My biggest issue with this was the amount of Ubering Chloe and Drew did. Was Chao getting paid by Uber? Seriously. Especially when they spent a day in San Francisco where the public transit isn't too shabby and they're both supposedly hard strapped for cash.

There was a bit too much instalove here but otherwise this was super cute. I love love love reading about the family traditions and how hard maintaining elements of these can be throughout generations. I also loved the contrast between the community Drew grew up in and Chloe's and how it prevented Chloe's from presenting too many negative stereotypes. ( )

Well that was really cute and funny but way too long.

This started out so well and there were a few laugh out loud moments and I absolutely loved the dynamics between Chloe and Drew. The story was engaging and the family completely adorable in their craziness. I won't do any spoilers but there was a point where the story could have ended and I would have loved it. But it didn't end. Then there was another point where it could have ended and I would have been happy. But it didn't end. Then there were a few points where it should have ended but it didn't. I started becoming a bit bored with the attempts to wrap everything up so neatly because the story really started to drag for me. I think it needed an editor to cut chunks out of that last section so it didn't lose the wonderful tone and pace it had throughout the first three-quarters. Still a lovely read. ( )

A new favorite!

While I am not Asian, I can relate to Chloe a lot in the sense I feel like I have to have two different sides to me in order to keep my parents happy and it has really inspired me to take a stand for myself every once in awhile.

I can't wait to read more by Gloria Chao in the future ( )

this was up and down and really uneven for me. overall it was fine. some parts were even nice and i did like the banter between the two main characters. but it was also overly cheesy and saccharine at times, and the writing went from just fine to really trite and back again. it's hard to believe that her parents would come around, and so quickly. and it's hard to believe that not once did chloe ever say to her mom that she disliked the man her parents had chosen for her. why leave that out? there were parts that were good, though, and i liked the window into another culture and how a similar set of ideas can play out differently in two different families.

(i hate the title and i hate the cover. the book itself is much better than both of those, at least.) ( )

Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

Booktalk: Nineteen-year-old Chloe Wang is at odds with her traditionalist Taiwanese parents who have literally promised her to the son of a wealthy family. Said son, however, is a self-entitled jerk who has been teasing and bullying Chloe since she was a child. In order to fend off her parents’ relentless pressure to accept HongBo’s marriage proposal, Chloe makes a desperate decision. Enter Andrew Chan, he’s the too perfect boyfriend and his all Chloe’s. Well...not exactly. Chloe hired Andrew from a company that specializes in in providing fake boyfriends to impress the most traditional Asian parents. During the job, real life and pretend start to blur, and Chloe starts to fall for the real Andrew. Once Chloe has the courage to stand up to her parents and her tight knit Asian community, she’s finally free to live her life on her own terms whatever they may be. But, can she do that and keep the real Andrew too?

Publisher's Summary: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.

Read-A-Likes:

10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon
Frankly in Love by David Yoon
The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West ( )