The Superlatives Series Review

This series made me the most likely to want to throw a book across the room.

The Superlative series by Jennifer Echols follows three different high school girls as they navigate the aftermath of their senior superlatives. Tia is a party girl and it’s no surprise she earns the title of Biggest Flirt… it’s just a surprise who else wins the title. Artsy Harper is surprisingly matched with jock Brody for Perfect Couple that Never Was, which puts both of their current relationships in jeopardy. Finally, overachiever Kaye starts to develop feelings for Most Likely to Go to Prison Sawyer.

I bought this series published together in one book for Half Price Books. I’ve been wanting to read this series for awhile. I heard mixed reviews for these books, but was still expected cute contemporary romances. Much to my disappointment two out of three of these failed to meet my expectations. Here are my thoughts on each individual book in this companion series:

Biggest Flirts

Out of all the books, this was definitely my least favorite. I think the main reason I disliked this book were the two main characters, Tia and Will. Tia is described as someone who is lazy and irresponsible, but somehow sets the curve in all of her advanced placement classes and is loved by every guy in the town. This trope literally drives me crazy! However, Will angered me even more.

First of all, Will’s characterization is all over the place. He’s introduced as charming and flirty. Then’s he the student council president from his old hometown and golden child to his parents. What made me the most mad, however, is how he blamed Tia for his Biggest Flirts title. He made this big deal of how now no girl would ever date him and it would reflect poorly if colleges looked into him. Meanwhile, he continued to flirt with her even when he started dating another girl in marching band. Worse, Tia who always called people out, let him walk all over her! I felt like this double standard was never challenged enough and it really dragged down the romance for me.

Overall, Biggest Flirts was just too dramatic and too tropey in all the wrong ways for me. I rate it two out of five stars.

Perfect Couple

I liked Perfect Couple a lot more than Biggest Flirts, but I still experienced some problems. I think my biggest problem with this book has to be cheating. Both of the main characters, Harper and Brody, cheat on their current significant others. In fact, they stage a whole date with the excuse “we need to get our picture for the yearbook together.” However, it seemed like this was justified in the books because both of their significant others were horrible people. While I liked Harper and Brody’s relationship more than Tia and Will’s, I still didn’t like how they never got called out for their actions.

Another problem I had with this book would be how Harper acts in the beginning of the book. A lot of her interactions with Brody in the beginning of the book come off as a little creepy. When she designs the yearbook, she puts a picture of him on each page. When she photographs a football game or any school event, she only photographs Brody. It seems like she’s always watching him or following him around like a puppy dog. It’s just a little too much for me.

I rate Perfect Couples as three out of five stars.

Most Likely To Succeed

Out of all the books, Most Likely to Succeed was my favorite. In the earlier books, I didn’t see the connection as the three main girls as best friends like it is frequently stated in the books. In this book, we finally see them get close and support each other instead of yelling at each other for their bad choices. Since this book was about Kaye, my least favorite in the series for her high-and-mighty attitude in the first two books, I didn’t think I would like it. Much to my surprise, she became my favorite out of the three girls.

I also think this book was more successful for me because of the relationship. Sawyer, Kaye’s love interest, appears throughout the series and I enjoyed seeing a new side to his character. I also enjoyed how Kaye’s relationship with Sawyer forced her to stand up for herself and what she wanted. In this relationship, I think they should a lot more growth than the other two relationships featured in this series.

I give Most Likely to Succeed four out of five stars.

 

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