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!

A very timely book about the lengths parents will go to in order to insure their children get into what they see as the perfect college. I appreciated the sides it showed of other kids who truly worked hard and earned those spots and their reactions. It also made me realize that likely the kids had some idea that something was going on, even if they didn’t know the extremes. Very well written!

Once again Julie Buxbaum has a story with a believable story and this time right out of current headlines. It's senior year for Chloe and junior year for her sister, Isla. Told from the view of Now and Then, Chloe deals with her mom and dad who paid to have her SAT scores changed, her application faked to go to her dream school, SCC. While she legally innocent to the end, didn't she have to know something wasn't right? Why was her mom sure she would get in when the guidance councilor didn't see her having a chance? She loses her boyfriend and BFF when her mom is charged by the FBI. She puts herself in isolation from everyone. Mother clings to the thought "Wouldn't you do anything for your daughter?" Chloe deals with the thoughts of her parents thinking her incapable of getting into college. Great development of characters. You feel Chloe's betrayal and degradation. But pulling for Chloe to find herself is Isla, the strong, intellectual sister who Chloe felt ostracized from. Family relations are quite messy.

I enjoyed this fictional glimpse at the story behind the headlines. What if your parents broke the law to get you into college? A look at the life of a privileged girl who gets everything she wants, until she applies to college.

The novel opens with the FBI knocking on the door of a B-list celebrity and arresting her for taking part in a college admissions scandal. This fictional tale of "what if" takes a headline and gives readers a backstory into how such a thing could happen.

High school senior Chloe knows she's not the hardest working student, but she still wants to attend the college of her dreams, and her parents certainly want the "bragging rights" when they tell friends where their daughter is going to school. When celebrity Joy Fields hires a college counselor to help Chloe polish up her applications, Chole has no idea the lengths he will go to in order to do his job. Or does she?

This was such a fun read! When the admissions scandal broke in real life, I know I thought, "What the heck?! Why would these people need to resort to these measures?" This look at "what if" was a great imagining of such a situation. Julie Buxbaum did a great job of developing the characters of sisters Chole and Isla and their relationship. The family dynamic was an interesting "insider" look at how celebrity families might work. The novel goes back and forth between "then" and "now" adding suspense to the narrative; readers know what happened, but are intrigued by the how and the when.

Recommend to high school students who like some drama! It is also a good read for parents. This novel explores privilege and parental expectations among other topics.

Julie Buxbaum has given readers another great novel.

Chloe Berringer's life is great. Her family is basically perfect, she's going to her first-choice college, has an amazing best friend, and is going to prom with the boy she likes. She has it made--until, that is, she opens up the door to find a team of police officers there with a warrant for her mother's arrest. Her mother, who has, she finds out, illegally paid Chloe's way into the school of her dreams. And Chloe had no idea--or did she?

I loved Julie Buxbaum's exploration of privilege and Chloe's culpability. At what point, despite not really knowing what was going on (though she had a fairly good idea that something weird was happening), should Chloe have taken responsibility? Confronted her parents? Rescinded her application? Told her friends something strange was happening? She never did--until it was far too late, and she ended up paying the price for that, and it forever transformed her life and who she was as a person. There are some great side characters, especially Chloe's best friend Shola, and the story and all the characters felt incredibly realistic--and not just because the whole thing was based on a real-life scandal. This is absolutely a must read and a must purchase for most teen collections.

This book accomplished what I didn’t think it could: making me have a little sympathy for the people involved in the college admissions scandal. Don’t get me wrong, these people are still incredibly annoying at times. However, as any good book does, it presents the characters in a complex situation reacting in a very complex and human ways. It’s hard not to have sympathy.

However, that doesn’t mean that I loved the book. I felt like the supporting characters were very flat. Shola (the main character’s best friend), Levi (her boyfriend), Cesar (the boy she tutors): all of these people seem to highlight personality traits of the main character rather than having lives of their own. I also didn’t really like the narrative voice in the story. The main character is not super smart. She struggles on her SATs and can’t seem to get into any college. Therefore, the eloquence of the narrative is jarring since it doesn’t always seem to be authentic to the character. I also felt like the structure of the book got tedious. You could see where everything was headed. The alternating chapters between the past and the present, then, became very predictable. Finally, the epiphanies that some characters experienced seemed very sudden. Their realizations were spelled out in speeches that they gave, which seemed a bit heavy-handed, even for a YA book.

Still, this was an interesting look at the college admissions scandal. It made me see things from another perspective, which is some thing that I always appreciate in a book. I can see teenagers enjoying this book, especially since it’s told from a teenager’s point of view. Some of the themes are ones that teens could relate to: the fear of disappointing your parents, the importance of friends, finding yourself, and forging ahead into the future.

After reading and absolutely loving "Tell Me Three Things" I HAD to have an early review copy of this book. I couldn't believe that I was actually lucky enough to get one, so thank you, Netgalley, and Random House Children's!

Julie Buxbaum explains in the prologue how she was in the middle of writing a different novel when the college admissions scandal broke and Chloe Berringer, the fictional heroine, just called to her to be written about. Chloe is a senior at Wood Valley High School and by all accounts if you ask her, she's totally ordinary and uninteresting. Except her mother is a celebrity and her father is a venture capitalist, (I think, some kind of career that typically goes hand in hand with excessive amounts of while male privilege) and she and her sister Isla live in a palatial estate in LA.

This story follows Chloe through alternating chapters of Then/Now, before and after her parents are busted by the FBI for paying large sums of money to get her into the college of her (their) dreams, the fictional SCC, Go Trojans! Chloe is very easy to hate, especially when it comes to dialogue that she has with her best friend, Shola. who is incredibly talented and hard working and doesn't get everything handed to her on a silver platter. In the beginning Chloe is not very self aware, experiences massive amounts of self pity, and is kinda right in that she isn't very interesting. However, much like the beloved Alexis from Schitt's Creek, Chloe experiences a major personality glow up as she and her family hit rock bottom.

This was an enjoyable read that I didn't want to put down mostly because I couldn't wait to see what undercover reference to the actual college admissions scandal was made next. It was also surprisingly thought provoking on what exactly white privilege and well intentions can look like when you step back outside of your comfort zone and consider how your words and actions affect the lives of others.

The writing was good, but the concept got stale after awhile. I've already read up on the topic like a year ago, so seeing it rehashed in almost the exact same way with few changes lessened my enjoyment of it overall. Again, like in Buxbaum's other books, there was stellar writing. I wish the concept was a little more imaginable though.

I liked this book, particularly for the young adult audience it’s intended for, though it wasn’t my favorite Julie Buxbaum. I really appreciated the way she dove into the subject matter and slowly explored the ideas of entitlement, while privilege, accountability, and ownership, and I thought the alternating timelines really helped deepen that concept. I appreciated the political commentary and the discussion of undocumented immigrants and class/income divisions. And I related to the characters, who I found real and well-developed, and found myself rooting for them despite their flaws. One thing that frustrated was the way ADHD was handled - people kept saying Chloe couldn’t have ADHD because she could focus intently on something that interested her, which is actually a very common ADHD trait. Chloe actually sounded very much like a girl with ADHD - not hyperactive, but unable to finish or concentrate on most tasks, considered lazy, not living up to her potential, etc. Since the ADHD thing was a theme of the book, I really wish it had been better researched and more accurately presented. That said, this was a quick and interesting read with some decent meat behind it, and I enjoyed it and found it thought-provoking.

I always enjoy Julie's books. She writes with such a realness. Her stories will always make you think. Admission is a fictional story that is one of those "ripped from the headlines" like an old Law and Order. It is loosely based on the celebrity college scandal. What I loved most about the book was how it made me look at how the child , because they are children, felt and had to deal with it all. Chloe is so naive to it all and I really felt so sorry for her. I totally get why parents would do it, we all want better for our kids. I loved how the experience changed the family and brought them a closeness that was kind of there, but deepened. This is another solid outing from. Julie Buxbaum. I will sit patiently waiting for the next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Delacourte Press for an advance copy of this book.

This timely work addresses the college admission scandal that rocked headlines. You see what the scandal could have (or most likely) looked like from inside the homes of these Hollywood stars by alternating from past to present. This book further explores who is responsible and the divide between financial equality. Although this subject is interesting, it was hard to read because the characters were so unlikeable, which is the point. You do not want to justify this illegal behavior.

I realized too late that I am not the intended audience for this book. I wanted to read a fictionalized version of the college admission scandal, and am glad I did. YA audiences will love this. I loved the perspective of the student and her progression of noticing her role in this scandal. I also really enjoyed the wait the author chose to tell the story from before and after the scandal. Very enjoyable read!

This is a well written YA novel derived from a current Hollywood scandal. I didn’t really like any of the characters except for Isla, Chloes younger sister. She seemed to be the one family member with a clue and/or moral compass. The story flowed from page one and was an easy read.