Faking It by Cora Carmack | Book Review

TITLE: Faking It
AUTHOR: Cora Carmack
PUBLISHER/YEAR: William Morrow & Co. / June 4, 2013
SERIES: Book Two, The Losing It Series
SOURCE: Purchased

Goodreads / Author's Website

Romance novels are so addictive. If I'm in the right mood I can pretty much pick one up and not put it down again until I've flipped the last page. I mean as long as they're well written and don't make me gag. Cora Carmack's Finding It is one of those ones that I just couldn't put down. Finding It is a continuation of of the Losing It series, following Bliss' former best friend, Cade as he moves on in a new city. Carmack has this ability to combine humour and real life awkwardness with romance story worthy swoons which really sets her books apart for me. Basically, I love every minute of them.

Faking It is Cade's story, after being rejected by Bliss he goes into a bit of a funk, goes to grad school, but doesn't really move on. The love interest in this one is Max, she's a rock singer who works in a club and tattoo parlour to pay the bills. She's dating some tattooed drummer named Mace, but when her parents visit unexpectedly she needs to find a suitable boyfriend stand in, somebody who won't scare them off. Enter Cade. These two need to fake the relationship, but when it goes a little too well have to continue it through the holiday season. Of course, feelings develop and problems arise, isn't that where the fun is?

You guys, I really love books that include some awkward fun in with the sexy times. That has got to be one of my favourite things about reading a Carmack novel. She writes enough of real life into her books to make them semi-believable without losing the romance novel veneer. It's like the perfect blend of fantasy and reality. I was a little hesitant to read Faking It if only because I couldn't see how it could ever live up to Losing It, also partly maybe because it takes place after university and makes me mourn for my own university days. Totally normal reaction no? Of course, I devoured the book in like a day so I must not have been too hesitant. I wasn't a huge fan of Cade in Losing It because you know what I can't stand? The "Nice Guy." The "Nice Guy" isn't a genuinely nice guy, he's the best friend who always wants more and is convinced every other guy the girl sees is a jerk. He doesn't really want friendship, but is just angling for something more. That's not genuine and it's not nice. So Cade and I, well we're still on the fence.

Throughout Faking It Cade is half in love with Bliss, but quickly realizes that he might have stronger feelings for Max. Maybe it wasn't love after all. When I say I'm on the fence about him a lot of it has to do with his continued thoughts about Bliss. When he's with Max I can totally get behind him as a romantic lead. Maybe he's just not my type of swoon worthy?

Max on the other hand is kind of dynamite. She's this rocker chic kind of girl, lots of tattoos and a bad attitude. I loved her. She's kind of damaged and has some skeletons in her closet, but they made her a little more human. I could have done without the guy like him would never be with a girl like me kind of thinking, but I could get past that pretty easily. I loved that she was strong and knew what she wanted. I also loved that Carmack wrote two such different female characters, each so strong and so fantastic in their own way.

The romance itself is kind of swoon worthy, but what I liked more than anything else was the set up. Max needs a fake boyfriend to please her parents over Thanksgiving. She picks the nearest clean cut guy she sees and it happens to be Cade who turns out to be kind of perfect for her. I know it's totally unrealistic, but meet cutes like that make me smile. The two also had a great banter thing going on. More than anything though this romance serves to tell the story of two people figuring out who they are and how they're going to get by in the adult world. I think Carmack does such a great job of tackling these true to life issues inside of a romance novel. One part that really stood out for me was Cade remembering his theatre school family and how they're so spread out now; it hurt my heart you guys, it really did. It adds just enough substance to what could be utter fluff. I can't help but love it.

Carmack is hands down my favourite writer of this kind of novel at the moment. I suppose it's new adult since the characters are early to mid twenties, but she just handles it all so well. There are romantic entanglements with some true to life issues mixed in. Rent, exes, poor decisions, jobs they all come into play. Of course, the books are also super steamy and swoon worthy at points; I really can't underplay that. I think it's the blend of the two things that really gets me. Basically, I can't wait to read Finding It and will continue to read pretty much anything that Carmack publishes.

Losing It by Cora Carmack | Book Review

TITLE: Losing It
AUTHOR: Cora Carmack
PUBLISHER/YEAR: HarperCollins / 2012
SERIES: Do companion novels count?
SOURCE: Purchased

Goodreads / Author's Website

So I know New Adult doesn't have the best name for itself and for good reason. There's a lot of focus on romance over well anything else, the category seems kind of arbitrary and unnecessary, but I can't help myself, I kind of love it. Losing It by Cora Carmack ticks a lot of those boxes. It's a romance novel (probably the first I've ever purchased from my local bookstore's romance aisle) and the characters are thrust into some pretty interesting situations, but I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Bliss is a twenty-two year old virgin. She's completing her final year of university (theatre school) and is beginning to feel a little self conscious about this fact. What's a girl to do but go out with her friends, get drunk, and sleep with the first guy she sees? But actually. Bliss heads out to the bar and starts chatting with a Shakespeare reading guy who she then brings back to her apartment. Of course, when she leaves him naked in her bed she doesn't realize that he's her new theatre professor.

For me to get really into a book I need to be able to invest in the characters and Bliss was an easy one for me. I found her to be completely relatable and could completely invest in her story. I've had some friends read this book and question the twenty-two year old virgin aspect (or the deciding on a one night stand part), but here's the thing, these are things that happen. There are university students who are still virigins and on certain nights, maybe going out getting drunk and laid seem like the best options. There's stigma, people are embarrassed. Everybody's sexuality is expressed differently and I think Carmack handled this well. Bliss isn't defective or overly moral; she's just a pretty typical university student who happens to be a virgin.

I also loved that Carmack gives Bliss a group of supportive friends. I find in a lot of books characters are just sort of out there on their own, but Bliss' friends are there. They're not perfect, but they have interactions that focus on more than their romantic exploits. They have mutual interests and respect for one another. They're all from the theatre department and they all behave well in a pretty believable way. One of the things I enjoyed most was relating to these people who were just about to graduate theatre school. They're loud, they're boisterous, they're insecure, they're pretty much everything I remember about theatre school. They go out to the bars and drink too much or play some really stupid alcohol based truth telling games, but they're also incredibly focused on their careers. I have to admit that part of the reason I liked this book so much was because Bliss' theatre school experience reminded me so much of mine. We're a special group of freaks who willingly subject ourselves to theatre life and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Minor problem I had with this book (that well nobody else will have I'm sure) comes down to one line. Bliss has to choose between acting and stage management once she graduates. I can believe that some schools don't make you choose before you declare your major (mine did, actors auditioned, designers and technicians submitted portfolios), but to be both auditioning for and contemplating stage managing the last show of the season is a little much. Even that I can forgive, but at one point it's implied that stage management is the easy way out. For Bliss maybe it was; she's a control freak and stage management is all about schedules, organization and control, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Nothing in the theatre world is easy and everybody has to work just as hard to make a go of it. Every stage manager or technician I know does it for the love of theatre because after we've spent fourteen hours straight preparing for cast to arrive and go home smelling like dust and sweat, well something has to keep us going.

Stage management rants aside, I enjoyed nearly every aspect of Losing It. The romance brought a lot of heat and the characters cared about each other. I got the sense that there was more to them than hormones; basically when characters in novels treat each other with mutual respect it makes me happy. They also had problems they had to overcome, both in the whole no dating professors kind of way, but also in terms of larger personal issues. There was nothing melodramatic, but Bliss for example had issues trusting and letting go which weren't magically solved even though she really liked Garrick (the professor). It was a nice balance. There was a love triangle at one point; it did nothing for me and I'm trying to gloss over it in my mind although it does set up Carmack's next book nicely.

I can't not recommend a book that takes place in theatre school and actually mentions people other than actors. I'm still looking for my perfect romance novel that involves like a stage manager and a lighting technician for example, but I may be setting my sights a little too high with that one. Carmack did a wonderful job creating characters who I could relate to and putting them in realistic albeit heightened situations. And seriously, the cover does not lie, it's pretty steamy.