Rowena’s review of Most Likely to Succeed (Superlatives #3) by Jennifer Echols.
In this sexy conclusion to The Superlatives trilogy from Endless Summer author Jennifer Echols, Sawyer and Kaye might just be perfect for each other—if only they could admit it.
As vice president of Student Council, Kaye knows the importance of keeping order. Not only in school, but in her personal life. Which is why she and her boyfriend, Aidan, already have their lives mapped out: attend Columbia University together, pursue banking careers, and eventually get married. Everything Kaye has accomplished in high school—student government, cheerleading, stellar grades—has been in preparation for that future.
To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…
As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?
Book 3 in the Superlatives series and it was a book that I was looking forward to reading because we were finally getting Sawyer’s book. Sawyer was the class screw up when we first meet him but over the course of the series, you see him change his ways. He goes from smoking pot, partying and going through girls every weekend to getting his shit together. I loved Sawyer. I thought he was the very best part of this book. Even when he was being a bonehead, I loved him.
Kaye on the other hand drove me crazy for a good portion of the book. Every time she would push and pull and play with Sawyer’s emotions, I wanted to smack her. But in the end, she gets it together and I ended up liking her. She wasn’t my favorite girl of the bunch but I could see why Sawyer liked her. I also understood why Kaye thought and acted the way that she did. I don’t know how she lived to be 17 without killing her mother. Her Mom was such a bitch.
My main gripes with the story were Aidan and Kaye’s Mom. Every time Sawyer had to pay for Aidan’s jealousy and his stupidity, I wanted to kick Aidan in the nuts. Every time Kaye talked down to and about Sawyer, I wanted to claw her eyes out. She’s a grown ass adult and the way she treated others made me want to smack the shit out of her. She thoroughly pissed me off over and over again. Her actions and the way she treated her daughter and Sawyer also made me mad at Kaye’s Dad. He’s supposed to be cool parent but you don’t let your wife talk to your kids like that. You don’t let your daughter go through that kind of shit. That’s not tough love. That’s bullshit. In the end, where the Mom apologizes and makes nice, I still wanted to beat the every loving shit out of her.
Aidan was no better. He was such a weak character. So focused on getting to the top that he didn’t care who he trampled on and hurt to get there. The way that he treated Kaye and the shit he put Sawyer through made me hate him so much that there was no prayer of redemption for him. Fuck him. I was so glad when Kaye finally put him out of her life for good. She deserved so much more than he ever gave her and I was so freaking happy when she left Aidan behind for good and jumped on the Sawyer train.
Getting to know Sawyer more throughout this story made me love him even more than I did in the previous books. My heart hurt for him and I wanted to hug him close and take care of him, I liked him so much. Every time that Kaye would make him happy, only to hurt him made me think that maybe he deserved better than her but then seeing Kaye come around, I changed my mind. Kaye was Sawyer’s person. She was the one that he wanted in his corner and I liked seeing Kaye come to the realization that Sawyer was her person too. When they finally decide to get their shit together and just be together, I loved seeing the lengths that they went to, to be together. To be happy. I loved that they didn’t care about what anyone thought (including Kaye’s parents). They liked each other and they were going to be there for each other through thick and thin.
Jennifer Echols did a great job of pulling every emotion out of me with this book. There were times when I laughed, times when I teared up and then times when I was so rip roaring pissed off that I wanted to throw this book but it wasn’t a boring book. There were a few times that I thought I was going to DNF this one but I’m glad that I stuck with it. I enjoyed seeing the couples from previous books and I thought Echols handled their addition to the story well. They weren’t completely corny and lovey dovey, and I appreciated that. Nothing drives me crazier than recurring characters that are couples that come back and are nauseating in their love for each other. That wasn’t the case with Brody, Harper, Will and Tia. I loved that even though they loved Kaye, they were still there for Sawyer.
The romance between Kaye and Sawyer was cute and enjoyable. I was happy with the way that this book ended but I’m not going to lie, it was a bumpy road getting there.
Grade: 3 out of 5
This book is available from Simon Pulse. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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