Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen is now available!
The hottest player on the Moo U hockey team hangs a flyer on the bulletin board, and I am spellbound:
Rent a boyfriend for the holiday. For $25, I will be your Thanksgiving date. I will talk hockey with your dad. I will bring your mother flowers. I will be polite, and wear a nicely ironed shirt…
Now everyone knows it’s a bad idea to introduce your long-time crush to your messed-up family. But I really do need a date for Thanksgiving, even if I’m not willing to say why. So I tear his phone number off of that flyer… and accidentally entangle our star defenseman in a ruse that neither of us can easily unwind.
Because Weston's family is even nuttier than mine. He needs a date, too, for the most uncomfortable holiday engagement party ever thrown.
There will be hors d'oeuvre. There will be faked PDA. And there will be pro-level awkwardness…
Boyfriend is a full-length stand-alone romance for Weston and Abbi!
LINKS
All in one link page: https://shor.by/Boyfriend
Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3jrBZAA
Goodreads Giveaway: https://woorise.com/booklovers/boyfriend-by-sarina-bowen-international-giveaway
VENDOR LINKS
Amazon: https://geni.us/Amazon-boyfriend
Apple: https://geni.us/BoyfriendApple
Kobo: https://geni.us/Kobo-boyfriend
Nook: https://geni.us/Nook-boyfriend
Google: https://geni.us/Google-boyfriend
Audio: https://geni.us/Audible-Boyfriend
Excerpt:
“The wine I brought is still outside.”
Weston glances toward the door. “If you want, I’ll step outside right now and grab it for you. But I have a better idea. You could think it over.”
“What’s that?”
“Leave it out there for now. And you and I can drink it later,” he says, his voice richening to a suggestive pitch. “If you’re into that.”
Wait. Now hold on a second. Did Weston just proposition me? For real? I might do a happy dance right here on Lila’s fussy new rug.
“Hello, sir,” Weston says in the next breath. “You must be Dr. Ritter.”
And sure enough, my stepfather is right here with us, reaching out a hand to shake Weston’s. “Call me Dalton,” he says.
They introduce themselves to each other while I stand here feeling befuddled. A second ago—when Weston suggested we save the wine for later—it felt so real. My mind offered up a few naughty ideas on command.
But now I realize that Weston probably saw Dalton approaching and whispered to me because it made us look like a convincing couple. Just a hot hockey player having a private moment with his girlfriend, right?
That has to be it. Weston is just doing his best to nail this acting job.
And it’s too damn bad. Because white wine and a hookup with Weston Griggs would be the most fun I’ve had since…ever.
“Abbi?” Dalton’s voice breaks through my reverie. “Are you coming?”
“Yes,” I say quickly.
Weston takes my hand in his and gives it a friendly squeeze. And that feels nice, too.
It’s all pretend, Abbi, I coach myself. Don’t you forget it.
Mr. Smooth must be losing his touch. I nearly propositioned Abbi under her stepfather’s nose. Awkward much?
Now Abbi is looking at me like she doesn’t quite know what to think. And who could blame her? I should have been more patient before breaking out my hey baby, let’s drink wine and dance the naked tango speech.
This girl, though. She makes me a little stupid. I’ve got to pull myself together.
After hanging up our coats, I follow Abbi and her stepfather through a fancy-ass house to a gleaming kitchen. “It smells amazing in here,” I say, because it does. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not a thing,” Lila crows, the corkscrew in her hands. “Would you like a glass of wine? I also have beer.”
“I’ll have a glass at the table,” I say. “I don’t drink much during the hockey season.”
“Unless you lose a game,” Abbi points out. “Then it’s like the whole team is on fire and beer is the only thing that will extinguish it.”
I let out a bark of laughter because she’s right. “Good thing we don’t lose very often.”
“Good thing,” she says with a little toss of her head. Then she smiles at me, and this weird date feels like the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
Sometimes you just have to put yourself out there in the universe, you know? Hang up a flyer and see what happens. Maybe the cutest girl at Moo U will call your name.
Review:
3.75-4 stars
****
This was a cute book! Boyfriend is a prequel book to the Moo U series, set before the other books in the series, and can be read as a standalone. This is Abbi and Weston's story. Because of his parents bitter divorce, Moo U hockey player Weston tries to stay away from his family as much as he can around the holidays. In college, every year at Thanksgiving Weston has hired himself out on turkey day by advertising on a flyer as a date for hire. It has been a win-win for him as he gets a free holiday dinner and his hirer gets a pretend boyfriend for the day. Abbi is also in a precarious family situation, since her mother died and her only "family" is her stepfather and his new wife and creepy stepson. Abbi works at the Basket restaurant where they hockey team always hangs out. She knows who Weston is and has been attracted to him, so when she sees his flyer she jumps at the chance to hire him to be her fake boyfriend for her awkward Thanksgiving dinner. Weston and Abbi become friends after that, both feeling an attraction but neither feeling at a place where they can act on it for various reasons. But as they spend more and more time together, they soon see they fit together very well and have a connection worth exploring.
I really liked this story. Abbi and Weston were cute together and had good chemistry. They were sexy and fun. I liked them both and felt they were a good match. They did still feel a little shy and not 100% comfortable with each other still at the end though. Also I did want a few more loose ends tied up between Abbi and her stepfather about their relationship. Still, this was a good book and I did enjoy it.
Overall, Abbi and Weston's story and relationship was a fun, easy read. I enjoyed seeing the couple fall for each other and work things out between them. This book was a fun addition to the Moo U series. I look forward to more from it and from Ms. Bowen in the future.
