This was A LOT of fun! ( )

Freshmen is the story of two young adults from the same high school that find their lives entangled during their freshman year of college. Phoebe is the smart, pretty, but usually lost in the masses girl that's set out to be a new version of herself. She'll be fun, she'll party, she won't have a curfew, and everything will be great, especially since her longtime crush is there too. In just one week Luke breaks up with his girlfriend, makes just one true new friend, and lands himself a spot on the soccer team. He's a bit lonely, but things are looking up when he starts hooking up with Phoebe. The Wall of Shame changes all that though, leaving Luke trying to fix things and Phoebe seeking answers to what might truly make her happy.

Freshmen is a classic NA college novel, the pages filled with partying, hook ups, and an occasional class. Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison take the fun a step farther by exploring loneliness, homesickness, and shameful events that can make or break the college experience. I really connected with both Phoebe and Luke, their experiences similar to my own four year adventure. It was a fun-to-read novel, the sort that gets you out of reality, but doesn't challenge you too much. I laughed quite a bit, appreciated the focus on events beyond drinking and one night stands, and ultimately found this book to be a really great, positive new adult read. It was a very authentic portrayal of college that took me back in time.

Though Freshmen is labeled as a YA novel, I'd put in more in NA adult territory. There is a lot of drinking, time spent between the sheets and literally everywhere else, and a serious, thought provoking question of appropriateness and questioning what everyone else is doing. I really appreciated the secondary characters, but they seemed more well rounded than Phoebe and Luke at times, their voices more mature and adult than that of the narrators. Additionally, the end left me feeling like it was unfinished, like maybe there must be more to the story, a happier ending. I wish there had been an epilogue that revealed all is well for the characters after a dramatic freshman year.

Freshmen is a must read for young adult and new adult fans, I mean, I want to hand it out to freshmen on college campuses right now. It was so accurate, funny, and had a very smart message to it.

ARC provided. ( )

FRESHMAN is a hilarious take on what its like your first year in college. There’s what you think it’s going to e like, and then what it’s actually going to be. They very rarely are the same.

I’m always a fan of a first year college story, as it was such a special time for my personally. I met the first love, I drank for the first time, I did some thing I ultimately wasn’t very proud of. Just like in real life, FRESHMAN goes from funny, to serious, to a little cringe worthy as the characters navigate their first year.

I enjoyed the book, though perhaps not as much as books such as FANGIRL or I HATE EVERYONE BUT YOU which hit me a little closer to home. ( )

Phoebe and Luke meet and connect on their first night of university as freshmen in this teen romance. Phoebe’s nerdy fantasies come to life--- she’s had a crush on soccer star Luke since high school. Luke just broke up with his long distance girlfriend and is looking for a fresh start. Told in their alternating perspectives, they start hooking up as rumors swirl about the soccer team’s Wall of Shame, a secret text chain of inappropriate photos of girls on campus. Luke and Phoebe find themselves dealing with the fall-out of all the freshmen drama and wonder if their relationship can last. All in all, this book is a quick summer read balanced with humor and drama for YA romance fans. It does deal with sex, drinking, and partying. Recommended for teens grade 10 and up. ( )

Two teenagers, Phoebe and Luke, navigating their first term at a university in the north of England.

I like reading about characters going off to university. Characters making drunken (or drug-influenced) decisions and making mistakes of their relationships in consequence is really not so much my cup of tea.

Nevertheless, I think it’s super important that there are stories about this sort of experience. There’s been discussion in the media lately about residential colleges -- the problems of hazing practices and a drinking culture, and the relationship between these and sexual assault. It’s something which needs to be talked about more -- preferably before young people are confronted with it -- and fiction is one way of doing that.

When Freshers wasn’t making me uncomfortable, it was easy to read and often funny. I was delighted by how wholly British it is, right down its vocabulary and idiomatic grammar. I liked the bits about Phoebe and Luke studying English lit, and how so much of the story was about their friendships; I liked that they had friends who didn’t drink and this was accepted.

“Still,” he carried on, “at least I’ll get a decent job after uni. Unlike you, who’ll be stuck in a skip, writing poems.”
“That’s the dream,” I sighed. “Although you don’t walk straight into a gig like that. I’d probably have to intern in the skip for a few months.” ( )