My Favorite Half-Night Stand — Christina Lauren

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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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