Skylar

I was so excited to read this book, but was sadly quite disappointed. Outside of the obvious editing and polishing that needs to still be completed with the book I just could not get into this. If you're looking for a book that is quick and lighthearted (for the most part) I do think this could fit the bill. If you're looking for a romance, you may want to keep looking.

This book is about a struggling portrait artist with a problematic family life. She suffers from a stroke and needs to undergo brain surgery. She is left with acquired face blindness after just receiving word of her big break.

Some things I liked about the book:
- I loved that they're bringing attention to face blindness. I honestly didn't know that it was even a real thing prior to this book.
- One of my favorite quotes from the book highlights some of the ridiculousness that is medical statistics: “It's life-threatening” he said, “but it can be cured. The survival rate is thirty to seventy percent.” Thirty to seventy percent? What a useless piece of information. – there were a few quotes in the book that made me laugh out loud, but this one was most memorable.

Things that didn't work for me:
- the characters and dialogue did not have much depth to them.
- I truly did not see a point in adding some of the components of her family life into the story. I think it was to tie in her mother and give her more of a background, but it just did not work at all for me.
- At times I felt as though I was being force fed information on face blindness. It did not seem to come naturally in the book at all. I appreciate that Katherine Center spent a lot of time researching this topic and wanted to give as much information about it as she could – I just didn't like the delivery.
- The thing that probably upset me the most was there was basically no romance in the book. Sure there was sort of a romance starting, but the whole book was basically about her going to a coffee shop, trying to paint but feeling sory for herself, and weirdly planning a wedding in her head with someone she basically didn't know (oh right and denying her feelings for another person she also basically doesn't know).

This book was kindly given to me by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Definitely a page turner. I overall enjoyed the book and the writing style.

The twists in the book were pretty easy to figure out, however I still really enjoyed the book. My main disappointments with the book were in the last section. I felt like there were too many questionable variables. How would Paris know Drew? Why would she accompany him on an interview with another woman who was accused of murdering her husband? Why would Elsie just give herself up easily like that? Not sure how cashier's checks work really but odd to go to the bank for one for large sum of money to give to someone you don't know..? Etc – many little details that seemed bizzare.

Less troublesome but more awkward/annoying was in the second to last chapter Paris spelled out exactly what happened the night Charles died to her mom as if her mom didn't know since she got her nickname for something she didn't do.

This book was so cute. I loved that typical gender roles were not followed. It really brought a different element to the book. It was kind of obnoxious that she couldn't figure out appropriate attire while pretending to be the girlfriend but I can look past it. The only other complaint with this book (and many others really) is that she clearly stated that something was real or not real (appearance-wise) and then immediately contradicted her initial gut assessment. I see this so much when women's feelings are being written about and it makes them seem unnecessarily weak/naive/dim witted/[insert word here]. They clearly know it's not the case so why the back and forth?

The book was kind of a slow burn. About half way through the book I started confusing some of the characters as it just wasn't fully keeping my attention.

I was most interested in finding out about Emma's past as it was so hush hush. I found that everything being covered up was a bit anticlimactic and the timing of when things were happening did not make a ton of sense.

There also seemed to be many parts of the book where I found myself asking why parts of the book were even necessary to add.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but there was a lot left to be desired.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I think the narrator did such a good job bring each of the characters to life. I was immediately sucked in to this book because of the main character, Gracie, who is essentially a list and productivity enthusiast.

The idea of having someone stand in for a famous actress for their events is hilarious, however there were a few things that I feel were completely overlooked in the book. The main thing was that Gracie and Sam started galivanting all over without ever get caught. This seemed problematic considering the entire premise of the book started because she was mistaken for Fangli without trying.

The other odd thing was when Mei ousted Fangli because she was jealous of Gracie and Sam's relationship. This didn't turn into anything which seemed a little odd despite them trying to explain it by buying off the media. IRL I feel like this story still would have turned into something even if it was small

I wanted to like this book more than I did. This book yo-yoed between being engaging and boring throughout the whole book. Towards the end when you learn more about what is going on it gets more interesting but then it ends soon after.

I'm also kind of bothered by the way Claudia came out to her mom. It seemed kind of like a cop out. Also seemed odd that it was in the very last chapter after everything else was wrapped up