Faking 19 by Alyson Noël

Everyone knows what senior year means: it’s party time!

At least, that’s what it’s like for best friends Alex and M. During the week, they do their schoolwork, but on the weekends, they let loose and get wild. After their traditional weekend snack, they go shopping or to whatever party sounds interesting. And everything seems to be going great, until the seams in Alex’s life start fraying.

Despite giving off the appearance that her life is perfect, Alex’s life is far from it. Her parents split when she was young. Now her dad is busy working and hitting on other women while her mom just ignores her. Alex’s grades are steadily declining until she’s failing, loses her scholarship, and even faces the possibility of not graduating with her class. On top of that, there are problems with her best friend M and also with an older guy Connor. It might not seem that Alex and M could have difficulties with their friendship because they’ve known each other since Alex moved to Orange County. And as for Connor, he just seems like the perfect British hottie.

Throughout the book, Alex is forced to reevaluate her life and what she wants. There are some harsh realizations she is forced to face about her M and others about her dad. She has to figure out what she wants to do with her life, but for Alex, that’s a lot easier said than done. She can’t figure out where she wants to go, and since her grades have hit a new low, she might not even be able to attend college.

Of course, this is the kind of book that won’t be good unless it has a happy ending, which it does. I was glad that the ending wasn’t too perfect, because then it wouldn’t be realistic. In my opinion, Faking 19 was a very well-told story that could happen in real life. I appreciated how the story sounded like it could take place where I live. Contrary to what a reader might infer from the title of this book, Faking 19 is not all about fake IDs to get into the next hottest club. It’s more of a story of a girl finding herself and discovering what she wants. I would recommend this book for a light read.

Rating: 4.0

Review copy from personal collection