Ingenious!!
The Claiming is the starter book in the Rockwell Academy Series and, be prepared, you're in for a ride!
Stella brings together the second generation of two beloved series, Twisted Reapers and Club Mafia, and their endeavours in Rockwell Academy. If I could, I had a lot to say about this introductionary tale but, at the risk of giving spoillers, I'll just focus on some aspects.
One of the things I loved most was how entertwined our protagonists were with their secondary partners, all important pieces in something born out of Frankie Majerio's boredom and the fact that he has a peculiar interest in Cassandra King. So, what better strategy to catch a bee than setting the trap himself?!! But Cassie is not just a bee, she's a future queen one that rises to the challenge and strikes as good as she gets. Competitive, strong-willed, confident, beautiful she bows to no one but herself, not in Rockwell, after so much effort to get out of her father's protective/overbearing presence. Rockwell is for experimenting, to get a real taste of freedom and no one will control her.....unless she says otherwise.....
These two...provoking, defying, rising to each other's dares, baits and subtility, growing closer with reciprocal admiration, lust and something more, but it's not Frankie's first year or rodeo and Cassie had already been caught without even knowing.
Siri and Jackson made for a great pair and also a kind of source of internal conflict to Cassie and Frankie, between hurting her friends' feelings and wanting things to be the same and him worried about what lies behind such close friendship.
The Claiming, successful in its purpose brought another world of problems and, since Stella wouldn't have it any other way, an ominous threat no one knows much about, just that a very inconspicuous someone is on the prowl and pulling dangerous strings.
The narrative runs fast and furious with vivid descriptions, actions and reactions, inviting the reader to live vicariously through the events and our protagonists thoughts, wants and wills, energetically and completly absorved!