Three’s a crowd, but four’s a war.Big girl panties? Check.Speech planned? Check.Nerves of steel? Check.A single crush? …not check…?The last thing I expected was to find my life-long best friend/crush sucking face with my other best friend. Well, no, the last thing I expected was for the sight of Jason sucking face with Nancy to make me tear up. Then, of course, because my day was going so well, I … sucking face with Nancy to make me tear up. Then, of course, because my day was going so well, I had to run into Xander Bowen.
Xander, popular golden (play)boy, never more than a few steps from his soccer cleats; it was like his super power was how fast he could change into his uniform. He was Jason’s rival for top dog of the school so I’d never said more than the minimum amount of sarcastic conversation to him.
But, what do you get when you add one teary Holly with one bored Xander? You get one fake couple who are giving the new ‘it’ couple a run for their money. I’ve apparently switched sides; betrayed Jason for Xander, chosen dates over mates. And, with two ‘it’ couples in the school, battlelines are drawn and sides are taken.
Xander and I are only supposed to be making Jason jealous. Except, I wouldn’t know if Jason was getting jealous, because Xander keeps distracting me. He insists on holding my hand and kissing me and being nice, ugh. Xander’s not nice and he’s not the relationship type, but he’s doing a damned good job of acting both parts.
He calls it ‘keeping up appearances’, I call it ‘take one more pass at my arse and I’ll break your nose’. They say all’s fair in love and war, but what’s so fair about falling for the wrong guy when your two best friends are on the other side of the battlelines?
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I borrowed this book with Prime Reading. I haven’t read this author before.
This story was very cute. Holly has witnessed her two best friends kissing in the hall at school on the same day as she was planning to profess her love for the one of them. This sends her into a tailspin and into the arms of the one guy she really hates.
The thing I liked the most about this book, was how Holly kept figuring little things out. Like how she was never really herself around her friends. Or how she just blindly believed rumors about people without seeing what kind of people they were for herself.
I think people who enjoy YA Contemporary Romances will love this book, and I can’t wait to read more by this author.
Looks can be deceiving & rumors are almost always misleading. You don’t know what you don’t know until you see it from every side.
I’m so far out of the demographic for this book but I love a good high school teenage drama read every once in awhile! It reminds me of a “simpler” time when life revolved around who talked or didn’t talk to who, who was at what party, what they wore, and how it was all so life or death dramatic!
This book was SO much fun. 80’s John Hughes movies were, are, and always will be my greatest guilty pleasure and I think this would make John Hughes proud! There’s drama, comedy, major histrionics, love angst, and a good lesson hidden in there.
This book and Elizabeth Stevens deserve the slow clap that builds to wild applause which is the ultimate accolade in a teen rom-com!
The author’s disclaimer in the book’s blurb is that she is Australian & this is set there. Naturally there are phrases, words, and slang that I’m not familiar with but it’s not hard to figure out. It really has little bearing on the story other than to add a quirk to it and prove that teenagers the world over are all plagued with the same issues and aren’t so different from each other- which is really the main theme of this book!
There are some editing issues that have nothing to do with Australian colloquialisms. I had to reread a few things here and there and that usually really irks me but that was only a small blip for me because I loved this book and couldn’t put it down!!! I’ll definitely be reading more from Ms. Stevens!
A cute fun story. Loved the storyline and characters. Well written. Has great different scenes from your normal teen fake dating story that keep it fresh.great happy ending as well.
This was definitely a fun teen rom com read! There is drama, theatrics, sides drawn and most importantly romance. It is a fun read but also shows glimpses into how life can be hard for teenagers (hormones included). The deep feelings felt were heart melting! I felt like a room a trip back to high school.