NEW ADULT MONDAYS: One Week Girlfriend (One Week Girlfriend #1)

he New Adult genre - their bad boys and big problems and epic loves make them engrossing tales that are so easy to lose yourself in. What's not to love about that? And, now, thanks to the cool chicks at Bewitched Bookworms, we can show these books the love they deserve in a weekly feature - New Adult Mondays.

One Week Girlfriend (One Week Girlfriend #1), by Monica Murphy
Published January 10, 2013
Publisher: self-published
Format: audiobook, purchased
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
 
Rating: 4 STARS

(From Goodreads) Temporary. That one single word best describes my life these last few years. I’m working at a temporary job until I can finally break free. I’m my little brother’s temporary mother since our mom doesn’t give a crap about either of us. And I’m that temporary girl all the guys want to get with because I give it up so easily. According to the rumors, at least.

But now I’m the temporary girlfriend of Drew Callahan, college football legend and all around golden guy. He’s beautiful, sweet—and he’s hiding way more secrets than I am. He’s brought me into this fake life where everyone seems to hate me. And everyone seems to want something from him. The only thing he seems to want though is…

Me.

I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I know is, I think Drew needs me. And I want to be there for him.

Forever.

Oh what a tangled - and complicated - web we weave. There are layers upon problematic layers in One Week Girlfriend - so many more than what the description would lead you to believe.There was so much more to both Drew and Fable than just a guy who needed a fake girlfriend to present to his family at Thanksgiving. These two had bigger problems than any young person ever should. 

Drew has put off going home as long as he could, and now it's Thanksgiving break, and he will be spending several days there. To act as a buffer, Drew hires the town's easiest townie girl Fable to be his fake girlfriend. Fable's mother is completely worthless, and Fable needs money for herself and her younger brother Owen to live on, so she takes the job. It doesn't take long before this intense experience brings Drew and Fable together for real. But, nothing is as it seems, and until the truth is revealed, they can't be together. Problem is, when the truth comes out, Fable may not want to be with Drew anyway.

Drew is your atypical college jock. He doesn't party much and he doesn't chase tail. Like, at all. He keeps to himself most of the time. You get the impression early on that Drew isn't this way just because he enjoys solitude. He seems so sad and lonely all the time.This becomes even clearer when we get his POV. Something awful happened at his home, and he's been avoiding it for as long as he could. Anything could be endured more than going home. Even humbling himself so much as to offer a girl he doesn't know $3,000 to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week.

Although it makes Fable feel used and even more whorish than she already feels, she takes the job because she needs the money. Her mother is never around and the job of taking care of her 14-year-old brother Owen falls to her. It's an expensive job, and her waitressing job doesn't cover it. So, she tucks her pride away and figures that hanging out with some pampered rich boy for a week for three grand would be a piece of cake. 

Fable had absolutely no idea what she was getting herself into. Things at Drew Callahan's house are beyond complex. He had a little sister, but she died two years earlier around Thanksgiving. The details surrounding her death are shady. It's clear that Drew doesn't tell Fable all of it, and it's also clear that the elusive truth drives Fable crazy. It also becomes apparent that Drew harbors an unusual amount of animosity toward his stepmother. Bit by bit the reader gets ideas and glimpses into what caused this tension, and the reason why is so awful that at first, I chose not to believe it. 

One Week Girlfriend is told in dual POV. I feel like it was completely necessary in this story. There's so much going on in both Fable's mind as she tries to figure out what happened to Drew, and in Drew's mind as he tries to figure out the intense feelings he's having for Fable and how that might work in his messed up world.

I listened to the audio version of One Week Girlfriend, and I thought the narration was superb. Luke Daniels is incredible! He packs so much feeling into his narration. I was absolutely wowed, and I've added him to my favorites list. I can't wait to listen more from him. 

One Week Girlfriend ends, but not really. You know? It's not exactly a cliffhanger, but many loose ends are left loose, and I couldn't wait to buy the second book and start it immediately.