unexpected, to say the least. Privilege details the life of Ariana—once she’s too far gone down sociopath lane. And I don’t hesitate to use such a cruel word, because that is what Ariana has become. I could hardly feel as much sympathy for Ariana’s plight, as I did in the Private prequel Last Christmas, because the way she has become was so scary. But despite the psychotic characters, I found the plot to be cleverly executed with many twists and turns. Privilege isn’t a bad book overall; in fact, it’s a rather solid start to Private’s spinoff series. However, I would say that Privilege is as good as Private either.

Devotees to the Private series will probably want to check out this mere dangerous spinoff, as will fans of other guilty pleasure series. I recommend reading the first four installments in the Private series and Last Christmas, in that order, before reading Privilege, to better understand its background.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from Amazon Vine