ARC, 343 pages
Release Date: May 5, 2015Published by: HarperTeenStand-aloneSource: ATWATFor fans of: Coming of Age, Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction, YA
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.
*MY THOUGHTS*
“Words are powerful.”
pg. 24 (ARC)
The worst time to break up with someone is before/during a date. Make that date your senior prom, and you have the worst timing in the history of ever. And that’s exactly what Gia’s boyfriend did. He broke up with her in the parking lot of her senior prom and just when she was going to give up, she sees the perfect someone that can act as her “Fill-In” for the night. But as time goes on, she finds that her “fill-in” left more of an impression on her than she thought….
“I like weird. Normal is so boring.”
pg. 117 (ARC)
My favorite part of this was of course the freaking boy of course. He was a nerd and he helped Gia with no questions all the time. He helped her even when she didn’t know she needed it. And he never questioned it. He was such a sweet heart and he wore dorky shirts and was an actor. He was so amazing. As for Gia, she had the biggest change in her character that I’ve seen in a long time. Her arc was impeccable. She went from spacey and needy for attention to finally figuring out why she was craving all that attention. I was sp proud of the person she was becoming. She learned who her real friends were and why those are the type of people you need in your life. And not the ones that only want to be around when things are good or you’re being mean. Which brings me to the only reason I didn’t give this five stars. This one character, Jules, was a pain in my (and I’m sure everyone else’s) ass. She was a vindictive, lying, mean girl for no reason. Just reading what West wrote, she was just jealous of Gia the entire time and I was so angry at all Gia’s other friends for not seeing this. I was also angry at them for being so mad at Gia when everything came out, because they had already proved to listening to EVERYTHING stupid Jules had to say, so they should’ve not been so harsh.
“Depth is found in what we can earn from the people and things around us.”
pg 211 (ARC)
As for the romance, I LOVED it. Although their relationship started out as fake, it became real pretty quickly. Not that either of them knew it was happening, but it was. And fast. And I couldn’t have been happier. I was so excited to see what was happening between the two of them as they had their super weird “revenge dates,” and all the other things they did together. It was great to see them finally getting something they deserved and speaking up for what they wanted.
“Everyone, everything has a story. When you learn those stories, you learn experiences that fill you up, that expand your understanding. You add layers to your soul.”
pg 211 (ARC)
