This was as enjoyable as the first book in this series. I couldn't put this book down! The characters were fun while also heart-warming. The entire family wasn't as prominent in this book, but I liked getting to see the relationship with the cousins especially after the first book where they had to deal with some issues. For those that want the same format and feel of the first book, they might be disappointed, but I thoroughly enjoyed the format of this book and liked it wasn't the same as the first. Olivia goes through the typical turmoil I feel many seniors will be able to relate to, especially those that put undue pressure on themselves. All in all, I highly recommend this book for a feel-good, get out of a slump read!

Overall, this was an okay, easy read. I’m not sure I would actively recommend it but I also wouldn’t prevent anyone from reading it.

There were many characters with very little time to get to know them all. I feel like the timeframe of the story was too short for us to really believe in every relationship that was presented to us.

Also, the fact that the mother was tracking her daughter’s every movement was way too much for me. I knew about that aspect going into the story, but I never expected it to be so intense. Constantly texting and questioning how long your daughter spends in one place is a red flag for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Olivia was ready to celebrate the fruits of her labor. She worked tirelessly during high school and was ready to collect her rewards. Daily Senior Week parties - check. Locking down the salutatorian spot - check. Scholarship money for LSU - check. It was all going according to plan until she learned she never earned that final PE credit. Now it was a race against the clock to make up the class time she missed, while keeping it a secret from her family. Fingers crossed she and the Fab Four can pull this off!

My love for 10 Blind Dates is no secret. That was the book where I first met Olivia and her big and boisterous family. I fell in love with this meddlesome but loving clan and was excited to get back into their world. Once again, Elston crafted a sweet and charming story featuring family and friendship with a dash of romance, and I enjoyed every second of it.

It was shocking to see Olivia fall from grace. She was the one with everything meticulously planned, but by putting PE low on her list of priorities, her entire academic future was in jeopardy. Though it was easy to understand why Olivia didn't want people to discover her situation, it was exhausting for her, and eventually took its toll. Lots of lessons were learned, and I really appreciated how it all shook out.

In-between the hard lesson-learning parts of this story were these amazing parties. Graduating from high school was not celebrated with such grandeur where I grew up, but I loved the idea of these parties. They were all a bit over the top, and many had some fantastic themes. I don't know if Elston based these on her own experiences, but there were a few I would definitely love to attend.

Though I enjoyed spending more time with the rest of the Fab Four as they helped Olivia carry out her plan, I did wish there were more big family gatherings. My love for the Messina family runs deep, and I will take as much time with them as I can get. There were some great family gatherings in this book with the concert being especially amusing.

There was also a bit of an adorable romance woven into the story. It was an interesting pairing, and I adored them so much, that I wanted more page time with them. Alas, I can get never get enough romance, but I was delighted that there was an epilogue to give me a peek into their future.

This book had a lot to live up to, and I must say, it did a good job. It was wonderful being back with the Messina family, and though I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I had liked, the book still had the same warmth and charm of its predecessor, and it won my heart.

After I finished 10 Blind Dates and heard about a companion I was really, really excited. I knew I was going to be getting another great gem by an author I was loving. The thing is, I didn’t mean to read 10 Truths and a Dare so fast. When I opened the book I had all intentions of enjoying it slowly because I knew I was reading it early and it would be a long time before I got another book by this author. But then my love of this crazy family was reignited and I couldn’t help myself. 24 hours later I was done and left with wanting more. Because the best part of these Ashley Elston books, for me, is the Messina family. When Olivia is having a hard time getting a credit she needs to graduate Sophie and Charlie are there to help. They have her back and do what they can so she can do what she needs to. Does everything always go as planned? Not entirely, but that is what family is for. They are willing to look silly to try and help you out. And that is the beauty of 10 Truths and a Dare and the first book, 10 Blind Dates and that is why I truly hope we get more books about these crazy cast of characters. This is definitely a book you want on your TBR.

I wanted to read this book ever since I found out about it. I absolutely loved and adored 10 Blind Dates. I knew from that story, Olivia would be a great one to follow. Olivia finds out that she may not graduate high school in time since she didn’t complete a P.E. class. I didn’t know how to feel in the beginning since it made no sense that she would skip a class if she was such a devoted student. But then again it’s golf, so I can understand forgetting maybe some of the classes. When she turned to her cousins for help I loved it. Especially, Charlie and Wes’s turn with her graduation activities and cell phone exchange. My only complaint was her mom. It was too much information between any parent and child. And those texts became irritating instead of funny. Leo was a good addition to the story but as a love interest there wasn’t too much interaction between him and Olivia. The ending was beautifully done. Overall, this was a good story and I will definitely pick up her next book.

I received this Arc from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you so much!

I was so excited to hang out with Olivia and her family! I adored all of the characters from the first book (10 blind dates) and I loved them in this book too! The plot in this one is a little bit slow and the book is more character driven but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was done really well. Overall it was a light fluffy read and I really enjoyed it.

This book is a sequel to 10 Blind Dates but can also be read as a standalone! This story is centered on Olivia who has to secretly make up 1/2 a PE credit to graduate and be salutatorian without her big, nosy family finding out. This becomes even more challenging when her mom is out of town and uses her phone tracking to keep track of her and instead of being at the numerous grad parties she’s supposed to attend, she’s actually at a golf tournament to make up the hours she missed. What follows is a grand phone-switching scheme to keep her mom clueless and keep everyone believing she has everything all together.

This is a very cute follow-up to the previous book! I love this giant, crazy family, and it was nice getting to know Olivia more and also be introduced to Leo Perez, Olivia’s love interest. This is definitely a solid summer YA novel—it is filled with crazy antics, sunny golf courses, boy drama, and high school coming to a close. I read most of it sitting outside in the sunshine, and it quenched my need for a light and cute story.

I will say I found the plot to be a little implausible, but I didn’t mind it too much. 10 Blind Dates was a solid 4 star read for me, and I would say this one is the same. The characters get a little annoying but I still found them adorable and wanted to see them win. I am not sure if the author plans to continue this series, but I would definitely read more!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I couldn't finish this book. The premise was intriguing, and I liked the idea of reading about this large, found family, who is so connected, but the writing itself was a let down. I found the dialogue stilted and unrealistic and the choices the characters made were silly and illogical. I think this book had potential but it really missed the mark.

Oh, for fucks sake this book was so cute. I literally fell in love. Olivia was such a fun character to follow. She's just amazing. I also, of course, loved her friends and family. We already knew that group through 10 Blind Dates (which you don't really need to read before this but this book does spoil the romance of that book in case you're interested). It's honestly one of the best family dynamics I have ever read and this book really played on that well. I mean, family is less of an aspect in this book than in 10 Blind Dates but a lot of Olivia's motivations in this book are surrounded by family. Of course, her friend group are also apart of her family so in that way it still plays a big part but oh well. We also got to see quite a bit of Olivia's other friends and I also really liked that. Anyway, now we're moving on to my favourite part of this book and that was the romance. Because goddamn, that romance was so good. I fell in love so hard with this romance. It was build so well and I squeeled when they actually got together. I cried multiple times (mostly out of happiness but there were also some sad tears). Yeah, I absolutely adored this book.

3.5/4 stars—I can’t decide

10 Truths and a Dare follows Olivia (Sophie’s cousin from 10 Blind Dates) as she struggles to come up with a solution when she finds out she won’t graduate. After skipping too many of her off-campus PE classes, Olivia finds out she’s missing the PE credit she needs to graduate. To fix it, she has to help out at a week long golf tournament to make up the credits, but she does so in secret to hide the embarrassing truth from her large family. Unfortunately, it’s Senior Week, the dead week between the last week of school and graduation when everyone has their graduation parties. On top of that, her mom installed a program on her phone so she knows where Olivia is at all times. Trying to hide the embarrassment of failing PE from her family, Olivia tries to juggle it all with the help of Sophie, Wes, and Charlie.

First of all, I loved the inclusion of the crazy, large Messina family. It’s a big standout in this novel, and if you like books about family, I’d recommend you pick this one up.

Second, I also enjoyed the romance. In this book, we meet Leo, a friend of the Evil Joes (Olivia’s awful cousins), who’s in town for the week. It was unique to see Olivia falling for this guy that is friends with someone she can’t stand. On the other side of it, Leo sees things from the Evil Joes’ perspective so that was interesting, too.
I also loved Olivia’s dilemma. You see her juggling all these different things at once. Even with the help of her friends, you can tell it’s frustrating and exhausting, but the whole thing is done with a bit a humor so I enjoyed that.

The thing that got me is that I just wanted more from everything. I wanted to see a bridge between the Evil Joes and the FabFour, or some kind of understanding of what happened between them that they have all these misunderstandings. I wanted more emotion from Olivia—this whole thing obviously sucks for her and she says so, but she seems a little too cool about it all. I wanted more Leo—who is this guy? He plays golf, he’s gorgeous, he has a bit of a temper, but I wanted to know him a little more.

There’s also some weird perspective issues. The book is mainly through Olivia’s point of view, but Wes, Charlie, and Sophie tell the story when they cover for Olivia too. It feels awkward and misplaced in the beginning, but it blends in better as the book goes on.

A final thing: while I didn’t particularly love the beginning—it felt like the set up for the story dragged—once the story got going, I was hooked. This is a fast read after you get past those first couple chapters. It pulls you in and keeps you there in a way that’s pretty reminiscent of 10 Blind Dates. Also, I loved that ending! I liked the way things wrapped up in the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion, for this ARC!

ohhhhh man i really wanted to like this book. but alas, i did not. i couldn't even finish it because it was so bad. i really liked her first book in this sorta series, but this one fell hella flat. for me.

UGH (in the best way possible)! We are back at it again with the Messina Family. There is something frustratingly lovely about this family that keeps bringing me back over and over again. I really loved the approach of joining the family from the perspective of a different family member, Olivia. I could definitely see my high school self in Olivia. I often wanted to remind her to stop, look around, and enjoy herself a little more (and also stop lying to her parents, the people who could best help her out of this jam). Overall it was a very quick and fun read and you will not be disappointed to dive back into the Messina family.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide and Disney-Hyperion for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love this family! Such a heartwarming story. It was a little confusing jumping back into a story with SO many characters. I felt like I needed a refresher course.

3.5 stars
This was a really good add-on to the world of 10 BLIND DATES! I really enjoyed being back with our gang and, in particular, following Olivia. She was a great side character in the first book so I was happy to follow her in this one. She is a go-getter and seeing her spend the week on the golf course and hanging with her family and getting involved in a new romance--all lots of fun! The added senior parties and the busyness that caused made the book super entertaining. I enjoyed the romance as well; the book was mostly focused on Olivia and her time spent on the courses and with family, but the romance was a nice addition to the fun. My only complaint with this book is that I wish there had been more time spend with the family as a whole. In 10 BLIND DATES the family was a major player in the story and we didn't see as much of them in this one which was really disappointing because of how much fun they were in the first book. Overall though this was a very fun, light-hearted novel that I'd totally recommend!

4 stars - Great! Might re-read.

It was a joy to spend time with these characters again. I love the core four, and my favorite extended family members from the first book just keep getting better and better.

That said, this was not as funny as 10 BLIND DATES, which was disappointing for me. This is far more serious. The stakes are much higher for Olivia, so the story is more stressful. (And don't even get me started on her mom. Yikes.)

I have my fingers crossed that there will be at least one more book starring these characters in the future - this series is a must-read for me. (Some language, LGBTQ+)

I have enjoyed Elston’s work since the beginning and always look forward to getting my hands on her latest title. As the sequel to 10 Blind Dates, I was looking forward to hilarious read filled with family, romance, and life lessons. I was not one bit disappointed.

Elston’s characters were spot on. The family is large, hectic, and always in each other’s business. It was fun to get another peek inside this family and get some different perspectives from the cousins. Although most of the story is told through Olivia’s point of view, I liked that we got a couple throwbacks to Sophie. I also found that the boy’s perspectives were particularly hilarious and hope to get one of their story’s in the near future.

Golf may not be my thing in real life, but Following along with Olivia, who knew nothing about the sport, it wasn’t so bad. It was an interesting choice on the author’s part, but I think that it worked out really well.

As for the storyline itself, it was pretty solid, even though it was quite formulaic. It was no surprise who the love connection would be with and that, somewhere along the line, there was going to be a confession. Regardless of knowing how everything would turn out, I still loved every minute of it. I think that my only drawback was that, as a family focused book, there was no resolution with the Joes after some discussions were brought up earlier in the novel. Good or bad, I would have liked to see something more between these cousins.

I look forward to Elston’s future novels still and can’t wait to share this with my patrons in the library.

Thank you to Disney-Hyperion for sending me an ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review
4/5 stars
I thought this one was a fun read! It didn’t quite match 10 Blind Dates, but it was still full of lots of family and some hilarious hijinks.
This book follows Olivia who is salutatorian of her graduating class. At the beginning of senior week, Olivia learns that she might not be able to graduate with her class because she’s missing her off-campus PE form. In order to get her form signed, Olivia has to work a golf tournament for a few days. Olivia doesn’t want her family to know, and to get around her mom tracking her phone devises a plan with her cousins and best friends Charlie, Sophie and Wes. The plan: swap phones for the time that Olivia needs to be at the golf course to make up her time for PE and the time that her mom thinks she’s at graduation parties all week. Of course, this doesn’t work out quite like Olivia hopes, and the results are funny, sad, and heartwarming.
I liked that we actually got POVs from Sophie, Charlie and Wes while they were hanging onto Olivia’s phone. I thought it brought an extra layer to the story that made it funnier. I also liked Olivia’s character, and I related to her stress over graduation and also not wanting her family to know. I thought the character development was well done, and the growth was also wonderful to see. The romance in this one was slow, but I thought it was a nice addition to the main plot. I thought the whole idea of Senior Week and all the different kinds of grad parties was so much fun! I wish there had been more family interaction because it always ended up being funny, but Olivia is trying to hide her problems from her family. It made sense for the character, but I just wished that it had the similar family dynamic to 10 Blind Dates.
I thought this was an enjoyable and relatable read. It had some humour, some romance, some heart, and it was fun to read.

What a fun book this is! Olivia finds out at the beginning of senior week, a week filled with parties, that she may not be salutatorian and she may not even get her diploma. After deciding to take an off campus PE class in order to take one more academic class, her credit doesn't come through so she is informed that she needs to get documentation of the class if she wants to graduate. This sends her into action but the golf coach that taught the class won't sign the paper unless she puts in additional hours this week which means missing all the parties. Luckily, her friends will help her get this accomplished.

I loved Olivia's friends who were also cousins and a part of her big, loving, perhaps over interested family. Overall, this was a great feel good young adult book that I will definitely recommend. It is the second with the same family of characters, but I had not read the first and did fine. I will however, be going back to read the first book just to get a little more of this fun family.

10 Truths and a Dare is a great YA novel, perfect for those high school seniors getting ready to graduate and those of us past high school who still enjoy reading fun YA stories. The story follows Olivia and the rest of the Fab Four during the week leading up to graduation. If you’ve read 10 Blind Dates (which I highly recommend), you know that Olivia, Sophie, Charlie, and Wes always have each other’s back. So when Olivia needs them all to help her be in two places at once (since mom is tracking her phone), they step up. Not sure how I feel about this as a mom of a teen, but I’ll put that aside for the enjoyment of fiction. 😂 I enjoyed being a part of this crazy Louisiana family once again. I also really liked that the story centers around a golf tournament since my daughter joined her middle school golf team this past school year. 🏌🏻‍♀️ 10 Truths and a Dare is a quick read and it’s a great (clean) read for young teens.

SO FUN to be back with this family again!! I loved the multiple POVs this time, and that even though the evil Joes were given a little more personality and background, they were still, in the end, the evil Joes and we weren't supposed to all of a sudden like them.