Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: May 20th 2014
My rating: 4 stars
Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want. Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laidback swagger. As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…
I’ve had a really up and down relationship with Jennifer Echols books, but after devouring Biggest Flirts, I can safely say that this is my favourite Echols story yet. Echols brings a delightful, but also easy to relate to character in Tia, she’s quirky, fun, but also like everyone else has a lot of self doubts, because of this she doesn’t really do things to her full potential, she gives up on purpose such as trying for drum captain and on her school test. But when new boy Will turns up, Tia’s facing a real challenge, can she be with this guy who gets her, or is she risking her heart being trampled on?
I totally understand Tia’s predicament, with her sisters not
having the best history with guys, like Tia I would probably be a bit reserved
when it came to relationships with guys. Yes her sister’s lives had been thrown
up side down and they had been burned multiple times, so not wanting to go
through the same thing was understandable. But I wish Tia could have been
honest with Will from the beginning about why she couldn’t be with him after
their first day together. If I was in Will’s shoes I would assume too that
there was a chance of a good thing between him and Tia, but to just be turned
down the way he was awful. But I’m glad that he struck through this with his
pursuit of Tia, although at times he didn’t go the best way about it, I’m glad
that he didn’t completely give up. Because it was obvious to everyone that what
Tia and Will had was truly special.
Alongside Will and Tia’s relationship, Echols managed to
throw a nice mix of weird and wonderful characters from Tia’s trusty pelican
friend Sawyer to Mrs Nakameto, whose continual one lines would have me in
endless hysterics. I for one can’t wait to read the follow up books in the
series, so that I can be with these great characters once more.
Echols was able to give us a story with a lot of fun, but
she was able to weave in some serious aspects too. Echols was able to manage
the balance between these really well, she could easily brighten up a scene
when necessary, but also give you great insights in to a character’s back story
with a deeper meaningful scene, and this was something I hugely appreciated.
She was also able to show great character growth too, a lot of characters early
on could have come across a little immature, but with the introduction of
certain characters (Will), characters really went out of their ways to do the
right thing not only for themselves, but other people too.
Overall Biggest Flirts was a truly wonderful fun read, despite
the up and down relationship of Will and Tia, Biggest Flirts was certainly a
winning read in my eyes.
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