Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

Enchanted Ivy:
What Lily Carter wants most in the world is to attend Princeton University just like her grandfather. When she finally visits the campus, Grandpa surprises her: She has been selected to take the top-secret Legacy Test. Passing means automatic acceptance to Princeton. Sweet! Lily’s test is to find the Ivy Key. But what is she looking for? Where does she start? As she searches, Lily is joined by Tye, a cute college boy with orange and black hair who says he's her guard. That's weird. But things get seriously strange when a gargoyle talks to her. He tells her that there are two Princeton’s—the ordinary one and a magical one—and the Key opens the gate between them. But there are more secrets that surround Lily. Worse secrets. When Lily enters the magical Princeton, she uncovers old betrayals and new dangers, and a chance at her dream becomes a fight for her life. Soon Lily is caught in a power struggle between two worlds, with her family at its center. In a place where Knights slay monsters, boys are were-tigers, and dragons might be out for blood, Lily will need all of her ingenuity and courage—and a little magic—to unite the worlds and unlock the secrets of her past and her future.


Sarah Beth Durst has an incredible talent for writing fairy tales and with powerful visuals and strong characters this book was truly a pleasure to read. I admit that the start of this book was a little slow to begin, but by the end of the second chapter I was completely engaged in Lily’s world. When Lily travels to Princeton with her mother and grandfather, for what she believes to be a campus tour and her grandfather’s reunion. She has no idea just how much her life is about to change. Her dream of attending Princeton after high school is within her grasp--and all she has to do is find something called the Ivy Key. Her quest puts her into the path of Tye, a handsome boy that seems to know a lot more about what is going on then he reveals. His honesty is questioned by both her grandfather and his mysterious group of friends, but Lily still finds herself believing in him rather than Jake, the boy named as her guard, after she is attacked on the campus grounds by a mysterious creature. Her adventure leads her to discover a magical gate that separates the human realm from a dimension filled with magic, and Lily is quickly plunged into a world where secrets and betrayal are waiting for her to make a mistake and end her life once and for all. As the truth about the tragedy that claimed her father’s life and changed her mother forever is revealed, Lily must use all the knowledge she has gained to save both her world and the magical one from being destroyed.