My Fake Boyfriend by Lacy Andersen has all my favorites:
clean read
sweet young adult romance,
fake relationship,
enemies to friends,
and a relatable, determined main character.
So when I saw it in my BookBub feed, I had to read it. Plus it was free.
The story is told in the point of view of Mia and Jimmy. I loved both these characters, but Jimmy was my favorite. Everybody knows I adore charming bad boys with good hearts. Jimmy is a prankster, a preacher's kid, and a pitcher who dreams of getting a baseball scholarship to UI. He and his friends are always pulling pranks on people and usually no one gets hurt, until they accidentally burn down the school's storage shed, and Mia catches them while wearing red framed glasses, pink stripped pjs, and fuzzy unicorn slippers. I laughed out loud visualizing this outfit.
Mia is a sassy, determined, budding journalist who dreams of writing for The NY Times. She always carries a spiral notebook to scribble potential story ideas. She and Jimmy have been enemies ever since middle school when he put a stink bomb in her locker. Luckily, she found the bomb before it detonated and slipped it back into his gym bag. His clothes stank for months.
Mia doesn't allow anyone, charming bad boys or bullying mean girls, stop her from achieving her dreams. So when homecoming queen, school newspaper president, and lead mean girl Lindsey won't allow Mia to write for the school paper unless she has a boyfriend, Mia asks Jimmy to be her fake boyfriend, and in exchange, she won't release her headlining article about his arson.
My favorite scene in the story is when Jimmy saves Mia from Lindsey by agreeing to their deal. His smooth moves turn Mia into a dizzy mess of emotions. When Lindsey asks Jimmy if he's really Mia's boyfriend, he says, "I prefer the term arm candy." I laughed out loud, and my heart instantly fell in love with Jimmy. It's going to be hard to find a better book boyfriend than Jimmy, but I'm ready for the challenge.
There are lots more laughs and swoon worthy moments while Mia's and Jimmy's relationship evolves from fake to real. I highly recommend this book. I would've given it 5 roses, except it didn't make me cry. When I read, I have to feel all the emotions to be able to give a story a perfect score.
Rating 4 out of 5 Roses- @@@@
4 Roses - I loved it!
