Book Review: Senior Year by Melissa Johns

Title: Senior Year
Author: Melissa Johns
Length: 228 pages
Format: Kindle eBook
 
 
 
Description from Goodreads:

 Avery Wilson was already accepted into her first choice Ivy League school. She just needed to maintain her grades and get through her senior year of high school.

Avery started to hear rumors that her best friend, Logan had developed feelings towards her and wanted to start a relationship. Intrigued by the idea of having a boyfriend and wanting to enjoy her last year of high school she decided to give it a chance but an obstacle stood in her way by the name of Noah.

Noah was the older brother of her close friend, Stacey and never gave him a second thought until she allowed herself a break for her school work. She was torn between her friendship for Logan and the passion racing through her veins for Noah.

Will Avery be able to survive her senior year, keep her best friend and follow her
dreams?

My Thoughts:

Avery is the perfect student and daughter. She makes good enough grades to get her into her top choice law school, she has an academic scholarship, and works a part time job so her parents don’t have to worry about her needing money. The problem is she has been so caught up in her school work that she has a mental melt down and her parents and principal demand that she enjoy her senior year. Find out what happens to socially awkward and anxiety ridden Avery as she suddenly goes from bookish wallflower to blossoming flower her senior year.

This book had the potential to be the perfect romance cliché and teen angst filled story. As a brief overview: sweet, smart, bookish, and innocent Avery has been oblivious all her life that she is a total knock out and her closest male friends are all in love with her. Her hot and popular best guy friend professes his long deep seated feelings for her. A few short pages later her other bff’s hot older brother professes his long deep seated feelings for her as well. As you can imagine…drama, self-doubt, and heartbreak ensue. I am completely fine with all of this. In fact, I absolutely LOVE the above clichés (especially love triangles)! The true downfall of this book was the dialogue between the characters. It was so stilted and stiff that when I read it aloud I laughed. I cannot tell you one teenager that talks the way these characters do or think of someone that is so in tune and rational about their feelings. I don’t know, maybe I hung out with the wrong people. One of the glaring things that stood out was the lack of contractions that would occur in a natural dialogue between your average teenage best friends. At 70% into the book I believe there might have a total of five contractions used. With Avery the other thing I didn’t think made sense was how someone supposedly that intelligent and that smart could be so naïve/flighty. I know that she is sheltered and doesn’t have that much social experience, but you can’t tell me she has never watched TV, read a book, and her other best friend is constantly dating different guys. She had to have been exposed somewhat to the ways of the world. I just didn’t like how every little thing would send her hiding, running away, or crying. 

The book wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great. I was very interested in seeing which guy Avery would choose in the end. I honestly really liked the male characters Logan and Noah.  I would have loved the story to have been from their points of view. They seemed like really normal and relatable guys. Even though this wasn’t the best book I probably will pick up the next one just to satisfy my curiosity and see how Avery grows in her first year of college. If you love clichés and a naïve proper damsel in distress then give Senior Year a shot. I give this book 2 ½ STARS.