Review: Book Boyfriend by Claire Kingsley

Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Give Me Books Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

This story doesn’t have an end. Not yet. If it were truly a work of fiction, I know exactly what I would write. Mia would read this book and it would open her heart to me. She’d realize how much I love her. That I would do anything to regain her trust. And she’d come back to me, running into my waiting arms. I would embrace her, feel her soft skin, breathe in the scent of her hair.

If I could write this ending, I would finish it with the ultimate happily ever after.

Book Boyfriend is my first ever Claire Kingsley read and she more than impressed me with a love story that more than tickled my bookaholic fancy. Mia Sullivan is a clinical coordinator, and when she isn't busy with work, babysitting her niece, or suffering through a blind date, she reads...A LOT...and she isn't ashamed to admit her favorite genre is romance. She even has a blog and she's known online as the Bookworm Babe. Why, she's even become friends with a few authors, one of whom happens to be Lexi Logan, whose bestselling romances always get Mia in the heart. So, when Mia meets a guy named Alex Lawson who ticks all of her boxes, she can't help but share with Lexi and ask for a bit of advice. After all, Lexi's a romance author so she knows her stuff. Mia and Alex are falling hard and they're falling fast, but will they fall apart when she learns Alex and Lexi are one and the same?

Goodness but this was one adorable romance! Book Boyfriend was everything I could have wanted in a romance novel. It was lighthearted with a bit of angst on the side and was an easy read to get through, especially since I enjoyed every single minute I spent flipping from one page to the next on my e-reader. I've read a number of books involving a male romance author, but this was different from all the ones that came before it. If there is a book out there that has a similar story line, I have yet to read it. The keeping a secret angle has been done many times in many books, but both characters had online personas here, and there was nothing nefarious about these online identities. Of course, there's the whole matter of needing to tell Mia the truth, and Alex wanting to do so but the timing never seemed to be right. Too simplistic of a complication? Not really, because this was about total honesty.

The very beginning of the Alex and Mia's story does exactly what it's supposed to: it captures the reader's attention. That's easy enough, but to hold on to that attention and have your reader go all in, becoming emotionally invested in what's happening between the main characters and having the reader's heart squeeze in empathy and cheer them on? That isn't always a given, but Claire Kingsley masterfully did it here. My attention was held from start to finish, and even after nearly 200 pages in two hours' time, I still wanted more. Alex was very much the ideal book boyfriend, and Mia was a heroine that I would have wanted to be my friend if she were a real person. These two weren't merely likable--they were downright lovable, and they, along with a kickass cast of supporting characters and a fabulous love story are part and parcel of why Book Boyfriend is getting five-plus stars. ♥

Release Date: 06 April 2017

Date Read: 02 April 2017

Learn more about Claire Kingsley.

Purchase Book Boyfriend on Amazon.