A Match Made In High School by Kristin Walker

Title: A Match Made in High School

Author: Kristin Walker

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: February 4, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

When a mandatory course forces Fiona to “try the knot” with super-jock Todd Harding, she’s convinced life couldn’t get any worse. Until her crush is paired with her arch-enemy (otherwise known as Todd’s obscenely hot, slightly sadistic girlfriend). But that’s nothing compared to her best friend’s fate--a year with the very goofy, very big Johnny Mercer.

A series of hilarious pranks leaves Fiona wondering: Is there something her “best friend” hasn’t told her? Could there be more to Johnny Mercer than an awesome music collection? And most intriguing, could Todd Harding have a heart beneath his pretty-boy exterior?

I had seen A Match Made In High School in the shelves at the bookstore but never really paid the book much attention. Then I read some reviews online and they all had really good things to say about it so I decided to give it a shot. And it surprised me. I was expecting another book about some high school underdog rising to the top and getting the popular guy. But for once things weren’t that predictable, which was quite refreshing.

Fiona only has one friend and is perfectly happy going through life that way. And then the principal of her school announces a new program called “trying the knot” where male and female students are randomly paired with each other and have to complete assignments to mimic marriage. And of course she gets paired up with the school jock and her crush gets paired with said jock’s girlfriend. Yeah, things are really looking up for Fiona’s senior year of high school.

I had trouble with Fiona at first. Though she claimed like she didn’t care about what people thought of her, she still did everything she could to get noticed by Gabe, her crush, and had to make sure that everyone knew she was behind the pranks she pulled on Todd, her fake husband. As the book moved forward, I liked her more and more because I understood her more. The way Walker writes Fiona’s character, you can see that she actually evolves and by the end of the book I actually really liked her.

The other characters were also great. For once I wasn’t reading a book about high school where every character was cliché or stereotyped. Todd, the jock, didn’t play football or basketball, he was a cheerleader which isn’t something I’ve seen all that often in books. And he also wasn’t a typical jock; sure jocks in YA novels often have multiple layers but there was something more than that with Todd, which was refreshing. And that can be said about most of the characters in the book. They were all the typical people you would find in a book about high school students but at the same time they weren’t the stereotypes of those people.

The plot itself was also really interesting. I particularly liked the concept of “trying the knot”, it wasn’t something I had read about before so it felt like I wasn’t reading just another book about high school. I have to admit that I had seen some things coming but it was nothing that prevented me from enjoying the story. And for once the girl didn’t end up with the guy I thought she would end up with.

I really enjoyed A Match Made In High School, more than I originally expected to. It was a fun story that made me laugh out loud at times and smile at others. I look forward to whatever comes next from Kristin Walker.