My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren – a Review

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Description:
Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship…but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.

Review:

My Favorite Half-Night Stand is my third exploration into the amazing duo that is Christina Lauren. Millie and Reid are best friends who partake in a bit of liquid courage and cross the line, at least for the half-night, into lovers. While thrilling, even better than they imagined, it was an itch to scratch, and the friendship just isn’t worth jeopardizing. Riiiight…that’s hardly a solid foundation…said no one ever, ?.

What ensues is a warped amalgamation of miscues, half-truths, and boundless joy to twist and churn as true love dictates. Right from the start, Millie’s frenetic energy was comparable to Hazel’s from a book ago (as was Reid’s equanimity in comparison to Josh’s). That similarity wasn’t a criticism. Chemistry was firing on all cylinders for Millie and Reid. Only this book was a much slower-paced story with occasional meandering scenes. Millie is stunted this way, I suppose. She stops and goes, giving off conflicting vibes.

This is how Reid was caught so unawares. But back to the story… Millie and Reid are surreptitiously savoring their night that shall not be mentioned, but both are forging ahead with their circle of friends on joining a dating app to find plus-ones for a departmental soiree. When the guys meet with relative success, but Millie is being propositioned by shallow suitors, Millie thinks outside the box, and sets up a second, anonymous profile. Here, she reveals deeper truths and puts herself out there like never before. Guess who turns out to be a match, like “98% compatible”? Duh…Reid. Only Reid believes her name is Cat. Millie’s great, their night was great, Reid could maybe want more of those nights, but Cat…she’s open and stimulating. Their messaging compulsive. Oh! What a tangled web we weave… Fear of rejection or admitting real feelings propelled Millie into creating the nom de plume. But making Cat so appealing, genuinely catching Reid ‘s interest, is now Millie’s cross to bear. “I mean, let’s not forget I basically catfished my best friend.” Now Millie has to reconcile those subsequent emotions, fallout?, and only herself to blame for the original deceit.

What a mess. Her heart might have been more ready than her head. Reid and Millie are extraordinarily compatible. Their shared sensibilities and hopes aren’t carefully crafted, they’re innately driven. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the ending and that HEA will be achieved — Christina Lauren are goddesses of romance. But it’s pulling off that threat, the very real danger to your forever ever after, that is significant to a reader. Millie’s vulnerability is a feat in and of itself; tremendous and pivotal to the success of earning trust. Does she possess the strength to go for what she wants or will she sit back and lick her wounds?

 I enjoyed My Favorite Half-Night Stand. Falling in love is as exciting as it is nerve wracking and Christina Lauren know their way around its pitfalls and swoons. You are treated to hilarious moments and painful introspection on the road to fresh perspective. I did feel like certain plotlines lingered too long while some could’ve used more passion to pack a punch, but it’s a satisfying read. These ladies deliver and I hope it’s not too long before the next journey of love arrives.

Reviewed by Carmen

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