Nerdy by New Year

Squad Goals, Book 2

De: M.F. Lorson, Jessica Bucher

Narrado por: Tanya Dougherty

To get the guy, she'll have to get down and nerdy!

Lucy and Simon used to be inseparable...until Lucy hopped on the popularity train by humiliating Simon in front of the whole school. Now, her senior year goal is to get him back by New Year's Eve.

Step one: Join his club and find a cause.

Step two: Prove to him she's more than a mean girl.

Step three: Earn his trust, and maybe his heart.

Simon is perfectly fine with never speaking to Lucy again, especially after she humiliated him sophomore year. But then she walks into his Key Club meeting with a mission, and suddenly old feelings come roaring back.

Lucy and Simon started the year as enemies, but they may just end it in each other's arms.

Get this second installment in the Squad Goals Series today!

©2019 M.F. Lorson (P)2020 Jennifer Costley

Cute YA Romance

I really enjoyed this story. It has good characters, some humor and I thought the narrator did a good job. I'll be listening to this one again.

Great High School Love

This is was great story of young love. What a great reminder of all the crazy feelings and insecurities that was high school. We have friends. We fall in love. We make bad decisions. We are swayed by those around us. We are unsure of who we are.

This was a very sweet story of young friends, Lucy and Simon. Lucy made a bad decision and hurt her best friend, thus losing him. She realized the error of her ways and decided to make huge changes to her priorities.

Simon was wonderful! I would have loved a Simon in my high school days. He was wonderful and forgiving and very helpful to Lucy in her strides at bettering herself.

I would absolutely recommend this sweet, innocent story of young love.

Nerdy by New Year

Loved this book. This is such a fun series to listen to so far. I highly recommend this book for teen girls. Can't wait to find out what happens in Nora's book next.

YA content- Very, Very Fun, and important theme, but not all PG

Lucy wants to make some positive changes to her life. Rather than pushing past mistakes under a rug and forgetting them, she wants to make amends. Lucy’s friends dubbed this plan “Nerdy by New Year”. Though Lucy doesn’t exactly agree that her plan has to make her nerdy, she goes along with her friends’ idea to give her a make under.
As she makes amends she finds herself thrown into the deep end of charity work with Simon. Simon was her close childhood friend, who she hurt.
A great, romantic story about allying oneself with the people who bring out the best in us!

Disclaimer: Some of the ideas, vocabulary (at least?one curse word), and themes would not be appropriate for every audience.

I received an ARC of this audiobook and am giving a voluntary review.

Fun read

I enjoyed this fun and engaging story. The characters were witty and had good chemistry. The narrator was great as well.

A second-chance romance set in high school

It might seem like kids haven't lived enough life yet to need a second chance at any romance. But when you take two best friends like Lucy and Simon, who knows? In middle school, they were the best of friends. But everyone knows, the transition to high school can be hard. Figuring out who you are and how you fit in is huge! And Lucy took things a bit too far to claim the social standing she wanted.

Fast forward four years... Lucy and Simon are in their senior year now, and Lucy realizes that she doesn't want to leave home for college with unresolved business between them.

Thus begins her Squad Goal to make things up to him.

I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded. The characters are fun. The focus on the various ways we can serve our community was great! And the narrator did an excellent job.

I look forward to reading more books in this series.

Great Read

Nerdy by New Year (Squad Goals #2) was a great Read by M.F. Lorson and Jessica Bucher. At one time Lucy and Simon were inseparable best friends. That was until Lucy became popular and humiliated Simon in front of everyone at school. This year is their senior year and she has made it her goal to get him back by New Year’s Eve. Simon doesn’t ever want to speak to her again, but unlucky for him she joined his Key Club. She seems to be on a mission but things may quickly change for the two enemies. I can’t wait to read more by the authors.

For Fans Of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

A More Innocent High School Version Of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants Series! Simon & Lucy’s Second Chance Romance Is A Delightful Light Read About High School Love – Perfect For Middle And High Schoolers.


This is book two in the Squad Goals series about three girls in their senior year at Delinki High School in Minnesota. It is a smallish school with a population of eight hundred in a somewhat rural area. Addie, Lucy, and Nora – the squad - have a tradition of sorts that began their freshman year. They begin each school year with a sleepover in Nora’s barn. They each write their squad goals for the year into a special notebook, then pass the notebook around, each in turn taking a season with the notebook and a turn to fulfill their goals. This series is a more innocent high school version of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. It is clean (just some kisses and cuddling), so appropriate for middle schoolers and high schoolers.

Book one, Hot by Halloween, is Addie Altman and Gray Turner’s story. So far, Addie has achieved her goals each year. Senior year she vows to get revenge after being dumped as a junior and heads to the swim teem where she meets Gray, the new guy, and both their plans get turned upside down. In this book, Nerdy by New Year, Lucy Caldwell has a mixed record of achieving her goals. This year she hopes to make amends with a few people from her past, but she never foresaw that her old nerdy best friend, Simon Hawkins, would have turned into a dreamy Clark Kent. In Promised by Prom, book three, Nora Henry hopes to finally get her chance at love. She has had no luck achieving her goals and considers herself an ugly duckling. Little does she expect that Addie’s brother Max Altman, a grade below, will catch her attention. The jokester is very popular with the girls, but has secretly held a torch for Nora since forever.

Lucy Caldwell did some things she isn’t proud of in her past – all in the name of being popular. But she is heading off to college next year and doesn’t want to graduate with a guilty conscience, so she makes three goals for her senior year. First, she owes her ex-boyfriend Trevor an apology. Next, she needs to be unselfish and give back to society in some way. Finally, she needs to earn Simon Hawkins’ forgiveness for the horrible incident that humiliated him in front of the whole school and put an end to their friendship two years ago. But even she knew that might not be possible.

Simon Hawkins is a nerd. Not that he minds it – he loves Star Wars and Star Trek. He plans on attending MSU next year and is working on his RA application to shave some costs. His family went through some rough times a few years back, and though they are getting back on track now, he cannot take money for granted. He is heavily involved in the Key Club at school, which looks great on applications and should boost his chances for getting RA. This year he is president, and everything his small group has worked for over the years – all the volunteer hours – is about to pay off. He has been working hard to organize the club’s four day trip to D.C. over the New Year, planning tours and activities. But the last thing he expects to happen is for Lucy Caldwell to show up at his meeting and ask to go along.

Simon and Lucy’s story is a sweet second-chance romance. Simon is adorably nerdy and insecure. He has never had a girlfriend before and is plagued by insecurities when Lucy comes back into his life. He wants more than friendship but cannot afford to make any mistakes where she is concerned. Lucy quickly learns that her old friend has changed in the past two years, and once they start speaking again she realizes what a catch he has turned into. She, too, has insecurities despite her dating experience. Lucy has a lot of growing up to do in this story, but she faces it head on. She reexamines her priorities and finds some things are not as important as she once thought. Simon and Lucy get to know one another again as they struggle with their feelings for one another, but there are a few bumps along the road (though the drama is mostly minimal). Their story deals with betrayal and revenge as well as friendship and forgiveness.

Simon and Lucy’s story is a delightful light read about high school love – perfect for middle and high schoolers. It is nicely written. The plot is fairly simple. The characters are nicely developed and realistic. The story is written in first person. The POV alternates between Simon and Lucy. I rate this book 4.5 stars.

As for the Audio: it is nicely performed and consistent with the book.

I received an audiobook and am voluntarily leaving a review.

A cute teenage rom com.

A cute teenage rom com. Lucy and her two girl friends set up goals for themselves. They help each other reach them. Lucy's is to get Simon to forgive her for embarrassing him in front of the whole school their sophomore year. She will need to "nerd down" to accomplish this. This is Lucy and Simon's story. I loved both characters. And their friends, too. A fun look into their high school years!

Getting forgiveness

Lucy and Simon were once close and Lucy regrets letting that friendship go. She and her besties devise a plan to get the friendship with Simon back on track. Spending time together brings Lucy and Simon closer than ever will they talk at let their felling out. Loved this book which is the middle book in a series about a group of friends trying to meet their goals.