Review: Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae

Publication date: July 29th, 2013

Publisher: Flirt

Stars: 2.5/5

Links: Amazon|Goodreads|B&N

Source: NetGalley

Rising star Cassie Mae introduces New Adult readers to a practical soon-to-be college freshman who seems to have everything—until a special guy shows her what she’s been missing.

In the wealthy town of Sundale, Kelli Pinkins has hatched the perfect plan to capitalize on her sweet reputation. For a generous fee, she will be every trust-fund baby’s dream: a Friday-night alibi, the “girlfriend” or “BFF” that parents dream about. With college approaching in the fall, Kelli’s services are in demand more than ever, which means that her social life is nonexistent. But Kelli is A-okay with that. She’s raking in cash for school. Besides, relationships are tricky, and sometimes very messy. She’d rather be at home on Xbox LIVE, anyway. Then the unexpected happens: She meets college stud Chase Maroney.

Chase isn’t like the preppy, privileged guys Kelli usually meets in Sundale. For starters, he’s twentysomething, always wears black., and he shoots back one-liners as fast as she can dish them out. But Kelli’s attempts to drive Chase away falter when she realizes that he treats her like he really knows her, like he cares about knowing her. When Kelli finally gives in to the delicious kiss she’s been fighting for so long, she faces a tough decision: make Chase a real-life boyfriend and risk her heart . . . or keep her clients and lose her first true love.

REVIEW


Friday Night Alibi ended up being a standard New Adult affair with the two main characters with lonely and painful pasts respectively, kisses, quarrels and a predictable reconciliation. The protagonist, Kelli Pinkins, uses her squeaky clean rich girl reputation to act as people's Friday Night Alibis -all for good pay, of course- when they are out partying or with a girl their parents don't approve of instead. This is until twentysomething Chase walks into her life with his terrible pick-up lines and threatens to put her job and heart at stake. 

Do you believe in judging a book by its cover?

Do you believe in judging a book by its blurb?

Then, chances are you'll get exactly what you're looking for if you decide to read Friday Night Alibi. Me? I expected a little more Veronica Mars-style snark and a little less fluff, given that the main character has a rather clever side business going on! That, I did not fully get but to be fair, I shouldn't have expected.

Some things I did end up enjoying in spite of the predictable ups and downs of the plot:

• It's light and funny despite the angstiness that slowly creeps in
• The main character, Kelli, lends a good deal of sass to the book!
• Kelli and Chase do not have the worst chemistry
• It was just the sort of silly but harmless read that was right for the summer
• While the slang-laden writing felt a bit too much in the beginning, I warmed up to it pretty quickly. Towards the end, I think I enjoyed it

What put me off was that while Friday Night Alibi was a sunny read and impossible not to like... other than Kelli's job as your Friday-night Alibi, this book felt like every other New Adult book. Girl in college or heading to college- check. Tortured boy or seemingly normal boy with a sad past- check. Dependence on each other to work through their problems- check. 

Chase did have his moments, though. Chase and Kelli's first meeting made me laugh out loud! I had to give it to Chase for using the worst pick up line ever and infuriating the poor girl! While the characters were likable, their characterisation did not make up for the plot basically consisting of every love-hate situation you can think of. I also could not buy into Kelli's poor-little-rich-girl troubles.

All in all, I ended up liking Friday Night Alibi in spite of myself. I just wish it had stepped outside what seems to be the tried and tested formula of every New Adult book in the block.

Rating: ★★1/2