Incriminating Dating, from Rebekah L. Purdy

Good morning, daisies! Let’s kick off this rain filled and drown worthy lovely Thursday with a sweet YA book I just finished last night: Incriminating Dating, from Rebekah L. Purdy ❤ I have received my copy from Entangled Teen Crush through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and the moment arrived! Thanks, guys! ❤

Ayla Hawkins is ready to stand up for change in her high school. But winning the election for class president against popular Jenna Lee will be impossible without a miracle. When she stumbles upon Mr. Perfect Luke Pressler defacing public property and catches it on camera: cue miracle. Ayla’s got the dirt she needs to get Luke on Team Ayla—in the form of her new fake boyfriend.

One mistake. All Luke wanted was a night to goof off, to blow off steam. The pressure of maintaining the perfect facade when his reality was crumbling around him had become too much, and next thing he knew, he was pretending to date Ayla Hawkins. But his little blackmailer turns out to be kind. Honorable. Opinionated. And just the breath of fresh air he didn’t even realize he was suffocating for. But Luke and Ayla come from different worlds, and once the election is over, their fauxmance will be, too.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book features adult language, sexual situations, and plenty of girl power. Reading may result in swooning, laughing, and looking for a Luke of your own.

Me after finishing this book:

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader =)

I knew Incriminating Dating would be cute and fun, but I won way more than I asked when I started reading. I saw girl power, action, adventure, emotional and heavy moments tangled in high school’s everyday life. Seriously, Incriminating Dating has all the right elements for a fluffy book and more. Five stars without even blinking!

The narrative style was first person switching between Ayla and Luke’s points of view. THANK ALL GODS both were cool characters and that Purdy’s writing was awesome, because I’m honestly getting a little sick of first person narratives. It’s not my favorite and I’ve been reading too many books with it, so you know how it goes, haha! Anyway, Purdy’s writing style was full with pop and nerd culture references, which rocked, and very fluid, so you never ever want to set the book down – I read it in one sitting myself, haha!

EXPECT MANY TWISTS. It’s obvious that both characters are hiding secrets alright, but you’ll never guess how wrong life will turn at certain points for Ayla and Luke. I was seriously thinking of giving the book 4 stars because it was cute but mainstream until like 70% of it. Then Purdy took off her writer glove and slapped my face, haha!

The characters are great, if a little stereotyped. Ayla is your friendly, headstrong and nerdy curvy girl, Luke is your perfect, beautiful and intelligent basket star and their friends are the perfect sidekicks. HOWEVER, this doesn’t take off their individuality or how much you’ll relate to them and I was surprised by yet another element inside Incriminating Dating, haha!

But enough jibber jabber, because…

NOTHING SELLS THE FRIGGING BOOK LIKE THE BOOK ITSELF! So, quotes!

Up until now, I’d been a goody-goody who stood in the background, thinking about all kinds of witty things to say to the jocks and popular kids. Words I never got the courage to speak. I was so much better at writing about stuff. – Ayla’s thoughts

~*~

Actually, I had no clue what her plans were. For all I knew she [Ayla] could be working on a big laser to fry everyone’s brains. But if it pissed Jenna off this badly, it was worth it. – Luke’s thoughts

~*~

And those killer dialogues:

Ayla: How about the library, then? Unless you want a pigeon to crap in your perfect hair.

Luke: You don’t have any problem speaking your mind, do you?

Ayla: Nope. What you see is what you get.

~*~

Luke: We’ve already agreed that we met here at Crusty’s.

Ayla: Right. And you fell madly in love with me over a pepperoni pizza.

Luke: Or you came in knowing I worked here because you’ve had a huge crush on me since middle school.

Ayla: Now you’re just delusional. The only man I’ve had a crush on since middle school is Link from Zelda.

~*~

Luke: I could listen to you sing all night.

Ayla: If you want, I’ll serenade you beneath your window at two in the morning, then we’ll see how much you like singing.

While this cover is cute (I’m ignoring these shoes the girl has on, as I hated them), I don’t feel it represents the story at all. Ayla would never wear these kind of shoes, Luke isn’t the Converse shoes kind of guy… Seriously, there’s nothing about these models that say Ayla and Luke and I’m disappointed Regarding technical stuff, I only have compliments, but what is the point of having a beautiful cover that doesn’t COVER the story?? This panda is sad.

~*~

Overall, if you like YA, Contemporary Romance, Pop Culture references and girl power in books, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU.

Thank you so much for reading this review! Also, thanks so much to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for my review copy =D Bellow, you’ll find more info on the book and the author, an excerpt, plus a giveaway!

Incriminating Dating

by Rebekah L. Purdy

Release Date: April 4^th, 2017

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Incriminating Dating is available in both ebook and paperback formats!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Entangled Publishing

Before the football game got started, the announcer came over the loudspeakers to tell the fans about the booth. Hoots and hollers went up through the crowd, and soon we had a long line of students waiting for their turns.

I stood near the booth, making sure to thank everyone for coming out and to actually talk to them. Surprisingly, they seemed receptive to me and my ideas.

“I’m so glad you’re running,” a girl named Brooklyn said. “It’d be nice to have someone normal as president, you know. Someone who cares about the art programs.”

I smiled. “Thanks. I promise, I’ll be fighting hard for those things.”

When halftime rolled around, we still had students lined up. Partially because Stacy promised to post pics on our school newspaper’s social media pages, and partially because I think people liked the idea of taking crazy photos with the popular kids.

The volleyball team left to take their places on the field, and I trudged to one of the chairs behind the booth. I so wasn’t ready for this. Chloe sat next to me. Thank God I didn’t have to do this alone.

“Here, put on some red lipstick. You want to stand out, you know.” She laughed, dabbing my lips. “Now smack them together.”

Trying to ignore the small group standing around us, I did as she said. A few guys hopped into Chloe’s line for a pic, but mine didn’t have anyone yet. And of course the girls were lined for Brady and Jack. I glanced around nervously. This was kind of embarrassing—no one wanted to be seen with me. Did I have something stuck on my face? Maybe I wasn’t pretty enough. Then someone came to stand in front of me. My gaze slid up to find Luke. He held up a twenty-dollar bill, then put it into the can. What was he doing? I knew he didn’t have that kind of money. But my thoughts quickly turned from his money to the fact he was paying to take a picture with me.

“So, what do we want to wear in our photo?” Luke said, reaching for a pair of dark shades and a ridiculously large cowboy hat.

“Um, I’ll take this…” I grabbed a large purple boa and wrapped it around my neck, pulling on a pair of long, lacy white gloves.

We stepped inside the booth…and lined up in front of a computer screen that Chloe’s dad let us borrow, which showed both our faces on it.

“I think we ought to make this a really memorable picture, don’t you?” Luke’s voice sounded deeper.

He moved toward me, his breath warm against my cheek. He wasn’t even looking at the camera. Then it dawned on me what was about to happen. Holy shit. My first kiss. And it’d be with Luke. Freaking. Pressler.

Rebekah was born and raised in Michigan where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. She’s lived in Michigan most of her life other than the few years she spent in the U.S. Army. At which time she got a chance to experience Missouri, Kansas, South Carolina, and California. Rebekah has a business degree from University of Phoenix and currently works full time for the court system. In her free time she writes YA stories, anything from YA Fantasy to YA Contemporary Romance. Rebekah also has a big family (6 kids), she likes to consider her family as the modern day Brady Bunch complete with crazy road trips and game nights. When not hiding at her computer, Rebekah enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games, traveling, and hanging out with her family and gazillion pets.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Amazon

One lucky INTERNATIONAL winner will take home a $30 Amazon Gift Card!

GIVEAWAY!

~*~

With love,