Stefanie's Thoughts: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

Happy Thursday!

I love Kasie West and her novel P.S. I like you quickly became my favorite book of last year. I was actually surprised to find out that I hadn’t read her three previous contemporary novels and was happy to finally knock that off the tbr. 

This book is perfect for someone looking for a light, fluffy read that when you read the last page you end up with a smile on your face, even though you predicted the ending from page one. But hey, that’s why I read these books and am a super-lover of those cheesy made-for-tv Hallmark movies, I want that happy ending! 

Gia made me laugh throughout the book and then at times was so self-centered I couldn’t handle her. Sure the biggest problem in her life was she wasn’t prom queen and her boyfriend dumped her right before prom, but it just made me think about when I was her age and how every problem seemed like the end of the world. I did feel that Gia matured and grew as a character throughout the book and I feel she did learn some important lessons on life. This is definitely one book I can one-hundred percent say I felt the character growth was real and not just written in to force it.

I normally don’t write about the love interest in their own paragraph, but Hayden (or Fill-In Boyfriend) deserves it. He was honestly one of those characters you are compelled to read on to find out just who he is. I mean come on, a random girl asks you to go to prom with you because her boyfriend just broke up with her, and you can’t even hate him for going with it! Of course I then got worried there would be some insta-love happening but Kasie West didn’t let me down and the romance happened at a normal pace. His sister Bec was my favorite character (sorry Hayden). She was full of snark and sarcasm and I just love that, the more sarcastic the better.

I just want to take a sentence and mention how does Kasie West always get such awesomely adorable book covers?

Pick this one up if you are looking for a happy fun light read. Solid four stars.



Reread Update

So the International Kissing Club…. well it was more juvenile than I remembered. The plot itself was still really fun (a bunch of friends who join their student exchange program through their school and each one goes to a different location) and I loved the concept of them running a Facebook page to stay connected. The whole concept of seeing how many boys they can kiss is the juvenile part, but I was still able to end the book feeling good about reading it. It didn’t live up to the four stars I had previously given it, but it only dropped down to a 3.5



Next up is Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick.
I have a feeling it won’t stand up to the five star rating I originally gave it; I think I read this back in 2011. I laughed at the original review I gave it on Goodreads and then deleted it. I might add it back for laughs!

Until my next review,

Stefanie