The Replacement Crush by Lisa Brown Roberts
Grade: B
Release date: September 6, 2016
An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration.
Summary: True love can’t be strategized.
After book blogger Vivian Galdi’s longtime crush pretends their secret summer kissing sessions never happened, Vivian creates a list of safe crushes, determined to protect her heart.
But nerd-hot Dallas, the sweet new guy in town, sends the mission and Vivian’s zing meter into chaos. While designing software for the bookstore where Vivian works, Dallas wages a counter-mission.
Operation Replacement Crush is in full effect. And Dallas is determined to take her heart off the shelf.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: If you're in the mood for fluffy, swoony fun, look no further than The Replacement Crush. This book is basically a bibiliophile's dream.
Vivian is pretty smart; once she gets her head out of the hormone-induced cloud of Jake, she realizes he's an awful guy and wants to move on. Of course, she's a bit dumb and oblivious too, especially when it comes to Dallas. She still has a pretty good head on her shoulders otherwise, so I'll excuse her stubbornness in not admitting that she and Dallas are perfect for each other. They have such insta-chemistry (NOT insta-love) that I couldn't resist shipping them from the get-go, and you won't be able to either. There is one scene with the sort-of ex that really bothered me. I felt like it was mostly used to drive home how awful he was and how great both Dallas and Vivian's sort-of brother, Toff, are. It felt highly necessary to me.
I did enjoy how Vivian's book blogger side was portrayed; it was relatively accurate to most book bloggers. I would've liked a little more focus on that, though, since it seemed to just be a way to make us early readers like her more. But I appreciated that she wasn't one of those protagonists who loves classics or YA; no, she full-on loves romances. I know a lot of YA authors read those as teenagers so it seemed accurate and fun. I really liked the plot bits with Ms. Galdi's store. Vivian's mom was pretty cool. She was a bit stereotypical at times, but overall, she wasn't bad for a YA mom.
As for the ugly, only nine s-words and f-words that I caught, most clustered during the tense scene with the ex-crush. Romance was pretty clean, although discussions of the romance novels produced some interesting conversations. There's a couple of fights between guys.
The Verdict: Pretty fun, nothing ground-breaking. If you really like contemporary romance, you can't miss this one.
Will I be adding this book to my library?: Hmm....maybe.
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