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Ambitious (Premiere High #1)

3.0 of 5 stars 3.00 · rating details · 49 ratings · 18 reviews

There's only one thing tougher than getting in to Premiere High: Staying inAt Premiere School of the Performing Arts, nicknamed Premiere High, talent is a must and competition is fierce. But the payoff is worth it. Some of the biggest stars in music, movies and dance are on the alumni list. New student Marisol Garcia dreams of taking her place among them one day. And bein...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by Harlequin Kimani

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Oct 23, 2011 Paula Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a fan of all those Dancing Flicks, the ones where they audition and then they don't get in and then along the way something happens and they are given a second shot and make it . I love them from Step Up trilogy to Centre Stage Duo to Make it Happen and Burlesque. Ambitious read a bit between Britannia High, Step Up and Fame. In Ambitious we meet Mari aka Marisol, her passion since she could remember was dancing her Mexican-American butt off , she lives for it and when she's offered the chanc...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Melanie Goodman added it

Mari (short for Marisol) achieves her dream of getting into the dance program at Premiere High School, a special school for performing arts, but quickly discovers that she won’t be able to rest on her laurels. It will take a lot of hard work to stay at Premiere, and even more work to win a dance competition that would land her a role in a movie. Still, all of that is nothing compared to how hard she’ll have to fight to win over her parents’ and old friends’ support as she pursues her passion.

Mar...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Emily rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-releases

Girl gets accepted to a massively competitive performing arts high school and soon proves herself one of the best dancers in the school...and gets the hottest and most talented guy in her class.

Wait...that's not how it works, is it?

In Ambitious, it definitely works that way. Marisol is accepted both to Premiere High School of Performing Arts AND the top dance class in the school despite any formal dance training. A free class the previous summer seems to be Marisol's only actual dance instructi...more Girl gets accepted to a massively competitive performing arts high school and soon proves herself one of the best dancers in the school...and gets the hottest and most talented guy in her class.

Wait...that's not how it works, is it?

In Ambitious, it definitely works that way. Marisol is accepted both to Premiere High School of Performing Arts AND the top dance class in the school despite any formal dance training. A free class the previous summer seems to be Marisol's only actual dance instruction. People can be naturally talented, but from the first page, Ambitious flirts with snapping my suspension of disbelief.

Her love interest, Drew, also is far better than seems reasonable. With echoes of High School Musical dancing and singing through the head, Drew's not only a standout basketball star who's approached by a Georgetown scout in his sophomore year (after he's stopped playing ball in order to attend Premiere), but he's also apparently an amazingly talented actor who lands the starring role of Walter Lee Younger in the school production of A Raisin in the Sun. This is despite any acting experience beyond a Christmas pageant in sixth grade and an Easter play at his grandmother's church.

Marisol and Drew alternate point-of-view chapters as they experience the first months of attending Premiere High. They both have to handle family issues – Marisol's little brother is being pressured to join a gang and Drew's dad doesn't like his son giving up basketball. Marisol also has difficulties combining her neighbourhood friends with the girls and guys she meets at school in Manhattan.

Marisol is a likeable enough character as she deals with leaving her close-knit Brooklyn neighbourhood and expanding her horizons into Manhattan – and hopefully future stardom. But while the character is sweet, she never seems to have to actually struggle to achieve anything. She competes in a Dance America! Contest – referred in the book as the most competitive dance competition in the country, but Marisol breezes through to the finals in California while seeming to only train for the competition at lunch. Her old best friend is jealous over Mari's new school friends, but the issue is smoothed over when said old friend gets sick of the girl she befriended to replace Marisol and tries to make amends. She worries about boys, but they compete with each other to ask her to the formal dance. Without much adversity to define her character, the likable qualities seem mostly one-note and the character lacks needed complexity.

I wasn't nearly as fond of Drew even on a superficial level. His chapters failed to provide a level of character development expected from a main character, and they mostly detail his name brand possessions and trips to see Knicks' games or golf outings. I kept expecting some quality of self-reflection from him, especially given his interest in acting, but I was disappointed. The only scene where his character seemed like a human and a teenage boy instead of the author's conception of the ideal teenage boy was when his grandmother visited and talked with him about acting and girls. But even then, I was glaring at the page, annoyed that his grandmother is portrayed almost as maid – she comes by every week or so to clean Drew and his father's apartment, do their laundry, and cook for them. I wanted to shake the boy and ask if he really was sitting there letting his elderly grandma scrub his toilet.

I had high hopes for Ambitious. I've such a soft spot for stories a) about boarding schools/exclusive schools and b) about theatre or dance, and this one seemed to hit all those points. The synopsis and promise of a future series set at a Manhattan performing arts high school sounded like it could be really interesting and full of the backstabbing drama that only really shows up in the arts. But until the characters actually have to work to succeed in such a high pressure environment, I'll be passing on any future Premiere books.(less)

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Aug 12, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ambitious by Monica McKayhan follows Marisol a latina dancer from a rough neighborhood and Drew a wealthy African American boy who have just started attending a Premiere, a performing arts high school. Marisol and Drew both have to navigate this new world and deal with families and friends who do not understand why they gave up their normal lives and schools to attend Premiere.

This book was written specifically for reluctant readers and because of this it may not appeal to the general audience....more

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Aug 09, 2011 Elizabeth B rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a really, really hard book to read. From the very first the short, clipped sentences began to annoy. I think they are meant to be the random way in which a teen thinks but it was so stilted and unforgiving that I almost considered not continuing. The dialogue was very hit or miss as well. There seemed to be no flow to it and none of the characters ever gained their own distinctive voice through the novel. The repetitive “Premiere High” was almost too much to bear…any time the school was...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Bookworm1858 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011, netgalley, ya-read

New students Marisol and Drew negotiate the ambitious waters at Premiere School, following their respective artistic passions of dance and acting, making new friends, navigating academics, and flirting with each other. I loved the concept for this as I'm a sucker for "Step Up," "Center Stage," and other dance movies. But I was not very impressed with the book as a whole finding it lacking in plot and characters.

Marisol is a decent character. Her dream is to dance and she pursues that dream by au...more New students Marisol and Drew negotiate the ambitious waters at Premiere School, following their respective artistic passions of dance and acting, making new friends, navigating academics, and flirting with each other. I loved the concept for this as I'm a sucker for "Step Up," "Center Stage," and other dance movies. But I was not very impressed with the book as a whole finding it lacking in plot and characters.

Marisol is a decent character. Her dream is to dance and she pursues that dream by auditioning for the prestigious Premiere School, even though her family and neighbors didn't think she could get in. She does and keeps pushing herself in dance to audition for a dance contest that could launch her into the big time. But she's also caught between new friends and old friends. This all sounds like a lot of drama and conflict but it's not really. Mari easily gets in to the school, despite little formal dance training and easily secures a place in the contest without much training or practice. The friendship drama was a little bit more drawn out but in the end they reconciled pretty easily. Still she was miles better than Drew.

Drew started out okay. He was a star basketball player trying to be like his dad when he decides that he wants to try acting. After a few chapters, he is more fully drawn as an arrogant player who expects everything to be given to him. He's constantly assessing the bodies of the girls around him and using them; he's greedy, cocky, and selfish; and I just disliked him so much. He had little depth, being a pretty rich kid who never really struggles despite the attempts to portray him as struggling. He easily wins the lead in the school play despite being a sophomore with little acting experience. And college scouts are still interested in him for basketball. His biggest trouble is his shyness with Mari, the one tiny area where he has to work a bit but even there he displaces her date, pleasing rather than outraging her.

One other thing I noticed was the presence of various brand names that set the book firmly in this time (Justin Bieber is huge for the girls-I do not get that boy's appeal). They seemed to dominate the story: from food to clothes to singers. I noticed them so much more than in any other story I've read recently and I didn't really like that.

Overall: Flat characters with little depth and easy plot turns.(less)

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Aug 27, 2011 Isamlq rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-galley

Ambitious did nothing for me on any level. The characters lacked a depth to have me caring about the outcome of their story. My reading experience went along the lines of 'Yeah? So what?'

As said, the characters lacked a depth to them. Mari has her dancing. She's been admitted to a prestigious Arts school. There's nothing really that she has to beat... there's no big drama in her life except that is to win a big dance competition. 'And so what?,' I asked. I really didn't care about her.

Maybe th...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Clementine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, fiction, ya

Marisol Garcia dreams of becoming a famous dancer. Her ticket to stardom is entry into the Premiere School of the Performing Arts, aka Premiere High. She gets in and pretty soon is also entered into a local dance contest which boasts a film role as a prize. As Marisol struggles to balance school, dance, and family, she also struggles to figure out why Drew Bishop is so reluctant to be more than her friend. Drew’s got his own problems, though: he’s a star basketball player who also loves to act....more Marisol Garcia dreams of becoming a famous dancer. Her ticket to stardom is entry into the Premiere School of the Performing Arts, aka Premiere High. She gets in and pretty soon is also entered into a local dance contest which boasts a film role as a prize. As Marisol struggles to balance school, dance, and family, she also struggles to figure out why Drew Bishop is so reluctant to be more than her friend. Drew’s got his own problems, though: he’s a star basketball player who also loves to act. Both teens have obstacles to face in their quest to pursue their dreams, but they also have to learn to stay true to themselves.

Here’s the problem with Monica McKayhan’s new series of novels aimed at reluctant and struggling readers: she’s taken a good premise and has laid the groundwork for a series that could be both interesting and helpful for teens struggling with reading, but it’s not very well executed. While the concept of a performing arts high school is certain to appeal to a specific demographic of teens (this book is clearly aimed at fans of the Step Up movies, as well as the remake of FAME), it’s not very well-researched and therefore doesn’t present a very accurate picture of what it is to go to a performing arts school. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because there’s a lot that doesn’t quite work in Ambitious.

But first, let’s focus on the positives. McKayhan has presented a group of teens representing multiple races and ethnicities and coming from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s refreshing, to say the least, to have a group of teens who don’t come from wealthy backgrounds and a life of privilege. This is going to work well with teens who are sick of reading about spoiled rich white kids living on the Upper East Side.

McKayhan also does a nice job of presenting layered, complex female friendships. This is, perhaps, the strongest plot point in the novel. Marisol must struggle to manage her friendships: the new ones she makes at Premiere, and her old ones from her neighborhood. There’s several good moments as the girls grapple with where they fit in each others’ lives as they move apart and discover new interests.

However, the novel is also frequently too didactic, covering issues ranging from gang life to smoking to bad grades with a kind of heavy-handed tone that most teens are going to see right through. These passages are often awkward and clunky, taking the reader out of the narrative. Stilted dialogue runs throughout the book, but it is in the passages trying to teach a lesson or relay a message that it is the most noticeable.

The chapters switch off between Marisol’s narration and Drew’s, and while it’s clear that McKayhan is trying to hook both male and female readers alike, the voices aren’t distinctive enough for it to really work. Added to this is a smorgasbord of exposition and uneven pacing. The whole book comes off as awkward and half-baked.

That being said, I recognize that it is a series which aims to appeal to a particular demographic. There aren’t a ton of options for teens interested in urban fiction, especially if they’re reading below grade level. This is a novel that might work for those teens interested in the performing arts.

Ambitious by Monica McKayhan. Kimani: 2011. Electronic galley accepted for review via Netgalley.(less)

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Sep 08, 2011 Ellen added it

This book dealt brought up a lot of teen issues. It talks about body image, gangs, smoking etc. It also has the POV of our heroine Mari and her possible love interest Drew. They each have decided to enroll in an artistic school. The book talks about what they gain but also give up by choosing that school. I can see how this will make a great series. There are plenty of characters for each book to focus on. I'm not from New York so I enjoyed reading about the city. I really liked how protective M...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Rowena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review

After I read the blurb for this book, that old TV Show Fame went through my head and while I never watched the show, I remember that my older sisters did and loved it. I thought I'd give this book a try and see if it was something I'd enjoy.

Now that I'm finished with the book, I'm not quite sure what I think. I mean, the book was a quick read but I never really connected with any of the characters. This is a story that follows some students from Premiere High School of Performing Arts. Premiere...more After I read the blurb for this book, that old TV Show Fame went through my head and while I never watched the show, I remember that my older sisters did and loved it. I thought I'd give this book a try and see if it was something I'd enjoy.

Now that I'm finished with the book, I'm not quite sure what I think. I mean, the book was a quick read but I never really connected with any of the characters. This is a story that follows some students from Premiere High School of Performing Arts. Premiere High is for the gifted and talented kids in dancing, acting and music. Any of the arts, really. It shows what each student goes through while attending this school. Only the best of the best get in and only the bestest of the bestests stay in the school.

Mari is a dancer and new to the school. She's met some nice people who have become her friends but she's starting to realize that starting this new school is taking her farther and farther away from her friends from her old school and she's trying to juggle all the old with all of the new and everything is pulling her in different directions. On top of that, she's got a crush on a boy at school who is flirty spice with everyone.

Drew was the basketball star of his old high school before he transferred over to Premiere to go after his dreams of becoming an actor. He wants to hone his craft so that he could grow up to be a famous actor and he's really good at what he does so with his father's blessing, he transfers and his dilemma is trying to come to grips with falling from the ranks of the most popular at his other school and becoming just a regular person at Premiere. His father doesn't understand his need to become an actor as he's an athlete and sports is what he knows but I liked that his father didn't stop Drew from going after what he really wanted.

This book had a lot going for it in the sense that there was a lot going on and it was easy to follow along with everything but the overall character development fell a little flat for me and while I enjoyed it, I didn't absolutely love the book. I just thought the book was okay. The pacing was good but the characters didn't jump out at me and I know that I won't remember much about this book or the characters weeks from now. I wanted to enjoy it more than I did and I'm kind of bummed about that. So while it wasn't the worst book in the world, it wasn't the best either.

This review was originally posted on The Book Scoop by Rowena.(less)

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Oct 11, 2011 Kris rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, books-reviewed, contemporary

Ambitious just wasn’t the book for me. The idea was nice: I like how the novel features ethnic variety in the two narrators, Mari being a poor Latina dancer and Drew being a wealthy African American, and I like the premise behind the novel. However, it wasn't developed well enough for me. The characters are superficial and stereotypical, and the entire plot is too generalized and overly predictable as a whole.

I like to see characters struggle. While Mari and Drew, the two narrators, do have prob...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Rabiah added it

Originally Posted at: http://iliveforreading.blogspot.com/2...

This took me a while to get to, as the reading pile has expanded hugely, but surprisingly, it's not a very long read. It only took me around a day to complete it. I liked the story line and the characters well enough, but it was a book that didn't really WOW me. Unlike most books about the fine arts, this didn't really show the difficulty and struggles of dance, acting and music. Sure, they touched upon some points, but nothing too mu...more Originally Posted at: http://iliveforreading.blogspot.com/2...

This took me a while to get to, as the reading pile has expanded hugely, but surprisingly, it's not a very long read. It only took me around a day to complete it. I liked the story line and the characters well enough, but it was a book that didn't really WOW me. Unlike most books about the fine arts, this didn't really show the difficulty and struggles of dance, acting and music. Sure, they touched upon some points, but nothing too much that was like in Virtuosity or Various Positions.

The characters were well thought out and of course, very unique. The story is told from two perspectives of the main characters, Mari and Drew. Mari was the more dominant main character, as by how the story is mainly about her.
I found Mari a 'neutral' character. Like, I didn't find her extremely exciting nor made me feel like throwing a brick at her head. She could have been a little more interesting, but I generally had no problem with her.
Drew is the other main character and Mari's love interest. I didn't like him at all, I'm sorry to say. He's too much of a womanizer, to put it frankly. He kept checking out other girls, using them for homework etc. and then keeps thinking about Mari. Really ticked me off.

The supporting characters I did love though. Jasmine and Preston were probably the most interesting people in this book, along with Nico (Mari's brother), yet he only appeared in little bits of the book.
Preston I LOVED. I wish he'd have been the love interest instead of Drew. He's sweet, really funny and doesn't use girls the way Drew does. Jasmine actually had character. She faced a struggle, helping at home, had parents with low income jobs. THIS, people, is substance that is needed for a book. Can't help it– we readers are leopards, hunting down the more interesting characters.

Overall, this book is great if you want a short story to read about the "lighter" side to the life of a student (or two) and their problems in the fine arts.(less)

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Sep 01, 2011 Harlequin Books added it

Shelves: harlequin_kimani_tru, 2011

Miniseries: A Premiere High Novel

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Oct 10, 2011 Angie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't dislike this book, but I guess it wasn't meant for me as I prefer a little more depth in my stories. The characters are supposed to be teenagers but are childish and stereotyped when they are not boring as they are one-dimensional. I don't understand why McKayhan chose to use an alternate narration between Marisol and Drew as they don't bring much to the dynamic of the story, which is to smooth. I was expecting something more thrilling, vivid like a literary version of Fame, but it's ju...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Jen (Almost Grown-up) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, young-adult

Full review posted here: http://www.almostgrownup.net/2011/08/...

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Nov 23, 2011 Elsa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: qp-2012

It's ok.

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Oct 07, 2012 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

I really enjoyed this! It was a quick, cute story.

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Jan 16, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Read if you like so you think you can dance.

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Mar 31, 2013 Davian Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

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About Monica McKayhan

Monica McKayhan started writing when she was twelve years old, always dreaming of becoming a published author. Finally her dream came true when her fi rst novel, As Real As It Gets, was published in January 2005. Since then Monica has written several adult and young adult novels.

She attended public schools in Kansas City, Kansas, where she played basketball, was a member of the pep squad and was o...more

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Ambitious (Premiere High #1)

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