Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance by Shellee Roberts

Synopsis:
Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains a kickass heroine, a boy so hot he’ll make you shiver, and a falling-in-love story fit for the big screen. You’ll want to settle in and have the popcorn ready.

After Mariely Hinojosa and Cabot Wheeler both break up with their significant others at the same party, Mariely sees a way to get even with both of their exes. Everyone knows that the best way to get over a breakup is a hookup—a fake hookup, that is. Three weeks, all fun, no strings, and definitely no heartbreak at the end.

But somewhere between the sweet hand-holding and melt-your-mind kisses, their fake relationship starts to feel less like an act and more like the real thing…but Mariely’s a free-spirited girl from the other side of the tracks, and Cabot’s the hot trust-fund guy from the Hills.

They’d never work for real…

     

My Review:
3.5 stars — I received a copy of this book through NetGalley!!

I loved Mariely’s style — even if it was born out of necessity (shopping in thrift stores), I still loved the whole vintage vibe she had going on, and how she was even interested in classic movies and stuff too.  And you could really see her vulnerability and how insecure she was about her financial status and the reality of her home life.  She came across as very authentic, and my heart hurt for her and all she was dealing with, partly thanks to Jacen (who I really wanted to smack for being so insensitive).

I wish we’d gotten to be inside Cabot’s head a little bit more.  I enjoyed the peeks we got from him, but I feel like there’s more we could have learned.  I kind of hated how Mariely just trivialized the problems Cabot was dealing with (his parents divorce) just because she thought his life was easy being rich.  He had a few dickish moments (like the Thursday supper, that surprised me as much as it did Mariely), but in general he was actually really sweet and considerate.

And these two definitely had some great chemistry going!!  I felt those kisses right down to my tummy.

I haven’t read the previous two books in this series, and I found that I was occasionally distracted by Willa, wondering what was going on with her since it seems like her story might have been concurrent with this one…but that’s a me problem, not a book problem.

While I found this book to have a whole lot of goodness, I ended it feeling like I was missing something.  But I honestly have no idea what, so I’m really not that helpful.  It just felt like it went kind of fast.  But maybe it’s that I know this is only book 1 for Mariely and Cabot, and so the author was trying to give us a temporary HEA while hoping we will want more in the next book.  I’m definitely interested, so I guess mission accomplished?

Side note: no matter how many times I corrected myself, I still defaulted to saying “Mary-Ellie” instead of “MAR-ee-ely”.  But I seriously loved having a hispanic heroine, yay for diversity!