A Match Made In High School

A Match Made In High School

By: Kristin Walker

When the principal announces that every senior must participate in a mandatory year-long Marriage Education program, Fiona Sheehan believes that her life can’t get any worse. Then she marries her “husband”: Jerky jock Todd, whose cheerleader girlfriend, Amanda, has had it in for Fiona since day one of second grade.

Even worse? Amanda is paired with Fiona’s long-term crush, Gabe. At least Fiona is doing better than her best friend, Marcie, who is paired up with the very quiet, very mysterious Johnny Mercer. Pranks, fights, misunderstandings, and reconciliations ensue in an almost Shakespearean comedy of errors about mistaken first impressions, convoluted coupling, and hidden crushes.

summary from goodreads.com

My Rating: 4/5

I was beyond excited to read this book. I kept stumbling upon a handful of positive reviews and couldn't wait to read it for myself. Thankfully, A Match Made In High School was exactly as fantastic as I others proclaimed it to be.

First of all, this book is super funny. It completely picked me up from out of my own reality and thrust me between the pages of Fiona's world. I love it when a book is super fun and entertaining and also allows you to forget about your own hectic life for a period of time. The premise really lives up to all the hype. I actually had to partake in something similar when I was in the eighth grade so I could in a few aspects, relate to Fiona and her fellow peers' attitude towards the marriage education course.

I really enjoyed the characters of this book, especially Fiona and Todd. These two shared the most amazing one liners ever. I loved their constant back and forth banter throughout the novel's entirety as well as their pranks. I also liked that the relationship between them didn't necessarily evolve into something cliche or forced. I really appreciate that Kristin Walker kept what went on between Todd and Fiona true to the story and characters.

As far as Todd goes, I did enjoy his development quite a lot. He starts off as this loud mouth jock and eventually as the chapters progress, the reader begins to see more of who he actually is. I liked that as the reader, my revelation of him also accompanied Fiona's as well.

A Match Made In High School really touches upon a whole slew of different relationships with an entire range of different characters which I thought was great and tied in nicely to the whole premise of this book. I also like how it stood up for certain stereotypes. There is more to the characters in this novel than the high school label they've been assigned. I find that in many YA novels, the jocks and the cheerleaders are usually these 2 dimensional evil archetypes that are only added to cause distress for the protagonist. With this book, all the characters are given good and bad characteristics much like in real life where we or neither perfect nor imperfect. It's something simple in this book that to me made a large difference.

Also, the ending and outcome surprised me. I'm used to having a general idea of how a novel will turn out and progress but not this one. What I had assumed previously to reading the novel didn't come true at all. It's nice to be surprised every now and then.

Obviously, I really recommend this book. If you're looking for a fun read that will literally make you laugh out loud, I highly suggest A Match Made In High School.
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Thanks again to Kristin Walker to sending me a copy of A Match Made In High School and thanks to Jessica from Cover to Cover for approaching me with the offer! ;)