Book Review: 10 Truths and a Dare by Ashley Elston

 

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: May 4, 2021  
Description:

"It's Senior Party Week, that magical in-between time after classes have ended but before graduation, chock-full of gimmicky theme parties, last-minute bonding, and family traditions. Olivia couldn't be more ready. Class salutatorian and confident in her future at LSU, she's poised to sail through to the next phase of her life.

But when the tiny hiccup of an unsigned off-campus P.E. form puts Olivia in danger of not graduating at all, she has one week to set things straight without tipping off her very big and very nosy extended family.
Volunteering to help at a local golf tournament should do it, but since Olivia's mom equipped her phone with a tracking app, there'll be no hiding the fact that she's at the golf course instead of all the graduation parties happening at the same time. Unless, that is, she can convince the Fab Four--her ride-or-die cousins and best friends Sophie, Charlie, and Wes--to trade phones with her as they go through the motions of playing Olivia for the week.

Sure, Olivia's sudden "passion" for golf is met with some suspicion. And sure, her grasp of the rules is a little shaky. And yes, okay, a very cute, very off-limits boy keeps popping up in her orbit. But she is focused! She has a schedule and a plan! Nothing can possibly go wrong . . . right?"

I never actually realized this book was a sequel/spin-off of sorts of Ashley Elston's "10 Blind Dates", which I really enjoyed, despite me clearly not remembering anything. Unfortunately for me, I didn't enjoy this one as much as its predecessor. 

Personally, I wasn't a fan of Olivia. Her whole predicament of not completing her PE credits was just unrealistic, and it was selfish of her to push Charlie, Sophie, and Wes into helping her out to cover it up. As someone who wants to be a future salutatorian, you would think she would pay a bit more attention to her class completions right? Personally, as someone who has taken an off-campus PE class in high school, I was well aware of my class and my grade for it, so for me to be reading Olivia's situation had me scratching my head a bit. Another thing was how so many family members were so attached/obsessed (mostly her mom and aunt) with Olivia's personal life. The bombardment of texts every day got on my nerves at times, while providing comedic relief to others. Now for the romance, it had its cute moments, but overall I didn't care too much, but the ending was good, so it had that.

Overall, this book had some good moments, but it failed to hold my attention well due to the many disconnects that I had with the plot and characters. 

Overall rating: 2.5/5