ncrabb's review against another edition
4.0
It has been a long day or a short night for U.S. Attorney Melanie Vargas. She recently kicked her philandering husband to the curb, and she's trying to raise their little girl on her own. As the book begins, the baby has an ear infection that has kept everyone awake long into the night. That's when the infamous pager goes off, and Melanie's boss orders her to a crime scene that is anything but pleasant.
Two high-school girls from an exclusive private school in the city have overdosed on what appears to be heroine. There is vomit and crap everywhere, and both have torn their clothes off as part of the freak-out that happens when people overdose. The incident happened in the home of a high-profile politician, and his stepdaughter is among the dead. He failed to follow proper procedure in notifying the cops, preferring instead to call a highly placed friend inside the police organization. Could he have saved the girls’ lives had he done the right thing? He insists they were dead already.
But a third girl was involved that night. She is the daughter of the building supervisor where the overdoses all happened. She's gone missing, and no one knows where she is. Her dad begs Melanie to find his daughter, and the adventure is on--an adventure that takes Melanie through the halls of an exclusive school into the seedier parts of a city teaming with drug use in search of answers.
Melanie wonders to what degree the third girl is involved. Things get even murkier when a visit to the third girl's locker reveals that it contains heroine of the same brand as that found at the scene of the overdose. But Carmen is supposed to be the common-sense studious girl. Why would she even go to such a party? Where would she get the heroine?
It's a pulse-raising race against time as Melanie realizes she may still be able to locate the missing girl; and if she finds her in time, she could save the teenager's life. But there are sleazy things happening at the school all three girls attended, and as always, it's about money and power and sex, too?
This is an edge-of-the-seat figuratively speaking kind of experience. The author's writing style will capture you early and hold you immersed to the back cover. I’m already looking forward to my next encounter with Melanie Vargas. Incidentally, I found the romance thing between her and an FBI agent or DEA or whatever he was just a bit silly and over the top. Still, the book gave me a couple of hours of real entertainment.
Two high-school girls from an exclusive private school in the city have overdosed on what appears to be heroine. There is vomit and crap everywhere, and both have torn their clothes off as part of the freak-out that happens when people overdose. The incident happened in the home of a high-profile politician, and his stepdaughter is among the dead. He failed to follow proper procedure in notifying the cops, preferring instead to call a highly placed friend inside the police organization. Could he have saved the girls’ lives had he done the right thing? He insists they were dead already.
But a third girl was involved that night. She is the daughter of the building supervisor where the overdoses all happened. She's gone missing, and no one knows where she is. Her dad begs Melanie to find his daughter, and the adventure is on--an adventure that takes Melanie through the halls of an exclusive school into the seedier parts of a city teaming with drug use in search of answers.
Melanie wonders to what degree the third girl is involved. Things get even murkier when a visit to the third girl's locker reveals that it contains heroine of the same brand as that found at the scene of the overdose. But Carmen is supposed to be the common-sense studious girl. Why would she even go to such a party? Where would she get the heroine?
It's a pulse-raising race against time as Melanie realizes she may still be able to locate the missing girl; and if she finds her in time, she could save the teenager's life. But there are sleazy things happening at the school all three girls attended, and as always, it's about money and power and sex, too?
This is an edge-of-the-seat figuratively speaking kind of experience. The author's writing style will capture you early and hold you immersed to the back cover. I’m already looking forward to my next encounter with Melanie Vargas. Incidentally, I found the romance thing between her and an FBI agent or DEA or whatever he was just a bit silly and over the top. Still, the book gave me a couple of hours of real entertainment.
literaryfeline's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.literaryfeline.com/2006/08/review-of-finishing-school-by-michele.html
ibeforem's review
5.0
Wow. I thought this was really great! I picked it up not realizing it was actually the second book in a series, but I don’t think it mattered. There were a few references to book 1, but this stood pretty well on it’s own. I liked Melanie a lot… She’s a smart, sassy prosecutor, but she’s not full of herself and knows she makes some stupid decisions. She felt like a fresh character to me, not the same old strong female lead. Dan is a little on the cheesy side, but I liked the two of them together. The attraction seemed very natural. I’m hoping we get to know him better in the later books (there’s four total in the series now). There’s lots of twists and turns here, and what starts out looking like a couple of ODs turns out to be a whole lot more. It’s definitely not what you would expect, either! I had no clue who the bad guy was going to be, so I enjoyed the surprise of the reveal. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes a good suspense novel, and I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. In fact, I may even keep this paperback instead of swapping it!
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