After a ‘misunderstanding’ in which Taylor takes the fall for her boyfriend, she is expelled from her boarding school. The fallout of her choice affects not only her and her future but her family, specifically her father’s senator campaign. Taylors world starts to collapse and everything she has worked so hard for starts to fall away… her future at Harvard is not as unquestionable as it once was. Not only has she lost her friends, boyfriend and the trust of her parents… add to that starting a new school.

Personally I couldn’t connect with Taylor as I have previously with the authors other characters. I felt she didn’t think things through properly and her rash decisions caused her to be in that situation in the first place. However, I did admire her dedication to her future, she was hardworking and a good team player when it came to soccer. Mostly I admired her ability to forge her own path and make the most of the situation she was in. She broke the yoke of her family’s expectation in regards to her future and chose to do what felt right for her, instead of majoring in business which was expected.

However, the overall plot was somewhat predictable, along with the romance between Taylor and her brother’s best friend Ezra who she hasn’t talked to for many years. While it was an OK read, it was not my favourite of Miranda Kenneally’s work and I feel she has much better books in her ‘Hundred Oaks’ series to choose from.

Taylor isn’t exactly thrilled about starting her school year at the public school. Expelled from her posh private academy after getting caught with Adderall, Taylor now has to start all over again, which puts her plans to get into an Ivy League school in peril.

Even worse, Taylor’s father, a high profile senator is up for election, and has pretty much washed his hands of her. Hoping to find some solace in her favorite sport of soccer, Taylor joins her new school’s team, but is disappointed to see that they are dominated by a ball-hogging mean girl.

Taylor is determined to make things right, both with her team and her family. But when the secret of why she really was expelled is exposed, she will finally have to stand up for herself and stop living her life for others.

Loved this book, love this author, she writes amazing realistic fiction.

Defending Taylor isn’t my favorite of the Hundred Oaks series, and I think that will be the case for most people. The start was rough. Ultimately, Defending Taylor did when me over, but it took a while.


Defending Taylor‘s most similar to Things I Can’t Forget, in that many readers are likely to find Taylor insufferable. She’s a spoiled rich girl, and she’s whiny for a lot of the book. Taylor mad a bad choice that got her expelled from her fancy private school and knocked her chances of getting into dream college, Yale, off track. Now she’s stuck living at home, playing on a crappy soccer team, breaking up with her boyfriend who didn’t stand up for her when the shit went down, and hating how disconnected she feels from everything and everyone.

Taylor made a really stupid decision. View Spoiler » Lying about the thing that got her expelled, despite her semi-noble reasons, throws her life into chaos. Of course, she only took the fall because she expected her senator father to bail her out of trouble, but he doesn’t want his kids getting that bratty and spoiled, so he didn’t.

Kenneally seems finally to be making a minor stab at racial diversity, with mixed results. There’s a hot hispanic guy who shows up twice, but he’s a landscaper there solely to be a bit too pushy in hitting on Taylor, and it’s pretty awful. However, there’s a black man in the alumni office at Yale, and that was much better. For the most part, though, Hundred Oaks remains the whitest and straightest place in all the land. Writing seven white, het couples in a row makes a statement.

All the character arcs do end up being very effective. Taylor learns that lying is stupid. That plot wasn’t my favorite, but I did think it was a bit more organic than sometimes when this device is used. She didn’t come clean because that would make things even messier in the long run. I also appreciated the way her lie resolved with Ezra.

There have been so many contemporary romances about the daughters of politicians (notably The Unexpected Everything and Interference). Though Defending Taylor treads the exact same ground here, with the pain of the media circus and being dropped from publicity for a mis-step, Taylor’s dad’s a bit more sympathetic from the start than most of these politician dads. Even at the lowest points in their relationship, he texts her good luck for her soccer games and will go to bat for her, if not always in the way that she wants. View Spoiler » Her mom’s barely there, however.

Taylor’s relationship with the soccer team works too. The mean girl doesn’t get a great arc, but she also doesn’t come off irredeemable. I couldn’t care less about Taylor’s private school friends, though. One of the nicer elements of Taylor’s personality comes through here: she really does try her ass off. She stands up to bullies and fights to get what she wants. You really get the sense that who she is at the start of the book isn’t the normal Taylor at all. She just reacted poorly to a crisis and then stuck to it. Her self-loathing became a more general loathing, and it wasn’t pretty.

Her relationship with Ezra I do like a whole lot, as it’s a bit trope-defying. They avoid a few things that would have been mega drama fights in other books by actually communicating with one another. I also like the not-quite-fights they have while trying to convince one another to fight for what they actually want, not the family legacy. They’re also really cute together, and I’m also a fan of relationships that move at a non-standard pace physically. Kenneally remains on point with the sex positivity.

Defending Taylor may not be my favorite Kenneally, but I appreciate the risk with a less overtly likable heroine. A lot of readers could be lost in that first 100 pages before Taylor starts acknowledging some truths about herself.

I think what I love so much about books by Miranda Kenneally is how consistent she is. I absolutely adore her stories of sporty girls trying to figure stuff out. With their identities, with friends, family and love. And Defending Taylor is such a good example of Miranda Kenneally at her best. I will always be excited to read more by this author.

Defending Taylor was such a brilliant read; it was full with funny, quirky characters, but all of who had to deal with tough everyday issues that you could relate to. This is one of the reasons I adore Kenneally’s books so much she’s able to make you enjoy the heck out of a book, but also deal with several underlying themes very well. Our MC Taylor finds herself in the toughest of situations; she gets kicked out of one of the most prestigious schools for covering up for someone she cared about. Not only does she have to enrol at the local school, she has to start all over again, she knows nobody here, she has to see a councillor on a daily basis for what she did and with her deadline for early acceptance at Yale looming around the corner Taylor really needs to sort everything out. On top of that her brothers best friend is back in town, (did I mention that Taylor had the biggest crush on him, until Ezra let her down a few years back in the biggest way). But now it was Taylor’s time to get back on track and put everything right, may even with Ezra.

Taylor was a MC I could easily relate to, she’d put a lot of pressure on herself to succeed and meet her parents expectations and she had been let down in the biggest way because she put her trust in somebody. I just really wanted Taylor to succeed but also have fun at the same time; there were huge changes and obstacles in front of Taylor, especially a soccer team that wouldn’t give her the time of day. But I admired Taylor’s strength, determination and most of all her loyalty. She refused to turn in who she was covering up even though they totally deserved it and she didn’t quit on the soccer team even though she wanted to. I’m glad that through her struggles she had a friend in Ezra. Ezra was a tough guy to resist despite Taylor doing her hardest to do so, he was sweet, could always bring a smile to Taylor’s face (but in most cases weak in the knees) but he was also going through a similar situation with his own parents. So I’m glad that Ezra was someone that Taylor could lean on, the development of Ezra and Taylor’s relationship despite some struggles was magical and beautiful.

Once again Kenneally also made the importance of family a central part of Defending Taylor. Taylor’s family had a lot to deal with, but at the end of the day they were always there for each other despite the mistakes they made along the way. I don’t know why it took so long for me to pick up Defending Taylor, but I think this was the perfect time for me to do so, the swoony romance and fantastic characters makes me want to dive into more contemporary YA reads straight away!

I consider myself an avid Miranda Kenneally fangirl, so I really wasn't surprised when I started DEFENDING TAYLOR, got immediately hooked, and ended up absolutely loving it. :P

While it wasn't my favourite of the Hundred Oaks books (I think RACING SAVANNAH is still my favourite...with BREATHE ANNIE BREATHE very close behind--and that's if I absolutely have to choose :P), I absolutely adored the story.

I also loved the characters! Taylor was a wonderful main character. She was a tad moody, and did make some poor choices, but I loved that she was determined to stick by her choices, and that she was willing to take responsibility and face any and all consequences that came her way. And Ezra...*sigh* I loved Ezra! I also really loved that Taylor and Ezra had a past. It made the dynamics of their relationship really interesting! I also really loved Taylor's relationship with her brother, Oliver! :) As always, I thought it was fantastic getting to see some of the characters from the other books like Annie and Jeremiah, and Savannah and Jack!!!! :D

I really loved DEFENDING TAYLOR, and I think that it's an excellent addition to the Hundred Oaks series! If you're just starting the series now, I think it wouldn't hurt to start here, but I do think that you'd appreciate the cameos from the other characters more if you started earlier on in the series--probably at least with Racing Savannah so that you'll be familiar with the characters that make appearances in this one. :) Overall, I would definitely recommend adding this one to your TBR though because it was fantastic!