Most Likely to Succeed by Jennifer Echols

Title: Most Likely to Succeed (The Superlatives #3)

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: August 4, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

In this sexy conclusion to The Superlatives trilogy from Endless Summer author Jennifer Echols, Sawyer and Kaye might just be perfect for each other—if only they could admit it.

As vice president of Student Council, Kaye knows the importance of keeping order. Not only in school, but in her personal life. Which is why she and her boyfriend, Aidan, already have their lives mapped out: attend Columbia University together, pursue banking careers,  and eventually get married. Everything Kaye has accomplished in high school—student government, cheerleading, stellar grades—has been in preparation for that future. 

To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…

As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?

I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Echols and her books since I first read them when I started blogging five years ago. And earlier this year, I absolutely devoured the first two books in The Superlatives trilogy. And the final book, Most Likely to Succeed, it’s officially my favourite of the series. 

Kaye has always had a plan. Not just for school, but for her whole future. She’s been waiting Aidan since she was fourteen, and together they’re going to go to school at Columbia, start careers in banking, and one day get married. It’s what her entire high school career has led to. And until recently, it was everything she thought she wanted. Now, Kaye can’t stop thinking about Sawyer, the one guy she knows she should stay away from. But that’s easier said than done when their friends seem to keep pushing Kaye and Sawyer together. As the year goes on, it’s time that Sawyer and Kaye finally admit what they really want and see if maybe a relationship is exactly what both of them want and need.

Though I haven’t reviewed them on the blog, I absolutely loved (and devoured) Biggest Flirts and Perfect Couple, the first two books in Jennifer Echols’s The Superlatives series, when I read them earlier this year. The story was addicting, the characters were loveable, and the romance was just how I like it. By the time I finished the second book, I was eagerly waiting for the final book, Most Likely to Succeed. Now that I’ve read that final book, I can officially say that it was my favourite out of the three. Right from the start the story sucked me in. It didn’t hurt that I was already quite familiar with the characters because I’d met them in the previous two books. But even if I hadn’t already been familiar with Kaye and Sawyer, this story still would have grabbed me. I’m a sucker for a romance between the smart, good girl and the bad boy (not that Sawyer was a bad boy, but I’ll get to that later). I just really enjoyed reading their story. It often had me smiling stupidly, if not full on laughing. And the romance between Kaye and Sawyer was just how I liked it. I loved that the two of them were friends, even if it was at times almost a strenuous friendship, before they moved to being more (because that is totally my favourite romance trope). But I think my love of Most Likely to Succeed is in large part because of how much I loved Kaye and Sawyer themselves.

Like I’ve said, I already knew Kaye and Sawyer before I even cracked Most Likely to Succeed open. And I already had thoughts and opinions about them before I started reading the book. Mostly, I had a feeling that Kaye wasn’t exactly happy being the girl everyone expected her to be. And I had a very strong suspicion that Sawyer wasn’t the bad boy slacker everyone seemed to think he was. As it turns out, both those assumptions were very true. But they were also only scratching the surface. Yes, Kaye was unhappy, but she also had issues at home with her mom, she didn’t now if the future she’d been working for was the one she actually wanted. She was basically trying to figure out who she was amidst all the pressure of high school. And figuring out who she was, also meant figuring out how she felt about Sawyer. And Sawyer, well he’s officially one of my favourite boys. Despite what people thought of him, Sawyer wasn’t actually a bad boy, he just hasn’t had it easy. And he was trying to do better, to break the cycle his family was in. With the people he cared about, Sawyer was all kinds of sweet and seeing that side of him only made me love him more. And it should obviously go without saying that I was all in favour of Kaye and Sawyer as a couple. Obviously.

Much like with the rest of Jennifer Echols’s The Superlatives series, I absolutely loved Most Likely to Succeed. This series was the kind of fun yet thoughtful romance that I love reading. If you haven’t checked it out already, I can’t recommend it enough.