BLOG TOUR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: For Real

Welcome to my stop on the FOR REAL blog tour, organized by Inkslinger PR. Read on for my review, then be sure to enter the giveaway. And, don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour!

For Real, by Chelsea Cameron
Published November 20, 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace
Format: e-galley, obtained from the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre:  New Adult Contemporary Romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
 
Rating:  3.5 STARS

(From Goodreads) Two people. One fake relationship. What could go wrong? When virgin Shannon Travers gets fed up with her friends demanding that she find a boyfriend, she enlists the help of tattooed, mohawk-rocking graphic design student Jett. He's more than happy to play along with their Fake Relationship, including the Ten Rules of Fake Dating that control-freak Shannon comes up with. Even if he likes to violate them. Repeatedly. But what happens when Fake Dating starts to feel... not fake anymore? Will Shannon be willing to let go and embrace the first thing in her life that's ever felt REAL?

Origami cranes, sexy dragon tattoos and a list of rules that are fun to break. For Real has a lot going for it, although organizing my overall thoughts has proven to be more difficult than I thought it would.

Shannon is tired of her overbearing "friends" constant ragging on her about being a virgin. One night, she ropes a practical stranger into pretending to be her boyfriend. Jett is all too happy to go along with the plan, and as the two become real friends under the facade of being a fake couple, Shannon realizes that perhaps having a real boyfriend isn't as bad as she thought it would be. 

I've got to be honest. Shannon was really tough to love. I gathered that she didn't have a great relationship with her family of underachievers. The dynamics there were never very fully explained or developed, but we're led to believe that Shannon is overcompensating for their lack of motivation, and in her quest to become a stellar academic and make tons of money at a great job, she's lost interest in boys. 

Although her friends' methods leave much to be desired, it's clear they're concerned for her and want to help her to find love. Pretty much everyone in this book was completely effed up in the head. Except for Jett. He was awesome. More on him in a bit. For someone so smart, Shannon was pretty oblivious to what was standing in front of her the whole time. She treated her friends badly. She treated Jett very badly. I didn't have much love for Shannon. 

Jett, though, was my favorite part of For Real, hands down. He likes to make origami paper cranes, and he uses them to leave messages for Shannon and to decorate their crappy apartments. It was such a sweet and unexpected touch. Brilliant, really. I loved that a lot. Jett was sheltered his whole life, and is now just busting out of his shell. He should've spoken up sooner than he did. But, this boy was so infinitely sweet. I think it'd be impossible not to love him.

Javier, Jett's BFF and roomie, was my second favorite character. He was crass and rude and he was the most real character in this book, I think. He kept surprising me, which I loved. You think you have him pegged after first meeting him. But, you really don't. 

The virgin aspect got played up a bit too much, I thought. Shannon finally finds a boy she likes, and they do nothing physical besides kiss. I mean, NOTHING. Then, one day, they get a wild hair and get it on in the backseat of her car. Really? It was not romantic nor sweet. It was kinda weird and embarrassing. Okay, well, perhaps that's more true to life anyhow. Touche, Chelsea Cameron. :) It was definitely NOT the norm for the new adult genre, anyhow. 

For Real was a pretty short book. I finished it very quickly. The pacing is a little off, stalling some in the middle and getting choppy. But the ending was sweet and the cranes, Jett and Javier make this a cute book that's worth 12 hours or so of your time. 

About the Author

Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world's worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting (this one time, she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman). She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.

Her New Adult Contemporary Romance titles include My Favorite Mistake, which has been bought by Harlequin along with a sequel, Deeper We Fall and Faster We Burn (April 20, 2013)

Her Young Adult books include Nocturnal, Nightmare and Neither, the first three books in The Noctalis Chronicles. The fourth and final book, Neverend will be out in 2013. Whisper, the first in The Whisper Trilogy is also available, with the second book in the series, Silence and the final book, Listen coming out in 2014.

Giveaway

Grand prize winner receives a $100 Amazon Gift Card and Crane bracelet. 5 Runners up receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card and Crane bracelet. US Only!  

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