My Favorite Half-Night Stand — Christina Lauren

November 7, 2018

I’m trying a brand new review format, complete with writing my own summaries and new graphics, so please let me know what you think of the new style! ♥


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TITLE: My Favorite Half-Night Stand
AUTHOR: Christina Lauren
RELEASES: December 4th, 2018; Gallery Books
GENRE: Contemporary
AGE RANGE: Adult

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I am such a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope it’s not even funny, so when I heard that the writer duo Christina Lauren was putting out this story about best-friends/colleagues turned friends-with-benefits turned lovers? I was all over it! This is only the second Christina Lauren title I’d read, the first being Autoboyography, which I enjoyed, but had high hopes that I—like many of my friends—would like their adult novels even more.

“Our half-night stand?” he asks, and his smile is an adorable concoction of self-deprecating and sweet. I shake my head. Must resist the cute nerd.


 
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Millie Morris, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, has accepted her perma-single status and place as “one of the guys”, but things get shaken up a bit when a drunken celebration ends in a “half-night stand” between herself and her colleague/best friend in the world, the handsome and charming Reid Campbell.

Despite sharing a great night together, the two of them decide to stay friends, and even more, to create online dating profiles! When Millie can’t find a way to be honest with her own name and picture, she creates a fake profile, but has no idea how to respond when Reid unknowingly “matches” with her and begins to fall for both the real Millie and the fake account.

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Luckily, my suspicions were right, because I was obsessed with this read and could not put it down once while reading it. It was one of those things where I started it right before bed one night, planning to read “just a few chapters”, and the next thing I knew, it was 5am and I was finished it. That’s when you know a book sucked you in, right?

I don’t think I’ve ever been normal. Me? I was obsessed with serial killers.

First of all, the writing in this is absolutely fantastic. I find that a lot of adult contemporary authors are great at writing emotions and feelings, but not amazing at the actual verbiage; that’s not an issue with this duo at all. Millie and Reid both felt like these wonderfully complex, three-dimensional characters. Also, can we talk for a second about how freaking awesome it is that Millie’s main character arc (besides her closed-off nature) is an obsession with female serial killers? Hello, can we be friends?

“I only have one emotion, and it’s hunger.”

Another thing Christina Lauren has going for them is that they are just so damn good at making me smile, because the story is so cute and charming and fun. If I wasn’t cheesing over the cuteness, I was cringing out of my skin from secondhand embarrassment (in a good way, if that makes sense) because some of the interactions are so perfectly awkward.

Trying to be cool about banging your best friend is a lot harder than I would have anticipated.

Of course, there’s also the steam factor, and while Half-Night isn’t what I would consider the most sexual adult contemporary read, it definitely has a healthy dose of steamy scenes and they’re really well written—I don’t recall ever grimacing at any phrases or thinking that anything felt corny or unrealistic, which is a pretty common issue I have with sex scenes from lesser authors.

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Honestly, I don’t have a single complaint about this book—great writing, fun characters, cute story, and perfect pacing.

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All in all, My Favorite Half-Night Stand is such a delightful and heart-warming read. Whether you like your romance stories sexy, funny, or just sweet, there’s a little bit of something for everyone here.

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I’d happily recommend this story to anyone who’s a fan of adult contemporary romances, but I also think it would be a great introduction to the adult contemporary genre if you’re someone who’s more accustomed to YA contemporary and is looking to branch out into an older age range!

5stars

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Gallery Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

55 Comments
    1. Nice review! I read this one, too. I thought it was a lot of fun. I did have some frustrations with Millie and her catfishing.

      1. Thank you! It really was so much fun. I struggled a little with the catfishing too, but I loved how it all came together in the end. I appreciated that it genuinely felt like she felt terrible for lying to him and it wasn’t like she brushed it under the rug or anything!

    1. a) love the new graphics
      b) this sounds so good! might be one of my winter reads if it gets super gross up here!!

    1. omg i’m so jealous you got to read this one but i’m so glad you enjoyed it! i also adore your new layout ? love the colours in your new graphics!

    1. Nice review, Destiny!
      I like the new format as well, it’s funny because I have been thinking about doing something similar but didn’t want to feel confined into a box. I’d be interested to hear how this affects your review writing process!

      1. Thank you so much! <3 I feel like I don't really want to rush and judge the new layout off of just one review, but I honestly had more fun writing this review than I've had writing any review since… probably my bullet review of ACOFAS back in… whatever month that released lmao. March? Something like that. Anyways, having this sort of layout planned out in advance just made it really fun and easy!

    1. Absolutely ADORE Christina Lauren! So happy that you enjoyed this book! I’m currently waiting for it to arrive from amazon, but your review has me literally HYPED to get into this bad boi!

    1. Amazing review as always Destiny and love the new set up! Hopefully you enjoy it as well, I know we already discussed it on Twitter but AHHHHHH it’s just so much easier to write and to read, I feel! 🙂

    1. omg I really autoboyography and I LOVE the friends to lovers trope as well as serial killers T_T this sounds so perfect to meee. great new format and great review <3

    1. Love love love your new graphics! Also, I’m starting to think I should pick up some of Christina Lauren’s other work. I loved Autoboyography but when I heard that none of their other books were queer I sort of wrote them off. ? Definitely rethinking this decision now!

    1. oh my god i’m going to read the hell out of this book.
      also: i LOVE this format!!

    1. I was wondering how this book was! I just recently read Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating and loved it! I also really loved Autoboyography. But I’ve had a few misses with Christina Lauren as well, so I’m so glad to hear what you thought about this book! I’m gonna have to check it out now!

      1. I think Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating is going to be my next read of theirs! What did you think of the ending of that one? I don’t know any spoilers or anything but I keep seeing people on booktube say they loved it until the end lol!

    1. This definitely isn’t a genre/book for me, but I’m really glad you had fun reading it! I mostly just wanted to leave a comment and say that I absolutely love the review format and all the graphics you’ve used! I feel like these kinds of reviews are so much easier and fun to not only write but also read!!

      1. Awww, thank you so much Lauren! <3 <3 Your comment just made my morning haha, I was really hoping this review style would be easier for people to read so that makes me feel like I made the right choice by changing my formatting!

    1. This sounds SO GOOD. Added it to my Goodreads TBR!
      I remember reading some of Christina Lauren’s adult work way before I started my blog and I loved Autoboyography. Pretty sure I have Roomies on my TBR on Goodreads as well.. I guess this means I should really get a move on reading more of their work, right? 😛

        1. I went on NG.com and wished for it. Like. You never know, right? :’) Wanted to order it, but since it isn’t releasing for almost a month yet, there’s not really any point, haha.
          Like.. Have you added your ebooks to your TBR-list? :3

    1. First of all, I adore the new review format! Second of all, you have SOLD this book to me and I am officially adding it to my TBR. It sounds so cute!!

    1. I really don’t read many contemporary romances, but somehow wound up with a copy of this. It looks pretty funny and entertaining and after reading your review I’m thinking of reading it in between some dense fantasy novels for something light. It sounds like the perfect read for me when I am looking for a change of pace.

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