Off Center was a surprising cute and entertaining YA book. It centers on Lane, a high schooler, who has has three main goals. She wants to get a full ride to a Northwestern University, win the title of American High School Journalist of the year, and have her first kiss with her crush since middle school. Unbeknownst to Lane, achieving those goals are going to be a lot harder than she had assumed.

One overarching theme is the idea of having this wonderful idea of how everything is supposed to turn out. You're basically looking with rose painted glasses and unfortunately when something unexpected happens you're completely thrown off balance. And while trying to achieve your original goals, you realize that what you found in the process was much better than what you had originally wanted. That was a descriptive and vague way to describe what Lane encounters in Off Center.

Although, I overall enjoyed Off Center I was not too keen on the major twist. In a book, that almost feels playful and light, the twist felt unwarranted. I get that it was there to give more depth to Lane but I would have enjoyed if the author had went another route. The twist weighed the book and suddenly it got almost too real.

Characters

As a main character, Lane was great. She had this likable factor about her. In addition, she had such a unique voice which was refreshing. I would enjoy to continue to follow this character's journey. She has such an interesting perspective and it would be amazing to see what happens next for her.

Her relationship with her mother was adorable. And it is a shame that there were only a handful of scenes with her.

Final Analysis

Off Center is an adorable YA book with more pros than cons.