⭐⭐⭐☆
A fluffy fun one.
Friends-turned-lovers, coming-of-age and fake relationships: this book
straddles many tropes with élan. Though it truly stretches
suspension-of-disbelief with the basic reason for the two MCs to fake being a
couple, it is just so cutely done that you flow with the whole thing.
Katie and Sarah are BFFs like
forever. In a do-gooding moment, Katie reaches out to help Jake being bullied
for being gay. Sarah comes over to Katie’s house and together they patch up Jake,
who assumes they are a couple based on their interaction and invites them to his
next school meeting. They agree little knowing that it is an LGBT group meeting
that they’ve been invited to. Once there, Sarah somehow convinces herself that
if she and Katie come out as a couple, the boy she has been hung up on for four
years will somehow get interested in her, and she manages to get Katie on-board
her hare-brained scheme.
The lighthearted way of writing
and treatment of the story nevertheless covers some rather serious issues like
peer reaction to gays; the bullying and hate that hitherto semi-popular kids
are subjected to, dealing with confusion about one’s sexuality; taking the
massive, scary step to cross from best friends to more.
The author has also achieved a
rare feat: usually we like one MC more than the other. Even when we like both,
one seems to have a little bit of a greater likeability factor. In this one, we
like both the MCs equally. They are two completely different personalities but
both are truly sweet. The author has also written the contexts for each MC so
well that their behaviour seems to follow the right trajectory for them.
A quick, cute angst-free read that
leaves you with a smile.
⭐⭐⭐☆
