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Orientation Week by Ruby Vincent
Series: Breakbattle Academy #0.5
Publication date: November 8th, 2019
Pages: 186
Synopsis:
Welcome to Breakbattle Academy.
The first school of its kind where survival of the fittest is not a saying, it's your reality.
Ruled by those who are elite in name, beauty, and cunning; Breakbattle takes the war of the classes to a whole new level.
The next four years of my life will be a fight the likes of which I can't yet comprehend, but first I have to survive orientation week.
The Elite Class has plans for me. They will test me until I break, but there is nowhere for me to run.
Secrets and lies lurk beneath the made-up facade, and I don't mean Breakbattle.
I mean me.
There is something that I have to do. There is someone that I'm after. He doesn't know that I'm coming. He doesn't know who I am. But nothing will stop me from seeing my plans through.
Not my family. Not the Elite Class. Not the pesky fact that I'm a girl.
Breakbattle's all-boys campus is getting a new student. Don't call me Zela.
Call me Zeke.
Orientation Week is a reverse harem high school bully romance. This is the prequel and features language, dark themes, and sexual scenes. If you're cool with that, dive in!
Review:
Zee had a plan. She was going to infiltrate Breakbattle Academy by pretending to be a boy. Her motives are unclear but they are important to her. Important enough to deceive her vastly opinionated mother by pretending she wanted to interview students for her mother's impending book. Zee enters the ranks of Breakbattle only to realize that it is unlike any other school she could enroll in. Having been homeschooled by her mother her entire life this was her first foray into private education. She was lucky enough to make friends with the first person she sits next to during Orientation who also happens to be her roommate. However, pretending to be a boy comes with challenges. She has to manage her shower time to avoid anybody catching her without her bindings. She has to be careful about who she changes around. Swimming and wrestling are non-starters due to their uniforms.
Breakbattle Academy has a battle system in place. Students are tested during Orientation Week to be placed in either F, D, C, B, A, or Elite ranking. Zee was tapped to be one of the Elite freshmen but will she survive the hazing alone with the rest of the potential Elites, one of which Zee has a special bond with. But can the budding Elites survive the hazing and the trials or will be they be forced into one of the lower rankings?
The battle system was interesting but I really never saw how it was beneficial by an educational standpoint. I had a hard time really understanding everything that went into the battle system. I also wasn't sure why they were tapping potential Elite students and hazing them before their results were even in? That seemed to be jumping the gun a bit, but I am sure that was meant more to bond the characters together to set the ground work for the romantic entanglement later. I understand the reason for it but it was kinda oddly executed.
Zee was an interesting character. I didn't dislike her nor did I really find her all that intriguing. She seemed like a fairly cookie cutter like female protagonist. She started out naïve and innocent and then grew into her skin and started having a say and backbone in the rights and wrongs she encounters. But, I just didn't find her as loveable as I have other characters from books I've read.
Orientation Week is the prequel to the series and is required to understand the foundation of the series from character development to the battle system as a whole. It was middle of the road and wasn't something I hated but also not something I loved.
