This book was cute. It had the tropes. Fake dating, opposites attract, accidental kiss (and it was her 1st!), slow burn. Jess the shy one. Gabe the popular one. Together they each find a balance and understanding for each other.

I do recommend this one to people who love To All the Boys, Better Than the Movies, The Summer of Broken Rules, etc. It's cute. It's YA. It is predictable but hey, we like what we like.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

Such a fun story! I loved every bit of it. Romance, a decent storyline, and easy enjoyable read. A perfect choice for a beach read.

I liked this sweet story about two very different characters meeting and feeling an attraction, combined with the mystery behind the FMC's book and drama with her mother. However, parts of this felt really young--more middle school than YA--and yet other parts felt more mature. This mix left me feeling a bit confused and disengaged. Due to the slowness of the plot and the mix of maturity, I ended up abandoning it. I didn't mind reading it but I also didn't think about it or want to pick it up again when I wasn't reading it. I think someone who's more into acting or writing and therefore can relate more to these characters or who enjoys a slower-paced book might enjoy it. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Content notes – might be mildly spoilery so I’ve hidden them behind a spoiler tag

Spoiler: Show

Dear Lori Freeland,

The Accidental Boyfriend popped up in my NetGalley choices earlier this year but it seems the book originally came out in 2023.

Jessica Grey, aka Jessica Thorne, is a 17-year-old debut author. She wrote a book on “Digireads” (which I think of as a kind of Wattpad) and it went viral. It was then picked up by a traditional publisher and it’s just about to be released. Jess is off to her first romance convention (which happens to be in her home town of Dallas) where her book will be officially launched. There’s a lot of excitement about her follow-up book too. The book, that is, that Jess has yet to write and which is due in mere days. Eep!

Jess feels like a fraud because she based her book, Haunted, on the diary of her mother at age 16 and 17 when she met and fell in love with “T”. Haunted uses direct quotes from the diary but Jess has fleshed out the story and provided a HEA from her own imagination. It’s not specifically stated but I think this is because the diary kind of ends as diaries are wont to do. Writing Haunted was a way for Jess to begin to process her grief over the loss of her mother two years earlier. Her mother is not dead. But something happened relating to her mother’s alcoholism and it caused an injury to Jess. As a result when Jess got home from the hospital she was told by her dad, Trevor Gray (a famous indie author in his own right), that he’d kicked her mother out, served her with divorce papers and filed a restraining order so there could be no contact between mother and daughter. Trevor was a career Marine and after he left the service he began writing special ops thrillers. He is present in the house but very much absent from Jess’s life. She feels abandoned and unloved by both parents and is desperate to do more than stalk her mother on social media. She wants her family back and blames herself (as children do, even though it’s not their fault) for the breakdown of her parents’ marriage. When she found her mother’s diary she was so taken with the story of her parents’ courtship and she doesn’t understand what went wrong.

Gabriel Wade is the 18-year-old star of a werewolf-based TV show. He’s in Dallas to (try to) see his mother. His mother is unwell and is in a facility which costs a lot of money each month. His older sister is in college and his mother, while a successful TV star, lost her own money and so it’s up to Gabe to pay for everything. There’s a problem on the show though and it looks like the only option is to sell the family home. This would solve the financial problems but his sister tells him she’ll never forgive him if he does. He hasn’t seen his mother since her took her to the facility and he’s struggling with all of it.

As it happens, Gabe is staying at the same hotel in Dallas the romance convention is being held and when he arrives, he is immediately smitten by the pretty brunette stumbling on the escalator. He notices something else as well:

“You had this lost look, like you were twisted up inside, and there was this second when I felt like whatever was twisting you might get what was twisting me.”

Jess stumbles off the escalator and into Gabe’s arms. Around the same time, a persistent reporter/paparrazzo tries to corner Gabe to question why he’s in town. He is contractually bound not to reveal the issues on the show and he’s bound by a promise he made to his mother to not reveal why she’s in care – so he begs Jess, his “Escalator Girl” to help him out and give her her very first kiss. From there, thanks to Jess’s agent and romance fairy godmother, a scheme is hatched for them to fake date for the week of the convention to boost each other’s image.

Both young people are dealing with some very serious issues and they’re both struggling. Jess has been home-schooled since her mother left and is very shy and innocent. Gabe is much more worldly but he’s been in show business his whole life. He grew up on “Raising Ryder” a TV series where his mother played his on screen mother and he’s been in the spotlight ever since. He doesn’t often get a chance to be “real”. With Jess, he does.

Gabe falls for Jess quickly and spends time trying to convince him to give him a chance for real rather than for pretend. He’s a very persuasive and charming young man, not to mention he’s hot. He is sincere though so I never felt like he was playing her. Jess is worried about his reputation (most of which is media spin) for being a girl-chaser and about his co-star, Kimberley Kane, who, according to the press, is his on-again-off-again girlfriend. Gabe has never actually dated Kim. They’re friends and it’s a contract/show/PR thing for them to appear to be together from time to time. Jess has fairly low self-esteem (not surprising given her feelings about and her experience with her parents) and has few friends in real life, especially since she left school after the thing happened with her mother and hasn’t really been in touch with peers since. She doesn’t believe she’s as pretty as she is. In another book this might have annoyed me but it made sense here.

Over the course of the book, Gabe and Jess fall sweetly in love. Gabe is far more sexually experienced that Jess (who has no experience at all apart from the kiss at the foot of the escalator) but Gabe is respectful of her boundaries. Their makeout scenes are actually pretty steamy but things stay outside of “swimsuit areas” – Jess is only 17, so this made sense to me, plus the book takes place over a short space of time. The pair certainly have chemistry and Gabe’s instinct about what’s twisting each of them up is spot on. They are able to help each other and support one another in ways not available to them from others in their lives. Ultimately, this gives each confidence to address the issues they’re facing and come to what resolutions they can about their respective parental relationships.

The Accidental Boyfriend is a charmingly easy read. The characters are engaging and doing the best they can in some very difficult circumstances. I did think the way things got sorted out between Jess and her dad was a bit hand-wavey. It was a bit too easy all things considered and I never did quite understand why he had been so distant with her. Then again, we only had Jess’s POV on that topic so maybe she was a little unreliable there? Parts of the story are a bit Cinderella but there are some things which cannot be waved away by a fairy-wielding magic wand and there are still hard choices to be made and hard things to be faced. On Jess’s side of things I thought the hard thing she had to deal with was extremely difficult and again, I thought there was a bit of hand-waving as to how she coped with it. I don’t want to give away spoilers but let’s just say that an adult in Jess’s life is not a good person.

Even though the protagonists were young, I believed in their HEA because the very hard things they were dealing with brought about a certain maturity (particularly for Gabe) and their bond was created in something of a crucible. But, they have fun together and relate to one another as young people. They do not come across as actually being 30.

While I had a couple of quibbles about some details towards the end, for the most part, I enjoyed The Accidental Boyfriend quite a bit.

Grade: B

Regards,
Kaetrin

~ Thank you to NetGalley for the free eARC ~

This was a cute fake dating story that I enjoyed reading.
I didn't fully connect with the FMC Jess at first, but she grew on me as the story went on (and she has a great name ;P). She was shy and nervous at first, but Gabe really brought her out of her shell.
I did like Gabe! In real life, he may appear more self-centred, but I enjoyed his confidence and personality!
And lastly, I always love a good fake-dating storyline.

genre: romance, young adult, contemporary

Thanks to NetGalley I received an advanced electronic copy of the book to read and provide a review. This was a cute and quick read. It was a good time!

4.5 stars

I loved this story. Both Jess and Gabe are dealing with way more than any teenager should have to. There are some heavy topics discussed but the book balanced the emotional and fun well.

I love Jess and Gabe together. He pulls her out of her comfort zone but still respects her boundaries. I love the way Jess breaks through his Hollywood facade to see the real Gabe.

This is a great YA read!

No spice but there are steamy kisses. The characters do discuss sex in a way that feels appropriate for 17-18 year olds.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest opinion.

It was a very cookie-cutter YA romance. I didn't feel it had anything special to offer (aside from being set in Dallas? Always fun to see the place I grew up in a piece of media).

Such a cute romance. I loved the characters loved their story. The chemistry was cute hot and on pointe. Cannot recommend this book enough.

No public review as I don't have a positive review.

I understand that this is YA but it felt very immature for the age of the characters involved. Every adult in this book was a nightmare, the writing style was again immature for the age, the plot wasn't particularly enjoyable and I just couldn't connect with this at all. The adults being so awful really ruined this for me.

Cute heartwarming YA book with no spice.

I enjoyed hitting the romcom trope checklist in this book, we got the ups and downs with some slight mystery and angst.

Gabe and Jess both have family dysfunction and carry a secret that weighs on them in their professional life. While each hold it differently, they are both essentially masking their true self in the public eye.

They are opposites attract, found family, don't judge the book by it's cover, and pull on your heart strings.

Enjoyed this one, ore than I thought I would. I felt like the characters were easy to love and their love story was realistic. Thought it would be a silly romance but had more depth to it. Would make a great movie :)

Loved Jess and Gabe.

Their first meeting had me laughing out loud.

Would love to read more from this author.

Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to finish this book. I was drawn in thanks to a promising premise – and I'm always a sucker for this kind of plotline, but this book just didn't do it for me. I feel like the execution just fell flat, as the pace was way too slow for my liking, and the reinforcement of certain clichés over and over again just made my brain hurt.

Imagine your first kiss is from a heartthrob, the equivalent of if you were kissed by Dylan O'brien from Teen Wolf... Then you are thrown in a whirlwind of drama when everyone thinks you're dating.

Jess is a new author going to her first event who is kissed by Gabe, who is a heartthrob trying to get away from his crazy fans and is looking for a way out. So he kisses Jess.... Then they end up fake dating in order for his fans to be more focused on him instead of his family drama. And Jess gets more eyes on her upcoming book. But soon they develop real feelings

But will their relationship last the drama of what it means to date a heartthrob???...

This was a really fun YA romance - it had great back story and development of the characters and was very cute and quick to read.
The supporting characters were also well written and added to the story. Fake dating, opposites attract, grumpy x sunshine - lots of fun. I really liked Gabe!
Really fun book and would highly recommend.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book got off to a slow start, but I enjoyed it a lot after that!

Unfortunately this wasn’t for me, it’s taken me so long to read as I just kept putting it down and reading something else. I’m never one to leave a review less than 3 star but unfortunately this just wasn’t a book for myself.

This book was really sweet and a perfect YA story. I really enjoyed Gabe and Jess and I could relate to their family struggles. The heavier topics were well handled in my opinion and made me emotional. Their dynamic was super fun to read and the humour in the writing was on point.

Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. This book felt like it would have been better coming out in the early to mid- 2000s. The premise was very intriguing to me - fake dating, famous/normal trope, black cat girl/golden retriever guy... however, the cheesy writing (the "caveboy" references) and the out-of-date stereotypes (she's not like other girls) made the actually novel fall flat.