S.A.S.S. Series

I found this book in Ollie's yesterday for $1.99 and loved the cover. I don't think it's the same artist, but it's definitely reminiscent of English Roses artist Jeffrey Fulvimari. The blurb on the back sounded interesting, so I bought it.

And now I'm hooked.

There are 13 regular books in the series plus one 320-page Super Special. The first book came out in 2005 and the Super Special ended the series in 2010.

Having only read one book, I'm not sure if the formula is all the same, but S.A.S.S. stands for Students Across the Seven Seas and they're definitely all about students studying abroad.

My protagonist, Cece, was 16 and in an anthropology program. Not sure if all the girls are the same age or if there's a range. We'll find out.

Obviously, the anthro program kept things interesting for me, but I've always been a fan of travelling in books. The BSC Super Specials, the Fabulous Five ones, the time the Unicorns went to Hawaii. I loved that stuff. So a book series where the entire point is travelling? So into it. I loved all the sight-seeing done through Cece's eyes.

As I figured, there was a smattering of romance and some brief mean girl shenanigans, but Cece's main dilemma is her family drama. She was adopted from China when she was two and knows nothing of her birth parents, so most of the book's drama comes from her angsting over that.

The book is lightly-written and a fast read, but also thoroughly enjoyable.

I bought a set of 10 on ebay and then the other 3 from another bookseller, so hopefully they arrive quickly, because I'm itching to do some travelling!

My only complaint is that these are decidedly Euro-centric. London, Rome, Spain, Paris (twice with the same character), Munich, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and Australia make up the majority of the series. Mexico and a Caribbean cruise represent the Americas, as well as an Australian in Washington DC in the Super Special. China is visited by the Chinese girl and Japan by a Japanese-American. No characters seem to be black, based on the book covers. No one goes anywhere in Africa, not even touristy Egypt, or to cool places like India or South America. Perhaps if the series had continued, we would have gotten there, but obviously I think they should have been included earlier. I am really looking forward to the Munich book though. I loved Munich.

I just hope all the authors do as well as Cynthea Liu. Four of them do double duty. One does London and the Aussie/DC Super Special. One does both French books with the same protagonist. One does Munich and Mexico. One does Japan and Finland. The remaining books each have a different author.

Further reviews as the books arrive! But if you want a pretty fun jaunt through China with a mostly likeable protagonist (she's wishy washy sometimes), give this one a read.