Dec 7, 2013

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For Real Blog Tour: Review & GIVEAWAY!!!


You guys.................. This book.................. It's just.... just.... so dang fantastic that I don't even know what to do with myself.

It is SO funny! There wasn't a single time that I sat down to read it that I didn't end up laughing. I completely loved it. In fact, I'll probably end up quoting most of the book by the time I'm done. Yeah, it's that good.


So good, in fact, that I urge you all to go and read it right now. It's only 99 cents, which is crazy, and you definitely don't want to miss it! You can find links to buy it underneath the summary!


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19135076-for-real
For Real by Chelsea M. Cameron

Two people. One fake relationship. What could go wrong?

When virgin Shannon Travers gets fed up with her friends demanding that she find a boyfriend, she enlists the help of tattooed, mohawk-rocking graphic design student Jett. He’s more than happy to play along with their Fake Relationship, including the Ten Rules of Fake Dating that control-freak Shannon comes up with. Even if he likes to violate them. Repeatedly.

But what happens when Fake Dating starts to feel… not fake anymore? Will Shannon be willing to let go and embrace the first thing in her life that’s ever felt REAL?


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Chelsea M. Cameron is a YA/NA New York Times/USA Today Best Selling author from Maine. Lover of things random and ridiculous, Jane Austen/Charlotte and Emily Bronte Fangirl, red velvet cake enthusiast, obsessive tea drinker, vegetarian, former cheerleader and world's worst video gamer. When not writing, she enjoys watching infomercials, singing in the car and tweeting (this one time, she was tweeted by Neil Gaiman). She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is.

Her New Adult Contemporary Romance titles include My Favorite Mistake, which has been bought by Harlequin along with a sequel, Deeper We Fall and Faster We Burn (April 20, 2013)

Her Young Adult books include Nocturnal, Nightmare and Neither, the first three books in The Noctalis Chronicles. The fourth and final book, Neverend will be out in 2013. Whisper, the first in The Whisper Trilogy is also available, with the second book in the series, Silence and the final book, LIsten coming out in 2014.

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I would like to start out by saying that this is not normally my type of book. I usually go for the bigger action fantasy novels, but For Real seemed like it had great potential to be completely hilarious, which is the greatest quality any story can have, in my opinion, regardless of its genre. So I decided to take a chance and pick up the book. And it reminded me exactly why I need to read more contemporary novels.

I loved this book so much. Not only did it turn out to be brilliantly funny, but I loved nearly all of the characters, and the story was a lot of fun too. It's not what I would call a deep or provoking read, but that's not what I'm looking for a lot of the time. Sometimes I just want a book that will make me fall in love with the characters and have the time of my life reading. That's exactly what For Real was for me.

It was really hard for me to put this book down, which means that I probably didn't get nearly as much real world work done as I should have. When I was in the moment, though, there really wasn't much of a debate. Let's see. Do homework or keep reading the awesome book that can't make you stop laughing? Well, I guess one more chapter wouldn't hurt. But then one chapter turned into two, which into three, and before I knew it, it was already nighttime and I still had work to do.

The funny thing is that I actually came up with a system similar to what Shannon did when she had to work on homework around Jett.

"I set up a reward system for myself. That's the only way I'm going to get anything done. Read two pages, glance at Jett. Read two more. Look at Jett."

Shannon and I actually ended up having a lot of other things in common. For example, her logic is always flawless:

"They have cannolis; JACKPOT. I get six of them, because I'm definitely going to want at least three, and if I have three, it only seems fair to give three to Jett. Or maybe I'll eat four and Jett will get two.

Okay, so I eat one two seconds after I check out, so there are only five left. So then I have to eat another to make it even."

I don't know what anybody else thinks, but I feel like that was the only valid solution. Shannon and I also share a crazy devotion to schoolwork (no matter how much it pains us), and an unnatural fear of the letter "B," for related reasons.

"Hazel is always telling me that I'm missing out on the college experience, but I'd rather not wake up on the floor of a strange apartment, under a strange naked guy not knowing how I'd gotten there. If that makes me a loser, then I guess I'll wear that label proudly. I can party when I've gotten what I wanted."

So then there's her relationship with Hazel. Whenever they interacted, they kept on reminding me of how I am with Gabby. Gabby's not quite as forceful as Hazel is (thank goodness), but their underlying personality traits are very similar.

As for Shannon's other friends, the only one that I got a pretty good picture of was Jordyn. The others just kind of faded into the background and blurred together. I do wish there had been more characterization with them, but all of them weren't extremely important to the story, so I can let it slide.

What I can't let slide is what they did to Shannon. Seriously, guys, how can you call yourselves her friends if you would do something like that?! I'm glad that you felt awful about it afterward, but that's because you should have! That's was a really terrible thing to do, and Shannon had every right to be as angry as she was. If I was her, I would have been angrier. It's a good thing that Jett was there that day.

Jett. Oh, Jett, Jett, Jett, Jett. I'm pretty sure that he is the best real or imaginary person that I've never met. Aside from his oh so convenient appearance at the bar that night, he is completely beyond reproach. From his description in the blurb, he seems like the classically annoying bad boy character that I hate so much, but this couldn't be further from the truth. He is hilarious, and sweet, and talented, and wonderful, and perfect, and I want one of him for myself. His character also has the most depth out of all of the others, even if his big "surprise" at the end was pretty obvious for almost all of the novel.

Next up is Jett's best friend and roommate, Javier. Here's how Jett describes him:

"'He's sort of an honorary member of, like, every frat. His minor is in keg tapping.'"

So true. At first, Javier seemed exactly like the self-absorbed type of character that I usually end up hating, but that wasn't true at all. Regardless of any of his not so redeeming qualities, he is a darn good friend. Probably the best kind out there. I have to say that Javier really grew on me, and it would be great to see him again in another story (hint, hint).

Really, though. Part of me feels like this story isn't finished yet. I want to know what happens with Hazel, Javier, and River, as well as see more of Shannon and Jett. This book was so great, so of course I didn't want it to end, and I definitely think that it leads well into another book. Hopefully that day will come!

One more thing. I definitely recommend this book for ages +17. There's not a ridiculous amount of extremely mature content, but there is one little scene that I might be worried about. I personally think that it's important to the novel, but some people may find it to be a little too graphic, even if it is really short. That's just a personal choice you have to make.

My Rating:



And my favorite quote (of which there are many) comes from the glorious Javier:

"Madam, Sir. I hope you have a splendid and sex-filled evening. I'm off to have one myself. May all of your condoms be resilient and hole-free. Farewell!" He salutes us and then leaves.

"Is that Javier sober?"

"Surprisingly, yes."

"Wow."

Jett sighs.

"I know."


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A copy of the novel was provided for us in exchange for an honest review.


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