My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren – 384 pages

Book Blurb:

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.

My Review: 4 stars

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My Favorite Half-Night Stand was such a fun, sassy and romantic book, perfect for something light and easy to read. This is the second book I’ve read by the Christina Lauren duo as I fell in love with Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating.

It was hard not to compare this book to Josh and Hazel. Why? Because one, I read them close together and two, they’re written in the same manner – 2 POVs, one from her side, one from his. I’m not sure if this is how all their books are, or just these two, but I’ve got The Unhoneymooners ready to go (May 2019 release) so I’ll get my answer then.

Of the mixed-up motley group of friends that are men, I adored Reid from the start, so it was likely that the main character, Millie, would too. At first, I didn’t care for Millie and it bugged me how her family was not part of her life. I get people not wanting to open up to avoid feeling vulnerable, but something didn’t click for me in her case.

Most of the drama and twists come from dating apps online, which is so rampant in today’s world. I loved this. I liked how some could open up to a “stranger” while never being able to share the same things to a friend or family member. The anonymity of it acts as a cloak of safety I suppose.

This author duo has cornered the market on these types of romances, which I consider “rom-com” as there is a good amount of humor involved. And as far as chemistry, these ladies nail it (no pun intended) every time by creating major tension and loads of heat.

Quotes I liked:

I’m lonely. I’m lonely because I don’t tell people what I need or what I want, and then get hurt when they don’t figure it out on their own.” 

– “Men date younger women all the time and get a pat on the back. Why does dating a younger guy automatically make me a cougar?” 

– “Does it matter if you do the wrong thing for the right reason?” 

– “The craziest thing about parenting must be that it’s this huge experiment and you have no idea whether it’s successful until, like, decades later.”