{"id":22088,"date":"2017-05-28T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=22088"},"modified":"2017-05-28T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T13:36:02","slug":"arc-review-when-its-real-by-erin-watt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=22088","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: When It’s Real by Erin Watt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a> |\u00a0Hardcover<\/a>\u00a0| Audio<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n
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Synopsis<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Wealth, fame and a real-life romance she never expected\u2014seventeen-year-old Vaughn Bennett lands it all when she agrees to become a pop star’s fake girlfriend in this smart, utterly addictive novel from #1 <\/b><\/em>New York Times<\/b> bestselling author duo Erin Watt<\/b><\/em>\u00a0<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Under ordinary circumstances, Oakley Ford and Vaughn Bennett would never even cross paths.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing ordinary about Oakley. This bad-boy pop star’s got Grammy Awards, millions of fangirls and a reputation as a restless, too-charming troublemaker. But with his home life disintegrating, his music well suddenly running dry and the tabloids having a field day over his outrageous exploits, Oakley needs to show the world he’s settling down\u2014and who better to help him than Vaughn, a part-time waitress trying to help her family get by? The very definition of ordinary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Posing as his girlfriend, Vaughn will overhaul Oakley’s image from troublemaker to serious artist. In return for enough money to put her brothers through college, she can endure outlandish Hollywood parties and carefully orchestrated Twitter exchanges. She’ll fool the paparazzi and the groupies. She might even start fooling herself a little.<\/p>\n

Because when ordinary rules no longer apply, there’s no telling what your heart will do\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cThis is as real and as awful and as wonderful as it gets. I\u2019d hold her forever if she\u2019d let me.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4.5 \u2018guilty pleasure\u2019 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a sweet, smart, mature YA read with well-developed, loveable characters, great banter, sizzling chemistry, and a gorgeous love story. It\u2019s a fake relationship between a hot pop star and a \u2018normal\u2019 girl, and it\u2019s gorgeously romantic, low angst and deliciously feel-good. I loved it.<\/p>\n

Oakley Ford is the son of two Hollywood superstars, and a hugely successful pop star. He\u2019s been in the business since he was 15 years old and is now only 19, but he already has a reputation as a wild party boy. He\u2019s desperate to break free from the type of music he\u2019s known for and explore his developing \u2018grown up\u2019 style, but he\u2019s experiencing a writing block, and the producer he\u2019s desperate to work with won\u2019t touch him. He needs an image overhaul, and his Manager and Publicist have an idea for him to date a \u2018normal\u2019 girl to get him back in the public eye and show that he is settling down.<\/p>\n

Vaughn Bennett is a 17 year girl wish way too much responsibility on her shoulders. After her parents were killed in a car accident, she and her older sister have worked hard to make ends meet and support themselves and their two younger brothers. But she is the girl-next-door that Oakley\u2019s publicists are looking for so when the offer of a lifetime is presented to her, she warily agrees to pose as his girlfriend for 12 months for money that will save her family. But she has no idea what she\u2019s in for.<\/p>\n

Oakley is a bit of a jerk. He\u2019s arrogant, entitled, and he doesn\u2019t know what to make of Vaughn. She is the complete opposite of everything that he is used to – people normally fall all over themselves wanting to be close to him and make him happy, but Vaughn doesn\u2019t seem impressed by his celebrity or his sexy good looks that usually bring women to their knees. Vaughn is strong and sassy, and though she\u2019s feeling a bit lost in her life, she is determined not to let Oakley walk all over her. Her part of their arrangement is complicated by the fact that she already has a boyfriend, but she wants to help her family, so she goes along with all of the arrangements, not realising that she is about to turn Oakley\u2019s whole world upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good ones put your character to the flame and burn away all the rest of the shit until you come out a better you. She\u2019s one of the good ones.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their relationship is completely planned \u2013 from the \u2018meet cute\u2019 to the social media interactions, private dates, public dates, and pre-planned levels of intimacy. But what happens when they both start to feel so much more for each other than they ever anticipated?<\/p>\n

I wrap my arms around her shoulders. She snuggles into my side and I swear, my damn heart flips over because I want her to be my girl. For real. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is such a beautiful love story. It\u2019s realistically paced, and I could feel the emotion as things begin to shift between them from snarky banter to tentative flirting and so much more. It\u2019s sweet, exciting and just gorgeous, and I fell right along with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confused right now.\u201d I rub my sweaty palms on my knees.
\nOak drags his index finger along my lower lip. \u201cI know, baby. And scared?\u201d I give a small nod. \u201cI\u2019m scared too. But let\u2019s work this out together. Let\u2019s see where it goes. We don\u2019t need labels or words. We just need to be together.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I loved how the deeper, \u2018real\u2019 parts of Oak were explored. This book is a true journey for him as he examines his life, opens up to Vaughn and figures out who he truly is, and I love how willing he was to embrace all that Vaughn had to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the one person in my life who wants nothing but me and it\u2019s terrifying and awesome at the same time.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I loved the strong family themes, the way that the public vs private lifestyles were portrayed and the strong musical influence. And I really enjoyed the secondary romance that was glimpsed throughout the book. The drama is minimal and there is very little angst, but Oak and Vaughn\u2019s story and their gorgeous romance kept me captivated from start to finish, and I finished this book with a huge grin on my face.<\/p>\n

A true guilty pleasure read. I loved it. 4.5 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Buy:\u00a0 Amazon |\u00a0Hardcover\u00a0| Audio Synopsis Wealth, fame and a real-life romance she never expected\u2014seventeen-year-old Vaughn Bennett lands it all when she agrees to become a pop star’s fake girlfriend in this smart, utterly addictive novel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,94,9,12],"tags":[59,302,48,76],"class_list":["post-22088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-rockers","category-romance","category-young-adult","tag-arc","tag-erin-watt","tag-review","tag-standalone"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/When-Its-Real.jpg?fit=150%2C227&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-5Kg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}