Jun 28, 2013

Review: Faking It by Cora Carmack

Title: Faking It
Author: Cora Carmack
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 6.4.2013
Pages: 304
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Series: Losing It #2
Source: Finished copy at BEA

Rating: B+

Summary (from Goodreads):
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.

Review:
Having met Cade in Cora Carmack’s first book, Losing It, I was very, very excited to see he was getting his own romance in Faking It. Faking It is definitely Cade’s book to shine and he just does it well. I love that he’s just one of those genuine good guys. He’s a realistic guy. He isn’t perfect, but he isn’t given to alpha-male doucheiness on a regular basis the way so many guys in new adult fiction are now. Cade is that guy that you can’t help but fall for, so it’s no wonder Max falls hard for him.

Let’s talk about our girl Max. There were a few hurdles that I tumbled over on my way to loving this girl. First was her penchant for violence. I’ve never been a fan of the dramatic face slap—you know that part where a girl gets so worked up she slaps a guy’s face and this is sometimes construed as romantic? It’s not, OK? It’s abuse and it’s domestic violence. It just somehow doesn’t get called this when a girl slaps a guy. If Cade had slapped Max twice in the face? Everyone would be burning their books.

The second issue, and maybe this is just me, but I’m simply not a fan of when a character or person is emphatic about their nickname. It’s not like they were calling her Hitler, OK? But Max got so insulted and up in arms when people called her Mackenzie, it just made me roll my eyes. If you hate the name so much, legally change it then!

Those two issues aside, I did come to enjoy Max and the way her relationship with Cade unfolded. Carmack is a fantastic story teller and she has this amazing way of crafting a plot that is both grounded and fantastical all at once. Fans of the new adult genre need to get on board with Carmack and quickly. It’s no wonder her signing line at BEA this past year was the longest author signing line I encountered throughout the whole expo. She’s that good.


Buy: Amazon 

3 comments:

  1. We discussed the face slaps and you know I agree - I think it's just as unacceptable to a girl to slap a guy as for a guy to slap a girl, so Max did lose points there. BUT, overall I did like her and I loved her relationship with Cade (post-slap obviously). And her parents? Cracked me up when they came to visit, but I did want to give them a talking to about what they were putting their daughter through!

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  2. I've heard wonderful things about Losing It, so I have to start there :) Great review!

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  3. The way you described Max makes me reallllly dislike her. I still want to read this one, though. Unfortunately the eBook sale is not in Canada (grrr), so I've put it on hold at the library.

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