195 reviews for:

Freshmen

Tom Ellen, Lucy Ivison

3.43 AVERAGE

malloryeasterday15's profile picture

malloryeasterday15's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 60%

Violated the CDP (work)

I usually don't rate books below 3 star but I had to with this one. I wasn't invested in the story or the characters, something about it was so boring and lacked life. Phoebe was annoying and Luke was so back and forth and just had no personality. There was so much back and forth that I couldn't actually enjoy what was going on. The ending was also awful. There was so much build up for NOTHING. Literally nothing happened. I can imagine that if I read this book in middle school I probably would have loved it, but reading it in college just had me annoyed and disappointed.
funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ok! First off, this is THE FUNNIEST book I have ever read in my natural born life. This is the closest book to my college experience that it was kind of scary. Everything felt extremely relatable and normal and real. I’m just...wow. I didn’t care for Luke and I think that was the point of the story? But another GREAT thing they got right is the essence of female friendship between the girls. I loved reading about everything they did even down to the most mundane things because it’s exactly what I would do with my girl friends. AND FINALLY the ending was perfect to me and honest and realistic. Really surprised this doesn’t have a higher rating. Official the best fiction book about college I’ve read. A solid 4 stars.
funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Absolutely brilliant!

I read this in one day - and that's rare for me, the world's slowest reader - and I found it hard to put down.
This book is SO BRITISH. If you've been to university, you'll relate, if you haven't, you'll experience it with this book.
The characters are a lot of fun, the story was pretty much just a few people trying to survive their first term of uni but that's always entertaining, and it ended on a good yet realistic note. Very satisfied with this read.

I personally think this book is an NA book, although I found it in the teens/YA section but that's my humble opinion.
I find that the New Adult genre is awful, full of the same irritating near-erotica plain-girl-meets-manwhore crap, and I'm definitely sick of it. Freshers, however, is a hell of a lot more New Adult than them as it deals with an actual realistic couple of characters who ARE new adults and discovering life. The genre is definitely coming back to life, thank god!

Very much enjoyed it! Also, it's absolutely bloody hilarious. Like, snort-your-tea-out-your-nose funny!
And Harry Potter fans will be happy with this read too. Many references and a Quidditch society. And I love how someone is offered tea on nearly every page! (okay, not EVERY page but a lot)

Highly recommended. I'm already a fan of these two authors so naturally when I saw this was out, I HAD to buy it.

Dance. Love. Learn. Repeat. Von Tom Ellen und Lucy Ivison handelt von Phoebe und Luke und deren erstem Jahr auf dem College.

Spoilerwarung!

Ich bin absolut positiv überrascht. Ich bin mit der Erwartung reingegangen, ein ganz normales Buch für zwischendurch zu lesen , diese Story war aber so viel mehr als das.

Jede einzelne Handlung war super realistisch, es läuft eben nicht alles immer perfekt. Das fand ich vor allem in der Szene perfekt dargestellt, als Luke und Phoebe miteinander schlafen. Solche Unfälle passieren eben und die Charaktere reagieren absolut menschlich. Es werden Tabuthemen angesprochen, jeder Charakter hat seine Daseinsberechtigung und ist super ausgearbeitet.
Die Clique rund um Phoebe, Frankie und Negin ist mir wirklich ans Herz gewachsen und ich habe selten so eine schöne Freundschaft gelesen, die nicht als übermäßig perfekt dargestellt wurde. Wenn Phoebe etwas dummes macht, verzeihen ihr die anderen nicht sofort, stehen aber trotzdem hinter ihr. Und mir kann niemand, der das Buch gelesen hat, erzählen, dass er Frankie und ihre Ideen nicht total genial fand.

Auch die Szene auf dem Fußballfeld ist eine so wichtige Szene, die es einfach in zu wenigen Büchern gibt: Mädchen, die erkennen, wie sie behandelt wurden, und etwas dagegen tun.

Luke hingegen habe ich denke ich genauso wahrgenommen, wie die Autoren das wollten: ziemlich zwiegespalten. Er war sehr real und hat demnach auch ziemlich reale Fehler gemacht, die er auch nicht begründen konnte, was ihn sogar noch realistischer macht. Er war kein typischer Badboy, trotzdem habe ich total verstanden, was Phoebe an ihm fand.

Kurz vor dem Ende hatte ich etwas Angst, dass das Buch so endet, dass meiner Meinung nach fast alles davor sinnlos gewesen wäre, doch ich wurde sehr positiv überrascht: Dass Phoebe Luke nicht zurückgenommen hat, war das perfekte Ende. Er hat ihren Geburtstag ruiniert, ihre Beziehung zueinander nie klargestellt und hing die ganze Zeit noch an seiner Exfreundin. Phoebe hat hier einfach nur sehr erwachsen und vernünftig gehandelt. Sie hat das erste Mal nur an sich und nicht an Luke gedacht.

Insgesamt ein absolut tolles Buch, das genau die richtige Message hat. Große Leseempfehlung!