Review: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

I'm a little behind on reviewing the books I've read so far this year. This is because I've just been devouring them as opposed to pacing myself and digesting them in a way that allows me time to blog a review before moving on to the next. I'm planning to start playing catch up now... I'm currently reading Eye of the World by Robert Jordan per recommendation by my mother who shall henceforth on this blog be referred to as Momma Pink, due to her obsession with the happiness she obtains from that color. She's an awesome momma, and I love her dearly. What was I saying? Ah yes. Eye of the World will be a long slow read - much like floating along lazily on a river, thereby allowing me to catch up on book reviews of those stories I finished quickly and ferociously like jumping off a waterfall. (Which I would never do.)

Enough with my blathering... On to the review!!

So. The Fill-In Boyfriend... It was just as cute as I expected it to be, maybe a little less so. Gia gets dumped in the parking lot at prom by her boyfriend, which sucks in and of itself [and I say this from PERSONAL experience, sadly, though mine was after prom and being the self respecting girl I was...I begged for him not to, and he actually listened...Only to permanently break up with me a few weeks later after - get this- my high school graduation. Oh, high school Holley, I'm so glad you grew up...] but anyway what sucks even more about this situation for Gia is that her friends are skeptical that this boyfriend even exists. So, she's in this impossible situation and what does she do? Finds a random guy in the parking lot and talks him into taking her to prom, thereby lying to her friends.

Ok, as I've mentioned before, I'm full blown anti-spoilers of any kind, so I'm just going to stop with the plot discussion there. Now for the critique.

Of course it was predictable. Pretty sure anyone who is into this kind of story expects a certain happy ending and would be disappointed if that ending didn't come true. I'm talking about myself in this scenario, so no judgement on my part. I guess my issue with this story was more the lying and the crappy friendship and family relationships. I know that I'm lucky enough to have the best mom I could ask for, and not everyone is so lucky, but this girl had NO relationships of any substance until this random boy she met in the parking lot comes along. No wonder she's so shallow!! I could not relate, personality wise, to the main character, really, and while I get that this was a coming of age story, I had a hard time feeling sympathetic for Gia as she grows into a decent person. The ending ties all the problems up in a pretty bow, which was nice. But well. It left a bit to be desired for me.

3 stars for this story because while I didn't love it, I didn't hate it either.