Ask your best friend’s brother nicely, and he might agree to be your fake boyfriend. He might even become something more…
Nina Martinez is the band geek of Beachbreak High. The only thing louder than her trumpet is her mom’s insistence that she find Nina a boyfriend. Nina wants no part of it, but the only way out is to get a boyfriend on her own. And she’s not exactly the most popular girl in school.
Tyler Walsh is the laid-back, all-star wide receiver at Beachbreak High. When he breaks up with his notoriously mean girlfriend, she vows to destroy his next relationship to “teach him a lesson.” Tyler would never subject anyone to his ex-girlfriend’s antics, so he’s destined to be single for the rest of high school.
But Nina has an idea: She’ll pretend to be Tyler’s girlfriend and let his ex sabotage their relationship. In exchange, he becomes the boyfriend she needs to keep her mom from playing Cupid. All he has to do is come to a few Christmas-themed events and meet her gossipy family.
It should be simple. But as their fake relationship progresses, Nina wonders – if they’ve been faking this the entire time, when did her feelings become so real?
Emily Lowry is true romantic. She’s a huge fan of happily ever afters, witty, fun characters and fast-paced sweet romances.
Emily writes from her home in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and in her spare time, she enjoys hiking with her dog, baking cakes and paddleboarding.
Discover Emily Lowry’s first series, Rumors and Lies at Evermore High, for perfect sweet romance reads filled with gossip, high school drama & falling in love for the first time <3
1.75⭐️⭐️ Um.. how do I say this nicely… I didn’t like this book. I am in no way trying to be rude to the author, it’s just that I felt the writing was not good. I didn’t like the first book, so I don’t know why I even bothered reading It Could Only Be Tyler. Not my best find on Kindle Unlimited.
Nina Martinez, best friend of Tyler’s younger sister, attends Beachbreak High. Tyler Walsh is the laid-back, all-star wide receiver at Beachbreak High. Nina is not happy that her mother is insisting she find a boyfriend. It just so happens that Tyler breaks up with his girlfriend. She’s a bigshot at school and has threatened to mess up Tyler’s next relationship out of spite. So Nina and Tyler conspire to pretend a fake relationship. They don’t care if Parker tries to mess it up, and it will get Nina’s mom off her back. He would just have to come to a few Christmas events, meet the family, nothing complicated. But there IS a complication when somewhere along the way of faking it, they start enjoying each other’s company. Real feelings had begun! So now what are they going to do?
This story was adorable. It doesn’t matter that the reader can guess where it’s going. The journey to get there is what makes it everything it needs to be! The characters are likable, and their situation is relatable since many moms think they are doing the right thing interfering to give their children the right experiences. Although it rarely works out, it’s in the DNA, I think. And it’s usually done out of love. Anyway, this story was fun and you’ll enjoy reading it!
2⭐️ I just didn’t connect with anyone and this was a 200 page book. I feel like the writing was very plain and the characters weren’t very well portrayed/described. And also I’ve seen review saying this book is a horrible example of parenting because the mom forces her kid to kiss someone😂 honestly I feel like the author could have changes that to make a different character like that!? There was no spice. And you don’t have to read these books in order, each book is just about a different character. I think the only reason I didn’t like this book is the writing. I never felt anything for any character and I think that’s an important part of liking a book. Also I just saw that Emma Lowry wrote the Evermore High series, and those are good! Idk why but the writing in those books I liked better (go read that series instead of this one🫣🤫)
After the beauty of “It had to be Mason” I was SUPER excited for this book. It follows Tyler (Zoe’s brother) and Nina (Zoe’s best friend) who enter into a fake relationship because A. Nina needs a boyfriend to get her controlling mother off her back B. Tyler needs someone to help get his psycho ex-girlfriend off his back. But like all fake relationships things start becoming a little more *real* and Nina and Tyler have to reevaluate their fake dating status.
Okay this is going to be one big rant because this book was so incredibly disappointing—I am still surprised I only gave it one star. But it was so frustrating and just annoying that I couldn’t convince myself to give it a higher rating.
First of all Tyler and Nina were both cardboard cutouts of contemporary romance leads. Nina is snarky and “not like other girls” while Tyler is the super good looking jock who everybody wants. I can deal with this trope—sometimes I even like it—but it had no uniqueness that set it apart from others or even made me enjoy it.
Also—I just want to mention how frustrating Tyler’s use of “dude” ALL THE FLIPPING TIME was. It came off as being very obviously a female writer trying to write a guy by making him say dude all the time. Saying dude all the time does not make you a guy, it just makes you irritating and comes off as poor writing.
Which brings me to the romance. To say it was a mess would be putting it lightly—it was more like a hurricane came through and the romance was the aftermath. There was a little feeling of Insta-love but more towards the end than the beginning. Tyler claimed to have loved her for YEARS and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. There was no evidence that this was true and it came off as random and just useless.
I hate when it feels like the author adds things just to make their love seem more legit like somehow them just liking each other like normal means less than one of them liking the other for longer. (If that makes sense. I’m currently writing this just before bed and I am not 100% sure this is actually coming out right)
Let me also just add how abusive Ninas mother was. She would openly shame her daughter and tear her down throughout the whole book. And the author brushed over this abusive behavior making it seem okay.
Lastly I really didn’t like how Parker’s character was written. She was a spoiled brat for no reason and her motivations didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Yes there are extremely petty people out there but this was next level. And it seemed as if she was that way just to cause tension for the plot (which she was created for that purpose let’s just be honest) instead of being written like an actual PERSON. I’m a big fan of authors who delve into characters like Parker instead of leaving them as this jerk bully who does mean things just to be mean.
Okay rant over. Basically I didn’t like anything about this book and will only be recommending the first book to other people. But despite how much I hate this book I’ll still be reading the other books in the series in the hopes that they will be better.
Content: clean
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It's 00:56 and I'm in my Albanian Air bnb writing this review like 5 hours after finishing the book because I finished this while I was at the beach - perfect considering the town takes place at a beach, yes????
Okay this is the most average 3.0 star book ever when it comes to romance, I definitely didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, like it's mid at everything but I don't mean that in a bad way
I read this book to help me try and read Dance of Thieves (which I am now 80% of the way through woo hoo) and so like as a book to try and get me out of a slow reading pace, it didn't really help. This book totally could've taken me like three hours max to read and I spent like 2 weeks reading it. It wasn't bad it just wasn't intriguing yk.
Okay so now onto the stuff about the actual book:
Nina, the main character, was kinda annoying. I say that about a lot of female characters (ugh ik i sound like a pick me saying that but it's just hard to write a female character who isn't annoying). She was very mid idk how else to word it. I mean the book was 194 pages like there's not gonna be much characterization for them yk. But her mom pissed me off because she had no faith that Nina could get a bf. Also I think we can all agree that the name Nina should never be allowed to be used in books because Leigh Bardugo created Nina from Six of Crows and that name should only be reserved for her. Also i knew this girl in HS named Nina and she looked like a cabbage patch kid so like, the name Nina to me isn't flattering, but that's just a personal problem.
Now Tyler the love interest was awesome but so unrealistic. He is literally so nice and everything a girl would want in a bf, like trust me, he's nice, entertaining, athletic, like he's got it all, but obviously he's not some heartthrob that the world would go crazy over. But I really liked him.
Hmmm
Idk what else to say. It's obviously very predicatable and no drama or stress came with this book, which I loved because I don't wanna read something with a huge plot. Okay for these books being the way they are, they serve their purpose and they're good (realize I used the right version of there, their, and they're). if you need a short, cheesy romance, that is free on kindle unlimited, this is the book for you
sorry this is a boring review compared to my other ones but like I went drinking and was at the beach all day i am TIRED
bye bye good reads
***
Dance of Thieves update coming soon because I am almost finished with the book SLAY
This was a great story. The characters were a lot of fun. It had a good plot and kept me interested throughout. It was a bunch of popular tropes mixed but it felt complete. The story is devoid of bad language and mature scenes. It felt great when they got their ending. I left with a smile.
The story follows Nina and Tyler. Nina is Tyler’s younger sister’s best friend. Nina is being forced to kiss Edward, (disgusting,) because her mom wants her to have a date. Tyler has just dumped or been dumped by Parker, the queen of the school. She’s mean and threatened him by saying that she would destroy his next relationship. Nina and Tyler make a deal. Parker will go after Nina and Tyler would get Nina out of kissing Edward. But they start liking each other.
I wrote this voluntary review in exchange for an ARC copy.
Tyler and Nina's story is super cute, acquaintances to fake relationship to lovers. I have to say my absolute favorite part of this story was their Saturday detention together. All of the holiday cheer and fun was so cute and well, fun to read. This book got me in the christmas spirit and I recommend it for all ages. It was refreshing and you couldn't help but hope that these two would find their way to each other for a real relationship.
Also wanted to note that I have not read the first book in this series but I did not feel lost or anything as I read this book, since the main characters in this one is different from the first.
Book Number #2 in the BeachBreak High series, it was so nice to go back and continue reliving BeachBreak High after It could only Be Mason.
This book revolves around Tyler and Nina. They both have something in common or more like someone, Zoe, our firdt heroine of the series. Nina is best friends with her and Tyler is her brother. They already had common ground of knowing each other but once they both are put in a position to fake relationship, they both realized there was more that meets the eye! Feelings developed! This was such a sweet read and Tyler and Nina where so good together.
I was glad to see more of them! I just love all the sweet high school romances and this one did not disappoint!
This is supposed to be a cute story about two high schoolers who fake a relationship and fall in love. It’s actually the story of a girl with an emotionally abusive mother and the lengths she’ll go to to escape her mother’s abuse. Nina’s mother repeatedly tears her down, both to her face and behind her back. She tells her that she’s not “the type to have a boyfriend” whatever the f that means. She literally says that to her 16 year old daughter. And then she expends a lot of effort to force her sixteen year old daughter to kiss a guy she doesn’t like. Who does that? Someone who is abusive and controlling and probably narcissistic as well. Other than that it was cute I guess.
Aw, Tyler is just dang adorable. Now having said that, so far neither him nor Mason from book one stands up to Chase Jones from Rumors and Lies at Evermore High for me. But, each guy fits really well with the girl MC, and this is just a cute book. It's set during the Christmas season, which makes it even sweeter, and the opening chapters are super fun.
Definitely worth reading. I have the feeling I'll be rereading this series as well as Rumors and Lies at Evermore High, and I don't reread much.
I received an ARC copy of Emily's new book. Although not a typical Christmas novel it is set over the lead up to Christmas. Tyler and Nina both have different reasons to start a fake relationship. While spending time together trying to convince people their relationship is real, how long will it be before the lines between real and fake start to fade. Another great story from Emily. Would highly recommend all of Emily's books
This is a sweet, clean read. I have issues with some of the timing (how many Saturdays are there before Christmas?), the logistics (no way Jace could have a functioning restaurant on a bike without a permit) and Nina’s mom who is mildly emotionally abusive, mildly negligent (Nina is gone for a whole day without checking in), and so determined to have a perfect PICTURE that she puts the picture above her daughters feelings. Kisses only
I think I preferred Nina and Tyler over Zoe and Mason, but there were a lot more things in this book that annoyed me than in the first book, which is why I couldn’t justify giving it a higher rating. For example, I wasn’t a fan of Nina’s mom. She was a horrible mother and kept talking down to her daughter. It was not fun to read and her behaviour and attitude was never addressed in the book. I also didn’t like Parker. Those two characters kind of ruined the reading experience for me.
DNF - couldn''t get over the extremely creepy mom. To try to force a guy on her 16-years old daughter, so she' s paired for her weird family mistletoe kiss photo ! Like, really ?! Even Ty's reason looks almost normal in the comparison, and that's saying a lot. Over the top even for fake dating scenarios, which often tend to be a stretch.
Also, the development of their relationship is pretty nonexistent.
Yeah I read this in a day. Full disclosure: I read the first 50 pages a while ago.
This series is really just cute, silly, somewhat cheesy fun. I think that the writing is actually pretty good, albeit maybe geared towards a younger audience.
Similarly to what I said in my review of the first book: it’s a cute lil winter romance to get you through all the other trash you read.
I love the best friends brother trope. And this book was so exception. Like the first one, the chapters are short and the book flew by fast. Although, I kinda got bored during the second half. It wasn't necessarily bad, it was just kinda slow. The conflict is always resolved quickly. I will say, I love how easily they communicate. At least most of the time. All I'm all, it's a goof book. And it's completely clean. So there you go.
This is the story about Nina and Tyler, told in the dual, first person point of view, which I always love-it's a deal breaker for me. I really liked the characters, especially Nina you will warm up to her very soon. Another great YA story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Christmas + Football star = Best Friend's Brother + Threat to ruin relationship from ex + Loud happy sassy girl + Fake romance to get out of date setup by her mom = It could only be Tyler.
I love reading these contemporary stories only for the grand/cute/sweet gestures at the end of the book. This story has strong characters and navigates well with the plotline.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel from the first page until the very last. It has been a very rare occurrence that I could just pick up a book and read it in one day; but, I was captivated by these characters and their amazing love story instantaneously.
Loved it, another favorite. She writes the falling for each process so perfectly, it is not rushed or insta, it takes it time and you can see why it happens. Nice discovery, finding her books I mean. Great for those who like me, need HEA.
Loved this book! Such a great fast read! The characters had good development and BeachBreak High is fantastic! You won’t regret reading it, you’ll only regret that there isn’t another book staring Nina and Tyler!
clean, fluffy, easy to read. Only a couple kisses. Instant love.
The characters were nice, but I didn’t feel connected to them. The dual point of view was weird at times. I’m not sure what was happening or why I didn’t like it just wasn’t working.