Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae ♥♥.7

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!). 

Friday Night Alibi on Goodreads

Switched by Cassie Mae ♥♥♥♥

Switched by Cassie Mae was a pretty great book. I was surprised at how much I ended up liking it, but I’m going to start with talking about what I didn’t like since there was so much I did enjoy. The other reason I’m starting on a sour note is because there were a few things I noticed early on in my reading  that almost pushed me to stop reading (I say that begrudgingly since I probably would have still finished the book, it would have just taken me longer).

So, on to the bad beginnings…

We meet our main character, Kayla who is pining for her best friend’s guy (best friend: Reagan. Best friend’s guy: Talon). We also meet Wesley, who is Talon’s best friend and in love with Reagan (everyone wants Reagan, poor Kayla, right?). Wesley and Kayla hatch a plan to break up their best friends and steal their significant others. So far, not bad, and a pretty good premise. So, on to the bad.

First, the story starts out sounding fairly juvenile, a symptom only made worse by the  “Progress Reports” we get through out about how Kayla is handling breaking up Reagan and Talon. Towards the middle of the story these do give some pretty good insight, but as the book is in first person, it’s really something that could be done in the story for the most part.

Second, this book takes place at a college called Berkeley in California, so as I am reading I assume it is the Berkeley as in UC Berkeley. But for some reason the characters who live in the dorm (all but Wesley) have a curfew. Since I lived in the dorms for 4 years this really bugged me; the only colleges I have ever heard of having curfews were religious schools or schools in bad areas. So, of course, I looked up Berkeley’s policies for living in the dorms concerning both curfew and overnight guests of the opposite sex (since this also seemed to be a problem for the characters). Berkeley has no policy on either thing. I thought it was possible that the author put this in place to cause problems in the story, but no such luck there either. Since this was something that was so easy to look up, it bugged me all the more that it was included as part of the story line.

Finally, my last issue with the story is that is categorized as New Adult, which comes with certain expectations other than the characters are in college. The book was very PG-13 and could have very easily been done as Young Adult. It didn’t really deal with many of the coming of age issues normally seen in New Adult, and there was no sex (at least none was seen). Things like curfew and issues with boy/girl sleep overs would have translated very well in a young adult novel. Setting alone doesn’t make a book new adult. So that was a bit disappointing.

Now, I know you’re wondering why I gave the book ♥♥♥♥ if I seemed to have so many problems. Even with all the problems the book made me feel. I thought we got to know Kayla so well that when she was on the verge of tears so was I. And by the middle of the book I was so swept up that the bad things didn’t matter anymore. I know that isn’t much in the way of good things about the book, but there isn’t too much I can say without spoilers. But if you’re looking for a good story that will really let you feel things with the characters than this is the book for you.

Switched on Goodreads