Jenn P. Nguyen

Phuong Anh Nguyen

After a wild party, a good girl's shiny reputation is ruined unless she can tame the bad boy surfer.

The Way to Game the Walk of Shame

Colleen

3.5 Stars

I enjoyed The Way to Game the Walk of Shame more than The Fill-In Boyfriend but definitely not as much as Wanderlost. As with those latter two books, Way to Game was cute and easy to read. And similar to The Fill-In Boyfriend, it concerns a highschool girl who tells lies to get out of an awkward situation and ends up making things much worse. I definitely liked the characters of Way to Game better than the ones from The Fill-In Boyfriend and the romance an innocent sweetness to it versus the very prosaic relationship of its counterpart. Way to Game also had more playful banter.

The narration is first person and switches back and forth between the two main characters. I'm not usually fond of that, but it worked for this story mainly because the immaturity of their voices fit their characters. What did bother me about the switches was that instead of leaving the font alone or switching fonts for the two characters, they differentiated the two narrators by putting all of Evan's sections in bold. Unfortunately, with the font they used, it made Taylor's non-bolded sections much harder on the eyes. Yeah, yeah, I sound like a crotchety old person when I complain about font not being legible enough, but it does affect one's reading experience.

It was a straightforward story, but the whole good-girl-falls-for-bad-boy plot is clichéd. Still, I was enjoying myself until I got to the very end. I did not hate the ending, but I thought flashing back to what happened that first night was very anticlimactic. Rather than wrapping things up neatly, it caused an abrupt stop to the flow of the story. And that was the very end, so there was no recovery after the author slammed on the breaks like that. I understand what she was trying to do by circling back, but it was not well executed. But it was an amusing enough story overall. 

I definitely need a break from YA Chick Lit now though. I see some Classics in my near future!

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

celene

3.7 uhm??? i think i cried bc of the soft moments?? it was too precious for my heart to take

Sven Test

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

My name is Genesis and my addiction is fake-relationship stories. Whew, I got that out of the way. In all seriousness, I'm a sucker for these type of romances. They can be so much fun and The Way to Game the Walk of Shame certainly didn't disappoint and lived up to my expectations. I remember telling my boyfriend I had gotten this book for review and his question was, "Are you sure that's a YA novel?" Indeed, it is and don't worry, it's not steamy or deviates from the Young Adult genre.

Let's dive into the story and the point of this review, shall we? Taylor has always been the quiet girl in high school that could be called a goody-two shoes. Her reputation takes a turn for the worst when rumors (that are true) spread that she spent the night with the player of the school, Evan. Taylor is so frustrated by this because she starts getting vocally bullied and this doesn't sit right with her at all. She comes up with the brilliant plan to be in a fake relationship with Evan and that way, people will stop calling her names since it's okay for a girlfriend to stay over at her boyfriend's house (in this generation, apparently).

Taylor and Evan are so cute! The romance in the story wasn't overdone and it was set at a slow yet fun pace. Everything about them was sweet, meaning no drama that sometimes comes with being a man-whore. I think many books nowadays give an excuse to why a guy sleeps around so much, but not here. Let the guy be a guy and that's it! No need to add something so dark to it. The author did a great job in portraying this, as well as adding a little bit of depth to Evan's character. I have to mention the secondary characters for sure. Carly, Taylor's best friend, and Aaron, Evan's best friend, were a fantastic addition to the primary character's lives and the story itself. If the story was funny before, it got even better with these characters. Also, this book has little quirks that add to the depth and personality of the story-line and characters.

My reading experience with this book was so much fun! I was grinning like the Cheshire cat from beginning to end. It was light, quirky, witty, funny, quick-read, and a great way to start off the Summer vacation. If that didn't give you the hint, then here it is: read this book during the summer so go buy it as soon as it comes out :D

I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for my honest review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

I'm such a sucker for the fake romance trope. I've read so many of them this year already, and they're always so entertaining to me. I think this type of trope is easy to mess up though... so seeing it done so well was definitely impressive.

Known as the Ice Queen in her high school, Taylor was the goodie-goodie that everyone expected perfection from. That is until she wakes up in bed next to the star surfer and well-known "bad boy" of her high school, Evan. The rumors start immediately, despite Taylor's best efforts to keep this incident under wraps. Thinking quickly, she negotiates with Evan to pretend they are, in fact, dating so that she won't be labeled so negatively.

The relationship between Taylor and Evan was so well done. It was my very type of relationship... the slow burn, enemies to lovers type of story. Though these two weren't exactly "enemies", they also weren't friends and definitely two very different people in their social cliques. What I did love was how well their two personalities bounced off each other, their adorably fun banter, and the way their relationship was so sweet, innocent and even swoony at times. I loved how Taylor blushed when Evan would do something that embarrassed her. And I loved how touched Evan was by Taylor's sincerity and vulnerability. These two were seriously adorable together.
 


Another a contemporary to add to your must-read summer TBR! For a debut author, Jenn P. Nguyen really impressed me with how engaging and fun this story was. A new author-to-watch for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing what this new author will come out with next!
 

  


(Thanks to SwoonReads for the review copy!)

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