This was a happy surprise. While I spent a huge portion of the book trying to figure out where the characters lived (America, Canada, England. other UK?!? I never got over the fact that they used the term 'soccer') it was happily entertaining. I will certainly consider purchasing this title for my academic library's popular fiction section.

Laugh Out Loud Funny Freshmen is a great story. Luke and Phoebe are great realistic characters that you'll fall in love with.

I think the author could have done so much more with the characters. They all seemed really fake to me and I couldn't relate to any of them, which made it hard to enjoy the story.

I thought Freshmen did a great job of showing many of the feelings involved in leaving home and heading to college: feeling uncertain and out of place, feeling like you have no idea what you are doing, highs and lows … and making mistakes. A lot of mistakes. I’m not sure if this is American culture or the general influence of fake-perfect social media culture, or both, but kids I know today feel like they are not allowed to make mistakes. (When my own kids are freaking out about disasters, I have taken to telling them stories about all the wrong decisions and mistakes I made and how everything turned out to be okay. Sometimes even better than okay.)

So … if you are looking for the typical YA with a tidy little romance that resolves and characters that have a neat arc of development and learn to make all the right life choices … this might not be the book for you.

But I really enjoyed it. It was fun, it was really funny, and it was really real. If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

Perhaps it was the English geography. Perhaps it was the nostalgia factor, thinking back on my own (much less eventful) freshman year of college. In any case, so captivated was I by this book that I neglected the majority of my to-do list.

Freshman was an enjoyable read and I appreciated the honest take of life in college. It was both funny and realistic, sometimes even making me cringe in second hand embarrassment as I sympathized with Phoebe. It also brought forth memories of my own time as a freshman, both the good and the (sometimes horribly) bad. However, I do wish there had been a bit more to the plot. I also wish that Luke would have had a bit more character development, especially being one of the protagonists. And I was not too keen on the ending: it was very abrupt and felt like it came out of nowhere.

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

Freshman is a funny and, at times, painfully realistic depiction of the first year of college. It follows Pheobe and Luke as they embark on life post-high school and seek to discover and redefine themselves. Pheobe and Luke went to the same schools and Pheobe had a crush on Luke from afar, but they never really knew each other until college. There is lots of drama, angst, hilariously cringe-worthy moments (like sending an embarrassing text to the wrong person!), and general college insanity. But there are also deeper moments about what it means to be a good person and stand up for what's right regardless of the social consequences.

While some of the things that go on were a little more extreme than my personal college experience, it was definitely still a nostalgic read as someone far departed from that part of life. It really highlights the stupidity and insanity of the things people do in college when they have real freedom for the first time. Some of those things are just silly and harmless, but others can be quite problematic. And while this book doesn't try to take itself too seriously for the most part, those undercurrents are definitely there. One story thread touches on the importance of respecting women and treating them like people.

One other side note- this book is quite British. It was originally published in the UK as "Freshers" and it continues to have a distinctly British flavor for it. (much more tea than coffee for example) So overall, while this book didn't wow me, I quite enjoyed it and thought it handled many issues well, if not deeply. I freely agreed to review an early of this book from netgalley.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Freshmen was a really cute book. It's a dual POV from Luke and Phoebe and it's about their first year at college. Their experiences are way different than my time in college.. especially my Freshmen year. I went to about 3 colleges: The first, was out of state and felt like it was basically a community college than a university. The second, was actually a community college in my home town and was extremely easy. Third, and my last switch-a-roo, was again in the same state but a bit a drive. It definitely felt like I was at a real college but in a way I also wasn't really prepared for it due to my first two college experiences. I had to shift gears pretty early on because my usual studying and not taking habits sucked ass.

Back to the book, I loved Luke and Phoebe! They were basically friendship goals! Now I will admit that it took me a while to start to like Luke. However, it was the complete opposite with Phoebe! I loved the girl and the friendships she made while at school were real and genuine. I laughed so hard when her and Luke signed up for Quidditch because it does exist in colleges. Every time I saw someone on a broomstick while walking on campus I couldn't stop myself from laughing so hard. No, I didn't sign up for it but I did enjoy watching the games.

Besides learning to love Luke and Phoebe and watching them grow throughout the book - it was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing from one scene to another. Basically everything was realistic in this book. One night stands to being homesick is what college kids go through. Now I'm not saying everyone goes through one night stands.. but they do get homesick.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I feel like I breezed through it once I found it on my kindle. I also really loved Tom and Lucy's writing style. I will definitely be looking into more of their books in the future!

I really wanted to like this. There was a lot of writings that triggered memories from college for me, but the writing was almost childlike. Not enough meet and bones to this.

The book genre needs more New Adult, especially stuff that's not 90% smut, but this isn't that. The characters have no goals, no real direction and their juvenile attitude towards school strikes me on how adults think this age group is, rather than the reality.

This novel is well written, humorous, and enjoyable. However, I found it a bit too juvenile for my sense of humor and have decided to not finish it. Don't take my rating as a judgment of quality: simply one of personal taste.

Freshmen is a fun read that will bring back lots of college memories. First year students at university in England, the story of Phoebe and Luke have all the emotional upheaval that comes with making a fresh start. Phoebe is looking for friends and a love connection with her long time crush. Luke is figuring out relationships and what he's always known to be true. Plot line is smooth, and the emotions are spot on. Laugh out loud situations will keep you entertained and wanting more.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely not my favorite book..As a mother of an 18 year old getting ready to head off to college, I had a very hard time reading this book. I am not naive, but I do know that there is so much more to college than alcohol, weed and sex. I really wanted to share this book with my daughter before she heads off to school (especially to help her realize that high school relationships don't generally last through freshman year of college) but I definitely don't want her to think that the behaviors in the story are the "norm".

This story comes from two pov's Phoebe and Luke. They are both Freshmen attending the same university, and we get to see the struggles of dating and dealing with the changes of college. Such an authentic look at college life and the struggles of transitioning into an adult and finding yourself. I feel like this a story anyone can relate even if you never attended college. It deals with awkward 1st and making lifelong friends and I really enjoyed all the characters and how human they were.

I found this to be a rather accurate description of how Freshmen year goes for many undergrads. I enjoyed following Phoebe and Luke as they navigated such a life change. Re-orienting yourself on your own in college is not easy, and is usually filled with mistakes. Freshmen shows that to us in ways that leaves the reader feeling awkward, frustrated, but still entertained. My only qualm was with the ending. It felt a bit rushed to me. Overall, a good, quick read.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and found it to be a quick read. It was nice to read a YA book that was set in college and not high school. I liked the characters in this book and enjoyed that it was told from two perspectives. While I couldn't totally connect with them, I thought they were well written and believable although slightly over the top. I also liked that this book had the good, the bad and the ugly parts of going to college. I found it to be somewhat predictable (But YA tends to be in my opinion) and a little bit messy which I found to be frustrating. The ending left me unsatisfied but overall I did enjoy this book.

Fun story. Highly recommended for young adults or fans of YA reading (like myself).

The Freshmen follows Phoebe and Luke through their freshman year of college. While they went to the same high school, they didn't run with the same crowds. But in college, their lives continue to intertwine. The most commendable aspect of The Freshmen is its realistic approach to YA issues like growing apart from a HS sweetheart, having positive and not-so positive sexual experiences, toxic masculinity, and overall confusion about relationships. The A-Plot of The Freshman is its romantic story line, which, unfortunately, leaves the B-Plot of the soccer team drama somewhat underdeveloped. The story is told in first-person from the interchanging viewpoints of Phoebe and Luke.

This book had its highs and lows, but I read it in less than a day so overall, I'd say it's a win. A book about college for young adults? Awesome. We need more post-high school books. And while I didn't drink or party in college because I was a Mormon nerd, so much of this book still managed to hit me in the college feels. It's such a weird time, going from basically having everything structured and controlled for you to.....I make my own choices? What? How? When did this happen? Which, hello, circles back to we need more post-high school books! Finally, I loved the character development and the relationships that developed between everyone. And the humor--I laughed out loud more than once, which I'm sure my husband really enjoyed listening to. My only real complaint is that the story felt choppy at times. It wasn't terrible by any means, but some of the major moments ended up a little jarring because there wasn't much build up or development toward them. Smoothing out the flow of the story would have made it five-star read, for sure.

3 stars

Phoebe can't wait for everything's to come with college--she'll be better than ever and maybe have a chance with her childhood crush Luke who is conveniently attending the same college as her.

Luke finds himself redefining who he is and dumping his long-term, long-distance girlfriend, as well as changing nearly everything about his life, except for soccer.

But, when things start looking up, drama heads Phoebe and Luke's way as rumors about the Wall of Shame, a secret text chain run by Luke's soccer team with compromising photos of girls, spreads. The women on campus are determined to expose the team and shut it down, and Luke and Phoebe are left grappling with confusing feelings and unsureness about whether they'll make it through freshman year.

I read this really quickly in one night (there's just something about contemporaries and nighttime that really works for me) and I did enjoy reading it.

But, there were a few things that I wasn't peachy keen on.

I really liked how this was a college book because we're lacking a lot of YA literature in this genre. A lot of the times when you do find a college book, it's usually a smut college book and not something suitable for understanding that transition from high school to college.

Teen readers come to high school prepared--that's what all this high school YA centers on. But we need more college YA and I'm so happy that this book is one of those books.

I've heard that it's also loosely based off of something that did actually happen at a college, and I like how the Wall of Shame aspect was incorporated and made a central part of the novel--there are ups and downs to college life.

The characters were fine too--I couldn't super-connect with them, but I understood where they were at and what they were doing. (Although, I liked Phoebe more than Luke.)

It's just that part of my problem was when the Wall of Shame was introduced--it seems to have happened a little past the halfway point, if I remember correctly, and I really wanted that introduced a little earlier because of how it's been advertised in the summary as a big plot point.

I wouldn't have minded this if it wasn't a huge summary point, and I do think there are benefits on not dwelling on it for too long. Although this is a serious thing, Ellen and Ivison managed to keep it from getting overly tense while still treating it as something that is serious.

My main problem with this story was Luke and his character arc. I liked Phoebe's character growth--I think she learned a lot of things that year--but Luke's brought up some issues with me.

I just felt like he didn't grow enough or truly understand the repercussions of his actions and his silence about the Wall of Shame and didn't learn enough from it.

Like, Phoebe, hun, I get it. He's your childhood crush. But he's also a dickwad.

He didn't grow enough or feel enough shame for his silence despite him knowing and I wanted to see him grow without the end goal of getting Phoebe back. I wasn't convinced at the end that he had grown enough to truly make a difference, and this made the story feel incomplete (or you could say that it portrayed a bad message for boys).

I felt like Luke's storyline needed a lot of work, but I did enjoy the rest of the novel and sped through this in one night. It's a good slice of college life and I enjoyed reading this and getting that familiarity with college that I had with high school.

Overall, I think this is a good book if you're looking for college YA, but I do think if you do decide to read it, don't take Luke as a role model because his actions and behavior aren't what they should be.

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