Review: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

Publication Date: May 5th 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 346

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.
The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.
Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

Am I heartless? Did I read this on an off day? Possibly, but the fact remains that after a couple of years of wanting to read this book I finally did, and now I'd like a refund.

I love a good teen romance, there's nothing quite like the butterflies you get along with the protagonist whilst they discover their love. Yet this one never quite got off the ground for me, thanks to poor writing and a terrible cast of characters.

If there's one thing that is guaranteed to frustrate me to the point of mute rage with a book, it's finding grammatical errors like using the wrong your because by the time the book is with the reader, that stuff should have been picked up. So that didn't exactly pre-dispose me to liking it, but the flat writing, stilted dialogue, and unlikeable characters sealed its fate.

I just didn't care about Gia. I think we're meant to feel for her, but she's so shallow and vapid and unlikeable that it becomes incredibly hard to feel anything other than frustration and annoyance with her.

I wanted to put aside my frustrations and just enjoy it for what it's meant to be - a cute, light, romance. But I just couldn't. The dialogue was stilted, the writing really awkward, and I was left feeling like I'd just wasted my time when I finished.
As a first foray into West's writing, this has definitely put me off. So help a girl out - if you really like West's books, what would you recommend I try next to get me on board?