Review: My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren 

Publishing Date: December 4, 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 384
Contemporary Romance

The Premise from the Publisher: "Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single. So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic. But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship...but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever" (Gallery).

My overall thoughts and review: Christina Lauren are one two of my favorite romance authors ever, and their books are always a must-read for me. I first fell in love with the writing with the Beautiful series, and then the Wild Seasons series, and since then, they've written primarily standalones. I still miss the days of their series because CL writes friend groups so well! They introduce such a strong couple, but also the support system, the friend group is equally as strong, and I really want to see everyone else get their HEA too. (Please CL, consider books for the other guys in this book! ;)) This book was such a nice treat. I immediately empathized with both Millie and Reid because they are both academics like me, and I loved how there was mentions of writing papers, teaching, and doing research = all of which is my every day life. Friends-to-lovers is a trope I really often enjoy, and I loved the dynamic of Millie and Reid. There are three others in the friend group: Ed, Chris, and Alex. Seeing the five of them together was just so much fun. The story also has chat logs, emails, and texts, and I loved the banter and dialogue between all of them. It's clear to see from the beginning that Millie and Reid have a special friendship because they are so comfortable with one another. Millie does hold her cards close to heart, and Reid wants more emotionally, and they both had to work to find a happy medium, where they can be the person they want to be for the other person. I liked seeing how Millie was able to break free of her fears with the persona of Catherine in the online chat, despite it being problematic of course. I also loved that there was a period where they actually had to work through everything to enter the relationship in a healthy way as opposed to an immediate HEA. All in all, I really enjoyed the book! It was lots of fun, I loved the dialogue, and I loved the friendship groups. I will say though, CL books aren't as "sexy" as they used to be, so I do hope they bring more of that back in the future ;)

My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮½ - 4.5/5 stars

Available for purchase at:
Chapters/Indigo, Amazon, Kindle, and Book Depository
Disclaimer: I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.