Author: Kasie West
Published: May 5th 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genres/age group: Contemporary, romance, young adult
External links: Goodreads •
Amazon
When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.
The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.
Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.
Kasie West never lets me down! I've enjoyed every Kasie West book that I've read (this including
The Distance Between Us and
On the Fence) and was sooo excited for
The Fill-In Boyfriend. I don't know what it is about Kasie’s books, but they just hook me in. I ended up staying up until 3am reading this book, which never happens to me anymore. I just couldn't put this down and I didn't want to. Sleep be damned!
Without a doubt, the protagonist of
The Fill-In Boyfriend, Gia Montgomery, has a pretty complicated life and is anything but smooth sailing. From the very first chapter, the tension and arising conflict between Gia and her so called "friends" is evident. Gia Montgomery, seventeen, a senior and the president of the student council, has been dumped by her older-by-four-years college boyfriend Bradley in the parking lot of her school at prom night. After two months of dating, he unceremoniously dumps her. But this can't happen! Jules, one of Gia's friends, has been undermining her relationship with Bradley. She doesn't believe that Bradley is actually real, rather a figure of Gia's imagination, and Gia can't go stag for prom as her friends might truly believe that she made him up. Desperate and partly going insane, Gia asks the only guy in the parking lot, who's waiting for prom to end to pick up his sister, to be her fill-in boyfriend (or FIB) for the night.
In all honesty, the start of this book wasn't particularly enjoyable for me. I was irritated by Gia as a character; she was dramatic, self-centered and way too confident for my liking. Plus, the situation she was in seemed so immature and unrealistic. How Gia didn't realise her friends weren't good friends was beyond me, and if I was in her situation I honestly wouldn't have put up with the amount of bitchiness these girls gave off. However, I was still intrigued as to where Gia ends up, and after reading the book I've realised that the first scenes are highly significant to the overall plot as it is here where everything really starts to change.
The aftermath of prom was interesting and also kind of bizarre. Gia still doesn't know fill-in Bradley's (FIB) name and he's all she thinks about. She thinks that she just needs to know
why he actually agreed to act as her boyfriend and then she'll be able to move on, and get over the real Bradley (if there's one thing this book has taught me, it's that strangers can be pretty damn generous). I can't tell you FIB's name because it's so much fun to go into this blind (aka not even knowing his real name, what his story is, what actually happens, etc). But I can tell you that I really fell in love with FIB. He was SO nice and caring, and completely opposite to the real Bradley who was, of course, a complete douchebag.
Gia's brother and her "friends", like the real Bradley, also annoyed me. Gia's brother was far too self-centered and, although he was a couple of years older than Gia, he seemed very immature and he never thought about the consequences of his actions. My heart ached for Gia in some scenes and in others, Gia's brother really aggravated me. I was glad he wasn't a huge part of this book. As for her friends, they were pretty central to the overall plot. However, as the book progressed, the girls became more tolerable because of certain other characters... but for this review to remain spolier-free that's all I'm saying.
As a character, Gia has multiple concerns and fears about herself and the future. Many of which were universal and pretty relatable. Even though she's popular, she still feels lonely. She feels as though her friends - Jules in particular - are out to target her. Then, Kasie West also inserts a social commentary as Gia is obsessed with social media and the validation of strangers. In this day and age when everyone wants to be heard, I loved how Kasie provided this social commentary because it added so much depth to the novel.
Aside from the social commentary aspect, which wasn't preachy and was seamlessly incorporated in the plot, I love the family and friends conflict in
The Fill-In Boyfriend. Gia's family keeps everything inside. They aren't very close. While my family isn't completely like Gia's and isn't as worse as them, I also find it hard to open up to my parents. I only recently learned not to bottle up my emotions. And recently, I've been shedding off some of my friends (or outgrowing them or whatever) and just keeping those who I truly cherish. These events are also concurrent in Gia's story and it just resonated with me so much.
The Fill-In Boyfriend takes a tried-and-tested trope, that of a fake relationship, and delivers all the goods and more. Not only do we get all the swoon and the butterflies-in-a-blender-in-my-stomach feelings, we are also served depth, which puts this novel out of the fluff category. Populated by characters you'll love and root for, you just can't help but be invested in Gia's quest to get to know fill-in Bradley and for her imminent growth as well.
The Fill-In Boyfriend is another addition to Kasie's consistently strong and great line-up of novels. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - particularly the ending - and I can't wait to read more from Kasie West.
My rating: ★★★★
