10 TRUTHS AND A DARE

Senior week isn’t all fun and games if you’re in danger of not graduating at all.

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you Olivia Perkins has got it all. She’s class salutatorian and an accomplished AP student; she’s bagged an acceptance at Louisiana State University and has her majors and future career in international tax law planned to the last detail. So when she learns, shortly before the end of the school year, that she failed her off-campus golf PE class and is at risk of not being allowed to graduate, her entire world shatters. With her future and reputation at stake, Olivia, alongside her small circle of co-conspiring cousins and friends, must find a way to make up her PE hours without tipping off everyone in her highly involved extended Italian American family—while also putting in appearances at the graduation parties filling her week and navigating the shoals of nascent romance as she falls for Leo Perez, the son of old family friends who is possibly cued as Latinx by his name. This dramedy of errors putts along with a great deal of humor and heart. Elston beautifully depicts the warm, in-each-others’-pockets family atmosphere and creates for the cousins a refreshingly believable friendship. Overarching themes of integrity and the dangers of miscommunication avoid becoming heavy-handed.

Charming.