*Grabby Hands* Release - Review & Giveaway - Adorkable by Cookie O'Gorman

Title: Adorkable

Release date:  March 31st, 2016

Author: Cookie O'Gorman

About the book:

Adorkable (ah-dor-kuh-bul): Descriptive term meaning to be equal parts dorky and adorable. For reference, see Sally Spitz.

Seventeen-year-old Sally Spitz is done with dating. Or at least, she's done with the horrible blind dates/hookups/sneak attacks her matchmaking bestie, Hooker, sets her up on. There's only so much one geek girl and Gryffindor supporter can take.

Her solution: she needs a fake boyfriend. And fast.

Enter Becks, soccer phenom, all-around-hottie, and Sally's best friend practically since birth. When Sally asks Becks to be her F.B.F. (fake boyfriend), Becks is only too happy to be used. He'd do anything for Sal--even if that means giving her PDA lessons in his bedroom, saying she's "more than pretty," and expertly kissing her at parties.

The problem: Sally's been in love with Becks all her life--and he's completely clueless.

This book features two best friends, one special edition Yoda snuggie, countless beneath-the-ear kisses and begs the question:

Who wants a real boyfriend when faking it is so much more fun?

Goodreads |  Amazon 

Excerpt:

     "You're not seriously going to listen to them," I said flatly.

     "What else can I do?"

     "Becks, beware the dark side."

     "What's that supposed to mean?"

     "It's a Yoda-ism," I said, "and you know exactly what it means.  Becks, have you no shame?"

     "Nope," he said, lifting the jersey over his head in one swift pull, causing a mixture of applause, screaming and appreciative sighs.

     I shook my head, struggling to keep my eyes north of his jaw line.

     "What can I say, Sal?" he said, backing away.  "It's like that line from that show Oklahoma.  I'm just a guy who can't say no."  Flicking his jersey at one of the cheerleaders, he hot footed it out to center field, grinning all the while.  He gave a frowning Coach Crenshaw a swat to the backside, and then the team got down to business.

     I wrote down Becks's quote, making a side note to include it in my next article, while the girl who'd caught Becks's jersey gripped the shirt to her heart and pretended to faint.

     At least, I hoped it was pretend.

About the Author:

 Cookie O'Gorman writes YA romance to give readers a taste of happily-ever-after. Small towns, quirky characters, and the awkward yet beautiful moments in life make up her books. Cookie also has a soft spot for nerds and ninjas. Her debut novel ADORKABLE will be released in 2016.

Author Links:

Website│Twitter│Facebook│Goodreads

My thoughts:

4.5 “Fantastic BFF to Lovers” STARS

ADORKABLE is adorable (cheesy, I know), but I’m writing this review the morning after staying up until 1 a.m. because I could not, simply COULD NOT stop reading. Yep, I devoured all the pretty words and I did it with a smile. A big smile. Trust me, this book is that good.

You know how sometimes you just read one paragraph and you know you’ll fall hard for the rest of the story? That’s what happened here. Cookie O'Gorman’s (love the name, BTW) writing was addictive. The voice… the MC’s freaking voice?! Yep. I’m in love. I am completely aware I’m babbling but that’s what good writing does to me.

I wasn’t exactly planning on starting ADORKABLE yesterday. I’d just gotten the digital ARC and had sent it to my Kindle – though I have to admit I was looking forward to reading it since the day I joined the cover reveal blog tour a few weeks ago. But I opened the Kindle app as I was leaving work and thinking about what book I’d start next, and somehow I clicked on it and the first sentence was right there. I read it and the next paragraph and thought “wow, I’m gonna like this one”, and I didn’t stop reading until I hit the end. The power of a good first paragraph, ladies and gentleman.

And an excellent book, of course. Otherwise I wouldn’t have sacrificed precious hours of sleep to finish it.

Now that I’m done rambling, you can come meet Sally (or Sal), the Harry Potter fanatic who stole my heart. Sally is funny. Like real funny. She made me smile and laugh countless times and I love her for that. See, Sally has a great mother and two super awesome best friends. Trouble is, one of those BFFs is always setting Sally up on blind dates, hoping she’ll find her the perfect match, and Sally is sick and tired of it all. The other BFF, adorable and hot soccer star Becks is Sally’s secret crush. Too bad he only sees her as a friend – and doesn’t even notice she’s a girl at all.

When Sally gets tired of all the matchmaking fiascos, she comes up with a plan to convince her friend she doesn’t need her services anymore: all she needs is a fake boyfriend. The only person she can see playing that role is Becks, and surprise, surprise he quickly says “yes” when she asks him to be her fake boyfriend.

What Sally doesn’t realize is how dangerous pretending to be in love with a guy you’re actually in love with might be.

I have to say that I’m addicted to “best friends to lovers” & “fake boyfriend/girlfriend” tropes. Obsessed. So you put those two together and you bet I’ll be dying to read it. So I went into this expecting to like it, but I was surprised at how much I LOVED it.

Like I said before, Sally is a great character. She’s smart, geeky, weird in a funny and adorable way and being inside her head was highly entertaining. Plus, she made sense. The way she reacted to the guys (and girl) she met through her friend’s matchmaking attempts told me a lot about her. She was never mean to them, even though some were real jerks, and even when she was trying to make them dump her, she was nice and adorable. Her relationship with her mother was another plus. I could tell they loved each other and tried to be there for one another – especially since they had to deal with all that crap from her father.

But obviously the relationship I loved the most was the one between Sally and Becks.

They were more than just cute together. They were hot – as hot as YA Contemporaries normally get (I know there are exceptions). From the first touch to the kiss, the chemistry between Becks and Sally was off the charts. I swooned every time Becks, using the fake boyfriend plan, showed her his true feelings. Sally, being used to him treating her as just friends for their entire lives, refused to see the truth, but as a reader it was clear from the start that Becks’ intentions weren’t just friendly. He tried everything he could to make their fake relationship last as long as possible and I love him for that.

Becky and Sal had a lot to lose if they confessed their feelings and got a “sorry, but we’re just friends” response from the other person, so it made a lot of sense that they remained silent. Plus, for best friends they did really suck at communicating. LOL. But it worked. In this case, it worked really well.

I savored every scene between these two – when they were just friends, when they became more, when they were jealous of each other… everything.

The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was Sally’s relationship with Ash. I didn’t mind the temporary love triangle, but it felt like she was replaying the same situation that had happened with Becks and getting into another “fake” relationship. I guess I wish it’d been handled differently.

Other than that, everything else was pretty fantastic and I’m so, so happy I got to read this book before the rest of the world. I can’t wait to take a seat and watch while other people fall in love with Becks and Sally like I did.

Blog Tour Schedule:

http://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.com/2016/02/blog-tour-sign-up-adorkable-by-cookie.html

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Book Tour Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours