Set in modern-day Oxford, Mississippi, on the Ole Miss campus, bestselling author Lisa Patton’s RUSH is a story about women—from both ends of the social ladder—discovering their voices, courage and empowerment. 

When Lilith Whitmore, the well-heeled House Corp President of Alpha Delta Beta, one of the premiere sororities on campus, appoints recent empty-nester Wilda to the Rush Advisory Board, Wilda can hardly believe her luck. What’s more, Lilith suggests their daughters, both incoming freshman, room together. What Wilda doesn’t know is that it’s all part of Lilith’s plan to ensure her own daughter receives an Alpha Delt bid—no matter what.

Cali Watkins possesses all the qualities sororities are looking for in a potential new member. She’s kind and intelligent, makes friends easily, even plans to someday run for governor. But her resume lacks a vital ingredient. Pedigree. Without family money Cali’s chances of sorority membership are already thin, but she has an even bigger problem. If anyone discovers the dark family secrets she’s hiding, she’ll be dropped from Rush in an instant.

For twenty-five years, Miss Pearl—as her “babies” like to call her—has been housekeeper and a second mother to the Alpha Delt girls, even though it reminds her of a painful part of her past she’ll never forget. When an opportunity for promotion arises, it seems a natural fit. But Lilith Whitmore slams her Prada heel down fast, crushing Miss Pearl’s hopes of a better future. When Wilda and the girls find out, they devise a plan destined to change Alpha Delta Beta—and maybe the entire Greek system—forever.

Achingly poignant, yet laugh-out-loud funny, RUSH takes a sharp nuanced look at a centuries-old tradition while exploring the complex, intimate relationships between mothers and daughters and female friends. Brimming with heart and hope for a better tomorrow, RUSH is an uplifting novel universal to us all.

The above is the entire blurb. I did not have one laugh out loud moment, but I did have a lot of uncomfortable ones. I noticed that the author herself is a Alabama graduate but set the story in Ole Miss because everyone loves them. Really? As someone who lived in Mississippi and taught in Mississippi, I sent my children out-of-state for college.

The characters were very superficial and the only one I cared for was Wilda’s husband.

I’m not sure if this was supposed to be funny but it came off as shallow and insensitive. The Greek system is full of racism, elitism and needs to be done away with. You are in college to learn, and the only way to do that is by interacting with people different from you. Generational Racism is alive and well on the majority of campuses. And to say there has never been a black house mother in the SEC is shameful.

I would not recommend this book.

Netgalley/ St.Martin’s Press  August 21, 2018