Say No to the Bro

by Kat Helgeson

The hijinks of Miss Congeniality meet the high school gender politics of The List in Kat Helgeson's "funny, smart, and exciting" (Ami Allen-Vath, author of Liars and Losers Like Us) novel about two teens who become entangled in a cut-throat prom date auction.

Ava's plan for surviving senior year at her new school is simple: fly under the radar until graduation. No boys. No attachments. No drama. But all that goes out the window when she gets drafted into the Prom Bowl-a long-standing tradition where senior girls compete in challenges and are auctioned off as prom dates to the highest bidder.

Ava joins forces with star quarterback Mark Palmer to try and get herself out of the competition, but their best laid schemes lead to self-sabotage more than anything else. And to make matters worse, they both begin to realize that the Prom Bowl isn't all fun and games. When one event spirals dangerously out of control, Ava and Mark must decide whether shutting down the Prom Bowl once and for all is worth the price of sacrificing their futures.

• ISBN10: 1481471937
• ISBN13: 9781481471930
• Publish Date: 2 May 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Ava is forced to start over in a new high school after her parents' divorce. She thought she would just fly under the radar, until she is named as the wild card in the Prom Bowl. The Prom Bowl is a time honored tradition at Patterson High, where senior girls complete challenges, and are bid upon by the senior boys.

This book started off as a very adorable YA romance. Ava describes herself as not a traditional beauty, and perhaps curvier than the classically pretty girls. Therefore, she is shocked, when Mark, the attractive star quarterback of the football team, shows a genuine interest in her. These two were adorable together, and I greatly enjoyed watching those first romantic sparks between these two. They were both such likable characters, and I hoped their plot to sabotage Ava's chances in the Prom Bowl were successful.

"It's Tradition."
"Oh, what are you, the Fiddler on the Roof?"

Then, the story took a turn. The focus was less on the romance, and more on issues. One thing that took center stage, was this concept of when a tradition goes bad. Do you go along with something that is "tradition" even if it's destructive in nature? Hazing freshman, buying prom dates -- these were traditions at Patterson High, and it took an outsider to call attention to these issues.

Helgeson gave us a great hero and heroine, and a compelling story filled with lots of great messages: being true to yourself, swimming against the current, not blindly following the crowd, beauty coming in all shapes and sizes. This was quite an enjoyable read, but I still wish we would have gotten a little bit more at the end. I am an epilogue kind of girl. I abhor open type endings, and I just wanted a wee bit more from Helgeson, so I could have a little closure.

**I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book

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