California Sold

by isthatyoularry

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.

Genres: Fan Fiction, LGBT, Romance, Gay, Queer

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Annika Unterberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Sandali ♥️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[mills (taylor’s version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.7 rounded up
my expectations were high because unbelievers is my forever comfort fic and i've read it sooo many times. thissss wasn't for me. the idea was so good, i just feel like this was super dragged. it was also hard to see the shift from friendship to romance, and it became repetitive and a bit tedious to read at one point. but it was enjoyable.

[dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Irishvelvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Yuvashree · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[ella solgaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute!

[Wiktoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4,5✨

[Ce Ce · Rating 2 out of 5]

didnt really like it ,was a bit akward and the fact that the both were so obvious but didnt notice...

[Sophia Reis · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite fic. thanks for the demisexual representation

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Recommend: No
Format: eBook
Pages: 229

Best Quote:

🌚 When you goOO and I'm aloOOOne 🌝you liiiiiiive in my imaginatioOn 🌈 the summertiiiiime 🌻and butterfliiiiiiiiiies 🦋aAAAAll belong to your creatioOn 👑I love yoUUUU ♥️ that's ALL I DOOOOO 🙈I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU 💕💚💙💖💛💜💘❤️💝❣️

Thoughts:

Louis is demisexual, Harry is closet gay. (I also love the way the author describes demisexuality) 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

[Caidence Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 :)

[Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Frasqua74 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Noella · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[anothercrazybooklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Emma Eagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERY cute

[Jara.josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was good, wouldn’t read it again probably

[*ੈ✩‧₊˚ juniper ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!
oh my god
isthatyoularry is my jesus i swear everything they write i eat tf up

[hania warszewska · Rating 2 out of 5]

don't know if it was badly written or it's just my attention span getting worse and worse each day

[Bobby · Rating 5 out of 5]

owns my heart and soul

[frnaci · Rating 4 out of 5]

NESSUNO MI HA DETTO CHE CI SONO LE FF LARRY SU GOODREADS?????????????????
Wolves 🔛 🔝

[Jes Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. My third favourite book of all time. The little Instagram/twitter manips were excellent. I really recommend this.

[nele · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute

[soosfie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[hanna 🫶🏻 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it so much, super exciting and entertaining!! def one of my fav LS fanfics

[Michèle · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Rosss · Rating 5 out of 5]

La delicatezza e l'insegnamento che mi ha trasmesso questa fan fiction me li porto dietro da due anni<3

[Milena Teichert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it