Illinois, 1881: Whitsitt College sophomore Beth Carrington has two goals to fulfill by the time she graduates: obtain a medical degree, and establish a women’s fraternity, Beta Xi Beta, that will help young women like herself to connect with and support one another while attending the male-dominated Whitsitt.
Neither is an easy task. The sole female student in the physicians’ program, Beth is constantly called out by her professors and peers for having the audacity not to concentrate on a more “fitting” subject like secretarial studies. Meanwhile, secret organizations are off-limits, and simply by crowding together in a dank basement room and creating a sense of camaraderie, she and her small group of fraternity sisters risk expulsion.
In order to have the fraternity recognized, she knows she needs help. She turns to the most powerful student on campus: senior Grant Richardson, Iota Gamma fraternity president and the scion of a Whitsitt family—a man she’s only acquainted with because of her longstanding friendship with his fraternity brother Will Buchannan. Staunchly traditional, Grant doesn’t see the purpose of this women’s organization, but captivated by Beth, he agrees to give her a helping hand. What she doesn’t know is how many will stop at nothing to keep her burgeoning organization out of the record books—and who she can actually trust along the way.
As Beth fights for her beloved Beta Xi Beta to be recognized, she will uncover deep secrets about the college and those who surround her, and will have to put both love and friendship on the line so that history can be made.
Neither is an easy task. The sole female student in the physicians’ program, Beth is constantly called out by her professors and peers for having the audacity not to concentrate on a more “fitting” subject like secretarial studies. Meanwhile, secret organizations are off-limits, and simply by crowding together in a dank basement room and creating a sense of camaraderie, she and her small group of fraternity sisters risk expulsion.
In order to have the fraternity recognized, she knows she needs help. She turns to the most powerful student on campus: senior Grant Richardson, Iota Gamma fraternity president and the scion of a Whitsitt family—a man she’s only acquainted with because of her longstanding friendship with his fraternity brother Will Buchannan. Staunchly traditional, Grant doesn’t see the purpose of this women’s organization, but captivated by Beth, he agrees to give her a helping hand. What she doesn’t know is how many will stop at nothing to keep her burgeoning organization out of the record books—and who she can actually trust along the way.
As Beth fights for her beloved Beta Xi Beta to be recognized, she will uncover deep secrets about the college and those who surround her, and will have to put both love and friendship on the line so that history can be made.
My Thoughts:
Occasionally a book will come along that is not in the Christian genre but will sound too good to pass up. That happened with this book. Being a sorority girl myself (Sigma Sigma Sigma) I was intrigued by a book based on the first women's fraternity.
I fell in love with these characters immediately and found myself completely engrossed in the work they were doing at Whitsitt college. I felt for them each time a staff or faculty member put them down for being a woman. I cheered them on when they stood up for themselves in ways women today could not imagine necessary. And I suddenly found myself reciting the knock, pledge, and intricacies of Beta Xi Beta. Oh, the sorority life just draws me in.
The women who founded the first fraternity were truly pioneers of their day. They saw what men had and they fought and sacrificed to create a sisterhood for themselves. They worked hard, had to be creative, and were the utmost in risky in order to achieve their dreams. All greek women today should be proud of those first sisters and the way they made for each of us today.
This story is both entertaining and beautifully written. It touches on Greek life, college life for women, and throws enough romance in to make your heart melt. I loved every minute I spent in these pages and am so glad I gave a chance to a book not typically in my reading pile.
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