I’m going to do something a little different for the next three books. Written by Lauren Barnholdt, the Moment of Truth series looks at one trip through three different perspectives. Each book deserves its own review, but I also think the series as a whole should be reviewed. So I’ll be giving each book a mini review, and a full series review on Monday, April 11th.

Title: One Moment in Time
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Series: The Moment of Truth Series
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: June 12th, 2015
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5)

One Moment in Time summary from Goodreads:

Before graduation, I promise to…do something crazy. The second book of the Moment of Truth series follows Quinn as she figures out that giving up some control might be the best way to get what she really wants.

Each book in this paperback original series is told from the perspective of a different girl—Lyla, Aven, and Quinn—former best friends who wrote emails to their future selves back in freshman year about one thing they hope to accomplish before they graduate. When the emails get delivered on the first morning of their senior trip, all three girls will spend the next three days trying to keep the promises they made to themselves four years ago. While each book follow’s one girl’s life-changing adventure, you have to read them all to get the whole story, including why they’re no longer friends and whether they can get their friendship back on track.

When the email arrives in Quinn’s inbox on the morning of her senior trip to Florida, she sends it straight to her trash folder. The craziest thing she’s ever done is get highlights (at a salon), and quite honestly she doesn’t feel the need to do something crazy, now or ever. Besides, it’s not even like she’s friends with Lyla or Aven anymore, so she doesn’t really need to fulfill some dumb pact they made back in freshman year.

But when she discovers that she’s been rejected from her dream school, Quinn figures that she might as well get a little wild…after all, what does she have to lose?

Publishing just one month after Heat of the Moment, One Moment in Time is a compulsively readable story about breaking the rules, and breaking out of the roles we’ve always been expected to play.

Quinn has been working toward going to Stanford, like the rest of her family, her entire high school career. Everything she did was backed with the intention of Stanford. So when she gets notice that her plans have fallen through, she’s left wondering what that means for her and the future. She never stopped to consider alternatives. It was just Stanford.

When she gets the email form herself, reminding her of her promise to do something crazy, the weekend in Florida seems like the perfect chance. She’s not going to Stanford, so what does she have to lose?

Like Heat of the Moment, the actual love interest isn’t incredibly important. I thought Abram was a little more interesting than Beckett, though. However, he forces Quinn to consider a life she hadn’t even thought about. One where the next step wasn’t planned to the smallest detail, where being the best isn’t as important as enjoying the journey to get there. Quinn has been living life with blinders on, but the Florida trip changes her perspective.

We learn a little bit more about the fight that broke up Lyla, Quinn and Aven. Lyla’s parents were getting a divorce, and in confidence, she told Aven she had a thought about moving with her dad. Aven told Quinn because the three of them told each other everything, not realizing that Lyla didn’t want her to. Quinn told her mom in an attempt to create a bond with her that went beyond a formal relationship and it backfired. There’s still one more side to the story, though.

I did have some problems with Quinn’s behavior. I think there’s a different between doing something crazy and doing something dangerous. Despite taking some safety precautions, I still think she went way over the line form crazy to dangerous. That just took something away from the novel.

I think One Moment in Time is the same type of book as Heat of the Moment. It’s got some depth, but it’s also a lighter read that isn’t going to twist your heart into pieces.