Official Synopsis:

Sometimes the F-word can have more than one meaning….

For Cassandra Davis, the F-word is fraternity—specifically Delta Tau Chi, a house on probation and on the verge of being banned from campus. Accused of offensive, sexist behavior, they have one year to clean up their act. For the DTC brothers, the F-word is feminist—the type of person who writes articles in the school paper about why they should lose their home.

With one shot at a scholarship to attend the university of her dreams, Cassie pitches a research project: to pledge Delta Tau Chi and provide proof of their misogynistic behavior. They’re frat boys. She knows exactly what to expect once she gets there. Exposing them should be a piece of cake.

But the boys of Delta Tau Chi have their own agenda, and fellow pledge Jordan Louis is certainly more than the tank top wearing “bro” Cassie expected to find. With her heart and her future tangled in the web of her own making, Cassie is forced to realize that the F-word might not be as simple as she thought after all.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Review:

Frat Girl is a fun, engaging novel about a girl taking on misogyny one frat boy at a time.

I’ve had this book on my TBR for what feels like forever (it’s probably only about a year, but still…that’s a long time), and finally had a chance to read it. I’m just mad I didn’t read it earlier!

My college doesn’t have fraternities and sororities — it’s a small liberal arts college set in a residential neighborhood, so Greek life wouldn’t be a good idea. Still, I’ve always found the idea interesting…at least in theory (aka how they’re portrayed in books and movies, not the real thing).

Kiley has a really nice writing style, which makes it easy to get immersed in the story. I found Cassie easy to relate to; she’s the kind of character that you’d want to be friends with in college. Although I will admit, every time she got drunk at the frat or around other people that didn’t know about her project, I kept thinking she would accidentally spill all of the details, or that Sebastian would discover the articles she hid in the locked drawer of her dresser…or that someone would find out about her and Jordan.

The classes that she’s taking that are mentioned were pretty interesting to me too. I haven’t been able to take as many gender studies classes at my college as I would’ve liked, but I still love learning all about the topic. I did take an introduction Sociology course a few summers ago, so the terminology that Cassie and Jordan would review sounded vaguely familiar — not to mention information from a lecture directly contrasting the information in the textbook was totally relatable.

Everyone favorite secret Directioner, Duncan, ended up being one of my favorite characters. We get to see him transition from a jerky football player into one of Cassie’s closest friends. Even though Cassie is more educated on gender issues than most college students, she still has a lot to learn, and a lot of internal biases to confront. I’m glad that she’s portrayed as a real, flawed girl, and not someone that knows everything there is to know about gender issues, etc.

Some of the other supporting characters from the frat house were really sweet, like Bambi, and genuinely nice, like Marco. Others, like Peter, were difficult to figure out, and Sebastian…well, I didn’t like Sebastian. Jordan is Cassie’s love interest, and while the book includes romance, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as a “romance book,” because that’s not what the plot is centered around.

Overall, I really loved this book — it was one of my favorite reads of 2020. Make sure to pick up your own copy now!

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Stay tuned for my interview with Kiley about the book, which is being posted this weekend!