ABOUT THE BOOK
She needs a boyfriend. AI came to her rescue. But then her fake boyfriend showed up at school.
Brielle has never wanted a boyfriend. She's happy with her book boyfriends--purely fictional, right? Easy to maintain. She's also not a huge fan of sports, except baseball. Not playing it. No. Again, books and cozy afternoons are her thing. But Brielle can get into baseball with the best of them when it comes to watching, repeating stats, and wearing her favorite jerseys. But apparently, that's not enough in life. At least according to her four nosy aunts, who all think she needs a boyfriend, people at school who are convinced Brielle is a closet serial killer because she's happier with her books, and yeah. Valentine’s Day is on the calendar.
There is a purpose for AI, and Brielle decides the genius thing to do is make a fake boyfriend. Complete with deepfake photos, Brielle creates the perfect boyfriend, and no one needs to know he's entirely fictional. They just need to believe she met him over summer vacation, and he lives somewhere in North Carolina. Only he doesn't. When baseball catcher, Brooks Mason shows up at high school, a lookalike to Brielle's AI boyfriend, her entire world becomes a dog-eared, bent pages book nightmare.
Brooks is getting sick of all the girls at school wanting to date him. He wants to play ball and hang out. So, yeah. It makes sense to help Brielle out. Fake date? Why not? But once together, dating for show becomes an act that both Brielle and Brooks aren't quite prepared for, and dealing with unexpected attraction, complicated situations, and interfering aunts and bffs?
It's a grand slam of problems just waiting to happen, plus a game-changing shot at a championship homerun at love.
REVIEW
So. Fun. Create a fake AI boyfriend, what a great way to get people to leave you alone about having a boyfriend. And then for AI boyfriend to show up in person—ack, a dream! I absolutely loved Brooks and how he treated Brielle. I was a bit unsure how I would like the dual points of view, but it totally worked out—it was neat to see inside his head and what the whole fake dating thing was doing to him too. The faith portion wasn’t over-the-top, it’s a book I could easily give my daughter’s friends who might not be open to anything super religious. I also liked that not everyone in this story was perfect. There was the great example of a Godly family and what God-honoring parents should be like, but there were also friends and parents who weren’t living up to what God calls them to be. Like real life. Brielle’s best friend Lia was fantastic!! I loved all the pocket-talk they did. Such a cute part of the story. Back in the day we had pen-pals, now you can have real life pocket pals who can be part of your everyday life. Love it! I didn’t know how everything was going to play out along the way, which is always a bonus the first time you read a great book. This is one you will want to give the teen girls in your life. Lots of good lessons you could extract and talk about, but also just a lot of fun! I’ve read a lot of YA books, and over the past couple years I’ve noticed some of the ones with faith are just kind of boring, or just get to be a bit too off the mark. Even though I absolutely love Jaime Jo Wright, I went in not sure what to expect, and I’m happy to report I came away with a 5 star review, which I don’t give out lightly. Well done Jaime and Chloe!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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