As they get to know each other, their academic one-upmanship and hyper competitiveness fades away. In the book, Alison and Ethan are forced to spend time together planning a previous class’ 10-year reunion.

“One of us got in and one of us went to Princeton,” Wibberley said. But both were valedictorians in 2010 and both applied to Harvard. The husband and wife writing team said they didn’t compete with each other in high school, any more than with the other students vying for admissions to top schools. He’s your Kindle dying during the first hour on your flight to Boston.” Your printer running out of toner when you’re finishing your 20-page final paper on the Hundred Years’ War. The splinter in your shoe from walking on woodchips. The male lead is Ethan Sanger, an equally intelligent “Kennedyesque via California” guy with “high cheekbones, sharp nose,” who could be Siegemund-Broka.Īlison does not hide her disdain for Ethan, especially since both have their sights on becoming valedictorian and getting into Harvard.

The narrator is an overachieving high school senior named Alison Sanger, who could be Wibberley. Their intense focus on academics and questions about the future are very similar to the questions we faced,” Siegemund-Broka said. “These are the characters who are most like us. Authors Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka in front of the Manhattan Beach PublicĪuthors Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka have always drawn on their experiences at Mira Costa High School for their young adult novels, but even more so for their fourth book, “What’s Not to Love,”.

What's Not to Love by Emily Wibberley