What do you think?
California Sold
Notoriously closeted boyband member Harry Styles is famous on a global scale, meanwhile Louis, as his best friend, is back home in Manchester, living the typical life of a 24 year old. When Harry needs Louis with him in LA, a publicity stunt gone wrong changes their friendship forever.
A fake-relationship AU between two lifelong best friends.
A fake-relationship AU between two lifelong best friends.
229 pages, ebook
Published March 14, 2016
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 15, 2022
To familiarize the public with the idea that globally famous boyband member Harry Styles is in fact gay, management hatch out the plan to let him fake date his best friend, Louis. Which isn’t particularly hard as the two of them have been extremely close since childhood days.
What makes this story so dear to me isn’t the typical fake dating of is the other one feeling the same as me or is it all just for show (which never gets old, even though it is frustrating when it’s so obviously the former). Neither is it the glimpses into the life of a celebrity. Or the sweet eventual coming-out (though this one comes close).
No, while all of the above were great, the answer is easier: Lou!!!
Lou is simply perfect! He’s supportive, drops everything for Harry and he’s funny as well – a dream! He’s also demisexual. Which is a representation I’ve never read before in a book, and it actually gets explored and not just name-dropped. I appreciate its inclusion immensely as young people can see themselves in his character or maybe it even helps them figure out their own sexuality.
So yeah, highly recommend!
—> 4 stars
What makes this story so dear to me isn’t the typical fake dating of is the other one feeling the same as me or is it all just for show (which never gets old, even though it is frustrating when it’s so obviously the former). Neither is it the glimpses into the life of a celebrity. Or the sweet eventual coming-out (though this one comes close).
No, while all of the above were great, the answer is easier: Lou!!!
Lou is simply perfect! He’s supportive, drops everything for Harry and he’s funny as well – a dream! He’s also demisexual. Which is a representation I’ve never read before in a book, and it actually gets explored and not just name-dropped. I appreciate its inclusion immensely as young people can see themselves in his character or maybe it even helps them figure out their own sexuality.
So yeah, highly recommend!
—> 4 stars
January 28, 2025
4.5 stars ✨
Tropes - Fake dating, Best-friends-to-lovers
This was a very fluffy read with a gay Harry Styles and a demisexual Louis Tomlinson. The universe is a little different with Louis never being in One Direction and is Harry’s best friend since childhood instead. With Harry’s coming out impending in the near future Lou comes to help out with the mental load Harry is bearing. A stunt gone wrong forces them to pretend to be fake boyfriends and the rest is history. Louis realizes he has feelings for his best friend after the practice in fake kissing and apparently everyone else around him other than himself knows Harry has feelings for him. Niall, Liam and Zayn make brief appearances and are not central to the plot. Low angst so the perfect read for me! 💙💚 But probably not your cuppa if you’re not a Larry
Tropes - Fake dating, Best-friends-to-lovers
This was a very fluffy read with a gay Harry Styles and a demisexual Louis Tomlinson. The universe is a little different with Louis never being in One Direction and is Harry’s best friend since childhood instead. With Harry’s coming out impending in the near future Lou comes to help out with the mental load Harry is bearing. A stunt gone wrong forces them to pretend to be fake boyfriends and the rest is history. Louis realizes he has feelings for his best friend after the practice in fake kissing and apparently everyone else around him other than himself knows Harry has feelings for him. Niall, Liam and Zayn make brief appearances and are not central to the plot. Low angst so the perfect read for me! 💙💚 But probably not your cuppa if you’re not a Larry
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2021
Louis is demisexual, Harry is closet gay. Fake relationship. Good communication and good feeling development. Not too long or short. Intellectual, have good real life points and educational at times. Emphasize bad side to being a celebrity. Big on emotions but not cry emotional, unless you count the nostalgia from missing them. Cute story, love the communication, love their best friend relationship it reminds me of COAGDP bc they're so close
June 15, 2016
I'm such a sucker for fake relationship aus!
I also love the way the author describes demisexuality, and all the little manips sprinkled all over the fic.
I also love the way the author describes demisexuality, and all the little manips sprinkled all over the fic.
June 9, 2024
Loved the way the author weaved around sexuality in a delicate beautiful way. Learned about demisexuality through this only!! Thank you so much. Awesome famous/non-famous trope
January 10, 2022
**4,5✨
June 14, 2021
didnt really like it ,was a bit akward and the fact that the both were so obvious but didnt notice...
January 1, 2022
my favorite fic. thanks for the demisexual representation
January 19, 2022
I really loved California Sold! It was very cute and I loved the way friends to lovers was portrayed in it.
Another thing I loved about it was that it had a lot of great asexual/demisexual representation. I appreciated that they didn’t have sex right away and Louis turned him down because that is how it actually is in real life. Just because you find someone who you love doesn’t change your sexuality and I think that was very prominent in this book. It was honestly beautiful.
One thing I didn’t necessarily like was the big conflict at the end of the book. It seemed a bit dramatic to me. I think maybe if I had also gotten Harry’s POV I could’ve understood where he was coming from, but I don’t.
I definitely do recommend it though! The rest of the boys are in the story as well and it’s over all just really beautiful :)
Another thing I loved about it was that it had a lot of great asexual/demisexual representation. I appreciated that they didn’t have sex right away and Louis turned him down because that is how it actually is in real life. Just because you find someone who you love doesn’t change your sexuality and I think that was very prominent in this book. It was honestly beautiful.
One thing I didn’t necessarily like was the big conflict at the end of the book. It seemed a bit dramatic to me. I think maybe if I had also gotten Harry’s POV I could’ve understood where he was coming from, but I don’t.
I definitely do recommend it though! The rest of the boys are in the story as well and it’s over all just really beautiful :)
August 2, 2022
This was the book i actually finished reading after a long time.
So i read it with too much expectations. But i felt that nothing really happened until chapter 10 or so. Maybe it was because i am a sucker for drama and twists.
But i have to admit the fact that the writing was so flawless that you just want to keep on reading. It is like that the pen is so smooth that you will write with it for the sake of it. It gave me an experience similar to reading "Sapiens" because there was some elements in it that was fascinating and made me think. I AM NEVER GOING TO LOOK AT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY THE SAME AGAIN 🙂 ''It's not the same ait was''🎶
In general i quite enjoyed it.
So i read it with too much expectations. But i felt that nothing really happened until chapter 10 or so. Maybe it was because i am a sucker for drama and twists.
But i have to admit the fact that the writing was so flawless that you just want to keep on reading. It is like that the pen is so smooth that you will write with it for the sake of it. It gave me an experience similar to reading "Sapiens" because there was some elements in it that was fascinating and made me think. I AM NEVER GOING TO LOOK AT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY THE SAME AGAIN 🙂 ''It's not the same ait was''🎶
In general i quite enjoyed it.
August 20, 2023
pretty good, i loved the idea of it all like how it was just a whole accident, without spoilers, and if the original publicity stunt hadn’t have gone wrong then none of it would have happened. anyway, i enjoyed not smutty so beware but it didnt feel super long but at the end of some chapters it did feel quite repetitive but other than that, i loved it. would read again xx
January 25, 2022
H è un cantante famoso, gay ma mai dichiarato. IL suo migliore amico L lo raggiunge e per un equivoco si finge il suo ragazzo.
Interessante perchéè spiega come funziona lo show business e ci si rende conto che non è tutto oro quello che luccica.
Interessante perchéè spiega come funziona lo show business e ci si rende conto che non è tutto oro quello che luccica.
July 12, 2022
Such a cute book; nice to read if you've just gotten done with a book that like breaks you lol. At the end it was frustrating because they were so oblivious to each other and then like the mini miscommunication trope happened, but other than that a cute non-stressful read!
December 23, 2022
I love it. It's such a sweet story, yeah I mean it was so obvious and sometimes a little bit frustrating, bc they just didn't get it right. But it's what we love, right?
Super sweet and a definitely must read for me.
Super sweet and a definitely must read for me.
November 12, 2021
VERY cute
November 10, 2022
Was good, wouldn’t read it again probably
June 26, 2023
4.5 stars!
oh my god
isthatyoularry is my jesus i swear everything they write i eat tf up
oh my god
isthatyoularry is my jesus i swear everything they write i eat tf up
July 18, 2023
don't know if it was badly written or it's just my attention span getting worse and worse each day
January 2, 2025
NESSUNO MI HA DETTO CHE CI SONO LE FF LARRY SU GOODREADS?????????????????
Wolves 🔛 🔝
Wolves 🔛 🔝
March 10, 2025
I absolutely loved this book. My third favourite book of all time. The little Instagram/twitter manips were excellent. I really recommend this.
January 12, 2022
very cute
September 2, 2022
one of the first long fanfics i’ve ever read, but definitely one of my favourite. best friends to lovers and fake dating in a very comfortable and loving situation. so many cute scenes, a bit of pining, all in all i enjoyed sooooo many sides of it
March 5, 2022
i love it so much, super exciting and entertaining!! def one of my fav LS fanfics
December 29, 2021
Really liked the plot :)
In a way it felt real.
A Bit to much miscommunication or rather no communication about certain things but really enjoyed it nevertheless!
In a way it felt real.
A Bit to much miscommunication or rather no communication about certain things but really enjoyed it nevertheless!
January 1, 2022
La delicatezza e l'insegnamento che mi ha trasmesso questa fan fiction me li porto dietro da due anni<3
August 9, 2023
Loved it
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews