A fun fictional look into the world of the elite getting their average kids into an elite school. Despite the unrealistic scenarios I felt that the feelings of the daughter were pretty spot on ( )

*I got this book for review from the publisher*

This was def a rip from the headlines book. I also really did wind up enjoying this read. This book follows a character who mom brided, cheated and stole to get her into college. Overall I enjoyed this read. This book focused so much on self discovery. This book I feel was super realistic and really focused on Choe life. I like the structure of this book of Now and Then and also how the story explored who a villain and who is the hero in this story. This book had elements of romance but it was not the main focus. I really wanted to see more of some of the smaller characters talked about in this read. I really did enjoy Chloe as a character and thought the premise was super cool, but felt like the world was not as fleshed out as I wanted. ( )

*I got this book for review from the publisher*

This was def a rip from the headlines book. I also really did wind up enjoying this read. This book follows a character who mom brided, cheated and stole to get her into college. Overall I enjoyed this read. This book focused so much on self discovery. This book I feel was super realistic and really focused on Choe life. I like the structure of this book of Now and Then and also how the story explored who a villain and who is the hero in this story. This book had elements of romance but it was not the main focus. I really wanted to see more of some of the smaller characters talked about in this read. I really did enjoy Chloe as a character and thought the premise was super cool, but felt like the world was not as fleshed out as I wanted. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Press Publishing for letting me read and review this intriguing story.
This was a first for me by this author, Julie Buxbaum, and she was great. This was pretty well written and pulled from the headlines with the recent ongoing college admissions scandal that was in the news.
It was a different and unique story using that scandal in the news as inspiration about what it might have been like for those involved in the real-life scandal or what it could be like for those involved in that type of scandal. It talks about and addresses the difference between the rich and the average or poor and how they might react and handle this kind of scandal differently. There were a lot of different issues mentioned and addressed with this story between the MC, Chloe, and her best friend, Shola, and the differences in their lifestyles, access to things, white/rich privilege, and race especially between the two best friends.
There were a lot of things that I hadn't thought about as far as everything this could entail in a person's life if they were involved in this kind of scandal and how it might affect them as an individual, their family, their friends. It was very intriguing and interesting to look at things from a different perspective of what might have or could have been for the daughter of the mother who bribed someone for the daughter to get into college much like what happened in the news recently.
There is a lot examined and shown from different points of view with the characters in the family with how they might feel especially how the daughter might feel finding out her parents had bought her way into college. How this kind of thing could affect the family, their relationships with each other and their friends/boyfriends, and so forth.
It was a lot to cover and it was covered well and caused me to stop and think what would I have done if I was the mother - would there be anything that would make me want to buy my child's way into college, which I can't think of anything that would make me want to buy my child's way in, how would I feel if my parents had bought my way into college - thankfully they didn't because that would have been very hard to take or deal with had my parents done something like that when I was applying to college in the past.
Anyway, I digress, suffice it to say this is a thought-provoking and well-written story that causes you to reflect, think, and consider how you might feel or what you might do or what you might have done. How it would be different for the rich compared to the rest of us to even be able to consider let alone do something like this and how someone might have to reflect and decide on their feelings with if they were being complicit in the situation and where their moral compass was at in regards to this kind of situation as well.
If you've been intrigued by this college admissions scandal that was recently in the news, or like this author, or anything, this is a book not to be missed. It's cerebral and a bit deeper than you might think after getting into it but it's very interesting to read and think about what could have or might have happened the way she spins it with her characters experiencing the scandal in this story. ( )

Not bad for Young Adult; College Admission scandal put to life ( )