Friday
Night Alibi is the second book I’ve
read by Cassie Mae. Much like Switched,
this story was super adorable. In the same way this book had the same issues in
that it was marketed as New Adult, but had more or a Young Adult feel.
This story is about high school
student Kelli (technically, she graduated early, so she’s not in school in the
book). She spends her Friday nights in her swanked out bedroom, playing video
games so no one will see her around town. She can’t let anyone see her because
she gets paid by her classmates to come up with lies for what they were doing,
and to be their alibi so her classmates can live their lives without losing
their trust fund money (they live in a conservative, rich, white town).
Then Kelli meets Chase. They flirt.
They argue. They make out. And then Chase asks Kelli to give up being the
alibi, and be his girlfriend instead. And she has to decide if he’s worth what
she will lose.
Again, the story is adorable. The
banter between Kelli and Chase is pretty perfect. And the book had the ending I
hoped for.
So, what went wrong?
One reviewer on Goodreads said they
felt the story was missing something, but they weren’t sure what. I think it
lacked the passion and real coming of age story we normally get from New Adult
books. That’s not to say that all book I the genre need to conform, but that
the audience has specific expectations within a genre. Much like Switched, I believe this book is really
more of a Young Adult novel. It was PG-13. I think I could have been okay with
that, but the characters also seemed very young and immature.
My other issue was the issue of
morality in the book. I believe characters should be well rounded and have their
own unique views about things, but Christianity may as well have been a
character for how much they brought it up. People know certain things about
small towns in the south. But the book wasn’t marketed as Christian fiction,
and I was surprised how much it came up when I was reading. I didn’t appreciate
it.
Overall, the book was cute. And now
I know what to expect from Cassie Mae. Lots of sexual frustration and no
release (for the characters!).
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