I felt like this was a little too mocking of the situation with Lori Laughlin in our current events, I didn't feel like rehashing it.

I could not resist a book inspired by the recent college admission scandal. ADMISSION managed to be both a quick and entertaining read while also raising a lot of salient points about privilege and culpability. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and felt that the depiction of the family life of a lower-tier celebrity was very believable.

I was extremely lucky to receive a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

It's probably not a good thing when you go into a book expecting to hate the main character, but hear me out first. As you can probably figure out from the cover down below, this book handles the recent American college admissions scandal, where a lot of rich people bribed their way into getting their kids into good colleges (in a different way than the "legitimate" way, which involves buying new buildings for these colleges *eye roll*). Some famous people were involved in this scandal, including Lori Loughlin from "Full House" and Hallmark movies fame, and the movie of the protagonist of this book is obviously based on.

Anyway, what I meant was that I was ready to hate protagonist Chloe because she's a very privileged girl who gets swept up in the scandal after her mother is arrested for being involved in the whole scheme. Chloe is clueless - and that's a good way to describe her in general. I think I could have enjoyed her story more if I actually liked her, but I didn't. I would've been a lot more interested in seeing how her younger sister, Isla, felt, even though she wasn't the one whose college acceptance was bought. Chloe is extremely privileged, and she does learn about that fact from her less privileged best friend, but it meant that it could be boring being stuck in her head.

This book had two timelines, before and after her mother was arrested and the scandal broke, and I obviously cared more about seeing how the scandal played out. The past timeline might have set things up, but there was a lot of Chloe being super-oblivious (and it becomes a minor plot point), being in love with a dude I didn't care about, and generally stressing out about college. She was also so down on herself, which might have been super-relatable, but made for bad reading. I didn't want to listen to Chloe whining about how she was an idiot when she was clearly an average-level student, which meant she was unconsciously putting down plenty of other regular students in the process just because she wasn't a genius and had a 1600 SAT score.

The current timeline was a lot more interesting, but no thanks to Chloe. She spent a lot of time moping around, and again, while it made sense and was relatable, it was annoying to read. It was the scandal stuff and how her whole family was dealing with it that kept my interest.

Before the book begins, there's a disclaimer that this is a work of fiction and not based on real people and yada, yada, yada, but it's obviously based on very real people, albeit with a twist. That's what interested in, and if I could have gotten more of that, this might have been a favorite.

That being said, I did give it 3.5 stars, because I did enjoy and want to read it. I'd be interested to read more ripped-from-the-headlines books from Buxbaum, but I hope the protagonists don't irritate me quite so much.

A disappointing read. Last year's college admissions scandal motivated this author to fictionalize an account of an accused family's experiences. There were some valid points made about wealthy people feeling entitled and using their money to shortcut the system. Other than that, I didn't feel much emotional pull. Having so recently gone through the media frenzy related to the actual events, this felt like a quickly put together lifetime movie version.

Admission is a contemporary story that is as realistic as it gets. If you knew your child wasn't going to be able to accomplish her hopes and dreams for her future, and you had the means to assist--where would you draw the line?

How far is too far?

Bending the truth on applications about extracurricular activities?
Hiring someone to write your child's essay?
Establishing an IEP for a made-up learning disability, allowing extra time for tests?
Claiming a different race/ethnicity?

What about the inequality that already separates the wealthy from other applicants? Private schools, personal tutors, legacy contacts, life experiences--students lacking for nothing (most especially basic needs)--all going into the same pile as students who are completing alone reaching for their dreams.

Admission will appeal to anyone who has seen recent headlines about celebrities and admission application/testing fraud as well as the parents, teachers, and teens who have already played and those who will be a player in the biased college admissions' high stakes game.

This story isn't only about cheating, but also the pressure parents put on their students. It is about the influence of all forms of media on how we behave and think. It is about picking up the pieces of a shattered self-image and realigning them into a truth you can own.

First off, I was very excited to read this book after hearing about it. The storyline was very timely with the whole college cheating scandal. I guess I was hoping for a little more depth. I felt like I was just watching the news or reading an article in the paper. The characters were one note. I wanted Chloe to fight for her friends, she gave them up to easily. It was like she really didn’t care about her connections. It just felt a little to soap opera. The actress mother, the Beverly Hills family, the super rich private school, the half brother drug addicted, and the so called dumb California girl. I wanted more and this story didn’t give it. 😢

A "fictional" take on the Aunt Becky scandal.
What would you do if your parents paid to get you into college? Would you still have your friends?
These books usually aren't my thing. Im more of a fantasy world person but this.was pretty.good.

Thank you to the publisher of Admission by Julie Buxbaum for an early e-copy for review. I've read several books from Julie Buxbaum so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this one. This book sucked me in quick and I read it over 2 days. I found it really close in story to the the Lori Loughlin case and wondered if that was intentional. It was interesting to see Julie write from the eyes of a teen and how it is credible that a teen wouldn't really notice what was going on. I definitely recommend this book and look forward to her next novel!

Based on the college-admissions scandals of 2019, this novel follows the implosion of one family after a mom who can't bear to see her daughter attend a non-top-tier school uses an admissions consultant who cheats on the SAT and falsifies an application to get the student into her dream school. There's a lot of back-and-forth in time, as the author explores who knew what and when. All told from the perspective of the high-school student whose senior year - and family - were wrecked by these actions, this is a well-done take on a real-life news story. (Netgalley review)

This book is about a fictionalized character, Chole Wynn Berringer and her family, who finds out her famous parents are part of the college admissions scandal and that her dream of getting into a great university has been all a lie. This book takes a hard look at some very important questions such as why did her parents choose to cheat rather than let her succeed on her own? How much did Chole know and when did she know it? and finally, when does it turn from parents wanting to give everything to their children to looking out for and maintaining a certain image no matter the cost?
This book had my attention from the book summery but also the timing of this book. I believe the author took her time to develop a very thought provoking book about what it means to gage success for the wealth and privilege within our society. I loved the way the author developed the story using pre and post scandal chapters, in order help the build up for the ending to come together for a very satisfying ending. I thought the voice the author gave Chole was very appropriate and fit the characteristics she showed throughout the story. The author developed all the characters with depth and relatability to all readers. The pacing of the story was, overall, good, but seemed to drag at times. I felt sad for Chole to lose not only her best friend, but also her long time crush Levi. I would recommend this book to those readers that would like to gain some deeper insights into the college admissions scandal. I also am looking forward to more books by this author in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was a fun and engaging read that went quickly. The author tells the story by alternating between "then" and "now" allowing the reader to see how the main character's privilege cast a shadow over the factors leading up to the scandal. The topic of a college admissions scandal is very timely, but it was interesting to read from the perspective of the accused. The plot includes commentary on race, class, and privilege with comparisons between the lifestyle and experience of the main character with other secondary characters. Highly recommend to both teens and adults alike.

Another repeat author for me as this is the author to Tell Me Three Things, which might be one of my favorite books of all time. So, I was over the moon excited to see that she had a new book out. Plus, the story of a college admissions scandal was one that is a timely subject after the recent one with Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman central to those cases. So, I was more than willing to check out Admissions to see if it lived up to the hype of Tell Me Three Things, as well as the admission’s scandals. Well, while this one isn’t nearly as heartwarming as Tell Me Three Things (I mean that book honestly is in a league of its own), Admission went back and forth from pre-scandal to after the scandal to help lead character Chloe accept and ultimately move forward from said scandal. While again this book wasn’t nearly as heart-felt as my previous read from Buxbaum, it most certainly was worthy read and do recommend it.

I was so interested to read this book when I heard about it because I was totally immersed with the college admissions scandal in real life! Julie Buxbaum does a great job of writing this book from the perspective of the senior in high school whose famous mother gets caught up in a college admissions scandal. Chloe, the daughter, did not know much about what was going on until her whole life started falling apart in front of her. The story flips from THEN and NOW through the eyes of Chloe, who I completely loved and wanted the best for!

This book has good conversations about privilege, money, fame, and how that all ties together when it comes to parents wanting the best for their children. If you were at all interested in the real college admissions scandal, I highly recommend this book!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book before it hits the shelves! 4/5 stars.

I was so impressed by this book! I was very interested in the real life case that happened, so I was curious as to how this book would handle those different topics. I was shocked by some of the similarities between Lori Laughlin and the mom, but it made the reading experience 10x more enjoyable!

One style of writing I really love is when chapters are split between THEN and NOW. I loved how this book handled it all, and it really wrapped up full circle, with the last chapter being how the first chapter starts. It was such a fun reading experience!

If you as obsessed with the current “college admissions scandal” like I am then you will LOVE this book! It’s full of interesting details, characters full of life, and different perspectives. Yes, it’s fiction but it’s still not to be missed!!

A thought provoking story about privilege, complicity, and accepting responsibility. Ripped from the headlines and loosely based on the recent college admission scandal. Julie Buxbaum does a good job of humanizing the story without making excuses. As a Parent who has gone through the college admission process twice in a very competitive California environment, I found the story to be telling, compelling, and relatable. The public schools in California are extremely hard to get into if your child has a 4.0 or even a 4.4 it does not mean they are going to be a sure bet to get into any of the top colleges in the UC or CSU system. And the same is true for the private schools. It is a stressful time and as a parent you want to give your child every opportunity, and when the college admission scandal news broke it was not shocking. Unfortunate and definitely not right, but not surprising. The story is told from the perspective of high school senior Chloe. Chloe appears to have everything she wants she got into the school of her dreams, her boyfriend is the boy and she’s been crushing on forever, and she has one heck of a best friend. Then one day The FBI shows up at the crack of dawn and everything changes. It seems as though Chloe‘s mother a B-list star has paid her way into college. No her mom might go to jail, her boyfriend has broke up with her, and her best friend won’t talk to her. not to mention she is no longer going to that school of her dreams. Sound familiar?

The story bounces back-and-forth in time, before the scandal and after. Chloe was a likable character who I really felt for. She really got sucked up into her parents dreams and did not want to disappoint them. In the book she was really kept in the dark about what was going on. She did realize things weren’t really adding up, like how did she do so well on the SAT when she was certain she bombed it? And my heart broke for her when she felt as though it was all her fault because her parents thought that she was too “dumb“ to get into college. This was something these parents clearly did not think about. The person I felt the most for in the story was Isla, Chloe‘s younger sister. Isla was smart and studious and was definitely going to get into college on her own merit, but the scandal will forever impact her as well. I liked how the story unfolded, I was definitely disappointed in some characters, frustrated with others, but very impressed with some as well. Chloe did a lot of self reflecting and had a lot of growth throughout the story. I am confident that she will rise from this and come out of it a better person. I would love to see a follow up and see where Chloe and Isla are in a few years.

This book in emojis 🏫 ✏️ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

*** Big thank you to Random House for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Yup, this is going in my most anticipated teen reads of 2020.

Admission is loosely based on the college admissions scandal. You know, the one with Lori Loughlin, aka Aunt Becky (I really hope you teens know who that is). Now, I didn't totally keep up with the scandal because honestly, I had better things to do. But I was intrigued by the idea behind this book because it's a fictionalization of what happened.

So, told from alternating timelines (past and present), we follow Chloe's story.

Chloe is the daughter of hallmark movie superstar, Joy Fields. She knows she's a privileged white kid, but she never really thinks about what that means. She never thought that meant her mother would spend HALF A MILLION DOLLARS to get her into the side door of college. Most of the book is Chloe struggling to understand what this is going to do to her life. She doesn't understand why her mother wanted her to hire a private college admissions counselor, or why she would be given extra time for her SAT's at a remote location, or why she found her face photoshopped onto a pole vaulter's body. But she never once questions aloud why these things would be allowed for her but not some of her other classmates.

Parents are willing to go to extreme measures to make sure they are doing what they believe is best for this kids, but Joy never once stopped to think about the fact that she was committing a felony and could actually face time in prison. This is a story about a family that has always been in the public eye and screwed up royally. The circumstances surrounding them felt surreal and staged. There was no way this could be their lives. They had to hit rock bottom and I mean ROCK BOTTOM before they could begin to have some semblance of family again.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me an advanced copy of Admission.
Even bigger thanks to Julie Buxhaum for writing such an awesome story.

Mark your calendars, Admission hits shelves May 5, 2020!

I was desperately hoping that Julie Buxbaum would not write a novel that ended up making the reader pity the people who have been responsible for the college admission scandals that have made the news over the past year and I feel that she very much delivered. Instead, I think she wrote a great novel revealing all of the stories for the many different parties involved. While our main character is Chloe, I feel like overall she is an unlikeable character. She’s vapid, extremely one dimensional, and really only able to see things through her very small lens. I do like that she does seem to grow through the book and is able by the end to open her worldview. Her relationship to Cesar adds a little dimension to her. I really enjoyed the inclusion of her friends, Levi and Shola. While I feel like Levi is overall very shallow (although smarter) as well, Shola gives great dimension to the novel. I also very much enjoyed Isla and seeing how the entire scandal affected her (a completely innocent character, who had to deal with what could have been very unfair ramifications in her own academic life). Seeing life for Chloe’s mom was extremely interesting too, though I didn’t feel sorry for her.

I definitely enjoyed this read and would recommend it. It’s extremely timely and a strong read for today’s young adults.

DNF at 20%

Hmmm. This is a weird DNF. I'm sure most readers will love this book because it feels realistic and is a good fictional insight into the college admissions scandal. But my rage at real-life events/criminals were leaking into my reading because I was so angry at the privilege displayed by the heroine and her family. Not enjoying myself at all. YMMV depending if you can tolerate the MCs.

Thanks Netgalley for my review copy! This book is literally ripped from the headlines. As I read this book I pictured was Aunt Becky and her family. It was a quick and easy read, without a surprising ending. I did appreciate that Chloe’s friend provided the moral compass perspective in this book. I was satisfied with the ending and this book provided the mental escape I needed right now. I have enjoyed all of Julie’s books!