Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Blackmail Boyfriend - Chris Cannon



Title: Blackmail Boyfriend
Author: Chris Cannon
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Entangled Crush
Publication Date: August 10, 2015
Source: Netgalley

Light and fluffy.  Probably the two words that can best describe Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon.  This is one of those books you read when you just want to forget about the world around you, but you don’t want anything serious.  This book will help you Zen out for a bit and let you lose yourself for a couple of hours.

Blackmail Boyfriend is told from the perspective of two different characters: Haley and Bryce.  Haley is your plain Jane, girl next door character.  Her parents are middle class and she has to earn what she has got with her own money.  She doesn’t even own a cell phone.  Bryce is the rich pretty boy jock.  He is super popular and can get any girl he wants.

One Monday Jane comes to school to rumors about how she and Bryce hooked up at a party.  She isn’t a party goer, so you can bet she was a bit confused by this.  Actually, Bryce was too because she didn’t look anything like the Haley Patterson he had hooked up with.  It turns out that Bryce had hooked up with the other Haley, but that Haley had lied about her last name.  The lie turned out to be a good thing for Bryce because otherwise he would have met the fist of that girls’ boyfriend.
What was not so lucky for Bryce was that the Haley Patterson that he did not hook up with (but now everyone thought he did) did not want her reputation ruined.  She agreed to not tell people that it wasn’t she that he had hooked up with as long as Bryce pretended to be her boyfriend for 3 weeks.  Thus the title of the book Blackmail Boyfriend.

From there on we follow along with our two main characters as they get to know each other and try to figure out their strange non-relationship.  It is quite a little ride that these two go on for the 3 weeks that they agreed upon.

I liked that this book was told from the perspective of both a female and a male character.  It let you see into the psyche of each side of this non-relationship.  I think Cannon did a great job portraying the two sexes.  I had no problem being able to tell the characters apart and Cannon did both of them justice.  She developed both of them very well.

Also, I loved Cannon’s cupcake analogy (you will understand what I mean once you read this book).  It thought it was really cute and I am glad she kept it up through the majority of the story.  It was a great little addition to the story.  If it was taken out, it wouldn’t really hurt the story at all, but it definitely gives it something.  I also really think the cupcake thing helped create and form Haley’s best friend Jane’s character and Jane is quite possibly my favorite character in the whole story!

You may be wondering since this is a romance book marketed to the young adult crowd about the existence of sex and if it is too steamy, you shouldn’t worry too much.  Sex is kind of discussed a bit, but none of the characters actually have any (that we know of at least) during the course of the story.  Pretty much there is just kissing and maybe a little bit of making out.  Nothing really goes farther than that.  It is pretty mild and well done.

In the end I felt as though I had just read a teen romance movie.  By no means is this a bad thing!  I like it when books read this way.  It means I was pulled in and really enjoying myself.  I definitely recommend this one!
My Rating
4 out of 5 stars!

This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

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