Review: The Book of Spells - A Private Prequel - Kate Brian

Have you read and enjoyed the series "Private" by author Kate Brian ? Ever wondered how the Billing girls began ?

Review: The Book of Spells - A Private Prequel - Kate Brian- December 2010

This book was amazing and I think that any true fan of Kate Brian's series Private will appreciate it just as much as I did :). When I first read that there was to be a prequel to the Private series , I was intrigued as I have grwon up reading the whole series and enjoying it. I would love to see this set of books made into a tv series as it's similar to Gossip Girl but in my personal opinion , I couldn't get that into the Gossip Girl books, though thats not to say I havent read them, just that if anyone was to ask me whether Im Team Gossip Girl or Team Private, I would go with Team Private.

In the Book of Spells we are transported back in time to the year 1915 , back to Easton Academy for Ladies - an academy where on the surface they teach you how to become a proper young lady and how to fit into the society's stereotypical role of a woman. However under the surface, is all that Easton Academy stuff we love to read about in the "Private Series" from Fashion, Boys, Adventures and Fun. When a group of girls led by Theresa Billings and Eliza Williams ,find an old treasure map while digging in the garden as part of their punishment, none of them realised the thrill, the excitement , danger and eventually death that finding the treasure would do to them.
Upon discovering the treasure, the girls realise that it is in fact "A Book of Spells " and the girls start to flip through the magical book. Upon discovering that they need Eleven girls to form a coven in order for the book to work , the seven of them set out to recruit much-needed girls by Invites only. To make sure that they are not caught, they call the group "The Billings Sisters Literary Group" thus creating the origins of the sisterhood of the sorority known as "Billings House" and why there are only eleven spaces allocated to girls each year at any one time.

The Book of Spells , also contains the first chapter excerpt of the 13th Book in the Private Series "Omninous" where we discover OMG Noelle Lange and Reed Brennan are in fact half-sisters and read as Grandmother Lange passes to Reed the Book of Spells as we discover Reed and Eliza are almost identical as are Noelle and Theresa in personalities.