Gloria Chao

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda. Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents. Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him. When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community. But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?

Rent a Boyfriend

Sarah Sammis

Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao is a rom-com set over the course of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chinese New Year. Chloe Wang trying to avoid being forced into a relationship with the reprehensible Hongbo rents Drew to play the part of her perfect boyfriend from Chicago, Andrew.

Drew works for Rent for Your 'Rents, a company specializing in fake boyfriends for Chinese American women who are under pressure from their parents. The set up, while gender swapped and focused on Chinese culture, reminds me of the anime, Rent a Girlfriend (Summer 2020).

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

Raquel 

I desperately needed a break from fantasy and decided to pick this one up, and oh boy am I happy I've done that. This was everything I needed to just sit back and relax, it was honestly super cute. The banter, the humor, the romance, everything was great! The conflicts that the characters had just sounded so real that my heart ached for them (Drew is still my cinnamon roll and I will protect him at all costs). The writing style was super easy to read and follow, it just kept me hooked to the story.

Both characters have depth and a background story which I appreciate a lot in books, and the fact that we get both Chloe and Drew's perspectives was just the cherry on top of the cake.

I definitely recommend reading this book if you're in the mood for some romance with the fake dating trope. :)

Sven Test

Rent a Boyfriend features a girl who's tired of her mom trying to set her up with a guy she has absolutely no interest in dating/marrying (and for very good reason). It's why she hires Drew, her pretend boyfriend, to hopefully take her mom off her back.

For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. Drew and Jing-Jing aka Chloe were really cute together. 

Reading about a different culture from mine was definitely eye-opening, because I imagine that Jing-Jing's situation actually happens in real life. But I must admit, her mom got on my last nerve. I mostly felt so much anger towards her character. I really couldn't stand how she wouldn't let Jing-Jing be herself and choose who to date, especially after something that happens in the story. 

Also, the novel tended to be very cringey and at times, I was waiting for the story to be over. I guess I expected more from this story than what I got. In the end, it was still a cute story.

Debbi

3.5 💫 – I really like the way Gloria writes.

Laura Pons

Ha sido un libro muy ameno y rápido de leer, la historia es entretenida y tiene algunos mensajes muy bonitos, como perseguir tus sueños o buscar ser quién eres sin importar lo que te dicten tus padres o la sociedad en la que vives. Me ha gustado y me ha ayudado a salir de un pequeño bloqueo lector.

Nikki

Beth Livingston

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. When I first heard about this book I was really excited. The story premise was good but I had issues getting into it. I didn't like that it had a lot of cussing in the book. Some people won't mind it but it was a turn off for me. I liked that the book was about fighting for what you want out of life and letting no one stand in your way including yourself. I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

noah!

rtc maybe because my heart is like mush right now i am in love with this book

cossette

find the full review & others on my blog 🤍 

Trigger warnings: Fatphobia, Cancer (parent with cancer), misogyny, slut shaming, racism, xenophobia, family estrangement, homophobia, manipulation, deceit 

Reading Rent a Boyfriend was like revisiting my younger self. I’ve never felt the need to rent a fake boyfriend to take home to my mother, but I would be lying if the idea didn’t tempt me at times when extended family is involved — I mean, there’s only so many “When are you bringing a boy home? When are you getting married?” questions that I can take. What was most relatable, though, was how Chloe seemed to have so many different versions of herself; the one that she was at school, the one she was at home with her family, and the one she was with Drew. I spent so much of my youth stifling and shielding who I was from my family, or picking choices simply because they were the ones that would please my family, so following Chloe’s journey to be her true and honest self simply hit home. 

Growing up, I was always told how lucky I was to be able to move to America, to be promised a “better education”. The underlying sentiment of how much was sacrificed for this “better life” and “better education” was never lost on me, including ties to my home and my culture. Chloe has quickly joined the never-ending list of my favorite YA female characters. She’s funny, witty, caring, and compassionate, a hard worker, loving, and relatable. But my favorite thing about her is that her being Taiwanese isn’t her entire identity, but a part of who she is. Just like Chloe, I struggled – and still struggle – with not being enough of one culture. 

Rent a Boyfriend is unapologetically Taiwanese, and a true delight. I’m a huge lover of romance and rom coms, and to see one with a Taiwanese cast was just so refreshing. I can’t name many rom coms that do the same. Chang’e is one of my favorite legends, and seeing her story incorporated into Rent a Boyfriend made me smile. 

As a love interest, Drew was completely swoon worthy, with his heart of gold, unending support, and nuggets of wisdom. I loved how much he truly cared about Chloe, and how was just as invested in the chapters where it was centered around his perspective as I was Chloe’s. Most importantly, I thought Chloe and Drew complimented each other really well, and were monumental in helping each other heal and develop. I was as invested in their dynamic as I was in them as separate entities. 

Overall, I absolutely adored Rent a Boyfriend, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good rom-com. Not to mention, it’s centered around the holidays — What better time to read it than right now, during holiday season?

laura

I really liked this read. This was a super fun and fast pace read. I thought this book had such a fun balance between light contempt but also dealing with some harder topics. I really loved how this book gave a look at the Asian culture. I loved the two characters in this read and loved that we got both POV's. I really loved Drew character. This book tackled fake dating in a way that i did not expect and made me smile. I also loved how this book wrapped up. Very fun read and also a great holiday read from thanksgiving to vailtine day.

Jane The Bookaholic

⭐️ 3.5 Stars ⭐️

It was so cute! 
I listened to the audiobook and it was so much fun! I love the plot and the characters, but I did feel in the end like they were to… emotional and repetitive. 
But overall, I really enjoyed the book!! I was so happy to go wake up and go to work because I knew I’m going listen to this

Adrianna Giunta

This was a cute romance, just what I needed at the moment. The parents were insufferable but I appreciated the way everything was handled in the end.

Simone Rhodes

izzy

decimal rating: 4.89 stars 

to answer the question that absolutely no one is asking: yes, i did a) go to barnes and noble and b) immediately rush to the ya section to buy this book and c) awkwardly take this picture in the ya contemporary aisle. it was all extremely worth it, because i absolutely loved rent a boyfriend. i may have expected a lighter holiday romance, but it ended up a being more of a beautiful, powerful read steeped in culture and themes of family (but it still has a really compelling romance and nuggets of comedy). 

rent a boyfriend by gloria chao follows two taiwanese-american protagonists: chloe, who struggles between her identity as a model asian daughter and her americanized side, and drew, who is estranged from his family after choosing to drop out of college to pursue art. the pair collides when chloe hires drew to be her fake boyfriend to convince her parents to stop pressuring her to marry hongbo, a rich but misogynistic bachelor whom chloe can't stand. as they navigate through the holiday season, chloe and drew start to fall in love as well as have to tackle their struggles with family and identity. 

i love, love, love this book. firstly, i'd like to point out how this book includes authentic mandarin pinyin, complete with the tone accents (and it even comes with a glossary and and brief explanation in the book for those who aren't familiar!! it's absolutely fantastic!! i thought chloe and drew, the main characters, were both written really well, especially their internal conflicts. they're both unique individuals who share commonalities but also go through their own problems and experiences outside of the romance. 

i really related to drew's struggles with having an interest in the arts while also being asian. also i thought that his painting hobby was really well depicted, and wasn't a one-off thing briefly mentioned but never really part of the narrative. instead, his art is recurring, and the reader really gets to know more about his creative processes and cultural inspirations in his art. i also liked how both chloe and drew both stay true and grow to be confident in themselves. chloe, in particular, refuses to give up who she is in her conflicts with her parents, and she also doesn't hesitate to call out her parents' problematic behaviours as they appear. 

there are also cultural details and bits scattered through the book that make it feel organic and authentic, and i appreciate how this added to reading chloe and drew's asian-american experiences. it feels like the cultural aspects and details are expanded on over the course of the whole book, rather than just a plain info-dump. also, i think that the book did a good job of relating the perspectives of chloe's immigrant parents even without giving them first-person narrations. both of them feel like well-rounded characters and it's clear that they both care about their daughter very much, even if their expectations and views don't always line up with chloe's. i also appreciated how the book ended with a hopeful tone regarding chloe's relationship with her family. 

also i love the fake dating trope, and i think the romance in this book was really well-executed and felt really natural. i really, really, recommend this book to just about everyone, please go read it!!

Becca Futrell

Rent a Boyfriend is so stinkin' cute!@!!!! 10 out of 10 recommend. The only reason it's marked down a star is due to some cringe-worthy dialogue, but other than that PLEASE DO YOURSELF A SOLID AND READ THIS FAKE-DATING ROMANCE.

Celia Adams

Finally a book that could get me out of my slump! Very cute love-story, I love how Gloria Chao really dives into the complications of Asian-American family dynamics.

Rent a Boyfriend

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