Kasie West - The Fill-In Boyfriend

Crossing paths

All I'm saying good stories easily find me. Thanks universe!

My booklove

Explicitly.

Picture Perfect

We get immediately in the middle of the story without having to read unnecessary bullshit, which already gains me over. I'd like to thank you my dearest booklove.

Gia's just been dumped by her ex-boyfriend before her very first senior prom night in the parking lot. Then he drives away letting her alone decked out in all her finery in the dark parking lot. The perfect venue where you'd like to be dumped. Girls, you'd just got an insight of a life-size douchebag. Seriously, sometimes guys are in need of a thorough whack in the face or a huge kick in their butts.

But how could she possibly, the most popular girl of high school, the president of the school council plus the future Homecoming-queen enter alone? The answer is c'mon! a princess would never commit such an outrageous crime. Ever. It'd deprive her of the crown.

Never a misstep - is that so?

Hard times call for tough measures, that's why Gia picks up the first guy sitting in a truck and asks him to play her fill-in boyfriend. As incredible as it may sound the fill-in Bradley has no objection whatsoever so he agrees to the set-up. Although he doesn't save the world, he gallantly comes to the aid of the Empress of Social Media. Presumably she'd tweet facebook even tumbler the horid news of her break-up right away (Guess I’m single again. Let's party, bitches! #LOL) so that everyone can Like it if it wasn't for the Quarter Evil, Jules who's the appropriate personification of Cruella De Vil. She does her best to discredit Gia in any way she can. Her brand-new martial move is to convince all of Gia's friends that she's a pretty-little-liar about Bradley due to the fact that they have never met him before. (As if we were in the Mean Girls.) To prove her wrong, Gia's breezing in at the side of this anonymous boy. In your face, Jules!

If I were in Gia's shoes:

The mischievous plan works out well which means they don't get exposed after their fake-break up and both of them go back to their dull reality. Then why does Gia feel a twinge of conscience mixed with the unsettling urge to see Fill-In Bradley again? Why did he help a complete stranger in the first place? What were his motives? Despite the fact that he's not exactly her type she can't get him out of her head. There's mystery to be sold. Scherlock is on duty.

There's no more awkward when you can't even follow his babysister's car home to find out his adress and say hello seemingly under cover and you get busted. Watson isn't happy, as far as I can tell. Poor guy should be glad Gia doesn't spill her perfume on his pillow or smell his clothes. Just normal things common folks do. No, not in a creepy stalker way at all.

Time to pay up - even the $bill$

Sister of Nameless Boy, Becky arranges a fake-date for her brother to the birthday party of his ex-girlfriend. (For the record: either this ex-girlfriend tries to seduce him or wants to show him how happy she is after she cheated on him with his bestfriend. Nicely done. She can't be more cruel.)The perfect candidate for the mighty task to discourage fill-in boy from getting back together with his ex the Maleficent again is Gia who's already owe him. A lot. She can't back out of it now. And maybe she doesn't want to...

Twenty questions

'Hayden?'
'Yes, Gia?'
'Nothing. I just wanted to say your name.'

Hayden (yep! it's his name. I know, I know. Cute.) admits he deliberately stayed in the parking lot back then watching whether she needed a ride home because she seemed pretty lost after Bradley tactfully broke up with her. Guess it's another definition for heroism. Captin America should hide somewhere...wait it's not happening. He's too big.

Much to Gia's disappointment, Eve seems to be odd and funny, no wonder Hayden wants her back even after her vicious betrayal. Seriously, people are not in their right minds when it comes to love. Cheating? She entered collusion with the Snake and can't expect good grace. Out of the Eden Garden. How ironic.
Anyway, it's still fun to make Eve jealous and act for the audience. It's a pitty though because Gia wish it was real.

Perfect Family Billboard - No. 1

'Chin up. There are other fish in the sea. It’s a big ocean. Sometimes we need to catch and release a few before we find the keeper. Just keep swimming.'

Her family must take part in the series of What to Say to Your Kids 101? reality show. They'd earn the award for the title of the most meticulous family of all time.

Step one: Have breakfast together every morning with your precious daughter is compulsory. It's a family occasion. Step two: Do not express emotions in case it means confrontation. Peace is safe. Step three: Take no notice if one of your children was a complete jerk to his little sister. Keep being cool about it and ground the victim.

The truth is Drew and Gia have never been close since he always manage to stir up trouble. What she expects from him that he's willing to protect his little sister from jackass ex-boyfriends by beating them for good which just doesn't happen. What happens though is when his bigbrother lurks behind Gia's back and shoots a humiliating-all-revealing video for a scool project targeting her as a subject for mocking. What's more, the film is available on social websites, it is played back before a whole bunch of people, plus Drew has won a prize for his explicit spit-the-truth criticism of society. I dunno who you can trust not other than your flesh and blood and he as well throws you in front of a group of predators like a piece of greasy meat. There's certainly something wrong with the world.

Reprogramming a Generation

'How is selfworth measured today? By the amount of likes a post gets, by how many friends we collect, by how many retweets we accumulate? Do we even know what we really think until we post our thoughts online and let others tell us if they are worthy?'

To put it bluntly, Gia's social media addiction reflects the problem of present genaration globally. Need for validation, collecting as many likes as possible defines us generally hoping 'friends are tweeting our post, otherwise it didn’t really happen, right?' I can tell, I'd definitely watch this video and post it everywhere unless I'd not be the protagonist. Stressing the importance of having virtual 'friends' over exsisting relationships only to justify your coolness sounds ludicrous. I'd most likely get hundreds of dislikes on this post by now....

It must be tough for her to realise she's a shallow snob measuring her worth in those terms. And she is. Or she used to be when her most serious problem of all was to unfollow her ex-boyfriend first. Since then she's trying to be a better person. Not to be a coward who only cares about what others think about her. Not to become her parents who don't express bad feelings because that would imply her family was less than perfect. Keeping everything inside. Well, it was high time to follow Hayden and Becca's lead who were anything but perfect, luckily.

Don't do repeats

'Tomorrow we are all going to be better people.'

Gia & Hayden go off the beaten track when Hayden doesn't consider Gia thrustworthy with a long history of lying. On top of that Jules secret agenda just came to the head when she conducted her vendetta against Gia. All of her friends get to know who the real Bradley was. Drama, drama, drama. Consequently Gia's lost his bestfriend so we can admit Jules just nailed it. Literally get away with her stealthiness.
She must have venom running in her blood really. Clearly Gia didn't manage to pull off her better-person dreams. On the grounds that she was lying to her friends took all the credits from her thrustworthiness. And why would she anyway be given another chance by Hayden while she's the one without doing repeats? The typical case of someone falling into her own trap. It must hurt badly.

Second chances - end of buildup

Likewise every true love throughout history was assisted by a chaperon or an unintentional but not quite accidental spin of fate. How on earth would Elizabeth have fallen for Darcy if it wasn't for the Gardners? What would have happened if the crazy friends in Failure to Launch didn't do their best to sheperd together Trip and Paula? It's superior force I tell you.

The best part of these stories when the guy owns up to his idiocy and begging for the girl's foregiveness. Best chapter. I couldn't express enough my gratitude to Becca the goth self-searching sister who pulled them together. I appreciate her mastermind. We are needed to be guarded in the right way sometimes, I suppose.

How I feel now

Giddy.

Next step

I'm goingt to dig up the other books of Kasie West for sure!

Starring

Hanna Marin the gorgeous, blond, Ms. President in charge. I'v grown into habit to listen Shawn Mendes and he's big hair and skinny enough for Hayden.

Songs

Imagine Dragons - Second Chances

Rating

5 out of 5