A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker

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. That’s until 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 dorky, very big 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 Amazon

OH. MY. GOD. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I flew through it so quickly and it was just amazing. It's such a cute book, but it has a bit of emotional depth to it too, which I really liked. My favorite bits were when Fiona and Todd were together; the zingers they throw at each other are just so hilarious and had me laughing out loud. I loved their interactions. The romance was also done really well because I wasn't sure who Fiona would end up with, at least not right away; that definitely helped me to enjoy the book a bit more with that small mystery.

Now, a few days ago, while reading the book, I went and looked for some reviews. I found one review where the blogger had said that they almost put the book down after 100 pages or so because Fiona's character was so self-centered and was being a bitch to everyone she knew. When I read that, I was shocked because I thought EVERYONE ELSE was being a bitch to Fiona for absolutely no reason, which is why I was looking for other reviews to see if other people mentioned it. This brought me to a question: Am I self-centered for not seeing that Fiona was being selfish and self-centered, and for sympathizing with her? Because I was seriously like "WTF? Why is everyone so mad at Fiona? She's not doing anything wrong!" Which, in at least one situation, I still don't think she was wrong and think her "friends" were being bitchy for no reason. Feel free to ask me about it if you've read the book.

Another thing that made me happy was the inclusion of a gay couple; it's very biased of me, but I love it when gay people are represented well in YA books. I also quite enjoyed a particular exchange that happened when this couple was introduced; it made me giggle a lot. I also liked Fiona's parents, especially her mom and what she did to protest the marriage course going on. The book has a lot of fantastic, memorable characters, but there isn't enough room to really get to know them and so they aren't developed to their full potential, but that's ok. The events of the book and the witty exchanges keep the story alive and well. This is a really good novel, and I can't wait to read more from Kristin Walker.

FTC: ARC provided by publisher. Amazon link is an Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.