Book Review: Faking It

Faking It (Losing It #2)

By: Cora Carmack

Published By: William Morrow

Publication Date: June 4, 2013

Page Count: 304

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher via Edelweiss

Audience: New Adult - Contemporary Romance

Read my Review of Book #1: Losing It

When you read a book by a debut author and love it, you are faced with a dilemma. What if the next book isn't as good as the first one? I’m sure the author also suffers a similar nervous wait for the release of their second book. I was partly so-excited-I-couldn't-breathe about Faking It, and partly really nervous about picking it up, just in case. Well, worry not Losing It fans. Cora just trumped Losing It, because Faking It is the real deal.

It was difficult not to burn through the whole book in a matter of hours, because I really REALLY wanted to. Luckily, in some respects, life got kind of crazy and I got to take my time with Faking It. It was just one of those reads though, where I would be really tired and just plan on reading for maybe 10 minutes before I fell asleep, and I’d look up an hour later and wonder where the time went. It totally sucked me in!

I loved how Cora handled the transition from focusing on Bliss and Garrick, to Cade and Max. It was done well and sent Bliss and Garrick off on their way happily, providing stimulus material for Cade and also closure for me where they were concerned. After all, Bliss broke Cade’s heart but found the love of her life. 

In Faking It, Cade finds himself struggling to get over Bliss and work out what to do with his life. He realizes he needs to let go and start opening up to some new experiences, so when Max blows into his life, interrupting his morning coffee with a ridiculous proposition, he says yes. He will pretend to be her boyfriend in front of her parents for Thanksgiving, so they don’t have to meet the strung out musician loser she is really dating. And goodness, Cade acts his socks off.

In Losing It, Cade proved his worth as a solid guy. Bliss didn’t find him attractive, so neither did I really. But I feel slightly cheated now, because his ‘voice’ was so intoxicating to me in Faking It. I think he just surpassed Jay Heaton from The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting as my favourite book boyfriend ever. He is patient, selfless, and effortless. Max calls him Golden Boy, and she is absolutely right. He is Mr Perfect; even his flaws are perfect. I have it bad, so look out for a gushing Book Boyfriend post from me sometime soon!!

I appreciate the evolution of Cora’s writing too; this time around there were chapters from both Cade and Max’s point of view. It really added to the story and I found myself even more involved because I could understand both characters so much more that way. I also really liked how there was a slight overlap in time between the end of one chapter and the start of the next; it helped me slide into the perspective and hit the ground running. I felt like the chapter breaks were also really well placed and made it difficult to put the book down as I simply had to know what was coming next!

Speaking of Max - I absolutely adored her – she is the feisty, fearless, femme fatale who gets to steal Cade’s heart. She has such a tough persona built up for self protection, and I loved how Cade was able to slip through it, like her personal Kryptonite. Max had many of the best lines of dialogue, and I loved her zinging retorts to Cade. I also loved that he called her ‘Angry Girl’, taking the wind out of her sails and melting our hearts all in one go. Cade was her soothing balm, and she had need of him. Her past was traumatic and when it was fully explained, more than a little tragic. I really felt that both Cade and Max were written so vibrantly that I wouldn't be surprised to bump into them in real life.

I was so sucked into this story; I got totally lost in the moment a number of times. The sexier side of the story was steaming hot, and we should all be so lucky... but there were a number of other factors which I got lost in too. In particular I loved Max’s descriptions of how her music made her feel, and I felt like that strong connection to her art form was similar and complementary to how Bliss felt as Phaedra in Losing It. I normally skip over lyrics for songs when they are written in to narratives, but I didn’t skip Max’s songs at all. I actually kept trying to imagine how they would sound. I am sure I did a lame job, but I enjoyed them nevertheless.

I recommended Losing It to a huge number of people and I am going to be absolutely doing the same here; I unreservedly LOVE this book. The minor niggles that some had about Losing It (mainly about Garrick’s use of the word ‘Love’ as a nickname, it would seem) are totally non-existent here. New Adult is a rapidly expanding genre, and Faking It is a perfect example of what draws me to it; the plot is strong, the characters are real, they have believable interactions which do include sex, but it is tastefully written, not gratuitous in the slightest (either in frequency or descriptive detail) and it is not at all the focus of the book. This puts Faking It head and shoulders above the romance books I have read, and I also find the completion of the relationships more satisfying than those that I read in Young Adult literature. So there is really NO EXCUSE AT ALL not to pre-order and DEVOUR this mouth-watering morsel. I am now setting my greedy sights on Finding It, which releases in October and tells the story of Kelsey and her travels abroad. The wait is going to be excruciating! 

Summary:

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.