None of the Regular Rules By Erin Downing Review

SUMMARY

Sometimes, a few dares can change lives…

The weekend before the start of senior year, Sophie Erickson and her best friends, Ella and Grace, discover a handwritten list of dares tucked away in the glove compartment of Sophie’s beat-up old Toyota. But this isn’t just any list; it’s a dead girl's bucket list.

Sophie's beloved aunt Suzy died as a teenager in a fatal fall, leaving Sophie with an overly cautious family, a few fading photographs, and a bucket of bolts that barely passes for a car. But now, Sophie has Suzy’s list of the things she wanted to do in her last year of high school. Sophie can't help but wonder: What would happen if she tried to fulfill Suzy’s last wishes, to live out the longed-for life of her aunt, her hero?

As Sophie and her friends attempt to knock off the things on Suzy's list of dares, love blossoms in unexpected places and Sophie begins to feel that her life is finally coming together...when in fact, everything is slowly unraveling around her. When the truth about a long-held family secret threatens to shatter everything she believed to be true, Sophie is forced to question everything she knew about the life and people she believed in, and ultimately herself.

REVIEW

This was such a wonderful story. None of the Regular Rules is a book about growing up and learning who your friends are, living for now and taking chances. It's also about the lasting power of friendship and admitting when you're wrong in order to move forward. Sophie, Ella and Grace's personalities were all so different that they occasionally clashed, and to me that was the interesting part of the story.  And the sweet romance too, of course! I could have done with more of Johnny Rush hehehe but when it came down to it, I appreciated that he wasn't the focus of the story. This is the kind of YA book that leaves you with a feel-good feeling of hope for the future.