FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI by Cassie Mae
ARC received from Random House Publishing Group--Flirt
Genre: New Adult Contemporary that borders on YA
Pub Date: July 29, 2013
Dannie Says: Kickass voice, sweet love story, predictable plot.
GoodReads Amazon Barnes & Noble Facebook
In the wealthy town of Sundale, Kelli Pinkins has hatched the perfect plan to capitalize on her sweet reputation. For a generous fee, she will be every trust-fund baby’s dream: a Friday-night alibi, the “girlfriend” or “BFF” that parents dream about. With college approaching in the fall, Kelli’s services are in demand more than ever, which means that her social life is nonexistent. But Kelli is A-okay with that. She’s raking in cash for school. Besides, relationships are tricky, and sometimes very messy. She’d rather be at home on Xbox LIVE, anyway. Then the unexpected happens: She meets college stud Chase Maroney.
Chase isn’t like the preppy, privileged guys Kelli usually meets in Sundale. For starters, he’s twentysomething, always wears black, and he shoots back one-liners as fast as she can dish them out. But Kelli’s attempts to drive Chase away falter when she realizes that he treats her like he really knows her, like he cares about knowing her. When Kelli finally gives in to the delicious kiss she’s been fighting for so long, she faces a tough decision: make Chase a real-life boyfriend and risk her heart . . . or keep her clients and lose her first true love.
So what you should know about me before you read this is that I am not a fan of "PINK" books. It's just not for me. I mean, I write books about kids with terminal diseases who do a whole bunch of drugs and whose parents I kill off in gruesome ways in the opening chapter. My reading list speaks for itself.
What the heck does any of this have to do with FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI?
This book is bright, neon, bubblegum pink and I adored it.
I expected I was going to hate the voice. It's girly and sweet and quirky with just an edge of too-close-to-home nerdiness. Oddly enough, this is exactly why I ended up loving it. I wanted to dislike Kelli as a protag, but found her disarmingly adorable and tangible instead.
Chase as the L.I. was predictable but also very real. I think I loved him almost as much as Kelli. Okay, I'll admit it. I loved him way before Kelli. He had me at Xbox Live.
Content-wise, I'm not sure why this is New Adult and not YA. I think Kelli can fall into either group, but as far as the plot and sexytimes graphicness, I've definitely read steamier YA books. For that reason I'd expect FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI will appeal to lovers of YA Contemporary and New Adult fans alike. It's a fun, lighthearted chicklit read.
***SPOILER ALERT for next paragraph only, I swear***
I also wasn't fully sold on the whole alibi concept. I mean, really, a fresh-out-of-high-school girl who is so concerned about her rich friends' trust funds she'd consider sacrificing a potential relationship with a guy she has feelings for so that she can continue pretending she's in a relationship with someone else? Highly implausible for any of the high school seniors I know. For a friend, maybe. But a rich kid doesn't need to earn money by lying for acquaintances. Especially at the expense of her own love life.
Okay so the bottom line is this: FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI won't go on my list of most epic books I've ever read. It may not be something I re-read over and over a la Divergent (just finished read-through six, if anyone's keeping track.) But is it worth the $2.99 ebook?
Absolutely. It's sweet, funny, has great voice, and likable characters. A quick, fun, read, on the whole. Get on this next week, people.
No comments:
Post a Comment