The Life & Times of a Book Addict: My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

Publication: December 4, 2018

Publisher: Gallery Books

Source: Publisher

Synopsis:

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.

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My Favorite Half-Night Stand centers on Millie and Reid, two UC Santa Barbara Professors and their small group of close-knit friends, Alex, Chris, and Ed.

Even though they are all pretty tight with each other, Mille and Reid’s relationship has always been…different. They understand each other better and there is a subtle flirting that goes on between them. Their friendship is tested however when one night after a little liquid courage, Millie and Reid sleep together. Is it easy going back to just being friends only? Or do they want more from each other?

Millie, a criminologist, is smart, pretty, and successful. Though she has great friends, she never likes to share much about herself or her past. She’s pretty closed off and being her friend, you understand that dealing with emotions isn’t really her strong suit. She oftentimes frustrated me, but I still liked her character.

Reid, a scientist, is successful and easy on the eyes. He works a lot, but always makes times for the people he cares about. Unlike Millie, Reid loves to communicate and open up about himself. He oftentimes tries to get Millie to tell him more, but he is rarely successful.

Wanting to make a good impression at a very important school banquet, they decide to join a dating app. Hoping to not only find a date to the banquet, but possibly someone they want to pursue an actual relationship with.

When it’s time for everyone to create their dating profiles, they all suck according to Millie. So she reluctantly agrees to re-write the dating profiles for them. When she is finished, she has made the guys sound very appealing. Well everyone except for herself. Her profile is found to be a little lacking. Even though Millie doesn’t divulge much in her profile, that doesn’t stop her from getting lame messages and inappropriate pics from weirdos. In an attempt to start fresh, she creates a secondary profile under her middle name with a somewhat blurry profile pic.

With the new profile ready to go she unexpectedly discovers that she matches with Reid. They begin talking to each other through the app, but Reid doesn’t know that it’s Millie he is opening up to. After some time, Millie finds herself being more open about her life and past experiences as she talks with Reid through the app. And it feels good to finally be able to talk to someone about what she is going through. But how open is Millie being with Reid if he doesn’t even know it’s her? And what happens if he wants to meet her?

Told in dual POV’s, My Favorite Half-Night Stands is a sweet contemporary romance that goes into the world of modern day online dating and the adventures that can come from that. I loved the dynamic between all five friends. They are different, but their friendship works. They have each others back no matter what. Being able to see their online chats was a nice addition also. The story was very easy to get into and the writing was solid. Not to mention the characters were likable. I couldn’t help but root for Reid and Millie through the whole book.

RATING: 3½ out of 5.

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