Title: Faking It
Author: Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Published: June 4th, 2013
This was my latest audiobook that I downloaded digitally from my public library. I started reading/listening to this author because she is going to be at the NOLA Story Con I'm going to in September. And this will be another book that I'll have to own so that I can get it signed when I get to meet her! You don't have to have read the first book, Losing It, to enjoy this one however. The main character in Faking It, Cade, was a best friend of the main character in the first book though, so you do get a little bit of background on him from the first book if you would like.
As I said, the main character is Cade. He is working on an advanced degree in acting, and has recently moved to Philadelphia. The same place that his best friend/crush moved to with her boyfriend, their former teacher. He knows that he has to get over Bliss, but doesn't really know how to do it. He's just had coffee with Bliss and her boyfriend Garrick, and is sitting in the coffee shop alone, when fate sends the other main character, Mackenzie, or Max as she prefers to be called, into his life.
Max is a bit of a rebel. She's in a band, and dates guys with names like Mace. She's in the coffee shop with Mace, when she gets a phone call from her parents saying that they have dropped into town to surprise her for Thanksgiving. Max usually has time to prepare for seeing her parents, cover her tattoos, change her hair color, take out her piercings. But as her parents are just about to show up at the coffee shop, she has to come up with something quick. She tells Mace she'll have to keep him away from her parents, and he goes away, definitely okay with not having to meet parents. She sees Cade sitting at a table, and he looks exactly like the clean-cut type of guy her parents would love. And this is where they have their "meet-cute".
Max asks Cade to pretend to be her fake boyfriend just for the day, long enough to show her parents and help keep them off her back. It takes a more permanent turn when they invite Cade to come to Max's apartment to share their dinner. Which Cade is fine with, as it gives him an excuse to not go to Bliss's house for dinner and have to watch her be happy with Garrick.
As you might expect, there is more than just the fake relationship between Cade and Max. Both of them feel an attraction to each other. Max fights it more than Cade, though. She fights it enough that when their friendship might be able to become more, it sends her running away from Cade, trying to keep anything from going any further. At least until she gets a bit of an ultimatum from her parents that could mess up her plans to continue with her band. Her band that is getting close to possibly taking off. All of this will require an extension of their pretend relationship, and will lead Cade to help Max face some things in her past that she really needs to figure out and help move on with her life.
Once again I fell in love with the characters. The bit from Max's past totally made me cry, and made a great emotional aspect for the story. Once again I'm going to greatly recommend this author's book!
