Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This is my third novel by this author and I enjoyed it immensely. I honestly didn't pay attention to the real college admissions scandal so this novel keep me turning the pages to find out the conclusion. It was truly a thought provoking read about what it means to "know" and "when" you know it. My heart broke for Chloe with the loss of her friendship with Shola. I liked how the author started at arrest day and then flipped back and forth in the timeline each chapter. Isla, sister to maain character Chloe, was a great secondary character and loved how the novel ended with her admission to college. I did not like Hudson's character at all but that is the intent there. A fabulous YA read that kept me up very late to finish!!!!! I can't wait for the Authors novel that got pushed to the side for this one..

Readers of Julie Buxbaum’s earlier books will also enjoy Admission. In ‘ripped from the headlines’ fashion, Chloe finds herself in a college admission’s scandal. Chloe is the daughter of a popular sitcom tv star. In alternating ‘past’ and ‘now’ chapters, the story unfolds as to her parents’ roles in the quest to get Chloe admitted to her ideal college, SCC. Along the way, the reader also sees the impact of the events on her relationship with her sister, best friend, and friend-turned-boyfriend. A great read for lovers of YA and would also make a great beach read.

I received this Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley.

I'm surprised how quickly the recent college admissions scandal made it into fiction! I was fascinated with the whole scandal, so I knew this book would interest me! I liked seeing a fictionalized look into the behind the scenes of the families involved in a scandal. I also thought the author did a good job at touching on the privilege these families have, but didn't delve too deep into this issue. I couldn't help but picture Lori Laughlin as the mom, even though the author specifically stated all the characters are completely fictionalized.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this story and loved the way it was written. It was unique because it alternating between the past and the present.

Great take on the Hollywood Admissions scandal. I enjoyed that was told from the point of view as a teenager involved in it. I liked how it showed both sides of why the parents did it and how it effected their kids and kids of other economic groups.

Loved this book! I was so engrossed in the story immediately, especially given that something so similar to this was so recently in the news. It was written so well and truly made you question yourself, your privilege and taking responsibility for your actions, even when it may have felt like you were just doing your "best" for your loved ones. Julie just has such a way with words. Sometimes one of her passages, can just take your breath away. Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for the ARC.

I am not sure how I feel about this book, to be honest. On one hand, I love this author, and I love her writing. The writing is clean, the dialogue is great, the characters are decently developed, but..... I guess I just wasn't interested in the subject matter. It was a little too "ripped from the headlines" for me.

I enjoyed the insight into the privileged life style, the fact that it didn't gloss over racial and social inequality, and the fact that it held the perpetrators responsible.

I did love the main characters, Chloe's, personification. She was vulnerable, insecure, and relate-able, which isn't easy to be considering she's a rich girl, who's mom spends her life in the spotlight.

So, while I didn't really like the subject, I am still giving this a solid 4/5 stars, because it's so well written!

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy, the opinions in this review are all my own.

A contemporary YA novel about a college admissions scandal? Yes please. Chloe is the daughter of a B list actress, and doesn’t have the strongest academic record. Mom heard about a private admissions counselor who can get Chloe into her dream school...but how much does Chloe know about this? Should she be implicated?
This is a page turner.

A fictionalization of the college admissions scandal in 2019, Julie Buxbaum's newest book gives insight into the lives of a Beverly Hills family thrusted into the public eye because of their entitled actions. She did a great job of capturing the craziness during this wild time that we have yet to see fully resolved. 

This relevant novel moves through two different time periods—before and after—showing the different choices that were made leading up to her mother's arrest, followed by the consequences of those actions. Chloe was so clueless, but you kind of can't blame her. She grew up in the bubble of Beverly Hills, having everything done for her: meals cooked, house cleaned, tutors for studying, ect. She knows she's not the brightest girl—not like her best friend, boyfriend, and even her younger sister—but she also knows that she doesn't try as hard as she could. 

I absolutely loved Chloe's sister Isla. It was like she was the only person around with any real sense of the outside world. You really feel a lot of sympathy for her, knowing that her integrity and own worth will be in question when she applies to colleges the following year.  

If you are familiar with the scandal, you can definitely pinpoint different nods to some of the more high profile cases. While this wasn't an extraordinary piece of literature, it was highly entertaining and moved through the college admissions process really well.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. To be perfectly honest, I thought I would hate Chloe. I thought this would be one of those books where i want to see the main character get what's coming to them. but, Chloe moved me. She was so human and jumped right off the page. I just wanted to hug her sometimes. Even her mom, the pinnacle of perfection, was so flawed and towards the end had so much dimension to her. Well done author!

Based on the real-life college admissions scandal, Chloe Berringer’s life is turned upside down when her mother, Joy Fields, is arrested for bribing the admissions department to get Chloe into college. The novel alternates between the events of Chloe’s senior year before and after the FBI knocks on her front door to arrest her mother.

I didn’t follow the real-life events all that closely, but I was drawn into the idea of this story. I was picturing Lori Laughlin as Joy Fields the entire time. I loved being able to see Chloe’s life before and after. It really gave the reader a full picture of everything that went down and everything Chloe lost when the story was unveiled.

I know there's a whole section at the beginning about how this was all made up in Julie Buxbaum's head and hardly at all based on Aunt Becky's scandal, but after finishing the book, there's next-to-no-chance I believe that. I'm pretty sure only the names were changed, and Buxbaum just made up the dialogue for what happened behind closed doors. Not to say this isn't a good book - it is! I wanted to keep reading to the end. I wasn't a fan of the main character -- and maybe we're not supposed to be; she's incredibly self-absorbed. But you'd kind of have to be to not see what's going on, right? I hated that Shola had to explain EVERY. SINGLE. THING. to Chloe. You could sense her exhaustion and annoyance; I was exhausted and annoyed FOR her. This book did make me think of the siblings in these cases when I hadn't previously. I truly loved Chloe's sister's character. I'm glad she got the ending she did. This isn't a book I'll reread, but I know I have students who will enjoy it. I've already pre-ordered it for our library.

I think when the college admissions scam broke, some of us were probably surprised that such a thing could occur, and then others of us were probably thinking that this has probably been going on forever and these were just the people that finally got caught. What I like about the book is the it is from the perspective of the daughters, one in the middle of the scam, and one who has nothing to do with any of it- and what they both are dealing with. I felt a great deal of sympathy for Chloe and I actually felt her character got way more than she deservedd from her so called friends. Yes, I get that she is priviliged and as a result she doesn't always think about how other people might have struggles she has never thought of, but at the same time she kind of does. She is mentor to Cesar, a little boy with way more worries in his little life than Chloe will ever have to deal with and she seems aware of this from the very beginning. The scam seems to help her grow as a person to see even more of the errors of her ways, and yes they shoulld have been angry at her, but I felt like her friends were unsympathetic and unforgiving. Her parents did something very bad, and it is interesting to see through the book how they work through it all both legally and emotionally. I thought it was a great book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction or young adult novels.

4.5 stars, full review on Goodreads. Really enoyed this one. Very timely and inter sting to any read fan thta have read about these scandals in the news. Characters were good and believable, and interesting to see it from the child and parent angle.

It usually works out perfectly that I get to go on vacation right around the time of Julie Buxbaum’s latest release. I save it until the very end of our trip and spend our last day by the pool savoring every page while simultaneously flying through the entire thing. Unfortunately, this vacation season, quarantine happened and our upcoming trip/anniversary celebration was cancelled.

Lucky for me, about a day before I was kicked out of the office to work from home, I was approved by Delacorte Press to review Buxbaum’s latest book “Admission” on NetGalley.

“Admission” takes place in the midst of the college admissions scandal where the rich and privileged are doing whatever it takes to get their kids into the college of, let’s be honest, their parents choosing. Buxbaum does a great job showing all sides of this scandal with characters you find a way to connect with even through their insanity. I don’t mean to suggest all of these characters are likable, but they feel redeemable and that’s what counts.

Chloe Berringer is our main character, daughter of a famous actress and a hedge fund manager. She understands her family is “well-off” but she explains away her wealth by comparing their financial position to her billionaire aunt. She knows they have money but not that much money. This sort of cluelessness seems to be how she finds herself with the FBI at her front door and her mother being whisked away in a police car.

“Admission” is a novel about class, race, morality and, guilt. It’s about how something seemingly as small as the college you manage to get into has greater implications for society as a whole.

This book got me thinking about the lack of morality behind college admissions and why some methods are viewed as okay and others are can be charged criminally. It made me consider all the inner workings of an incredibly broken system that I could never understand from my socio-economic position. The discussion of this book could definitely make for some interesting book club discussion material.

Sidenote: Julie Buxbaum has a fun routine of putting a little easter egg from one of her previous books into her new novels. If you are a Buxbaum super fan like me, see if you can find the one in this book!

Side Sidenote: If you DO decide to have a bookclub talk about this, spend no less than an hour discussing Chloe’s best friend Shola. She is Chloe’s guiding light and really the only reason Chloe ever starts to “get it”.

The novel is based on the college admissions scandal that recently occurred. Chloe Berringer's mother is a famous actress and pays a college admissions counselor to "help" Chloe with her SAT and college admissions. The family is forced into the spotlight once a whistle-blower alerts the FBI that affluent parents have been illegally getting their kids into prestigious colleges. The novel is told from Chloe's point of view and in a Now and Then format. While I enjoyed the novel, it wasn't a topic that resonated with me.

Thank You Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.
Realistic Fiction YA is such a dynamic genre and it is always a privilege to read a new work.

YA is able to give readers a glimpse into other people’s opinions. I was pleased to hear Chloe’s voice.

Admissions is a novel that brings you into Chloe’s world. Chloe is extremely privileged due to her mother’s fame on a sitcom and her ability to work on movies after the sitcom was done. Each chapter is narrated by Chloe and alternates between Now and Then. These chapters display how events have shaped her life.

Chloe has a realistic view of life. She knows that unlike her peers, sister, and friends, she does not always put forth the effort to get the grades required to get into Ivy League or top tier schools.

However, she does have interests and wants to look for a college that may be a more viable option.

Her ability to see herself clearly is hindered by the fact that her parents put pressure on her to succeed. Her need to please and earthy attitude lead her to partake in something illegal.

This story mirrors the real life events that have happened recently with Lori Loughlin ‘s daughter.

I really enjoyed the novel because I did leave the book understanding Chloe’s perspective. I did not feel upset towards Chloe. Instead, I left hoping that she could learn to live an organic life and surround herself with people that can accept her for her character and not her Alma Mater.

I believe the character Chloe has a space in this world and once she stops pleasing everyone who is putting pressure on her, she will find it on her terms.

Thank You for a story that left me feeling hopeful for the characters in the story and giving me insight into the attitudes of the students who fell victim to the admissions scandal.

Wow!! This really tells the story of the college admissions scandal from the other side of things. It really opened up my eyes to how the kids and other family were likely feeling when all of this came out. The characters were well developed and interesting. The author did wonderfully on making them nuanced and fully fleshed out! I’m so grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I requested a NetGalley preview copy of this novel because...Julie Buxbaum, of course! It did not disappoint. Even with all the distractions of managing my children's distance learning homework and trying to do my own work from home, I read this book in just 2 evenings, but if I had a better attention span, I would've finished it in 1 evening!

The plot opens with Chloe opening the door to the surprise of FBI agents asking for her mother, and it proceeds to shift between Then and Now, meeting in the middle when the two intersect. This structure is definitely what kept me turning page after page after page, waiting to find out how the pieces fit together.

Buxbaum's opening letter reminds the reader that these characters are completely fictionalized, not thoroughly researched representations of real people involved in the college admissions scandals, but let's be for real...how could you read this novel without picturing Joy Fields as Lori Loughlin the entire time? We've all read the magazine articles and seen the news specials on the college admissions scandal, but Buxbaum digs beneath the top layer and shapes a story around the daughter's feelings and experience through this ordeal. How much does she know when everything is happening during the "Then" parts, and how much is being done behind her back? How does she feel about her parents doing this for (or to) her? Did any of us think about that, or were we mostly focused Aunt Becky's fall from grace?

I loved it. Beginning to end and everything in between, I loved it. Buxbaum made me hurt for Chloe and feel sympathy for Joy Fields. She gave me a glimpse of the entire mess through the eyes of Chloe's sister and father, and even though they're more on the outskirts, their feelings became important to me, too. Even after finishing the book, my feelings for some characters are not neatly wrapped up and I still want a chance to bless them out/tell them where to get off/ream them out/give them a piece of my mind/whatever phrase you want to use. After seeing Buxbaum's portrayal of all the characters' approaches to this situation, I'd really love to put this book in the hands of parents. As a parent myself, I know I should let my children struggle and learn from their experiences, but I also know that I tend to take my children's failures personally because I feel like it makes me look like a bad parent. Should I let that feeling lead me to take over their lives and snowplow a smooth path for them? Nope, and I need stories like this to remind me that it's not just about how other people view me; it's really about how I'm teaching my children to view themselves.

Thank you, Julie Buxbaum, for this fantastic story that I will be excited to put in the hands of my high school students, especially the juniors and seniors who, like Chloe, are trying to figure out who they are and where they're going to go after high school.

I felt like I was getting an inside scoop on the college admissions scandal, in particular that of Lori Laughlin...as there were so many parallels. TV star with a reboot, seemingly perfect, two daughters, faking them as college athletes, and the list goes on. While I definitely enjoyed the book, I couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t super original, because of the above similarities. Having read and adored all of Buxbaum’s other YA novels, this one just did not pull at my heart-strings like them. However, I also can see where that was perhaps the point of this book, as it did really well at showing all sides of those involved in such scandals, and left you truly feeling as if no one involved in the situation was 100% wrong. Buxbaum remains my favorite YA author and I’m still glad I read this one.