Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier

Girls with Bright Futures book summary

Girls with Bright Futures is an adult contemporary/thriller by Tracey Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman. This book follows three mothers who all have a daughter. All three families come from different parts of life but are all sending their daughters to the same private school. But right now it’s college admission season and three girls are seniors. All three mothers and all three daughters want the best for themselves but not exactly for each other. When Stanford lets the school know that they are only allowing one student from this EBA (the private school) then things start to get real. Alicia, who is the head of a top tech company, relies on her money to hopefully get her daughter in. Kelly relies on her PTA duties and the fact the both she and her husband are Stanford alums. And Maren is just there trying to survive the cutthroat competition. When one of the girls faces a near-death experience that may not have been an accident is when all three women start to spiral. How far will families go in order to get their children in a top college?

What I thought about Girls With Bright Futures:

I actually picked up Girls with Bright Futures off of Netgalley and I’m so glad that I did. This book follows three mothers (Alicia, Kelly, and Maren) who all want the best for their kids. This includes getting into the best college. With all three girls in a private school, college is actually pretty competitive. So competitive it’s a bit scary. I get getting into a big college is important. Getting into the college that you dreamed about for most of your life is something that I get too. But being so competitive to get into a certain college that you’re willing to sabotage others just for your kid isn’t something I get. Do people like this expect not to be caught?

Characters

So Girls with Bright Futures follows Maren, Kelly, and Alicia. All three of them are different from one another starting with how much money they have to how far they are willing to go to get their kid into Stanford.

Maren is actually one of my favorite characters in this story. She’s a very strong woman that works three jobs in order to pay her bills and to make sure that her daughter gets the best out of her life. She wants her daughter to have a better life than she did. On top of that, her daughter works too in order to make extra cash. Maren’s daughter is how I hope my future daughter ends up being like. She’s smart, independent, and is able to push herself to do the things that she wants to do. They are both my favorite and I was actually hoping that both of them would get what they want.

Kelly actually got on my nerves. She’s a very entitled woman and I’m surprised her husband hadn’t divorced her a long time ago. Was she different before putting her kids in a private school? She actually kind of gave me psycho vibes since she would look into everyone and how exactly she looked into every one. She has a way of looking into her competition that’s beyond creepy.

Alicia is actually my least favorite character throughout this whole book. She uses her money to talk for her. She’s even more entitled than Kelly and expects that she deserves things just because she donated. She’s super pushy towards her daughter who doesn’t exactly deserve to go to Stanford. The only perk about Alicia’s family is that I actually love her daughter Brooke. How does a really good kid come out of a family like hers?

The Plot

So, the plot of Girls with Bright Future has a great plot. You’re dragged through the book wondering what’s going to happen. Who in the story would be willing to hurt another girl just to make sure their kid gets into the best college. Are people this crazy when it comes to getting their kids into a good college? I get really wanting them to go there and rooting for them the entire way. But are parents really willing to go through such things in order to get them in college? This is really so crazy to me and baffles me. People are truly crazy.

The plot of this story is actually really fast-paced and very well done! I will be reading more books from both of these authors!

How do you guys feel about parents who are willing to do anything to kid their kid in the best college?

If you like the sound of this book then you may like Someone Else’s Summer.