Faking It by Cora Carmack

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Title: Faking It
Author: Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It #2
Published by: William Morrow
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 355
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

My Review:

4.5 stars — It’s been a LONGGGGGGG time since I read Losing It, and I don’t know if I really remember it well.  If I’d planned better, I probably would have wanted to reread it before reading this one, but I don’t think you lose that much by not doing that.  I can honestly say that I forgot the whole Cade subplot in the previous book though, and it’s making me curious…if nothing else, it makes me wonder if my opinion would have been different if I’d read them closer together and remembered the Cade from that book.

I ADORED the Cade in this book.  He starts off very heartbroken and lost and almost morose.  But I could feel how caring he was as well.  I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to try to maintain a friendship with Bliss with all that hanging over their heads.  I appreciated how he grew over the book, and how his new feelings for Max really showcased that what he felt for Bliss wasn’t the same kind of love.  He was so sweet, and kind, but also really passionate and grrrrr sexy.  I loved that combination of quiet, but with strength underlying.  I will admit that his turnaround at the end felt a bit quick, but that might have been just me.  I LOVED that he always saw the real Max, and that he loved the REAL her.

This was truly a case of opposites attract, but Max was quite different.  It’s funny, because she put out this strong personality to the world, but underneath she was hiding a vulnerable core.  It was so hard to watch her constantly keeping people at a distance so as not to get hurt by loving them…she would say it was because she was protecting them from herself, but I feel like deep down she was protecting herself.  And with good reason.  It was hard watching her relationship with her family, b/c you could understand all sides (even though they all behaved badly at times)…  They were just trying to survive while under a cloud of fear.  I thought the turnaround at the end with her parents was a bit fast as well, but at the same time I understood the swing a bit more…and Ms. Carmack tried hard to show that it was just a start.

I LOVED Max and Cade together.  It’s funny how they both saw themselves as lacking, but the other as someone better who they didn’t want to taint, or didn’t think they fit with.  And yet they fit perfectly together.  The chemistry between them was amazing, both in the steamy sense (holy wow) AND in the deeper connection sense.  I loved those quiet moments when Cade knew exactly what Max needed, and they could just be there for each other.  I loved their bantering too.

I definitely want to go back and reread Losing It now, because I think this might be my favourite series by Ms. Carmack.  It just fits me as a reader, you know?