General cute romance.

https://celebrityreaders.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/crazy-stupid-fauxmance-by-shellee-roberts/

3.5 stars -- I received a copy of this book through NetGalley!!

I loved Mariely's style -- even if it was born out of necessity (shopping in thrift stores), I still loved the whole vintage vibe she had going on, and how she was even interested in classic movies and stuff too. And you could really see her vulnerability and how insecure she was about her financial status and the reality of her home life. She came across as very authentic, and my heart hurt for her and all she was dealing with, partly thanks to Jacen (who I really wanted to smack for being so insensitive).

I wish we'd gotten to be inside Cabot's head a little bit more. I enjoyed the peeks we got from him, but I feel like there's more we could have learned. I kind of hated how Mariely just trivialized the problems Cabot was dealing with (his parents divorce) just because she thought his life was easy being rich. He had a few dickish moments (like the Thursday supper, that surprised me as much as it did Mariely), but in general he was actually really sweet and considerate.

And these two definitely had some great chemistry going!! I felt those kisses right down to my tummy.

I haven't read the previous two books in this series, and I found that I was occasionally distracted by Willa, wondering what was going on with her since it seems like her story might have been concurrent with this one...but that's a me problem, not a book problem.

While I found this book to have a whole lot of goodness, I ended it feeling like I was missing something. But I honestly have no idea what, so I'm really not that helpful. It just felt like it went kind of fast. But maybe it's that I know this is only book 1 for Mariely and Cabot, and so the author was trying to give us a temporary HEA while hoping we will want more in the next book. I'm definitely interested, so I guess mission accomplished?

Side note: no matter how many times I corrected myself, I still defaulted to saying "Mary-Ellie" instead of "MAR-ee-ely". But I seriously loved having a hispanic heroine, yay for diversity!

I received a review-copy of this book for a blog tour.

Review coming soon!

5 Reasons to read Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance
It’s Fun!

I love the whole attitude of this book. It’s fun and even when there are shocking times, they find some of the humor in the situation. And there are a few times I literally laughed out loud when they were dealing with some tension.


The Fauxmance

Books that start out with fake romances always get me hooked. I know that emotions are going to come into play, and I love seeing the characters come to that conclusion. It’s always a fun journey, and definitely one of self-discovery.


Seeing characters from previous books

Mariely is Willa’s best friend, and I adored seeing so much of her in this book. They have such a tight bond, and call offer the advice that’s needed. They show what true friendship is about.


The Characters

Mariely and Cabot are both great characters. They each have their own issues they deal with. And they have to learn to trust each other. Mariely is such a fun character. She channels her inner starlet wherever she goes. I love her sense of style, and her swear words. They are amazing. Cabot is not at all what Mariely thinks of him. He’s a nice surprise, and grows a lot during this book.


The Plot

Not only is there the whole fauxmance going on because of certain situations, but each is going through their own things too. Mariely is scared to show Cabot where she lives, and is subconscious of her scholarship status at the school. Cabot has issues within his own family. He holds grudges against the person who he feels hurt him.


This series is a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see what all of these characters bring in the future.

I read this book to check out the diversity in Entangled Teen's lineup of romance books, and I was pleasantly surprised. The book reminded me a lot of [b:The Fill-In Boyfriend|18660447|The Fill-In Boyfriend|Kasie West|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414605032s/18660447.jpg|26479163] -- except instead of an adorkable theater-geek guy and a popular girl, it was the girl who was a theater geek and the guy was the popular golden boy. So what's the diversity -- well, this series takes place in a posh school of the arts in Austin, and in this installment, the female MC is a Mexican-American scholarship student in the theater dept., while the boy is a rich, white, and gorgeous art student.

I'm not overly fond of the poor Hispanic scholarship student trope, but I thought the author did a decent job of exploring how tough it is to be a have-not at a private school, to have to work twice as hard to prove you belong, to be embarrassed of your humble (or downright crappy) home life. And while I wish more YA authors would depict Latino teens who are middle or upper-middle class and not just struggling with absentee or working-class parents, I liked Mariely enough to forget all of that. Look, this storyline, like in THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND is ridiculously predictable, but it was fun, fast, romantic, and actually substantive in parts. I liked that it delved into the fact that yes, rich kids can have dysfunctional families, but they still don't know what it's like to worry about their next meal, their mandatory after-school jobs, etc.

Yeah, this was another great book in this series! I enjoyed this couple, and I can't wait to read more of this series, and this couple!

See this review in its natural environment, Dani Reviews Things.

I received this book for free from Entangled in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I jumped at the chance to read the third book in the Creative HeArts series, as I read How Willa Got Her Groove Back a couple of months ago. This book is the first in the trio following Mariely and Cabot, characters I first met in the previous book, which means that I also got to see Willa and Finn on the side and see how they were doing.

There were things I really liked about this but also things I really didn’t. As a romance, I would give it between 3.5 and 4 stars. However, the bad knocked it down. Just as a warning, the bad is due to personal factors, but I know I’m not the only person to experience what I’ve experienced, which is why I think my thoughts are valid.

Let’s start with the good.

- Mariely and Cabot were very different, one being a Hispanic girl with a love for classic movies and a scholarship, the other being classic prep school rich kid with a talent for photography but a love for painting. I enjoyed the development of their feelings, especially how Cabot was really open and direct about things. He wasn’t brooding or arrogant, so I was totally rooting for him as a refreshing change.
- I loooved Mariely’s sense of style and habit of using classic movie star names in vain. She became such a defined character in my mind because of these things.
- The karaoke scene. Going to karaoke place in Japan was one of my favourite things to do as a teenager, and I can only imagine how much fun going with a bunch of theatrical people must be!
- There were some genuinely funny lines in here that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at.
- I liked allll the romantic things Cabot did. Hi, perfect boyfriend.
- Oh, and hi, Finn. You are delicious, too.
- The ending was more satisfying than that of Willa and Finn's first book.

Now. The bad. I’ll start with the smaller bad, which is that I felt like the little bit of drama when Cabot goes to Mariely’s house was rather sudden and forced. That could have been developed a bit more, but I mostly got over it towards the end.

Now the Big Bad. This book features a lot of cheating, and I didn’t like how it was handled. At all. It’s weird for me to find myself identifying more with the guy, but I did. Cabot’s situation? I’m currently going through it. I HATED how Mariely reacted to Cabot’s behaviour. She belittled what is probably a really difficult situation for Cabot. Did she honestly think she could make a real judgment of the situation knowing so little about the relationship between Cabot and his dad? Does his dad deserve a doting son after what he did? I’m sorry, but have a little sensitivity.

If I were in Cabot’s shoes, I would have done the same. Hell, you try and put me in the same situation and someone will leave crying. Having the person you look up to and respect most in the world fall so far is one of the most devastating feelings, and it doesn’t just suddenly become ok after a few weeks. You would think Mariely would be a bit more understanding, given her own home life, but I honestly liked her a lot less after her snap judgement.

I also really didn’t like Jacen. At all. He was so insensitive and horrible. I don’t know who he thought he was, lecturing Mariely about pulling it together only a week after he did what he did to her. He didn’t apologise nearly enough for my liking, and not even his stunts at the end could redeem him. Also, what he did in the first place immediately put him in my bad book. So yeah, he will now and forever be a character I have zero love and respect for.



Like I said, I really liked some bits, but other factors brought the book down for me. I would have liked more sensitivity around a situation that isn’t uncommon but is still really heartbreaking: cheating. There seemed to be far too much sympathy towards them and too little towards the people they cheated on, as a whole. Please, if you’re going to include cheating in your story, think about your readers that might have been affected in one way or another and be realistic about it. Don’t make them feel bad for relating to the victims of cheating.

That being said, ignoring the adultery, this was a good book, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of Mariely and Cabot’s love story!

3.5 Stars

Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance made me think of two quite funny tidbits that are oddly connected:
I clearly have a thing for Entangled Crush books... They kinda my well written, enjoyable cute & fluffy supplier of late. And CSF just was proof of the fact. Cute, fluffy, well written and so enjoyable.
The second fact is that I have grown to adore multi-author series. And guess who has gotten me into that? Yep, Entangled Crush. The Creative Hearts series is just one of the reason I love multi-author series. I love how each author does one couple, so we have unique POV and different storylines, but the book do also overlap, time wise and naturally there are some of the same people in all the books.
The reason why I am rambling on about these two things is that first I love Entangled Crush books for above reasons, and second Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance does totally cement all of it. Some how the authors have managed to write their own books but they are so well synced it's amazing!

The plot is the let's fake it till me make it romance. And it's rather A to B to C, so quite what one expects and definitely no surprises.

Just like it's predecessors in the series, this is full of teen angst and plenty of drama.
But it also feature beautiful descriptions about the love for their arts. I could totally relate to Mariely's love for acting. And I don't have a single bone in my body that can act!
Cabot's love for painting, his fears and his passion for photography was dear to my heart, those being my own mediums of choice. I honestly feel Roberts did nail these bits.

While the plot is quite your usual usual - this shine with character building. It was amazing to revisit previously seen characters, seeing them from a different POV.
To be honest Willa totally surprised me. Because I actually didn't like her much in How Willa Got Her Groove Back. I have gained a new outlook on her, and well, she totally grew on me.
I love that Roberts and her co-Authors of the series seem to be able to go seamless through the characters. Though for some characters we see a totally different side to them, most of them are just exactly how I remembered. It's like visiting old friends. Which is really brilliant considering each book in the series so far has been written by a different person.
I liked both Mariely and Cabot. I can't wait to see where their journey is taking them next...
Love the support cast except I am a bit disappointed in Audrey. She was one sided in Willa's book, and this was even more cliche. I kinda get that she is the villain and all that. I loved the big showdown - it's totally your high school romantic movie scene - which is entertaining thus good. I admit to being totally gleeful and mentally high-fiving the boys through it. But it's also been done like a gazillion times. And it left me a tad disappointed in Audrey as a character.

As I said this is well written. It's the first book I read by Roberts and I am looking forward to the next book. My only little thing I didn't like about the writing style is that Cabot's POV is written in 3rd person. I would have prefered if it would have been written in 1st person like Mariely's.

And I ask myself, what's next? In the series, for each couple are there more couples or authors?
AND when is the next book coming out?! I don't even care who's book, just any of them..or even better all of them!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.

I don't hate this book. I don't love it. It's a pretty okay book. You have the usual YA tropes of the rich boy and poor girl. Really, it's a tried and true tale we've all seen the before. Before you assume the worse though, this was a decent book. Even though it was just okay, it was written pretty well.

Mariyel or however you spell her name and Corbet attend an arts high school where they are both dumped on the same day by their partners. This happens right before the fall dance and now they both don't have dates. Omg. The horror. So, the solution is for them to fake date and go to the dance and then move on with their lives. Of course, bring in the trope and you know their feelings are going to get in the way. To discover more about those feelings, you are going to have to read the book because I don't want to spoil everything.

Positive aspects of this book. I loved all the references to old Hollywood movie stars because I knew who all of them were. The reason is because I was raised by my grandma and she grew up during this time. Also, the other reason I loved this book because of her being raised by her grandma and the bond they have. I can also kind of related because I am alps Mexican and grew up less than rich so I know how important it is to work hard for your dreams and do your best. I think these are the reasons this book was able to resound me with the way it did. The rest of it? It was not a horrible story, but it was little.predictable. I'm also a little fed up with stories that are all like stay tuned to see the characters again in another novel. But hey, that's just me.

This was a fast read for me. Anyone who likes a quick read with some romance thrown in will enjoy this book.

Read full review HERE



Right from the start, I really liked this one. The writing was once again great, and the book followed the same formula as the other one, with Mariely’s chapters being from a 1st person POV, and the occasional chapter showing Cabot’s perspective on the 3rd person. This is not exactly alternating POVs, but somehow it really works for these books.

Now, just putting it out there, I was very glad to have one of my biggest suspicions from the other book confirmed here!!!

I really liked both characters, though Mariely was so afraid to be herself most of the time, and I wanted her to get a bit out of her own head, also, she reminded me a bit of Lola, from Lola and the Boy Next Door, sometimes.. Cabot was so sweet… oh my! I really liked how the “fake” relationship progressed to a point where they were actually friends, and then something more. I also loved how direct Cabot was about his intentions, because usually in these kinds of romances they’re always both playing coy. And I really want Cabot to pain Mariely for his Spring show…

I can’t wait to see how their story progresses to book 2 and 3. And I absolutely loved seeing Willa and Finn’s story intertwined with Cabot and Mariely’s in this book, and I’m all for a Cabot and Finn bromance, because that ups the chances of Finn and Willa finally resolving some things.

Entangled Crush doesn’t let me down!