Review: Faking It by Cora Carmack

Review: Faking It by Cora Carmack
Goodreads
Release date: June 7th, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow & Company (HarperCollins)
Rating: SWOON.

 

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.


The cover: Eh. It's romance-y and cute enough. They made a game attempt at showing Max's tattoo and dyed hair, but it's not really enough.

The story: MY GOD, do I love this book. Cora Carmack is, to me, everything that's RIGHT with the emerging New Adult genre (and this book is most definitely new adult-- a warning for those who like their books pure and squeaky clean). Faking It focuses on characters, and the plot is derived from those characters and their flaws. But oh, yeah, it just so happens to be SMOKING HOT and wildly romantic. Which works for me.




I read and loved Losing It a long time ago, so I knew I loved Carmack's funny, charming, easy style. But to me, Faking It was even better. The characters are punchier, rawer, and overflowing with personality. I did not want to put this book down. It focuses on Max and Cade, who, if you read the synopsis, start to fake a relationship for her family's sake. But this one form of "faking it" leads them to realize all the other myriad ways they're "faking" their own lives--faking being over their pasts, faking fearless, faking a lot of things.

There's a surprisingly amount of depth in this book. Max and Cade both deal with a lot of emotions, and therefore we do, too. I like a book that manages to balance the lighter, flirtier, sexier stuff with a real emotional journey. Also, this book switches first person POVs between Max and Cade, which I'm always super skeptical about (it's REALLY hard to pull off), but which I think works really well here.

Cade: Perfect boy is perfect. And yes, sometimes that can lead to perfectly bland, but oh, Cade is one of the best sincerely good characters I've ever read about. I loved him (and pitied him) in Losing It, and I loved him even more in Faking It. I'm not sure how Carmack managed to give him so much personality, but she did. Sweet, sexy Cade made me laugh like a hundred times.

Max: MAX IS AWESOME. She's one hundred percent the opposite of Bliss (and absolutely nothing like me, which I LOVE). Simply put, she's a bad-ass. She's damaged, she's bold, she's tattooed, she's a singer in the band, and she's fully, one hundred percent aware that she's a fuck-up. She's pretending to be something she's not so that she won't upset her crazy conservative parents--and so they won't cut her off. Which means she definitely can't introduce them to Mace, who is pierced, tattooed, and usually chemically enhanced. (What I love about Max is she's totally above drugs.) Enter Cade, the preppy-perfect guy her parents always dreamed she'd find, and one hundred percent not Max's type.

OR IS HE?

Max + Cade:

 
 CHEMISTRY, man. Chemistry. These two characters make so much sense for each other I don't even know what to say. Not just physically, either--emotionally, they are a really healthy match, and it's totally swoony and awesome to watch them figure each other out. The emotional obstacles blocking their way to twue wuv are totally natural and justifiable and don't feel author-manufactured. Basically, I shipped them hardcore.

If I were to pick any nits I'd say chapter 27 should have been about fifty pages longer, and Milo the Mexican friend was a little too wise and convenient. And a little annoying. But obviously, if you like swoony romance, a fun time, and laughs galore, I DEFINITELY recommen you check out Faking It. Also, I met the author at BEA, and she was super charming and totally worth standing in line for for about 1234567654 hours. So yay!

Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

Interested in reading this book? I'm giving away a copy, along with twelve other books!

Review: Easy by Tammara Webber
Rating: ★★★
 
A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.


I have conflicted thoughts about EASY. On the one hand, it didn’t make quite the impression on me I was expecting from all the hype. On the other hand, I read it straight through, very much wanting to find out what happened.

Also: IT’S NEW ADULT. I love New Adult because I happen to be one. This is a book set on a college campus dealing with the kinds of issues college-aged kids deal with: rape, relationships, sex, careers, classes, etc. The college world was believable and fun to read about. The heart of the subject matter is sexual assault, and I have to say that Webber explores this issue with a pretty deft hand.

The first scene is Jacqueline escaping a near-rape. It’s a powerful way to open a book, and yet it didn’t impact me like it should. I think the problem was Jacqueline. It took me a long time to connect to her, and I never felt her as deeply as most heroines. I felt like there was a bit of distance between her and me. I didn’t feel her trauma. Most of her anxiety in the ensuing pages is about her ex-boyfriend, her economics class, and figuring out the mystery of Lucas, the guy who saved her from Buck the would-be-rapist.

Jacqueline repeatedly says her passion is music, and talks about how she tutors local middle school students to play the upright bass. But we never see a scene of her playing or tutoring. I never believed she was a musician; it didn’t affect the way she saw things at all.

It took me a while to grow into Jacqueline, but by the end I started to get to know her. A little late, but the book really improved as I read. Some of the characters really popped, like Erin the roommate. She was the best. Lucas was a little too perfect: he draws, he’s a taekwondo master, he’s a straight A student, SPOILER THAT WASN’T A SURPRISE an economics tutor, handyman, barista, tattooed soulful man with a tortured past. Of course, he was swoon-worthy. Their flirting was so much fun. I actually loved that he lied to her, and that they actually did have arguments. I loved the way he supports Jacqueline and cares for her. The love scenes (for sure mature content) were wonderful and made me weak at the knees. Despite my issues with their characters, I loved their romance.

Oh, I so don’t want to sound this negative. I really didn’t hate it, guys. It has a powerful message about women taking control of their lives and not becoming victims. It just got to a slow start for me. A lot of obsessing over a useless ex-boyfriend and not failing econ class. Jacqueline frequently says she’s trying to forget the assault, but I don’t get the impression she’s really struggling with it. She struggles more with not thinking about Lucas or her ex. Once the book really started dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, I liked it a lot more. Jacqueline begins to take more control. She learns self-defense and how to stand up for herself. There are points that made me want to cheer and shout “GIRL POWER!”

But then there’s also a scene where a male character calls a young woman an “alcoholic skank” to her face and it is played as a victory. It was just one moment in a book otherwise filled with good messages, but it hit me wrong. In a book that taught how horrible it is to put blame on rape victims, to claim they were asking for it, to call them sluts, it was just so weird to me that the author would think it appropriate to use a derogative sexual term for laughs.

I also thought the other girls on Jacqueline’s floor were quick to judge when they thought she was hooking up with two different guys. This is college. That is hardly a shocking thing. Nobody on my floor sophomore year would have blinked if someone hooked up with two different people in two weeks. The less-than-stellar reactions of the Greeks to the rape claims were realistic, however. I enjoyed the way Webber portrayed all the different ways people think of rape.

But like I said, the latter half of the book really picks up. There’s action and heartbreak. We get to know the characters better. A scene where a teacher basically monologues all of Lucas’ background is a little convenient, but it’s certainly a powerful story. And like I said, the romance. It is steamy. It is beautiful. It made me fan my myself and reach for the cold water.

This book takes a very healthy view of female sexuality and at times it was just fun to read. There are also resources for sexual assault victims at the back of the book, which I liked. This book felt supportive. It was trying to reach out to girls who feel like their voices have been silenced, and that's always worthy.

In the end, I liked it. It’s well-written, intelligent, and has a very worthy subject matter. It’s no Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which will stick with you for the rest of your life, but I think it’s worth a read. I won't be thinking about it tomorrow, and I’m not sure it deserves all the hype it’s gotten, but it may be just me.