Review: Counterfeit Boyfriend

Counterfeit Boyfriend by Cindi Madsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. This doesn’t influence my review in any way.***

This book is about two people falling in love. Lol. It is a romance book so there is falling in love involved. Anyway, it’s about a guy, Ethan, who pretended to be his twin brother, Evan, to accompany his girlfriend, Gwen, on a road trip. At first, he didn’t agreed to do it but then because he was drunk and easily persuaded, he end up saying yes to his brother. However, he intended to end the relationship that morning of their first meet with the girl but then his plans were blown when finally got to meet Gwen, his twin brother’s girlfriend. Ethan’s plan of breaking up with Gwen flew out of the window when he was met with a hurricane of energy and brains and hotness. So he went with her on that road trip. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Well, a lot.

First thoughts about this book, there’s a twin. I love twin stories! I think it’s one way to get my attention towards books! If there’s twins in it, sign me up imma devour that baby! And then it’s a road trip, dang! I’m sold!

I was immediately hooked the moment I read the first sentence. Well, knowing that there’re twins in it already had me hooked.

Onto the characters now.
Let’s start with the male protagonist, Ethan.

I like Ethan’s character. He’s gentleman, sincere, thoughtful, sweet, and very, very naughty. I mean he is like a cinnamon roll kind of character but with a very wild imagination when it comes to Gwen. His thoughts were not a secret both to the reader and Gwen. He vocalized his want towards Gwen a handful of times that I sometimes find them cute with their teasing and stuff.
I appreciate every effort Ethan did for Gwen. I mean, he’s the type of guy you wouldn’t want to let go. Definitely a keeper, that guy! Up till the end, his efforts were awesome and I feel like I appreciate his efforts more than Gwen did. Haha! Anyway, despite Ethan being a handsome, irresistible munchkin I didn’t swoon to him like I usually do whenever I met a guy like him. I don’t know. He’s a great character but I guess I just don’t want to be on Gwen’s bad side. xD
I actually felt bad for him for being in the situation he was in and the circumstances of his relationship with Gwen, how they started the wrong way but also the perfect way. I can’t imagine him and Gwen meeting any other way. You could say that it was a blessing in disguise despite the pain they both suffered when all was revealed around the end.


Next is Guinevere, commonly known as Gwen.

I love Gwen! She was described as “a redheaded hurricane of energy and brains” and also very hot. But that’s not what I loved about her. I love her because she’s very talkative. She talks a lot and really fast. Sometimes she makes sense most of the times she just rambles. And I know that is a weird trait but I love that about her because I can relate to her in that department. Talking a lot of time most people would eventually get tired of hearing your voice. And she’s not a pathetic heroine! She’s not a weak type of heroine. She’s actually pretty strong and independent and feisty. She’s not dependent on men either. I like that she has a strong persona. She and Evan is a perfect pair!


Their story is very close to reality and actually has the possibility of happening to real people. And what’s amazing is the delivery of the story of this book feels like it was based on true events.
I love the story so much. There’s not much mushy, cheesy scenes aside from Ethan being a nerd. There’s no excessive drama either. It felt like everything is chill about this book until the bomb exploded and even then the drama doesn’t feel too heavy. Just a light drama but drama nonetheless.
There are also times that I’d laugh out loud while reading. In all honesty, the only book that could make me laugh out loud while reading was Rick Riordan’s books. And this made me laugh like I was actually a movie instead of reading a book. The kilig moments I felt while reading this are real. Even though there are only few kilig moments in this book (huh. Funny, I just noticed that while writing this review).

The narration of the book is also great. It is told in a first person POV and it was written so amazingly that I read them very fast. I managed to finish this book around more or less 5 hours. And it was narrated so great that I indeed felt like I watched a movie instead of reading. I seriously had fun reading this.

Also, I love the ending so much. And I have some suspicions about those two people who went missing on the epilogue part of this book. I wonder if they got to have a book of their own.

To wrap this up, this book is a very great read in contemporary, romance, adult genre. I don’t usually give so high a rate on adult contemporaries because for some reason, I find them lacking despite being so satisfying. (I hope that makes sense.) But this book is really a great read. I recommend this bessies! Read it!

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Review: The Diabolic

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First thoughts, this book has great storyline. It’s the kind of book that is set in the space but doesn’t feel like it was set in space. Haha! It was great. I was having good time reading it. Until I realize that this got politics in it.

Bes, I’m not someone who hates politics being a subject inside a book. But I’m the kind who avoids it as much as I can because I do not like talking about politics. Like, I just want me some good, cozy and maybe an action-packed book with romance, lots of romance if possible. I want to enjoy my reads but I feel like if there’s politics in there, I can’t enjoy it because I’m not the type who understands deeper politics. I’m not ignorant to it either, I understand enough.

When I realized that this book is 80% politics and only got 10% bad-assery, 10% romance I was considering being biased and not love it. However, that would be unfair. So I didn’t change any feelings I have towards this book. I kept reading and I’m glad I did.

The characters are great. They have great personalities and I’m blown by how cunning and clever they are.

Let’s talk about Nemesis, the main character of this book.

She’s great, bad-ass, and an amazing diabolic. She’s a good friend too and very devoted kinds as are diabolics are supposed to be. And I like that she’s suspicious to every single person she met when she arrived in Chrysanthemum, where the Emperor resides. It’s good that she’s got trust issues. I have trust issues myself with the villainy types of characters in this book. I feel like anyone can be her enemy and she might not find an ally or two. It’s good that I’m not that worried about her safety while she’s in Chrysanthemum because she’s already doing things that prevent her to be betrayed by other characters. She’s smart and clever too. I like that about her. One thing that I don’t like though is that she’s aggressive and really impulsive. She thinks things through a bit late and she’s easily deceived because of her trust issues. I hate her reaction around the last scheme she’s experienced in the book. But I’m glad she’s got to her senses and recovered and didn’t do anything rash and even went as to take a risk again despite what happened to her.

Now let’s talk about Tyrus Domitrian.
Can I just say that when his character first appeared, I felt something towards him? It’s a weird feeling but out of all the people living in the Chrysanthemum, he’s the only one I actually kind of trusted. I mean, I think I saw through him. I saw, or rather felt in my gut, for who he really is. And I trusted his character immediately. And I never doubted him. I just hope I wasn’t wrong.

I didn’t quite like Sidonia Impyrean’s character.
Is it so mean that I was glad about what happened to her? I don’t know, I guess that’s mean. But I can’t help it. I was glad of what happened to her. :P Sorry not sorry.


The story doesn’t have that very huge, mind blowing plot twist. (Oops!) However! The story reflected a lot about what’s happening in our society technology-wise. There’s this line that Cygna, Tryus’ grandmother, said that why do we still need to learn things when we can just let the computers do it for us. And that right there is a very big slap about the reality of our society about technologies.

The people in this story became so dependent on machines and automation stuff that they actually banned studying math and science. And if people in real aren’t becoming that kind of people, bes, I might be living in another planet. I admit myself that I became dependent on technologies too. And reading this book, realizing just that thought that we rely too much on techs, made me want to commend this book! This is indeed great!

The characters in this book are cunning, clever, and very smart. It was somehow the battle of the most cunning and clever. Everyone is planning a scheme towards each other to overthrow this and that. It was such a fun time reading it.

The narration is told in a first person POV, Nemesis’. And I’ve always say this, first person POV makes me read the book even faster than third person POV. However, I couldn’t understand why it felt like it took me longer to actually finish this book. I feel like whenever I read this, I’m flying through the pages and reading pretty fast. But I have very small progress every time I read. Like how is that even possible? XD I guess I just can’t ride Nemesis’ way of narration sometimes. Plus whenever I get to the parts where she’d just explain the political stuff in the book, I’d just float. I mean, my mind floats and doesn’t really absorb properly the words I’m reading. Haha! I don’t know. That always happens to me whenever I read political stuff in a book.

The ending didn’t left me wanting to read the second book. The teaser to the second book is the one that made me want to read the second book. I don’t know how to place the ending of this book. It wasn’t really a cliffhanger but it still felt like a cliffhanger. Lol! Still, I can’t wait to read the second book. I’ve heard that it’s not as good as the first one but I guess I’ll just have to wait and find it out myself.

To wrap this up, this book is really good. It didn’t blow my mind in a usual way but it blew my mind at how it was so blunt about the reality of the world. If you’re the type of reader who loves politics, a lot of scheming, and a bit of romance while all those are happening in space then this read is very perfect for you. I totally recommend this, bessies! Read this!

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