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.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Title: 10 Truths and a Dare
Author: Ashley Elston
Publication date: May 4, 2021

Rating: 5 stars

Review: 10 Truths and a Dare tells the story of Olivia, a senior in high school, and her chaos-filled last week of high school. As a companion to 10 Blind Dates, it held up the first book well. I loved 10 Blind Dates and was thrilled when I found out there was a companion book. Instantly, my expectations were set high and this book did not fail to reach them.

I found Olivia very likable and loved learning more about her in this book. I strongly related to her, too. I also loved how we got multiple “Phone Duty” povs from the other cousins in the Fab Four. Sophie will always remain my favorite, but Charlie is now a close second.

Another thing I loved was the creative themes of the parties. I would do anything to attend at least one! Then, the romance. I wasn’t a big fan of the love interest in the beginning but as we learned more about their personality they grew on me.

I’d love to see more books in this companionship and would recommend to anyone who loved 10 Blind Dates!

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!

This was fun! Definitely a typical contemporary with it being a bit predictable and very cute and fluffy, but if that's what you're in the market for it's perfect. Olivia's family is very fun to read about and wholesome. Also, personally I find it hard to connect with romances in contemporaries but I thought Olivia and Leo were so sweet. It took me back to my senior year and I gotta say I'm a sucker for senior year stories; that feeling of connection with your friends and school while being excited for your future is unmatched.

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.

After I first read and really enjoyed 10 Blind Dates, I was so excited for the sequel! I couldn’t wait to return to these characters and to have fun with this large family cast again. 10 Truths and a Dare was a quick, fun read with a cute romance and lovely characters.

Olivia is ready to have fun; it’s Senior Week, the off-week between the end of classes and graduation that’s full of parties and celebrations. Then she gets an email notifying her that she might not graduate due to an invalid P.E. credit. Panicked, she hunts down her golf coach who promises to sign her required form if she volunteers at a golf tournament that same week. Since she doesn’t want her family to find out about this embarrassing blip, Olivia enlists the others in the Fab Four, Sophie, Charlie, and Wes, to run interference. Her plans might go awry, though, when she sees Leo, her cousins’ close friend, at the tournament.

The close relationship of the Fab Four was one of my favorite parts of 10 Blind Dates, so I liked seeing more of them. Essentially, the three of them have to man Olivia’s phone because her mother is out of town and keeps texting her. The phone also has a tracking app on it, so they have to take it around to all the parties Olivia’s supposed to be at. Naturally, this leads to so many antics, and I had so much fun reading them panic and go immediately to desperate measures.

We don’t get to see as much of the entire family in this book because Olivia is trying to keep all of this from them. Seeing so much of Olivia’s interactions with Charlie, Sophie, and Wes made up for this though! I really liked getting Olivia’s story. I related to how much attention she paid her academics, but part of her character development is that she realizes that maybe she should have treated some other classes, like her P.E. class, as important as her more academic ones.

The romance was cute! Leo is the Evil Jo’s childhood friend, and Olivia hasn’t seen him in years. Their interactions are adorable although their relationship is a bit hampered since Olivia is keeping so many events close to her chest.

Overall, 10 Truths and a Dare was a fun, lighthearted story. I loved the characters, and the romance was super cute! I think you’ll really enjoy 10 Truths and a Dare if you liked 10 Blind Dates or if you want a fun contemporary.

This book was just okay. I think that YA will be able to get through this book in a breeze but the characters confused me a bit. The main character is supposed to be star student but showcases a completely different persona. The characters did grow on me and I became attached to some but others just weren't believable. Was a quick read for the night!

I enjoyed getting to know another member of the family. I like the crazy antics that Olivia, Sophia, Charlie, and Wes get into. It was fun to read about all the themed senior parties. I wish my school did something like that.

The only thing that didn’t make a five star for me was the coach seemed to be to stubborn about her getting the hours and then in the end he signed the paper but the excuse he gave for signing it didn’t try do it for me.

This one was a fairly predictable book. You can pretty well guess exactly how the story will play out as soon as the plot is laid. But, it was a quick and fun read. Nice and light for before bed. I don't really find the main character believable. She is supposed to be a star student that was meticulous in her work, but she is habitually late and not showing up to ONE class? I understand people make some mistakes and it was supposed to show that she wasn't taking the class seriously. But, it doesnt seem likely. Plus even when graduation was on the line (and she had spent several "high tension" days searching for the coach) she still supposedly couldnt be bothered to show up on time. That small detail bothered me a lot since it was the basis for the entire plot.