The Boyfriend Thief (Stolen Kiss, #1)

by Shana Norris

[Raven]

Read this and other reviews at my blog.

Avery has spent years building up herself a perfect life. Her next plan? Working in a humanitarian program in Costa Rica as part of her goals to become a doctor. The only problem, is that she is having trouble coming up with the rest of the cash for the trip. So when her former best friend, and biggest rival in all things academic offers her five hundred dollars for completing a small task, she jumps on it. All Avery has to do is steal Hannah's boyfriend, Zac, away. Easy right? But Zac is nothing like she expected. He is spontaneous, and impulsive, and doesn't appear to take anything seriously. But Avery is starting to see that maybe she isn't perfect, she is actually pretty broken. Maybe Zac is exactly what she needs in her life, but can she keep him in it if he finds out about her being the boyfriend thief?

Oh my gosh!! This book! You guys, this was so good. Simple plot, girl is perfect and full of order, boy is not ordered at all, things go crazy on the way to them being together. Typical young adult love story. The only other book I have read by Shana Norris is Troy High, which was really light and cute. It was a fast, fun read, that you don't really take seriously. You just read through and enjoy it, right? I was expecting something similar with The Boyfriend Thief, but that was not what I got. There was a light plot that was driven with deeper themes.

Avery is a bit of a mess. She has obvious OCD, she wants everything to be perfect, and she is determined to be the best. She thinks that she wasn't good enough, and that's why her mother left years ago, and so now she works to prove that she is good enough to keep everyone else in her life. In the process, she has pushed everyone away from the most part, giving her a reputation of being a bit of an ice queen. Zac is so full of energy and life. He has so many ideas he can't control them. But it seems like most people don't take him seriously, and his father is determined to have him go into the family business instead of considering what he wants. Hannah has a mom that just cannot accept anything less than perfection. Elliot has a bad reputation but is struggling to show he is a good guy. Molly just wants to be happy, but also wants to support her best friend. The characters in this book were amazing. This book should be a testament to how to create well-developed characters. The characters were entertaining and relatable. It was so easy to fall into their world and walk along side them.

The story is really simple, but the underlying issues with the characters, namely Avery, come forth slowly throughout the book. I loved watching Zac figure her out. He may not have known everything, but he really took the time to get to know her. His powers of observation were just perfect. I got really into this book. I had gone in expecting fluff, so I was rather shocked when I started sobbing like a baby over various events. I hadn't expected to get so attached to the characters.

This was a rather short read, I finished it much quicker than I had expected to, but it was worth every second. I loved everything about it. This was one of those stories where the characters were so amazing, I wish I could see more of them. I highly recommend this to everyone.