
Member Reviews

Was super excited to get this ARC copy as we enjoyed the previous book 10 Blind Dates. Sophie and her family were so fun to read about!!
In this installment, we get a book about her cousin Olivia. Olivia, her schools Salutatorian, is supposed to be graduating in a few weeks and she learns that she may not as the teacher of her off campus PE class did not pass her. She talked to Coach Cantu and agrees to help with a gold tournament for 4 days so he’ll sign the paper and she can graduate. She colludes with her friends to take over her phone and pretend to be her as her parents are out of town but installed an app on her phone to know where she is at all times (kind creepy since she’s about to graduate high school and go to college). This begins a fun time of boys pretending to be teenage girls and go to a week of graduation parties and Olivia works at the gold course. You can clearly feel her anxiety while she searches and tries to complete the needed work to get her extra credit to pass but in a quirky fun read.
This is a standalone and you do not have to read 10 Blind Dates to understand the family dynamics or what is going on. It was a super cute, easy read but didn’t hold our attention the way 10 Blind Dates did. You still get the quirky, eccentric loving family from the first novel. The premise is rather unbelievable: a meticulous AP student who ditches her off campus PE class and may not graduate….we just can’t see that, if you’re orderly enough to take off campus class to take another class at school then we don’t see you as skipping the class and not finishing it or not paying attention when the Coach clearly told you he wouldn’t pass if you didn’t do make up work. The other issue was that she tried to incorporate a romance at the end and it was a little too late and not fleshed out enough in the book. The book would have been a success without it.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review!
-- Staci and Angie

10 TRUTHS AND A DARE is a cute sequel to Ashley Elston's 10 BLIND DATES, and it brings one back to the kooky events of the first book. Very fluffy, very light.

I'm graduating high school this year, so I knew I had to read this book as soon as I saw the official description and release date. My senior year has been all online community-college dual credit classes, so my experience won't exactly be like the one in the book, but I just found out that I'll still get to do a smaller in-person ceremony, so it's all good.
Olivia Perkins is finished with high school and now looks forward to a week of parties before she graduates as salutatorian of her class. She doesn't think she needs to look back, until the teacher of her off-campus PE class informs her that due to a few absences, she hasn't met the required number of hours to pass the course and won't be able to graduate unless she makes them up somehow. The only available option at this point is for her to volunteer at a four-day-long local golf tournament and assist the school's golf team.
She agrees to do it, but the only problem is that her mom is out of town and is constantly tracking her location through her phone. So Olivia and her "Fab Four"- her favorite cousins Charlie and Sophie, along with Sophie's boyfriend Wes- devise a plan where one of the three will swap phones with Olivia each day that she's at the tournament. Whoever has Olivia's phone will show up to the location of every daytime grad party she's invited to, and have to convincingly talk to her mom, with pictures and all. And Olivia's mom is constantly texting, whether it be a request to see Olivia's party outfit or an inquiry on why she showed up at a certain place.
Turns out pretending to be someone else is easier said than done, and Sophie, Charlie and Wes are thrown into the parties themselves. And for Olivia, driving golf carts and handing out water might not be so bad after all when she sees that her childhood friend and neighbor, Leo Perez, has returned to town for a week to compete.
This was a concept I've never seen before, and it was really nice to see something new. Sure, there were a few tropes, like the "evil cousins" Mary Jo and Jo Lynn, or the "kid I used to know comes back and now he's super hot" but the majority of the book was original. One of my favorite parts was that even though a lot of it did rely on Olivia lying to her mom, there was never a #exposed moment where someone found her out and told her whole family. In fact, Olivia is the one who eventually comes clean, and I liked to see that she wasn't punished or lectured at all. Her family actually ends up being completely understanding, and there's an overall message of how Olivia appears to have it all together but still deserves room to make mistakes like everyone else.
Also, no miscommunication. If you're worried that there could be the miscommunication trope in this book, THERE ISN'T. I worried about this early on because when Olivia gets Leo's number, she saves his name in her phone as the wrong name, because she thinks the texts are coming from another guy on the team, Locke. When she finds out it's Leo and not Locke, she changes it to "L" without informing the Fab Four. I was never entirely sure if Leo knew about the phone switch, so I was hoping that none of the Fab Four would send "L" a confessing-feelings type message with Locke's name. That didn't happen, and that was the biggest relief.
And the parties are very realistic, with themes like pajamas, cupcake baking contest, old Western, and fancy tea party. None of the jumping-on-furniture, everyone-is-blackout-drunk, music-blasting type of parties I normally see in YA books. It's obvious that the author actually took the time to understand teenagers instead of just giving the characters her own dream lives at that age.
Read this book if you 're a teenager who misses life before COVID-19, or if you're graduating this year like me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this digital ARC for an honest review. An enjoyable story about the week between the end of senior classes and graduation. During what should be a week of parties and celebrations, our MC, Olivia, ends up scrambling to ensure that she makes up her missing half-credit PE class, to prevent being disqualified to graduate, while trying to keep her screw-up a secret from most everyone she knows. In the midst of her turmoil is her big extended family, her best friends, her worst enemy cousins, a golf tournament, a potential love interest, and disaster. Olivia has the opportunity to make things right - if she's brave enough to be honest.

I was really curious of this book, because I'd really enjoyed 10 Blind Dates. Unfortunately, this one didn't quite have the same charm. I enjoyed 10 Blind Dates for three reasons: the Christmas vibe, the big family that was front and center in the book, and the plot, which was funny. This book missed all of those elements: obviously it's set in a different time of year, which would have been fine on its own, but the family also played a much smaller role, and I wasn't engaged in the plot at all. Especially the golf aspect just wasn't interesting to me. I also thought the MC's mother was really overbearing and controlling and it creeped me out.

I enjoyed this YA story about a group of graduating seniors one or which finds out that she is about to miss out on graduation because of a careless mistake and her journey on how to correct the mistake. It is funny and charming with a group of loveable characters. I found myself wanting to continue reading about the trouble they could get into when they enter the college world. Sweet , fast paced read about responsibility, telling the truth, and family.

I adored Olivia and I loved getting to be a part of this big family again. Coming from a huge family, I appreciate seeing it in these characters with all the pros, cons, and cliques of having tons of cousins.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I received an arc of this book. 10 blind dates was one of my favorite reads. Just like 10 blind dates, this books is super cute. We follow Olivia and her amazingly supportive family. I find golf very boring in real life, but this book made me invested in the sport. I couldn’t put this down and I highly recommend.

I was so happy to read this novel!
The Messina family returns in this adorable followup to 10 Blind Dates, with more high jinks from the "Fab Four." This time the story focuses on Olivia, as the Messina cousins are preparing to graduate, she gets some terrible news. She didn't fully complete her PE credit and is in danger of not graduating. To make up her hours she has to recover the hours by working at a golf tournament during the week of graduation parties. The Fab Four steps in to help her by taking her phone to the parties and answering the constant texts from Olivia's mom. Will Olivia be able to keep up with impossible tasks she set up for herself? Or will it all come tumbling down.
LOVE!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of "10 Truths and a Dare" in exchange for an honest review. I thought the earlier book "10 Blind Dates" was the most laugh out loud book I'd read in years. The pages flew by as everyone around me wondered why I was cackling to myself. So yeah, I had high hopes for this new book. And it was a good book! Olivia was a strong narrator and I loved getting to visit her wild, extended family again. Seeing Sophie from the first book was fun too. My problem was that I didn't find this one funny at all, and because I expected it to be that was a bummer. The whole golf course plot wasn't very interesting. The main idea of not graduating due to a PE class had tons of possibilities but it didn't play out well. I think the funniest bits were supposed to be her cousins/friends covering for her at the parties she was missing to make up the the PE credit but not so much. It was still a fun book to read but nothing stood out. Ashley Elston is a strong author though and some of her books rank among my all time favorites. There is potential here with a few other cousins for more books. Hopefully they will hit the mark just a bit better.

I REALLY enjoy Ashley Elston. Like, cannot wait to get my hands on anything with her name on it. First came the thrillers, This is Our Story and The Lying Woods. Then I fell in love with the world of Sophie and her crazy family in 10 Blind Dates. Well, that crazy loveable family is back in 10 Truths and a Dare, but this story belongs to Olivia.
Olivia is getting ready to finally graduate high school when she finds out...it might not be that simple. Despite being class salutatorian and already accepted into her dream school, somehow along the way Olivia simply forgot to take care of a simple PE form. Unfortunately, that slip up means that drastic measures need to be taken in order for Olivia to walk with her class at graduation. Goodbye senior graduation parties, hello golf course. How can Olivia balance it all, from the parties and friends, to her mom wanting every detail as it happens, to her struggle to keep up with the demands of the golf tournament?
This was a really cute, quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Please sign me up for anything written by Ashley Elston!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed 10 Blind Dates so when I saw that this book had the same characters I knew that I was going to like it. This book was cute and fun and made me miss the time around my high school graduation when we were having a ton of parties and enjoying being a senior. I also liked that we got to see how Sophie, Wes Charlie and Olivia had progressed since we left them at the end of 10 Blind Dates. Overall an enjoyable read.

I never actually realized this book was a sequel/spin-off of sorts of Ashley Elston's "10 Blind Dates", which I really enjoyed, despite me clearly not remembering anything. Unfortunately for me, I didn't enjoy this one as much as its predecessor.
Personally, I wasn't a fan of Olivia. Her whole predicament of not completing her PE credits was just unrealistic, and it was selfish of her to push Charlie, Sophie, and Wes into helping her out to cover it up. As someone who wants to be a future salutatorian, you would think she would pay a bit more attention to her class completions right? Personally, as someone who has taken an off-campus PE class in high school, I was well aware of my class and my grade for it, so for me to be reading Olivia's situation had me scratching my head a bit. Another thing was how so many family members were so attached/obsessed (mostly her mom and aunt) with Olivia's personal life. The bombardment of texts every day got on my nerves at times, while providing comedic relief to others. Now for the romance, it had its cute moments, but overall I didn't care too much, but the ending was good, so it had that.
Overall, this book had some good moments, but it failed to hold my attention well due to the many disconnects that I had with the plot and characters.
Overall Rating: 2.5/5

10 Truths and A Dare follows Olivia, who is cousins with the main character of Ashley Elston’s 2019 book, 10 Blind Dates. While you don’t have to read 10 Blind Dates in order to understand 10 Truths and A Dare, 10 Truths and A Dare gives a hug spoiler to 10 Blind Dates, so that’s something to keep in mind.
I love this fictional family so much, I was so excited to read more about them. They’re hilarious and remind me of my own huge family. This time, it’s about Olivia who’s class salutatorian and getting ready to start her future. But now, because of an unsigned off campus PE form, she’s in danger of not graduating. All she has to do to make it up though, is volunteer at a golf tournament. For that, she needs help from the rest of the Fab Four (which consisted of her two cousins, Sophie and Charlie, and Wes, their childhood friend) since her mom tracks her every move, despite the fact she’s off to college in a few months.
Funny and sweet read. I’ve read all of Ashley’s book and this one is amazing just like the rest. She’s great at both contemporary and thrillers.I love this family and I would love to get another book following Charlie! Or even the Evil Joes. It was interesting to see another perspective of the evil cousins of the Fab Four in this book.
**Review to be posted on blog and goodreads two weeks before publication date. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this early!

When I first was reading the description of this book, I was like omg some of these characters sound so familiar. Then I realized that I was back with the characters of 10 Blind Dates (which I was so obsessed with)! I was so excited to be back with this family, I love the closeness they share. It reminds of my family! I absolutely loved this light and fluffy book. It took me back to when I was a senior and all the fun stuff seniors get to do! I really recommend this to everyone but make sure you read 10 Blind Dates first!
Thank you so much NetGalley for this arc!

While it’s been many (undisclosed) years since I graduated from high school, I do remember the excitement and the stress in the days leading up to it. 10 truths and a dare captures those moments spectacularly.
I enjoyed the hijinks and problem solving that teenagers tend to get themselves into but as a mom I kept saying “just tell your parents!” Though honestly it was probably for the best as they were all going to be on their own soon and needed to solve things themselves.

This was a wonderful and rare satisfying YA read! I thought the premise was awesome when I first read it, and the cover is attractive, but wow at the story and overall writing style. I have to say, this book impressed me as I was not expecting much, but it ended up being a really great and fun read. While it seems unrealistic and unachievable, it is fun to imagine or pretend. I presume this could be great for pandemic high schoolers who did not get this experience and want a sense of escapism.

This is my first book on NetGalley. I was scrolling through and stopped when I saw the cute cover and gasped when I saw Ashley Elston wrote it. I read 10 Blind Dates last year and it quickly jumped to one of my top favorite books ever. So, thank you so much to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for an early peek!
From the description, I had no idea it was going to be a continuation of the world I already loved in 10 Blind Dates. I didn't put two and two together that Olivia was Sophie's cousin until I started reading. LOVED that. However, I don't think I loved Olivia as a character as much as I loved Sophie. And if I can remember back, Olivia seemed like a cooler character in 10 Blind Dates than she was in her own book.
Similar to 10 Blind Dates, this book spans over about a week - the week between the end of school and graduation where everyone has fun, themed parties to celebrate the graduates (memo to myself, why didn't I do this?). That part of the book is super fun. Ashley Elston makes you feel like you are right there in the middle of the party, I love the fun youthful way that she writes.
I also really love their large family. There are several moments throughout when you get a glimpse of what it's like to be in their family and even though they have problems like any other family, you still would kill to be a part of it.
There are a few things in the book that are weird. - There's a lot of repetition about Nonna being able to sniff things out, or about not wanting Nonna to know about her relationship status. - The fact that her mom is tracking her phone is super weird. - The scavenger hunt party sounds amazing and the Instagram aspect has me already wanting to plan something similar but I'm confused about the purpose of putting in a 20 item list when we don't really then go through the motions of checking off each item. I think this would make a good book on its own and I think the idea is super cute and maybe Ashley Elston just wanted to be able to put the idea out there, but it felt very unnecessary.
And then we get to the biggest problem, the whole plot of the book. It is just too unrealistic. There is no way a school would let that happen, there is no way a girl as Type A as Olivia would let that happen. And it makes no sense that she wouldn't just explain it to her parents and have them take care of it or at least try to help. It made the book hard to swallow and is what ultimately brought the rating down so much for me. I adore these characters and the writing but every chapter I was eye-rolling about thee big problem because it was so hard to take seriously. And the fact that she barely learned from it? This girl continued to show up late??? There's just no way.
All in all I love this world and was so happy to get to read about another piece of it. I cried at the ending like the baby I am and I just wanted to give the book a hug. I really did love it but I just can't ignore the plot problem.
Definitely read this because it's fun and sweet in all the right ways, especially if you read 10 Blind Dates. Just know, unfortunately, isn't quite as good.

TBH when I requested this ARC, I didn't realize it was the sequel to 10 Blind Dates. What a great surprise! I really enjoyed 10 Blind Dates, so continuing with Olivia's story was a treat.
My favorite part of these books is the positive family dynamic. It makes me long for extended family dinners (in the Before Time). Great YA read!

I almost DNF'd this book because while I loved the idea of the plot, I failed to connect with Olivia and the overall plot. Some of the parts just seemed a little far fetched - I taught seniors for many years and if they're going to fail a class and be prevented from graduation, they're notified WELL in advance of the graduation ceremony. And as the teacher, I never would've been able to NOT contact my student to tell them they were failing. I also would've had to contact parents. Multiple times, if the student keeps failing. And the fact that Olivia was portrayed as this straight laced, straight A student, type A personality who has every second of her life planned out, but then she shows up late constantly to PE? And just misses classes? Why? I needed to have something more from Olivia to explain it. (For Pete's sake, it could've been as simple as her not seeing the value of PE in her education, which was how I was as a kid.)
The mom tracking Olivia's every move also came across as weird and too much. I know there are parents out there like this (I've taught many of their students), but it was just...a lot.
There are so. many. characters. that I had a hard time keeping track of who was who at first. I had to go back and reread some of the intros just to make sure I had it right. And some of the characters were made to feel like more secondary-main characters but then weren't developed or were just...forgotten about. (Did I miss why we hate Locke? Did I miss whatever happened to him and the girl helping Olivia at the golf club?) It was overwhelming as a reader. And getting their POVs was just too much. I didn't even read most of them. I'm sure that's where some humor was, but I didn't care enough or see the value in moving the plot along enough to read it. I was already confused enough by the characters that reading different POVs would've confused me so much I really would have DNF'd it.
The pacing felt really off - like it dragged when it didn't need to and rambled on and on about things that I personally felt like could've been shortened. I guess I'm just used to YA that's quick, easy, and fast paced with the inner dialogues. But then also, maybe there wasn't enough tension and drama in the first 150 pages? I'm not sure. Just something didn't work for me.
On the one hand, I liked that the romance was more of a subplot, but I also didn't think it was compelling. Leo is introduced and then there isn't a whole lot given about him. He used to live down the street. He's friends with the Evil Joes. And then he's just hitting on Olivia. I didn't understand why even though I thought their interacts and blooming romance was cute. But that's all it was: cute. Nothing more to describe it. It was very much the backseat, like I mentioned, and a little rushed. Which, I will say, is true to high school romance.
I loved the party scenes. I thought they were great, written really well, and sounded super realistic.
This book was okay. I would recommend it for my high school students.