10 Truths and a Dare

 Book 23 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on February 21

10 Truths and a Dare by Ashley Elston

published 2021

Summary (via the book jacket)

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 PE form puts Olivia in danger of not graduating at all, she has one week to set things straight without tipping off her big, nosy extended family. Volunteering 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 rest of the Fab Four - her ride-or-die cousins and best friends Sophie, Charlie, and Wes - to trade phones with her and 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?

My Opinion

4 stars

First, a note about the acknowledgements.  The author dedicated this book to the classes of 2020 and 2021 and talked about the bittersweetness of finishing this book at the beginning of lockdown in Spring 2020, writing about all the traditions and events of a high school graduation as her own son was a senior not able to experience these things.  I also had a 2020 graduate and can remember very vividly the delays turning into cancellations and trying to navigate those emotions.

On to the book itself.  One of my kids read it in a day after checking it out from the library and she gave it to me thinking I would read it quickly as well.  I definitely did, also reading it in a few hours, but I have to say that if she hadn't been pushing me along, I probably wouldn't have picked this book for myself.  I have a low tolerance for situations getting out of hand unnecessarily so I had to keep asking her, "does this level out? is it going to be okay? am I going to be mad?"  She reassured me that it would be okay, and it was.

So why the 4 stars?  Because even when I was aggravated I was still reading and I know I'm not the demographic for this book either in age or in temperament.  And I liked the characters and setting.  

This was a quick read with a "High School Musical" vibe, situations that felt overwhelming in the moment but with an underlying tone that it will all work out.

**Note: as I went to add my review on Goodreads, I see this is actually the second book featuring this family.  I will definitely tell my daughter about the first but haven't decided for myself if I want to dive in again.