ARC Review: Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton

Diplomatic Immunity

by Brodi Ashton

My rating: 3.5-4 stars

Source: eARC provided by Publisher. Thank you!

Goodreads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

Piper Baird has always dreamed of becoming a journalist. So when she scores a scholarship to exclusive Chiswick Academy in Washington, DC, she knows it’s her big opportunity. Chiswick offers the country’s most competitive prize for teen journalists—the Bennington scholarship—and winning will ensure her acceptance to one of the best schools in the country.

Piper isn’t at Chiswick for two days before she witnesses the intense competition in the journalism program—and the extreme privilege of the young and wealthy elite who attend her school. And Piper knows access to these untouchable students just might give her the edge she’ll need to blow the lid off life at the school in a scathing and unforgettable exposé worthy of the Bennington.

The key to the whole story lies with Rafael Amador, the son of the Spanish ambassador—and the boy at the center of the most explosive secrets and scandals on Embassy Row. Rafael is big trouble—and when he drops into her bedroom window one night, asking for help, it’s Piper’s chance to get the full scoop. But as they spend time together, Piper discovers that despite his dark streak, Rafael is smart, kind, funny, and gorgeous—and she might have real feelings for him. How can she break the story of a lifetime if it could destroy the boy she just might love?

****

Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton was a fun and fast paced read. I didn’t have high expectations about this book because one of my favorite reviewers *waves, Ari* was a bit disappointed by it.

But since I wasn’t expecting to love it, I found myself enjoying it a lot. 

Piper wants to be journalist. She wants to win a very important scholarship and she’ll do anything to win it because her family has serious money problems. So, she decides to investigate the DI guys at her school and write an exposé about them. The kids with Diplomatic Immunity.

To get all the proofs she needs, she needs to join them, and Rafael Amador, the son of the Spanish Ambassador is her ticket to their world of privileges. 

There was nothing unexpected after this. Piper and Amador flirt a lot. Their relationships grow and Piper is unsure about what she’s doing.

I don’t think the strength of this book is in the plot, because it’s kind of predictable and light. But there’s no doubt what I liked the most were the characters. I don’t know why, but I found them all charming, and likable. Some are bad, some are good, and some are gray. And I liked them.

I can’t say there’s a big romance, but I loved Rafael, and I think he was a wonderful love interest. I’d be in love with him if I was Piper, too. 

Diplomatic Immunity was light and fun, but it was very realistic about the things people do out of desperation. The mistakes poor people do (believe me, I’ve been there). And the mistakes rich kids do looking for attention.

I liked almost everything about this book, except for the fact that, even though Raf is Spaniard, he almost never speak in Spanish, and at least in the eARC, his Spanish was bad and it had some grammatical mistakes. I mean, I probably have a lot of mistakes here, but those typos from the book would be easily fixed. I hope they were in the finished copy. 

There was a line I couldn't stop thinking about when I read it.

This one:  Ahi donde mi familia es de.

Instead of: Ahí de donde es mi familia. 

I kid you not, this line sounds like it was translated by Google.

And I have to say it; there was someone in the book named Jorgé Robles, as in Jorge. You write Jorgé in a Spanish sentence and people LOL at you. I seriously did when I read it.

Most of the time I don’t care about these things, I couldn’t help it this time. It made me cringe a little, because Rafael, it seemed, lived in the USA for 4 or 5 years, he couldn’t forget his Spanish in those years, and I wish the author put more attention to this. 

However, Diplomatic Immunity was a fun read. I enjoyed it a lot and I’m looking forward to Brodi Ashton’s next book.