Book Club,  Book Review,  Romance

Book Review: My Favorite Half-Night Stand | Christina Lauren

December 4, 2018 /

If a book could just be refreshing for mind and soul, this would be it. My Favorite Half-Night Stand by writing duo Christina Lauren is funny, light-hearted, filled with loveable characters, and charming. Though I (unlike our protagonist Millie) am more of a girl’s girl than a tomboy, I ended up really embracing her ragtag group of guy friends by the end. And Millie herself I felt a bit of kindred spirit with! Add that to a truly fun love story filled with witty repartee and a few sophomoric boy jokes, and you have a recipe for a book that will just make you feel happy!

About the Book

Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship…but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.

Reflection

Well let’s get it out of the way—I was destined to love this book by nature of them all being Ph.D. “nerds” working at a university. My heart was thrilled with this setting! Whenever Millie would talk about making her book deadlines—that was too real for me. And then having her favorite spots on campus? Been there, Millie! Even if you are cool and not a Ph.D. nerd like I am, I think you’ll find this setting fun.

Millie is a truly wonderful character. She is closed off—a bit of damage from her mother dying young and her father encouraging her to keep it positive when telling her sick mother about her day. After awhile, Millie learns to just keep the negative things pushed down. Now as an adult, Millie hasn’t really unlearned this tendency, and it is creating problems. She doesn’t connect as well with others as she’d like. To be Millie’s friends, you have to accept that there will always be a wall up. Millie’s growth as a character in this book was one of my favorite things about it!

And then we have the boys, Chris, Ed, Alex, and Reid (the love interest). Let’s get Chris and Alex out of the way first—they are ridiculous characters who add some much needed humor. Ed, on the other hand, should have his own book! Every reader on the planet will want to learn more about Ed, I’m sure. He is such a great side character—he’ll sneak up on you, I think!

And then Reid… Oh Reid. The book besties will tell you that my opinion on Reid changed multiple times through this book! Sometimes I couldn’t stand him, and other times I loved him so much that I wanted to dive into the pages and hug him! I don’t want to spoil anything by saying why my opinions kept changing, but I’ll say I ended firmly in the “TeamReid camp, so he is ultimately a great character.

There is a scene in this book that made me visibly cringe while reading it! It is a date scene but I won’t say which characters it is between because I want it to surprise you too. It is such a fantastic scene, though! I love the way the authors wrote it—I could feel every awkward moment as though I was the one on the date!

And then we have those steamy sex-scenes! Yowsa do these two have chemistry!!! And the genuine love—well that makes it even better, doesn’t it?

Thank you to Gallery Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Book Besties Approved

We absolutely loved our book club read of My Favorite Half-Night Stand. This is a fantastic book to group read, because I think it has a lot of openings to share about our own experiences and connections with the book. For instance, we talked about the merits of guy friends over girl friends sometimes, whether it is possible to have a truly platonic friendship with someone you are attracted to, and dating mishaps. I hope you add this book to your list too!

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