phyllish
Written on Mar 25, 2019
My rating is 4.5 stars
Truth or Dare reminded me of an 80's coming of age movie. Wait! That's a good thing. I love watching those movies!
Maddie is so adorably clueless. Thinking she was going to help Josh, she jumped wholeheartedly into this ""project"" and created charts and notebooks and lists. Oh my! My favorite character trait of hers was the way that when he would tell her something she had trouble believing, she would take a minute or two and then make the choice to believe him. Because it was the right thing to do. Oh, and she was so idealistic and had such great dreams of what a relationship would look like. Yeah, other than her making some stupid decisions, I liked her a lot.
Josh, on the other hand, was pretty much an arrogant, handsome, self-absorbed, teenage boy. I loved the way the author wrote his and his best friend's characters. It was as if she was really in the head of the teenage boys. She didn't try to pull any punches or make them into the kind of guys that idealistic girls like Maddie thought they were. Or at least, that they could be.
They did grow on me, though. Being around Maddie allowed both of them to get a different view of things and gave them both a taste for something better than they had thought about.
I really appreciated how the book stayed very clean. The characters (the boys, especially) may not have had clean language, but there were only hints of this. And at the parties, there was no mention of alcohol or drugs or inappropriate behavior - aside from the pool thing. While Josh was a player, it appears that his actions extended only to kissing.
Admittedly, it has been a while since I've been in high school, and I never did hang out with people like Josh or Tristan. However, I found it a little hard to believe that so many girls would have been throwing themselves at Josh. And not caring that he pretty much made out with all of them all the time. But, maybe that isn't as unrealistic as I think.
While there is no indication that this is part of a series, Pixie Perkins' first book, My Boyfriend's Best Friend is about Maddie's older brother, Derek. As I read this book, I could tell that there was something more that had happened with him and there is probably more about her sister Faith as well. So you might want to read that one first, though it isn't necessary.
This was a fun diversion from the more serious books I've been reading lately. If you enjoy high-school ""drama"", you should consider giving Truth or Dare a read.
Read my full review with a Preview at Among the Reads
I was given a copy of this book. I was not required to give a favorable review nor was any money received for this review. All comments and opinions are my own.