Since I haven’t posted in over a month (!!!) you may not be aware that I’m obsessed with Christina Lauren’s books. I started off this year by finishing Autoboyography and I’ve been reading every book by them I can get my hands on since then. It should be no surprise then that when I heard the ARC of their latest novel, My Favorite Half-Night Stand, was available for request on NetGalley I quickly requested it. Lucky for me I got it the very next day, and as I’m wont to do with a CLo novel, I read it in the span of 24 hours. What can I say? I’m hooked!

This novel is told in the dual perspectives of Millie, a closed off criminology professor, and one of her best friends, Reid, a down to earth, fun loving neurology professor (I think? He studies something with the retinas. Science isn’t my thing!). Any who, the pair hook up one night and because Millie doesn’t know how to deal with feelings, they quickly move on, and they, along with their other three best guy friends, decide to use a dating app to try to find dates for this fancy gala.

Except, while Millie can make the perfect profile for her best friends, hers, to put it mildly, sucks. So, when she tries again she ditches “Millie” altogether and creates “Catherine/Cat.” The only problem is she, or rather “Cat,” matches with Reid, and rather than reveal the truth or not go through with the match, Millie decides to spark a conversation and, well, everything kind of spirals out of control from there.

Here’s what I love about this novel: Millie. Just straight up, I love her. I love how well CLo handles Millie’s emotional detachment. As someone who deals with disassociation and lost a parent at a younger age than Millie, I heavily related to her. Hanging out with friends, making people laugh, doing the fun stuff? That’s easy. Talking about the serious topics or things that make me feel like a “downer”? That’s not only hard, it’s downright terrifying, and CLo captured that perfectly.

There were so many points in this novel where I was just like, “Wow Millie is me,” and then, “God, we are such a hot mess!” It’s funny, it’s real, and it’s heartbreaking. I both found myself laughing out loud and then crying. It was quite the ride.

Now here’s what I like about the novel: the romance. As always, CLo knows exactly how to make me fall in love with characters. When we meet Reid and Millie they’ve been friends for years and that familiarity is there from the start, but what CLo does so well is they show us the spark. They let us into that moment where both Reid and Millie have these lightbulbs go off in their heads that are just like, “Wait is my best friend crazy attractive and perfect for me in all the ways?” It was astounding and funny and heartwarming.

But I wanted more. This book is way less steamy than their other books, with the sex scenes fading to black, which isn’t a bad thing. I don’t think you need sex scenes in romance novels for it to work, but I wanted to see those moments that we got overviews of later. I wanted to see the intimate conversations Reid and Millie had in bed together. I wanted to see more of them actually falling in love in person, not just through their online conversations. And I think that’s why at the end of the novel I felt as happy as I always do with a CLo book, but I also didn’t feel satisfied. I just wanted a pinch more, but at the same time I think this book was really Millie’s story, and I’m very satisfied with her arc and growth, and this will always be a book close to my heart for that.

Thus, overall, this still makes it into my top three CLo books. The mental health issues are handled so well, I love the friend group of Reid, Millie, Chris, Alex, and Ed, and this is definitely a book that I would recommend everyone reads.

Borrow or Buy: BUY!

This was my first Christina Lauren book and it was definitely a witty, amusing page-turner.

The story revolves around a circle of best friends with some major flirting going on between two of them and a question of whether honesty is the best policy.

Millie Morris is the only female in the group that includes four platonic guys- Reid, Chris, Alex and Stephen. They are all looking for dates for a work event and come up with a group plan to sign up with an online dating service.

I really enjoyed the format with the avatars of the friends text messaging each other and the alternating point of views.  I was curious about the fake dating profile that one of the friends created and whether it would ultimately blow-up in their face or open doors to what could be their happily ever after, but I won't tell. (shhhh its part of the story).

It is predictable, but a nice light-hearted and entertaining read.

If your looking for a fun romp of a story, check it out!

Thanks to Gallery Books and NG for my arc to read/ review. Blog post on 12/04/18

My Favorite half-night stand

Thanks for an ARC to read and give my honest opinion.

This was a fun book... you have a circle of friends so close that it's always fun to see some of them fall in love. Millie is the only female in the group but Reid has a certain fascination for her. She doesn't really let anyone really get to know her and that can be a real problem when someone wants to get close.

What did I like? Part of the book is about online dating and a lot of us have been there so there's a lot of funny stuff. Reid and Millie have really great chemistry and this is just an honest to goodness heart warming book.

Would I buy this book? Yep, I've added a ton of books from the author to my collection over the years and this one is just as fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who has ever read a book by this author and was charmed by her words. It's just a fun romance that makes you sigh with happiness.

Thoughts for the author. The beginning of this book was a bit awkward only because we start out talking about some girl who likes horses but this girl has nothing to do with the book....at all. I found that a bit odd. I thought maybe the author was going to have a serial killer kill the girl and that's why Millie is fascinated by serial killers but nope. I just found it weird. I know we all find things we obsess over just a weird way to do it. Still five stars of fun! Really great and fun book.

***4 Stars***

The description was the hook for me.

I mean, we all know how crazy online dating can be, even if you’ve never gone beyond lurking around a dating website (I’ve gone beyond...just putting it out there), so taking a chance on the book was really a no brainer and I found it to be a fun read filled with characters I really liked and the situations they found themselves in amusing and easy to relate to.

With that said, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum. Not a huge one ~ as you can tell by my rating ~ it’s just that...well...as much as I liked Millie and Reid’s journey, I find that it was the interactions between their group of friends, no matter who was or wasn’t apart of them, that was what kept me turning the pages.

Now, this isn’t entirely unusual for me, if you’ve read any of my reviews I absolutely ADORE well written secondary characters and do have a tendency to fall in love with them as much as the MC’s, but here it was more. The friendship, the connections, that Reid, Millie, Alex, Ed and Chris had were so well written that I couldn’t wait to see what they’d get into next. So, Yes. I loved this story because of the very well written ensemble cast instead of best friends to lovers romance going on.

But as far as Reid and Millie’s journey to their HEA. It was an overall fun one to experience and something that felt real with all the highs and the extreme lows they experience because of it. The chemistry between them was obvious on every level and I really liked where they found themselves in the end.

~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

I received a copy of this ebook from Netgalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first book by Christina Lauren and I was thrilled to be able to review it. I have heard such wonderful things about her books.

The story follows Millie and her friends who are all professors at a college. They have a wonderful friendship and spend lots of time together. Millie has a crush on her friend Reid and he has one on her as well. Neither of them seem to understand their feelings for each other and try to ignore them.

The professors have a party they must attend and are looking for dates. As they are all single they sign up on a dating app. Surprise, surprise Millie and Reid are a match. They begin to chat online, but Reid doesn’t know its Millie because she used a different name.

I wanted to love this book. I just felt the main character was hard to get in touch with. She was very private and hard to understand at times. The book is also very short, so it seemed a little rushed. It was not a bad book, but just did not wow me either. I have higher hopes for Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating and Roomies, both of which I own.

The dynamic duo does it again! Christina Lauren books have quickly become an auto-read for me and this one i was another win!

Millie is a guys-gal. She is a brilliant professor and surrounds herself with male colleagues, turn friends. Emotionally, however, she’s a closed book. When her group of friends make a pact to join an online dating site with a goal of parenting up in time for a big university event, will she be able to finally open up? Not before making a spectacular mess of things!

This book is a light, fun, sexy read!

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for this review e-ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Move over Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox, Millie and Reid are my new favorite digital pen pals! I absolutely adored everything about this book from the friend circle, to the real talk about the online dating world, to the friends to lovers, to Millie’s journey of self discovery. MFHNS is Christina Lauren at their best: witty dialogue, steamy chemistry, relatable characters, and a few hijinks/shenanigans on the way to a super satisfying HEA!

Let me start by saying that there were things I liked, and things I would have changed. But for me to rate something a 4.. much less higher then that, there are A LOT more pros then cons, to say the least. First off, I really enjoyed that this book.. was about adults. Real and true adults, working single, and above the age of 21.. much less 29 + (I loved that) I really enjoyed that they dove into WHY they were single, the pros and cons of it, and they stuck together as a friend group and were okay with themselves. I really enjoy when a book switched between context and styles of writing, this book was a good example of that, it switches from thoughts, from multiple characters between chapters, while adding in personal texts being sent, emails, and group chats. And I really thought that added a lot of depth. On a less positive note, it was a bit.. dramatic and childish at times. We make mistakes in life, no matter our age. Millie made one, the whole friend group made one, and it was kind of all drawn out a bit too much for my taste. But over all, this book quickly became one of my favorites of the month. It was charming, witty, and because of the character build.. its relatable to nearly every reader that will pick it up. Whether it be to Millie's closed off, unique personality, or Reid's drive for all the best moments in life, Ed's sarcastic nature and brutal honesty, Chris' struggle with confidence, or even Alex's forever quiet and yet always backing you up personality.. there was a character for everyone. I know, there was a little bit of all of them in me; and I think you'll find the same thing.

Like Millie, I have had the Talk with myself: do I stay friends with this person or do I try to be more than friends? Is this regular "I've made a new acquaintance" excitement or more "I want to see you without your clothes" anticipation? Do I want this person to like me or do I want them to like me? As Millie asks, "are these spasms in my stomach what most normal people describe as love"—or are they simply just spasms?

As my first Christina Lauren novel, I went into My Favorite Half-Night Stand not knowing what to expect. The sexy times: great. The banter and accurate portrayal of friendship: awesome. The "I'm almost 30 and still don't have my shit together": I feel you. I legit read this in two sittings, desperate to figure out how Millie and Reid were going to get their HEA, both engrossed in the plot and amused by the antics.

But there were also a lot of "oh don't do that" moments, too. Millie came off as emotionally stunted, her behavior more suited to someone who's (maybe) in her early twenties instead of solid 29 with a super grown-up job. I'm sure that her duplicitousness was mostly manufactured for the plot, but it also went on longer than necessary. (Making a fake dating profile to ward off dick pics is one thing. Carrying on a correspondence with your best friend when a) he doesn't know it's you and b) you are both clearly developing feelings for each other's online personas is another.) Then there's Reid, who was guilty of one of my biggest pet peeves once he'd had his own Moment and then didn't talk to Millie about it. (Yes I understand this is not always easy but most things aren't and this is fiction and UGH JUST ACT LIKE ADULTS.)

Had I heard good things about other Christina Lauren books? Definitely. Did I enjoy the friends-to-lovers trope? Absolutely. Can I recommend a character who catfishes her best friend? Eh... maybe? My Favorite Half-Night Stand was one of those books that sucks you in and makes you desperate to keep reading. It's only when you've finished do you realize, "oh, maybe I didn't love it that much after all." So enjoy the post-coital glow—but maybe don't stay until morning.

My Favorite book of all time from Authors Christina Lauren!
They blew me away with this book!
It has everything!
I cried, I laughed, I fell in love with everything about these characters!
And yes I could totally relate to the emotional journey that Millie and Reid have with the dating scene.
I loved the build up of getting to know these characters.
Had soo much fun reading about the ups and downs of the dating scene & trying to find the one.
Well this book is a one click that will leave you smiling & loving falling in love.
Authors Christina Lauren give us another enjoyable and heart felt read that is one you will be telling all your friends that they must read!
5 🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒popped!

You know that moment in Outlander when Claire is sucked into another world by the screaming stones? Well, that’s how I ALWAYS feel when I open a Christina Lauren book. This book sucked me right in and I had to stop everything to focus on it, sleep be damned. Seriously. I’m writing this review on less than five hours of sleep because I HAD to know what happened between Millie and Reid. I couldn’t go to sleep without knowing.

Here’s something else: I rarely cry when I read books. When other readers say that certain scenes made them cry in other books, I usually kinda nod without adding a comment. At most, I add an crying emoji.

But this book? This book made me cry not once but twice. Maybe because I understand Millie a little too well. Maybe because Christina Lauren writes characters that steal my breath away with their complexity and bravery. Or maybe because allowing yourself to be seen—really seen—by someone is frightening, exhausting, and so worth it.
​

Sassy, Quirky, sexy, and so freaking fun I had a hard time putting this down to get anything done like sleep or work! Millie and Reid...I'm not sure who I love more but I could go either way! Millie is the lone woman in the group of friends surrounded by four men who all are in academia at UC Santa Barbara and the book starts with celebrating Reid's tenure and while celebrating they also come the realization that Obama is the speaker at graduation and they all need a plus one to what will be an "event." This starts the talk of online dating after they realize they are all in a rut. This can only be good, right? Oh, the fun, the catfishing, the mistakes, the jealousy, oh, and don't forget Reid and Millie keep sleeping together along the way. What could go wrong! Twists and turns and so much fun from cover to cover. I definitely recommend this one!

**Received this ARC for review from the publisher via NetGalley**

Loved this quirky romance

Millie Morris teaches criminology at the University of California Santa Barbara, specializes in female serial killers, and her best friends are all male and work at the university too.

Reid Campbell is an Associate Professor of neuroscience, just received tenure and both he and Millie are finding they might want more than a platonic friendship.

The five friends decide to sign up on a dating app to get a date for a black tie dinner and the fun really starts.

I loved Millie and Reid's characters especially but all five of the main characters were funny and great friends.

I highly recommend this romance to you if you want a good dose of humor in your reading experience.

I received this book from Gallery Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Laughing, literally, out loud is not something I usually do but I couldn't stop it. The sarcasm, subtle humor, and honesty was too much to hold in. Reid and Millie are a bit predictable but the ride is hilarious and heartwarming getting there. Their friends are really awesome and genuine. The graphics in the formatting are wonderful and gives a light feeling to the story. My first Lauren book, these two partner up fabulously, and hoping to read more. I was lucky to receive a copy through Netgalley, my review was voluntary.

Five educated people who are close friends. They work at the same university. Four great guys and one great girl. Just friends. Millie is just one of the guys. You know the kind who go out for coffee and play Monopoly with. There's a big party that they all have to go to and they need a date. Reid is a tenured professor in neuroscience and Millie teaches criminology. She loves serial killers. While playing Monopoly, Millie sees Reid as more than her best friend. One night they hook up, but promise that It won't change their friendship. Since all five are single, they decide to join a dating agency. Mollie creates a fake profile as well as one in her real name. Her alter ego gets matched with Reid. Will he be mad that Millie deceived him? Will they get a second chance for love? Really fun book. Loved all the guy friends. I want friends like that. I received this book from Net Galley and Gallery/Threshold Books for a honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren is a fun friends to lovers romance.

Millie is the only female part of a group of best friends who have a ton of fun together and can always rely on each other. One night when too much wine has been consumed she takes a leap and has amazing sex with her best friend Reid. Both of them are smart and decide that they should keep it a secret and seemingly return to friendship mode quite easily.

When the five friends need dates to an upcoming work gala, they decide to join a dating app in hopes of finding plus ones to the event. Millie decides to make a secret profile and when she matches with Reid she decides to have fun until her little white lie spirals out of control. In person Millie remains as detached and unemotional as always but her online persona grow more attached and open with Reid. It's not long before her secrets aren't secrets any longer and things in the group will never be the same.

I loved the dynamic of this group of friends. They were funny and ridiculous yet well-balanced. Reid was adorable and such a sweetheart, even though for being brilliant he was a little oblivious to the things right in front of him when it came to Millie. My feelings towards Millie were indifferent, I understood her reasons for being the way she was but at the same time I didn't view them as valid reasons. However, I did appreciate how she was able to eventually admit to her faults and try her hardest to improve.

My Favorite Half-Night Stand was another great story by Christina Lauren and I can't wait to see what they write next!

My Favorite Half-Night Stand is a fun read. I found myself laughing several times while reading this book. The characters were easy to fall in love with. His is my first book to read by Christina Lauren. The book is actually written by two people. I like reading books written by two authors. I find myself trying to figure out how and who wrote each chapter.

Loved this quirky little story! The characters were unique and fun, although slightly neurotic. I enjoyed their chemistry, banter and dynamics. They kinda reminded me of the crew from The Big Bang Theory. There were several times I wanted to smack the heroine when she made certain decisions as I screamed at her through the pages, LOL! But overall I really enjoyed this book, definitely a recommended read!

This is my fourth book by Christina Lauren and my lowest rating for a book of theirs. Which is a huge disappointment! I generally enjoy their books, but this one was a big miss for me. And even though I rated Josh and Hazel 3 stars, it was still TONS more fun than this book. There was just no life in this one. None of the characters really came to life and shined. It actually makes me reevaluate my feelings towards Josh and Hazel, because at least those characters stood out and had strong personalities and fun dialogue. Let me further break down why this book wasn’t for me:

1. The characters. Like I said before, bland, unbelievable characters. There were ZERO standouts as far as characters go. That’s... not good. I’m pretty certain I’ll forget all of them and their names in just a few days. They’re that forgettable. Most forgettable of all is the love interest, Reid! Could they have made him any more boring?????? And Millie got on my nerves. The whole thing was just really cringeworthy. I can see why she has literally zero friends that are women. We can see through this bullshit! And while the cast was *slightly* (not very) diverse, it was very heteronormative. I just thought they had an opportunity there to put out some good rep because there’s a lot of people looking to date, but whatever. Just a missed opportunity there.

2. Not fun. I realized after I read this that I didn’t have any fun, despite a fun premise. It was too melodramatic without the romantic comedy aspects. It was just sad, more than anything. I felt like I was being promised something that wasn’t delivered. I guess I was expecting something as fun as Roomies or Josh and Hazel, but that wasn’t the case here. Not even the sexy bits were all that. I ended the book feeling NOTHING. Nothing at all. This book was supposed to be exciting!!! With cute and flirty texts, but no! It’s just a huge bummer.

3. No banter. No chemistry between the main characters. Okay this may be more specific to my tastes in the romances I read but there’s NO BANTER???!!!! REALLY? There’s just nothing believable between Millie and Reid. I didn’t buy it. I didn’t root them on, even though that’s the whole goal. My cheeks didn’t heat up when they were together. It wasn’t sexy. It was meh.

4. The writing is odd. It’s mostly just bizarre dialogue that’s unrealistic to me. Honestly, I skimmed so many paragraphs. I just kept cringing. The “funny” bits aren’t funny, either. Which is weird for Christina Lauren because I usually enjoy the humor in their books. It just felt SO stiff here. The back and forth of conversation in their messages on the dating app were incredibly unbelievable.

5. No plot. There’s a little bit of plot in the beginning before it dissipates to nothing but drama and lack of communication. I understand that lack of communication creates tension and longing, but it went on for too long. Dear god, I was sick of them by the end. I empathized with Millie for her past and why she is the way she is, and so glad for her trying to change, but 200 pages of no one communicating how they feel becomes so obnoxious.

6. The catfishing is weird. Had roles been reversed, we’d be even more weirded out. I GET WHY but it is just not the most effective way to build a lasting relationship. It’s toxic.

I will say that I read this fairly quickly even though I ended up disliking it. I’m certainly not going to give up on Christina Lauren books for this one rating. I’ve enjoyed the majority of them so I’ll keep looking forward to what they put out. I just think they should have approached this one differently, or taken more time with it, or focused on making better, more exciting characters and plot... it felt lazy. There’s just a lot lacking here. It didn’t work for me, but I think a lot of people will enjoy it and I definitely don’t wanna totally dissuade people from reading it.

Millie Morris is a professor at UC Santa Barbara. Her four best guy friends—Reid, Ed, Chris, and Alex—work at the university, too. They’ve all been close for a while—and managed to stay close even after Millie broke up with one of their buds way back when. Now it’s just Millie and the guys, all hanging out with each other when they aren’t focused on their careers.

When the university announces an upcoming black-tie function, the five friends get serious and decide that they need to find real dates, and maybe even real relationships, STAT. They all create online dating profiles, cross their fingers, and hope the universe throws something good their way. The only problem is that Millie and Reid have a drunken hookup one night, and things get awkward. Even though they both try to laugh it off the next morning and move on without telling the others, there’s no denying that their relationship has changed. Unfortunately, neither one knows how to handle the situation, and things get…complicated.

Books by Christina Lauren (aka Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) have become my favorite guilty pleasures. Their stories are light, fun, and sexy, but with just enough depth and intrigue to keep me hooked. My Favorite Half-Night Stand is no exception. I know the story sounds predictable—and yes, the ending definitely is, but getting there isn’t. The authors move things along at such a quick pace, you don’t have a lot of time to guess what happens next. I was genuinely surprised at several points, which, for a rom-com-type book like this, isn’t typical.

And I love the characters. The “one girl in a group of guys” dynamic is unique and entertaining, and reading the group’s conversations over chat is hilarious. Those vignettes, almost more than anything else, helped give each of the characters their own individual personalities. I felt like I knew them, for better or worse.

Ultimately, this is such a fun book. I zipped right through it and loved every second. It was exactly the kind of escape I was looking for. 🙂