The Fill-In Boyfriend

I have grown to be a HUGE Kasie West fan. I just loved the Pivot Point duology and have been head over heels for her contemporary books so far. As soon as I heard about THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND, I immediately pre-ordered the book and was lucky enough to grab at copy when I was at ALA Midwinter in Chicago this year! Although THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND isn’t my favorite of hers so far, there’s nothing bad to be said about this book and it’s just as delightful and fun as I had hoped it would be!The book wastes no time introducing the situation at hand with Gia and how she ends up having a “fill-in boyfriend” and their interactions are just plain adorable. I didn’t relate to Gia as much as I have with previous Kasie West heroines but I do admire that she’s not really afraid to ask for what she wants, and when her boyfriend leaves her in the parking lot at prom (what a jerk, right?) all she wants is to save face in front of her friends because her frenemy is pushing the idea that he doesn’t exist. Fortunately, she finds a Fill-In Bradley and he is too adorable and willing to play along to help out a total stranger. The relationship that begins to form between the two just totally worked and I just really loved the dynamic between Gia and Fill-In Bradley. (Yes, he does have a real name but it’s not revealed until later in the book so while other reviews may mention him by name, I’m going to leave you guessing because it was fun for me not to know until Gia did!) They really played off each other quite well, with Gia being a bit more head strong and unafraid to say what was on her mind and FIB being a bit more reserved. They balanced each other out and FIB helped Gia see a different side of herself that she wasn’t able to see around her friends.The friendships in this book were really interesting and I loved seeing so many different types of friendships! Of course we see Gia and FIB start to become friends out of nowhere and because the way that they met was so wacky and unconventional, they don’t really need to hold back in any way. Gia also ends up talking to a girl in one of her classes who is very much on the opposite side of the social realm. Bec is a bit anti-establishment, definitely not one of the “popular” kids like Gia is, and unlike most people in the school, doesn’t really care what Gia thinks or what anyone thinks, really. She’s able to tell Gia like it is and dish out some of her own medicine and their sort of mutual dislike starts to transform into a solid friendship (especially since Gia is the type of person who doesn’t like to have people dislike her). Then there’s the frenemy story line, which isn’t something I’m usually interested in but Kasie West totally makes this one work. Gia’s best friend is also best friends with a girl named Jules who for some reason seems to have it in for Gia but at the same time, remains in their friend group. Gia struggles with questioning why Jules seems to want to turn her friends against her or if she just feels threatened and is making the situation out to be much worse than it really is. I just really loved all of the different ways these characters come together (or are pushed apart) and am once again so impressed with how well Kasie strings these all together!The romance, of course, was positively adorable. I love some good banter in books and Gia and FIB just really played off of each other so well. Then of course, Gia starts to develop the FEELS — and who can blame her? This guy is seriously cute and I love that he’s a sort of nerdy type and totally not what Gia thought she would be into. I sort of love unexpected romances like that so I was all for the two of them eventually falling in love! Each character has their own past and skeletons in their closet when it comes to relationships (although clearly FIB knows Gia’s) so naturally, things become complicated, especially when trying to maintain a fake relationship meanwhile wondering if it really is real.All-in-all, THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND was exactly what I had hoped it would be and I just loved it! I think I connected more with other plots and characters from previous Kasie West books so this one didn’t take over as my favorite of hers but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love it all the same! I’m always so impressed with her storytelling and how she brings characters and plot to life.

This is my second time reading this book, and I found it adorable both times. But fake dating is one of my favorite tropes.What I liked about this book:Gia and Hayden being absolutely adorable together. They don’t have much in common–Gia is running for prom queen and Hayden is a big geek–but they click right away. The banter between them is natural and often hilarious. But even knowing each other only hours, Hayden is able to get past Gia’s defenses and glimpse the real her that isn’t trying to impress her friends. I liked that Gia feels she can be herself around Hayden But mostly, it’s just about Gia and Hayden being cute together.Slow-burn romance. This probably comes up in most of my reviews. Gia does start crushing on Hayden pretty early (but I can’t blame her when he shows up in a tux on the fly), but it takes them the entire book to figure out what they want. And that sets up some angsty moments that I crave because I’m crazy that way. I also like that when they finally did get together, things don’t change. They keep bantering and being silly with each other.The trope. I’m a sucker for fake dating stories. I don’t know why. They all follow the same basic outline, but I love seeing how each author does things. The Fill-In Boyfriend jumps right into the dating without them even knowing each other before that night. Despite being complete strangers, they have a great time at the prom. If they hadn’t been interrupted, I think they would have gotten even closer. But my favorite part is that the trope got a second run later when Bec sets Gia up to be Hayden’s fake date to save him from himself. There was a lot of angst and jealousy going around that party. I live for this stuff.I loved that Hayden was an actor which made it easy to slip into his role of Bradley without me worrying half the book that he’d slip up and ruin the cuteness. Plus it was adorable (there’s that word again) how he went all-in while playing Bradley. He didn’t “pretend” to be Bradley, he “became” Bradley. I guess I just love Hayden.What I didn’t like about the book:I guess my main complaint was Gia was too cliche with worrying about being popular and impressing her friends. She was always worried about appearances. I get why authors do it–fitting in is a huge motivator for many kids and works well for the fake dating trope because things are all about appearances. I can say that Gia, at least, has some growth. Eventually, she learns that not everyone is who they appear, including herself. She finds Hayden who introduces her to Bec who teaches her to be herself and realizes she’s holding herself back by clinging to her friends even though she’s known for a while that she’s grown apart from them. Her other redeeming quality for me is that she does try to be friends with Jules. She realizes she’s being petty and selfish and really does try. She’s just not good at communicating with Jules. Of course, Jules doesn’t make it easy. But she tries.Gia’s family drove me nuts. There was supposed to be a contrast between Hayden and Bec’s family with their free-spirit mother and Gia’s more conservative parents, but Gia’s parents were robots with zero emotion. I guess you’re not supposed to like them, but it seemed to take forever before the family broke. And then they did a complete 180 which annoyed me more.In the end, I know a lot of readers don’t like cliches and tropes and predictable plots, but I want cute and silly. I want things to go horribly wrong with lots of angst, followed by people finally getting their act together and fluffy sunshine and unicorns at the end.

I love each and every one of Kasie West books. They take a huge spot on my bookshelf and this is the first I’ve read. So cute and lovely.

I bought this book because I loved the book Ps I Like you from Kasie West, the book was fast paced and the perfect cry and feel better book.This book was an emotional roller-coaster. (in a good way) You begin with this person who is so concerned about her image that she forgets to do what she want. She is your perfect high school queen. The unreachable perfect person, that everyone wants to be and no one dares to talk to.When she is stranded on her prom because her boyfriend breaks up with her on the spot she is so desperate for company she asks a random guy in the parking lot. And because this is a love story you’ll probably imagine what happens next!

Gifted this to my friend, she likes it a lot. It's a nice book to read!

Freakin' yes! I lost count of the amount of times that came out of my mouth well reading The Fill-In Boyfriend. West is easily a favourite author of mine. Especially The Distance Between Us. Absolutely one of my favourite YA contemps. Unfortunately her last book On the Fence was missing some of the things I love in my West books. So you can imagine how happy I was to close The Fill-In Boyfriend with a smile and total contentment.Gia's older boyfriend dumps her in the parking lot as they're about to go into her prom. Gia isn't actually that upset over losing Bradley, she's worried about what her friends are going to say. They've yet to meet Bradley, and Gia is pretty sure they don't even believe she's dating him. Gia spots a guy sitting in his car watching this ordeal go down. Which she thinks is perfect. She'll flash him a smile and there's no way he'll turn her down to come inside with her and pretend to be fill-in Bradley for the night. Talk about a meet cute. Of course it's never that easy, the night kid of gets out of control with all the lying. And from there Gia finds herself making friends with fill-in Bradley and his sister. Actually finding herself in more than like with fill-in Bradley. Which leads to her realize that maybe her "real" friends aren't exactly that.Gia is the popular girl. She's a total opposite personality to me. She immediately comes off as very shallow. All about appearance. But Gia pulled off the meet cute with fill-in Bradley in a pretty hilarious way. So I was sold on her. Gia definitely has her moments, she was hiding her real self. Gia is about control and keeping up appearances. Was a sweet naiive girl with some growing up to do. As soon as fill-in Bradley and Bek fall into her life and start to pull her out her shell. You know, drops those layers. Gia is a pretty cool girl. She's sweet and caring. Gia really just needed to realize her worth.Gia's parents seem to be all about the show no emotion. Which Gia has clearly rubbed off on her. She can't believe how out spoken her brother is to their parents. Why wouldn't he keep his mouth shut. Gia also doesn't like confrontation. But after Gia sees her brothers movie he made for his college course, a movie that is highly insulting and inconsiderate towards Gia, she finally gets some balls and lets her feelings out. To her brother and than subsequently her parents. Sure you gotta respect your parents, but when it's hindering your happiness, than good for Gia for telling them off.We actually don't learn fill-in Bradley's name for almost 100 pages. The build-up and anticipation towards that moment was intense. Seriously I was right there with Gia thinking, "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!" So of course I'm not going to spoil that. I'll just stick with calling him fill-in Bradley. He's totally my kind of guy. Fill-in Bradley is a super geeky actor who can pull a smolder out of nowhere well wearing t-shirts with Firefly references. When he's acting he's this sure confident guy. But when you get his real self fill-in Bradley is so funny, kind and just plain adorable. There was no head games. Just normal teenage mis-communication. Gia and fill-in Bradley are one of those make you sick because they're super cute together couples. Totally loved it. Very sweet and so much perfect banter. Definitely my favourite part of the book is Gia and fill-Bradley's conversations. Actually his families too. I loved the progression of Gia and Bek's friendship too. It may have been unexpected but I totally shipped their friendship as much as the romance.Like with all of West's books the supporting cast read like real people. They have full personalities. You love some, hate some and sometimes you want to just jump into the book and steal Gia's life. West betrays friendships, especially high school friendships, very realistically. The conversations and dialogue are so real and on point on. Also the focus on how you measure yourself by your friends was spot on. Fill-in Bradley talks about how because of his rotten choice in friends does that say something about him as a person. It's a good discussion point. Ultimately people change or just aren't who you thought they were. So how does one deal with it? Perfect book is perfect.The only thing holding me back from giving The Fill-In Boyfriend a 5* was the big confrontation. When Gia's lies are uncovered. It was a little rushed and all over the place. Characters were talking over each other, which lead to nothing really being said. Jules, Laney and Claire just kind of walk out being pissed off. Which okay, they would be. But the whole thing with Jules was brushed over. So that scene was lacking. A few more pages added in to just realistically confront the lies would have been much more appreciated for me.The Fill-In Boyfriend is an excellent lazy Sunday afternoon read. It's light, quick and fun. With so much great banter filled moments that I started it and there was no way I was putting it down until I was done. I was fully invested in Gia's life. I couldn't wait until her and fill-in Bradley finally got to that aww moment. Or when she finally stood up to her family. Gia was a really solid character that proves that sometimes you really do need that person(people) to come into your life and say be yourself, do what you want to do. Another book to add to my re-read list.

This is the first book I read on my first ever Kindle and was definitely the right book to ease me into reading on such an amazing piece of technology, that I am new too!I was hooked instantly! The cover and plot are amazing, and It didn't take me long to fall in love with the characters. Like with most books I read, I was sad when the story ended, but happy with HOW it ended.I am nineteen years old and would say that this book definitely attracts younger readers, but would likely appeal to some older readers also.I would definitely recommend!