Book Review: A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker

A Match Made in High School, by Kristin Walker
Release Date: February 4, 2010
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 277
Received: Library book
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 
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Summary

Fiona's high school takes marriage education to the extreme when the principal introduces a mandatory year-long project where students pair up with their assigned spouses and learn how to balance their budgets and compromise. To her horror, Fiona is paired with popular guy Todd. Todd isn't any happier, and the two proceed to prank and humiliate one another. All goes well until Fiona begins to realize shemay not hate Todd as much as she thought she did.

Review

As a die-hard fan of YA click flicks, I adored the premise of this book. She's All That, Ten Things I Hate about You, what can I say, I'm a sucker for a good social group crossing, "I hate you but really I love you" romantic comedy. A Match Made in High School was a match made in heaven for me.

Except, it wasn't. Not exactly. There were parts I really enjoyed. It was a lot of fun watching Fiona and Todd one up each other with their pranks. I also loved the scenes with Fiona's adorable babysitting charge Samantha. And then, of course, the premise rocked. It was executed well and made for some truly laugh out loud moments.

So what's my problem? Fiona. I just didn't like her. She seemed incredibly self-absorbed and judgmental. She does grow throughout the book, but not enough for me to ever really like her. I also didn't love her best friend (who does something decidedly un-best friendish).

Todd turned out to be a pretty likable guy, but it was hard for me to reconcile his earlier behavior with who he was toward the end of the book. It didn't seem so much that he had grown, but that Fiona just learned to accept him as he was and so she looked at him differently. Only thing is, I'm still not sure if I can accept his earlier behavior.

Then there was the romance. There are two parts to a romantic comedy--romance and comedy--and both parts need to be satisfying. A Match Made in High School was fully satisfying in the comedy department, but the romance didn't work for me at all. I didn't like the ultimate pairings, and so the magical, "They finally got together!" ending that *makes* romantic comedies wasn't there for me at all. What a let down.

I've seen mostly glowing reviews for this one, and I can understand them. This really was a fun read. If it were a movie, I would probably adore it. As a book, though, it let me down with the the "unique" (but still predictable) ending and characters I just couldn't respect or connect with. Give it a try though. If you like Fiona, then you'll probably love this book.

 Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Looking for more books with a love/hate relationship? You might like: 

The Ghost and the Goth, by Stacey Kade
My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison

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