Book Boyfriend by Claire Kingsley

To start off, the cover really has nothing to do with the story at all.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a warm blooded female, so I don’t ever hate some great abs, but the cover doesn’t do the story justice.  I actually feel like the cover cheapens the book more than it should be.

Book Boyfriend tells the love story of Alex and Mia.  Alex is an ex-computer programmer, making his living as a romance writer under the pseudonym Lexi Logan.  Mia is a hospital administrator moonlighting as a book blogger under the name Bookworm Babe.  Lexi and BB are online besties, so what happens when they meet in real life?

You have to read to find out… although I feel like most of us know already…

So what didn’t I love?

• We already covered the random cover artwork.  Hot, faceless guy? Check.  Anything indicating what the book is about? Not really.  Because the “heroine” in this book is a nerdy book lover like those of us reading the book, I would’ve loved something a little off beat to match the quirky lead female.
• The ending… it turns into a book within a book.  It kind of jumped the shark for me when it joined the Inception train.
• Alex was a little too perfect.  Minus the lying to Mia about the pseudonym (not a spoiler, that’s covered in the Prologue), he’s handsome and fit and catches everything she drops (because of course she’s klutzy and a bit helpless).  I feel like he had one too many AMAZING qualities, but I guess I was reading it for a little love fantasy, so maybe I should get out of my own way.

What I DID love was:

• For starters, a leading lady I really could relate with.  She reads voraciously and loves her Kindle.  She reviews books online and talks with authors.  That was fun to feel so “this is me” while reading the story.  Minus the super klutzy, running into a hot guy at a book store, falling madly in love in only a few weeks thing.
• When the inevitable and dramatic conflict occurs, Mia keeps it together while Alex kind of falls apart.  Hallelujah for a woman handling her shit while the guy skips showers and hides at home.  Can I get an amen?
• The dialogue is cute.  Very “millennial” in the colloquialisms, etc.  I liked that it felt fresh and not too stuffy.

Overall, I really liked it.  Although the ending wasn’t written the way I maybe would’ve done, it was still cute and the couple was adorbs.  Good fun, quick read.

Toodles!