Review : The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

Summary (from Goodreads)
 
Title : The Fill-In Boyfriend
Author : Kasie West
Publication Date : May 5th 2015
Publisher : Harper Teen
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

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.

Personal Thoughts

The Fill-In Boyfriend was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I seriously love Kasie West and she is one of those authors who has yet to disappoint me. With every book that she releases, she continues to impress me. With The Fill-In Boyfriend, she continues her streak of success. I actually think that after Split Second, The Fill-In Boyfriend is my favorite book by her.

The great thing about Kasie West's books are just how cute they are. They put you in a light mood and are just the perfect books to cheer you up. She does that through her loveable characters and her swoony romances. In The Fill-In Boyfriend, we meet Gia, a character that I bonded with effortlessly. She was the sort of character that started off in the book, full of flaws, but over the course of the story, she matured and grew to make this beautiful character. I loved Gia and even though she made some huge mistakes at the beginning of the book, such as lying to her friends about her break up with her long distance boyfriend Bradley and about who Fill-In Bradley really was, it was easy to see where all her insecurities were budding from. Usually, I would be annoyed with characters like Gia, but the great thing about her was how she acknowledged how wrong she was. She knew she was making a mistake and she tried to make amends. Gia's growth stemmed from her growing friendships with Fill-In-Bradley's sister, Bec. Gia's original group of friends weren't always the nicest and I was glad that she found someone like Bec. Bec was the complete opposite of Gia, but these two girls fit perfectly together and one of my favorite parts about The Fill-In Boyfriend was their budding friendship. It was honest, fun and representative of what friendship should really be about.

Of course, the romance was just as delightful as in every other Kasie West book. I love how Kasie West always manages to make her boys good guys. If you know me, then you know I would rather take a cute, intelligent good boy over a bad boy any day in my books, so it always pleases me to see the author's portrayal of good boys. Fill-In Bradley (whose name I'm not going to reveal because it's something that you should figure out yourself because the revelation scene is one of the cutest scenes in this book), has to be one of the cutest book boys ever. From the very beginning, with his willingness to help Gia out with her complicated situation, I knew he was going to charm me. The more we got to know about Fill-In Bradley, the more I loved him. He was sweet, supportive and loyal, all characteristics that automatically made me want to steal him away from Gia. The romance in The Fill-In Boyfriend was one that slowly simmered in the background, and while I definitely wanted more action, I've come to accept and realize that Kasie likes to leave some things open, which isn't a flaw. Along with strong themes of friendship and romance, there were also themes of family. Gia's relationship with her older brother, was a focal point of the book as was her relationship with her parents. They were frustrating ones for me as a reader, but they were also ultimately realistic.

Kasie West shines again with The Fill-In Boyfriend. It's the perfect summer read with a main character who radiates because of how loveable she is, a romance that is super sweet, and friendships that are honestly depicted.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

**Overall Rating : 4.5/5**


Thank you to Harper Teen for the ARC of The Fill-In Boyfriend.
 

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