“Mia, can you spend senior year showing the new foreign exchange student around?” “No.” “Please?” “Fine.” “And, by the way, Alexi’s moving in with us.” Seventeen-year-old Mia plans to turn Alexi, the hot Greek foreign exchange student into an American. Between football, parties, and a make-over, she’ll have him Americanized by home-coming. The only problem? Alexi is great just the way he is. Mia’s falling fast, and she must resist, because Alexi is moving back to Greece one day. And, until he leaves, he’ll be living under the same roof with her…this can’t happen. Or can it? (Single Female Point of View, Standalone, HEA).
Emily Evans writes fun, young adult romance. She holds a BA in Psychology from Texas A&M University and an MFA in Creative Writing from American College Dublin. A native Houstonian, she loves travel, movies, and books and may be found at www.EmilyEvansBooks.com.
A terrifically entertaining, young-adult romantic comedy
Seventeen-year-old Mia is thrilled to discover that during most of her senior year in high school, she will be granted an unprecedented degree of personal freedom to party with her best friend and fellow cheerleader, Lauren. Her very conservative parents are setting out on a months-long, around-the-world cruise, and they have left her in the care of her 24-year-old, absent-minded, artist sister, Hope. When soon after her parents are on their way, Mia discovers that Hope will be moving in with her fabulously wealthy, and extremely take-charge, Greek boyfriend, Niko, she's more than willing to live alone at Hope's apartment. But neither Hope nor Niko will hear of this arrangement. Hope insists that it's her responsibility to supervise Mia, and Niko feels honor bound to assist Hope in a mission that Mia considers completely unnecessary. The last thing she wants is a second babysitter who is much more wide-awake than Hope. The decision is taken out of her hands, however, when Niko sends in a whole team of movers and whisks the sisters to his place, an enormous mansion that seems more like a palace to Mia than a home.
As a consolation prize for his high-handedness, Niko informs Hope and Mia that his sister, Sacha, who will be a senior like Mia, is withdrawing from the British boarding school she's attended for years, is coming to live with Niko, and will attend Mia's school, Trallwyn High School in Texas. Mia is intrigued at the possibility of gaining a new girlfriend and begins a lively, anticipatory correspondence with Sacha via email and text. Sacha proves to be a witty and fascinating girl, and Mia is very much looking forward to spending time with the lively Sacha, who will be sharing a suite of rooms with her in Niko's mansion. But on the day of Sacha's arrival, Mia and Hope are utterly shocked to discover that Niko has misled them. His "sister" is actually a brother. And what a brother! He's six-foot-two, with an athletic physique, a gorgeous face, and his name is Alexander.
Alexander has two nicknames, Alexi, and another name only used by his closest family members--Sacha.
This book is a terrific, PG, romantic romp by talented YA author, Emily Evans. Alexei and Mia are very sympathetic protagonists and make a wonderful couple. There are also many quirky subcharacters, and I especially enjoyed the odd-couple of Niko and Hope.
Adult romance readers (and about 60% of the audience for YA novels are drawn from this demographic, including myself) who have read Harlequin Presents novels will enjoy a really fun, comic homage to the rich, Greek, alpha hero so often found in HP novels.
As is always the case with Ms. Evans's YA novels, the heroine is a virgin, and there is no underage sex. However, the author does a fabulous job creating really enthralling sensuality and sexual chemistry between the attractive and pleasing hero and heroine while offering only hand-holding, sunscreen applications to each other's backs, and a few heated kisses. This is a rather remarkable achievement, and quite refreshing in a romance-novel universe extremely overpopulated with boringly explicit sex scenes that too often substitute heaving body parts for real emotion.
I would have rated this book G, but due to some underage drinking and the definitely sensual tone of many scenes, I would say it rather leans more toward PG.
By the way, I purchased this book in Kindle format, and as is the case with every one of Ms. Evans's books (I own them all), it is well formatted and designed, with zero editing errors. The same cannot be said for many mainstream-published Kindle books these days, particularly from the above-mentioned Harlequin lines.
This book was not at all what I expected. There was a lot more drama and physicality than I expected, because the other book I had read by this author was more on the cute, rom-com side.
The main character, Mia, was fantastic. She was over-the-top in a lot of ways, but you couldn't help but like her. She was confident and honest-oh, so perfectly honest-about how she felt about Alexi. I liked watching her learn to love him and his differences, not just culturally, but personality-wise. I liked that she was popular, but didn't always follow exactly what the in-crowd wanted her to do (for example saving herself). I liked how she didn't put up with crap. Oh, and she was a self-checker. She (usually) kept herself from getting in to deep or being overly dramatic.
I also liked Alexi. I would never want him as my boyfriend, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate him. I liked catching glimpses of his sensitivity and his need to be liked for more than his looks.
But there are a lot of things in this book I wouldn't condone. Teenagers going out to bars, getting drunk, and staying out until dawn. A sister who lies to her parents about a living situation. Parents who leave their high-school age daughter for months to go on a cruise. A guardian who would put two teenagers in rooms in their own section of a massive house and be shocked to find them together. The limo driver taking two teenagers wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Mia saving herself through all of high school to willingly offer herself on the very first 'official' date with Alexi (there was heavy action but they were interrupted). A relationship between two minor characters that was nauseatingly sweet and unbalanced. Overall, a lot of behaviors I didn't like.
For those reasons, I'm not sure I would recommend this one. Mia is an absolutely lovable character and if none of the things I listed would bother you, then you'll probably enjoy it. If you are interested in reading something sweeter by Evans, I would recommend Accidentally Cinderella over this.
I feel like there weren't many complete thoughts in the book. I often was confused thinking I somehow skipped a page but nope. It just sort of jumps around. The writing style is odd also. Lots of short sentences that don't give much life to the characters!
Very good and intriguing quick read. I will admit though, that it wasn’t “good” in the sense that “I’d absolutely read this again”. It was okay. BUT! It was funny and intriguing enough to keep me wanting to find out what happens. I kept wanting to know what happens next. It was definitely a page turner. So in that sense, it was good. I’m glad I read it and gave it a chance. I do like it because it was romantic and funny and entertaining. Great character development. I’ll leave the story line up to you to think about for yourself ;)
It was a quick, sweet, light hearted read. I sometimes think this author should make her characters a little older. Then parts of it would be more believable. The characters were. A little shallow, but it worked for the story. It was enjoyable.
This book was not up to Emily's usually smooth story telling. This seems choppy. Maybe she wrote that way to emphasize the foreign differences in thinking? It is not in my top five favorite books of hers.
The few chapters were very promising, but after that it was very surreal. What parents leave their two daughters to go on a lengthy cruise. Also the men were to “macho” and no self respecting American women would tolerate being told what to do.
I thought this book was your standard high school romance book with comedy, which isn't a bad thing. It got a little boring towards the end but overall I enjoyed the book. I would recommend it if you like high school romance.
“You said you don’t want to look at me across a family table if we break up.” “I don’t want to look over at you at the same table and think we didn’t even try.”
I’ve read several Emily Evans book and this one did not disappoint. It’s a different one though, than what I have read from her, but also similar – if that makes any sense. There’s not much angst in here like what we get in high school themed books, but we have two very good lead characters here which makes the trouble and anxiety aspect not really necessary. Rich guy, jock, cheerleader, and living together? It’s like an awesome anime coming to life in the pages of the book. It was very entertaining; especially since our heroine sort of has no filter on her which makes her a bit naïve but you will still like her. I’d like to know Niko and Hope’s history though. Their love was really evident throughout the book and I can’t help but wonder if they already had a book or if one is in the works as a prologue? I hope so.
Set in high school, this book is about family, friendship, rules and consequences, new beginnings and love. Perfect for the hopeless teenage romantics who like to read fan fiction. ;)
This book was okay. The characters were unbelievable, the plot and background were too. I feel like Mia is just a spoiled little brat and he is just another spoiled rich kid. Not very good writing. It was funny, and cute, but not really deep, and it doesn't even include morals. I feel like both were both stereotypical good-looking people. I didn't even feel that he had character. Just a body. Which is very disappointing. Sorry, but this book gets a thumbs down! :(
This was a very cute, contemporary young adult romance. Very steamy but stayed within the boundaries of "clean". I really enjoyed it and I will seek out more works from this talented author.
I so wanted to give this book a 5+ star rating, but I couldn't due to the ending. The story concept, characters and overall concept was great and I loved it. However, it just felt super rushed at the end, especially when there was so much potential to continue on with at least 1-2 more books.
I liked this book. However, I felt that the end seemed rushed towards a happy ending. Alexi's father's acceptance at the end didn't mesh with the personality the reader was led to believe. I still have questions and want more from the characters.