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Faking It

Di Cora Carmack

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Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle4/5 (131 recensioni)

Lunghezza: 370 pagine5 ore

Editore:: HarperCollins
Pubblicato:: Jun 4, 2013
ISBN:: 9780062273277
Formato:: Libro

Descrizione

Mackenzie "Max" Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

The hot new, New Adult title from New York Times bestselling author of Losing It, Cora Carmack.

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Azioni libro

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Informazioni sul libro

Faking It

Di Cora Carmack

Valutazioni:

Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle4/5 (131 recensioni)

Lunghezza: 370 pagine5 ore

Descrizione

The hot new, New Adult title from New York Times bestselling author of Losing It, Cora Carmack.

Leggi altro

Editore:: HarperCollins
Pubblicato:: Jun 4, 2013
ISBN:: 9780062273277
Formato:: Libro

Informazioni sull'autore

Cora Carmack

Cora Carmack is a twentysomething New York Times bestselling author who likes to write about twentysomething characters. Raised in a small Texas town, she now lives in New York City and spends her time writing, traveling, and marathoning various television shows on Netflix.

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Faking It - Cora Carmack

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1

Cade

You would think I’d be used to it by now. That it wouldn’t feel like a rusty eggbeater to the heart every time I saw them together.

You would think I would stop subjecting myself to the torture of seeing the girl I loved with another guy.

You would be wrong on all counts.

A nor’easter had just blown through, so the Philadelphia air was crisp. Day-old snow still crunched beneath my boots. The sound seemed unusually loud, like I walked toward the gallows instead of coffee with friends.

Friends.

I gave one of those funny-it’s-not-actually-funny laughs, and my breath came out like smoke. I could see them standing on the corner up ahead. Bliss’s arms were wound around Garrick’s neck, and the two of them stood wrapped together on the sidewalk. Bundled in coats and scarves, they could have been a magazine ad or one of those perfect pictures that come in the frame when you buy it.

I hated those pictures.

I tried not to be jealous. I was getting over it.

I was.

I wanted Bliss to be happy, and as she slipped her hands in Garrick’s coat pockets and their breath fogged between them, she definitely looked happy. But that was part of the problem. Even if I managed to let go of my feelings for Bliss completely, it was their happiness that inspired my jealousy.

Because I was fucking miserable. I tried to keep myself busy, made some friends, and settled into life all right here, but it just wasn’t the same.

Starting over sucked.

On a scale of one to ghetto, my apartment was a solid eight. Things were still awkward with my best friend. I had student loans piling so high I might asphyxiate beneath them at any time. I thought by pursuing my master’s degree, I would get at least one part of my life right . . . WRONG.

I was the youngest one in the program, and everyone else had years of working in the real world under his or her belt. They all had their lives together, and my life was about as clean and well kept as the community bathrooms had been in my freshman dorm. I’d been here nearly three months, and the only acting I’d done had been a cameo appearance as a homeless person in a Good Samaritan commercial.

Yeah, I was living the good life.

I knew the minute Bliss caught sight of me because she pulled her hands out of Garrick’s pockets, and placed them safely at her sides. She stepped out of his arms and called, Cade!

I smiled. Maybe I was doing some acting after all.

I met them on the sidewalk, and Bliss gave me a hug. Short. Obligatory. Garrick shook my hand. As much as it irked me, I still really liked the guy. He’d never tried to keep Bliss from seeing me, and he’d apparently given me a pretty stellar reference when I applied to Temple. He didn’t go around marking his territory or telling me to back off. He shook my hand and smiled, and sounded genuine when he said, It’s good to see you, Cade.

Good to see you guys, too.

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Bliss gave an exaggerated shiver. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m freezing. Let’s head inside.

Together we filed through the door. Mugshots was a coffee place during the day and served alcohol at night. I’d not been there yet, as it was kind of a long trek from my apartment up by the Temple campus and because I didn’t drink coffee, but I’d heard good things. Bliss loved coffee, and I still loved making Bliss happy, so I agreed to meet there when she called. I thought of asking if they’d serve me alcohol now, even though it was morning. Instead I settled on a smoothie and found us a table big enough that we’d have plenty of personal space.

Bliss sat first while Garrick waited for their drinks. Her cheeks were pink from the cold, but the winter weather agreed with her. The blue scarf knotted around her neck brought out her eyes, and her curls were scattered across her shoulders, windswept and wonderful.

Damn it. I had to stop doing this.

She pulled off her gloves, and rubbed her hands together. How are you? she asked.

I balled my fists under the table and lied. I’m great. Classes are good. I’m loving Temple. And the city is great. I’m great.

You are? I could tell by the look on her face that she knew I was lying. She was my best friend, which made her pretty hard to fool. She’d always been good at reading me . . . except for when it came to how I felt about her. She could pick up on just about all my other fears and insecurities, but never that. Sometimes I wondered if it was wishful thinking. Maybe she never picked up on my feelings because she hadn’t wanted to.

I am, I assured her. She still didn’t believe me, but she knew me well enough to know that I needed to hold on to my lie. I couldn’t vent to her about my problems, not right now. We didn’t have that kind of relationship anymore.

Garrick sat down. He’d brought all three of our drinks. I didn’t even hear them call out my order.

Thanks, I said.

No problem. What are we talking about?

Here we go again.

I took a long slurp of my smoothie so that I didn’t have to answer immediately.

Bliss said, Cade just finished telling me all about his classes. He’s kicking higher education’s ass. At least some things hadn’t changed. She still knew me well enough to know when I needed an out.

Garrick nudged Bliss’s drink toward her and smiled when she took a long, grateful drink. He turned to me and said, That’s good to hear, Cade. I’m glad it’s going well. I’m still on good terms with the professors at Temple, so if you ever need anything, you know you just have to ask.

God, why couldn’t he have been an asshole? If he were, one good punch would have gone a long way to easing the tightness in my chest. And it would be much cheaper than punching out a wall in my apartment.

I said, Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.

We chattered about unimportant things. Bliss talked about their production of Pride and Prejudice, and I realized that Garrick really had been good for her. I never would have guessed that out of all of us, she’d be the one doing theatre professionally so quickly after we graduated. It’s not that she wasn’t talented, but she was never confident. I thought she would have gone the safer route and been a stage manager. I liked to think I could have brought that out of her, too, but I wasn’t so sure.

She talked about their apartment on the edge of the Gayborhood. So far, I’d managed to wriggle out of all her invitations to visit, but sooner or later I was going to run out of excuses and would have to see the place they lived. Together.

Apparently their neighborhood was a pretty big party area. They lived right across from a really popular bar. Garrick said, Bliss is such a light sleeper that it has become a regular event to wake up and listen to the drama that inevitably occurs outside our window at closing time.

She was a light sleeper? I hated that he knew that and I didn’t. I hated feeling this way. They started relaying a story of one of those nighttime events, but they were barely looking at me. They stared at each other, laughing, reliving the memory. I was a spectator to their perfect harmony, and it was a show I was tired of watching.

I made a promise to myself then that I wouldn’t do this again. Not until I had figured all my shit out. This had to be the last time. I smiled and nodded through the rest of the story, and was relieved when Bliss’s phone rang.

She looked at the screen, and didn’t even explain before she accepted the call and pressed the phone to her ear. Kelsey? Oh my God! I haven’t heard from you in weeks!

Kelsey had done exactly what she said she would. At the end of the summer, everyone was moving to new cities or new universities, and Kelsey went overseas for the trip of a lifetime. Every time I looked at Facebook, she had added a new country to her list.

Bliss held up a finger and mouthed, Be right back. She stood and said into the phone, Kelsey, hold on one sec. I can barely hear you. I’m going to go outside.

I watched her go, remembering when her face used to light up like that talking to me. It was depressing the way life branched off in different directions. Trees only grew up and out. There was no going back to the roots, to the way things had been. I’d spent four years with my college friends, and they felt like family. But now we were scattered across the country and would probably never be all together again.

Garrick said, Cade, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about while Bliss is gone.

This was going to suck. I could tell. Last time we’d had a chat alone, he’d told me that I had to get over Bliss, that I couldn’t live my life based on my feelings for her. Damn it if he wasn’t still right.

I’m all ears, I said.

I don’t really know the best way to say—

Just say it. That was the worst part of all of this. I’d gotten my heart broken by my best friend, and now everyone tiptoed around me like I was on the verge of meltdown, like a girl with PMS. Apparently having emotions equated to having a vagina.

Garrick took a deep breath. He looked unsure, but in the moments before he spoke, a smile pulled at his face, like he just couldn’t help himself.

I’m proposing to Bliss, he said.

The world went silent, and I heard the tick-tick of the clock on the wall beside us. It sounded like the ticking of a bomb, which was ironic, considering all the pieces of me that I had been holding together by sheer force of will had just been blown to bits.

I schooled my features as best as I could even though I felt like I might suffocate at any moment. I took a beat, which is just a fancy acting word for a pause, but it felt easier if I approached this like a scene, like fiction. Beats are reserved for those moments when something in the scene or your character shifts. They are moments of change.

Man, was this one hell of a beat.

Cade—

Before Garrick could say something nice or consoling, I pushed my character, pushed myself back into action. I smiled and made a face that I hoped look congratulatory.

That’s great, man! She couldn’t have found a better guy.

It really was just like acting, bad acting anyway. Like when the words didn’t feel natural in my mouth and my mind stayed separate from what I was saying no matter how hard I tried to stay in character. My thoughts raced ahead, trying to judge whether or not my audience was buying my performance, whether Garrick was buying it.

So, you’re okay with this?

It was imperative that I didn’t allow myself to pause before I answered, Of course! Bliss is my best friend, and I’ve never seen her so happy, which means I couldn’t be happier for her. The past is the past.

He reached across the table and patted me on the shoulder, like I was his son or little brother or his dog.

You’re a good man, Cade.

That was me . . . the perpetual good guy, which meant I perpetually came in second. My smoothie tasted bitter on my tongue.

You had auditions last week, right? Garrick asked. How did they turn out?

Oh please no. I just had to hear about his proposal plans. If I had to follow that up by relaying my complete and utter failure as a grad student, I’d impale myself on a stirring straw.

Luckily I was saved by Bliss’s return. She was tucking her phone back into her pocket, and had a wide smile on her face. She stood behind Garrick’s chair and placed a hand on his shoulder. I was struck suddenly by the thought that she was going to say yes.

Somewhere deep in my gut, I could feel the certainty of it. And it killed me.

Beat.

I should say something, anything, but I was stalled. Because this wasn’t fiction. This wasn’t a play, and we weren’t characters. This was my life, and change had a way of creeping up and stabbing me in the back.

Oblivious, Bliss turned to Garrick and said, We have to go, babe. We have call across town in like thirty minutes. She turned to me, "I’m sorry, Cade. I meant for us to have more time to chat, but Kelsey’s been MIA for weeks. I couldn’t not answer, and we’ve got a matinee for a group of students today. I swear I’ll make it up to you. Are you going to be able to make it to our Orphan Thanksgiving tomorrow?"

I’d been dodging that invitation for weeks. I was fairly certain that it had been the entire purpose of this coffee meeting. I’d been on the verge of giving in, but now I couldn’t. I didn’t know when Garrick planned to propose, but I couldn’t be around when it happened or after it happened. I needed a break from them, from Bliss, from being a secondary character in their story.

Actually, I forgot to tell you. I’m going to go home for Thanksgiving after all. I hated lying to her, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. Grams hasn’t been feeling well, so I thought it was a good idea to go.

Her face pulled into an expression of concern, and her hand reached out toward my arm. I pretended like I didn’t see it and stepped away to throw my empty smoothie cup in the trash. Is she okay? Bliss asked.

Oh yeah, I think so. Just a bug probably, but at her age, you never know.

I just used my seventy-year-old grandma, the woman who’d raised me, as an excuse. Talk about a douche move.

Oh, well, tell her I said hi and that I hope she feels better. And you have a safe flight. Bliss leaned in to hug me, and I didn’t move away. In fact, I hugged her back. Because I didn’t plan on seeing her again for a while, not until I could say (without lying) that I was over her. And based on the way my whole body seemed to sing at her touch, it might take a while.

The two of them packed up to leave, and I sat back down, saying I was going to stay and work on homework for a while. I pulled out a play to read, but in reality, I just wasn’t ready for the walk home. I couldn’t spend any more alone time locked in my thoughts. The coffee shop was just busy enough that my mind was filled with the buzzing of other people’s lives and conversations. Bliss waved through the glass as they left, and I waved back, wondering if she could feel the finality of this good-bye.

2

Max

Mace’s hand slid into my back pocket at the same time the phone in my front pocket buzzed. I let him have the three seconds it took for me to grab my phone, then I elbowed him, and he removed his hand.

I’d had to elbow him three times on the way to the coffee shop. He was like that cartoon fish with memory problems.

I looked at the screen, and it showed a picture of my mom that I’d snapped while she wasn’t looking. She had been chopping vegetables and looked like a knife-wielding maniac, which she pretty much was all the time, minus the knife.

I jogged the last few steps to Mugshots and slipped inside before answering.

Hello, Mom.

There was Christmas music on in the background. We hadn’t even got Thanksgiving over with, and she was playing Christmas music.

Maniac.

Hi, sweetie! She stretched out the end of sweetie so long I thought she was a robot who had just malfunctioned. Then finally she continued, What are you up to?

Nothing, Mom. I just popped into Mugshots for a coffee. You remember, it was that place I took you when you and Dad helped me move here.

I do remember! It was a cute place, pity they serve alcohol.

And there was my mom in a nutshell.

Mace chose that moment (an unfortunately silent moment) to say, Max, babe, you want your usual?

I waved him off, and stepped a few feet away.

Mom must have had me on speakerphone because my dad cut in, And who is that, Mackenzie?

Mackenzie.

I shuddered. I hated my parents’ absolute refusal to call me Max. And if they didn’t approve of Max for their baby girl, they sure wouldn’t like that I was dating a guy named Mace.

My dad would have an aneurysm.

Just a guy, I said.

Mace nudged me and rubbed his thumb and fingers together. That’s right. He’d been fired from his job. I handed him my purse to pay.

Is this a guy you’re dating? Mom asked.

I sighed. There wasn’t any harm in giving her this, as long as I fudged some of the details. Or you know, all of them.

Yes, Mom. We’ve been dating for a few weeks. Try three months, but whatever.

Is that so? How come we don’t know anything about this guy then? Dad, again.

Because it’s still new. But he’s a really nice guy, smart. I don’t think Mace actually finished high school, but he was gorgeous and a killer drum player. I wasn’t cut out for the type of guy my mother wanted for me. My brain would melt from boredom in a week. That was if I didn’t send him running before that.

Where did you meet? Mom asked.

Oh, you know, he hit on me at the go-go bar where I dance, that extra job that you have no idea I work.

Instead, I said, The library.

Mace at the library. That was laughable. The tattoo curving across his collarbone would have been spelled villian instead of villain if I hadn’t been there to stop him.

Really? Mom sounded skeptical. I didn’t blame her. Meeting nice guys at the library wasn’t really my thing. Every meet-the-parents thing I’d ever gone through had ended disastrously, with my parents certain their daughter had been brainwashed by a godless individual and my boyfriend kicking me to the curb because I had too much baggage.

My baggage was named Betty and Mick and came wearing polka dots and sweater vests on the way home from bridge club. Sometimes it was hard to believe that I came from them. The first time I dyed my hair bright pink, my mom burst into tears, like I told her I was sixteen and pregnant. And that was only temporary dye.

It was easier these days just to humor them, especially since they were still helping me out financially so I could spend more time working on my music. And it wasn’t that I didn’t love them . . . I did. I just didn’t love the person they wanted me to be.

So, I made small sacrifices. I didn’t introduce them to my boyfriends. I dyed my hair a relatively normal color before any trips home. I took out or covered my piercings and wore long-sleeved, high-neck shirts to cover my tattoos. I told them I worked the front desk at an accounting firm instead of a tattoo parlor, and never mentioned my other job working in a bar.

When I went home, I played at normal for a few days, and then got the hell outta Dodge before my parents could try to set me up with a crusty accountant.

Yes, Mom. The library.

When I went home for Christmas, I’d just tell her it didn’t work out with the library boy. Or that he was a serial killer. Use that as my excuse to never date nice guys.

Well, that sounds lovely. We’d love to meet him.

Mace returned to me then with my purse and our coffees. He snuck a flask out of his pocket and added a little something special to his drink. I waved him off when he offered it to me. The caffeine was enough. Funny how he couldn’t afford coffee, but he could afford alcohol.

Sure, Mom. Mace snuck a hand into my coat and wrapped it around my waist. His hand was large and warm, and his touch through my thin tee made me shiver. I think you would actually really like him. I finished the sentence on a breathy sigh as Mace’s lips found the skin of my neck, and my eyes rolled back in bliss. I’d never met an accountant who could do that. He’s very, ah, talented.

I guess we’ll see for ourselves soon. Dad’s reply was gruff.

Hah. If they thought there was any chance I was bringing a guy home for Christmas, they were delusional.

Sure, Dad.

Mace’s lips were making a pretty great case for skipping this morning’s band practice, but it was our last time to practice all together before our gig next week.

Great, Dad said. We’ll be at that coffee place in about five minutes.

My coffee hit the floor before I even got a chance to taste it.

You WHAT? You’re not at home in Oklahoma?

Mace jumped back when the coffee splattered all over our feet. Jesus, Max! I didn’t have time to worry about him. I had much bigger issues.

Don’t be mad, honey, Mom said. We were so sad when you said you couldn’t come home for Thanksgiving, then Michael and Bethany decided to visit her family for the holiday, too. So we decided to come visit you. I even special ordered a turkey! Oh, you should invite your new boyfriend. The one from the library.

SHIT. SHIT. ALL OF THE SHITS.

Sorry, Mom. But I’m pretty sure my boyfriend is busy on Thanksgiving.

Mace said, No, I’m not. And I don’t know if it was all the years of being in a band and the loud music damaging his hearing, or too many lost brain cells, but the guy could just not master a freaking whisper!

Oh, great! We’ll be there in a few minutes, sweetie. Love you, boo boo bear.

If she called me boo boo bear in front of Mace, my brain would liquefy from mortification. Wait, Mom—

The line went dead.

I kind of wanted to follow its lead.

Think fast, Max. Parentals in T-minus two minutes. Time for damage control.

Mace had maneuvered us around the spilled coffee while I was talking, and he was moving to put his arms back around my waist. I pushed him back.

I took a good look at him—his black, shaggy hair, gorgeous dark eyes, the gauges that stretched his earlobes, and the mechanical skull tattooed on the side of his neck. I loved the way he wore his personality on his skin.

My parents would hate it.

My parents hated anything that couldn’t be organized and labeled and penned safely into a cage. They weren’t always that way. They used to listen and judge people on the things that mattered, but that time was long gone, and they’d be here any minute.

You have to leave, I said.

What? He hooked his fingers into my belt loops and tugged me forward until our hips met. We just got here.

A small part of me thought maybe Mace could handle my parents. He’d charmed me, and for most people that was akin to charming a python. He may not have been smart or put together or any of those things, but he was passionate about music and about life. And he was passionate about me. There was fire between us. Fire I didn’t want extinguished because my parents were still living in the past, and couldn’t get over how things had happened with Alex.

I’m sorry, babe. My parents have made an impromptu visit, and they’re going to be here any minute. So, I need you to leave or pretend like you don’t know me or something.

I was going to apologize, say that I wasn’t ashamed of him, that I just wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t get a chance before he held his hands up and backed away. Fuck. No argument here. I’m out. He turned for the door. Call me when you lose the folks.

Then he bailed. No questions asked. No valiant offer to brave meeting the parents. He walked out the door, lit up a cigarette, and took off. For a second, I thought about following him. Whether to flee or kick his ass, I wasn’t sure.

But I couldn’t.

Now, I just had to figure out what to tell my parents about my suddenly absent library-going-nice-guy-boyfriend. I’d just have to tell them he had to work or go to class or heal the sick or something. I scanned the room for an open table. They’d probably see right through the lie and know there was no nice guy, but there was no way around it.

Damn. The coffee shop was packed, and there weren’t any open tables.

There was a four-top with only one guy sitting at it, and it looked like he was almost done. He had short, brown curls that had been tamed into something neat and clean. He was gorgeous, in that all-American model kind of way. He wore a sweater and a scarf and had a book sitting on his table. Newsflash! This was the kind of guy libraries should use in advertising if they wanted more people to read.

Normally I wouldn’t have looked twice at him because guys like that don’t go for girls like me. But he was looking back at me. Staring, actually. He had the same dark, penetrating eyes as Mace, but they were softer somehow. Kinder.

And it was like the universe was giving me a gift. All that was missing was a flashing neon sign above his head that said ANSWER TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS.

3

Cade

I was people watching, filling in imaginary lives to keep my mind off my own life when she looked at me.

I’d been watching her with her boyfriend for the last few minutes, puzzling them out. They both exuded confidence and looked effortlessly cool. The guy was all dark—dark hair, dark eyes, dark tattoos. All his ink that I could see was depressing or violent—skulls and guns and brass knuckles. She on the other hand was bright—from her vividly

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I’m loving this series.This book didn't have the humor that the first book had but still was a great read. I wanted to read Cade's story to see his HEA after how things went for him in Losing It. So it was nice to see him fall for a girl who was so different on the outside though has the same core on the inside. I loved that he discovered love and grew and helped Max find and let her be herself. Max is like most girls they hide themselves or mold themselves into the person everyone wants them to be. She is still pretending to be this way for her parents so when they show up for a surprise visit. She picks Cade who would be the perfect guy to play her fake boyfriend. So it took her by surprise when she was attracted to a guy who she wouldn't have picked otherwise. I liked watching them both learn to trust and letting someone in that could end up destroying them. I will say I hated Max's parents (and sister-in-law) and how they dealt with the loss of one daughter and never really saw Max. It pissed me off towards the end on what they said and reacted. Despite my feelings for her parents I really enjoyed Cade and Max’s story and can't wait for the next book.

Rating: 4

Max is not your typical girl next door. She's wild and brilliant and edgy to the core. With her dyed bright maroon hair, body tattoos and burlesque dancing job shes nothing like Bliss, who we met in book one of Carmack's Losing It. Well she's the wild girl until her parents come into town, when they're around she is the straight laced, girl next door who studies hard and never lets her parents down. She plays a good game and has been for a few years, but a double life always winds up crumbling and Max is about to meet her match with a capital C.Cade still reeling with the loss of Bliss has had it with being depressed. Loneliness and sadness have made him a tad awkward and blowing off his friends to wallow in his self pity. His friends are sick of it, he's sick of it, but cant seem to pull himself out of it...that is until he meets Max in a local coffee shop and has to pretend to be her boyfriend to fake out her parents. Within a few hours the self pity is almost forgotten and when Max asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend for a few weeks he quickly agrees.In a turn of events unexpected to either of them, Max and Cade begin falling in love and not the all consuming passionate love but the all consuming this is it love. But this is fake and they are just playing pretend, Max cant fall for the good guy, and Cade well he's had it with getting his heart broke, he doesn't want to get hurt again...he will not fight for another girl...even though what he feels is ten times stronger than what he felt for Bliss. As the relationship builds each of them will have to get honest and look the relationship in the cold dead face, deal with the past, deal with the parents and face the present and the future together.L-oo-vvv-ed. I started this and couldn't put it down. I think my favorite aspect reading this book was getting to know Cade, in Losing It he made me really mad because I knew Bliss belonged with Garrick, he unfortunately came off as the whinny guy pining for his unattainable girl. In Faking It though his character development really shinned and the chemistry between him and Max blew off the pages.Great story and a great ending. Im looking forward to book three in this series.

Rating: 4

4.5 stars

Cade may have been sweet in Losing It but I totally fell for him in this one. To see him try and be happy for Bliss when he loves her; you feel sorry for him and then Max enters his life and, well…I don’t want to spoil it but they are perfect for each other. Max is completely different to every other New Adult female character I’ve read about (and I’ve read a fair few) she’s tattooed, pierced, has dyed red hair and is in a band. She is completely alternative and a tough nut but you find yourself relating to her in one way or another and I found myself quickly liking her.

They’re story is very up and down and I found myself willing them on from early on. Sure I guess when stood together they look a little odd but who cares about what others think when you love someone? (I am such a romantic!) They are perfect for each other.

Cora has this way of writing that is both fun and emotional and it is so easy to fall under the spell she weaves. I am so going to read everything else she writes. I am most definitely a fan!

If you’re looking for a fun, sexy read then I recommend this book. You don’t necessarily have to read Losing It first but it would help you get the gist of where Cade’s head is at the beginning.

It is amazing!

Rating: 5

I loved Losing It and couldn't wait to start reading Faking It. I was really interested to read Cade's story, and to meet Max. I liked Cade in Losing It, but he didn't blow me away or have that magnetic pull like some characters do, but in Faking It, I absolutely loved him. Oh, there is so much more to Cade than meets the eye and I loved digging past those layers while reading his story and learning more and more about him. Cade is going to school and living in Philadelphia, which is also where Bliss and Garrick live, and unfortunately, Cade is still hung up on Bliss, which makes a bad situation even worse. Try as he may to avoid them, he can't totally, and he really tries to hide just how broken and hurt he is about things when he is around them, not to mention the fact that he actually likes Garrick, which makes things even harder. Cade is not your typical bad boy. In fact, he is a really great guy.....a really hot really great guy with a great sense of humor, loyalty, and has sex appeal I wasn't even aware the boy possessed, with is hot preppy self. While Cade is in the coffee shop one day, Mackenzie "Max" Miller walks in with her boyfriend. Max is the total opposite of Bliss in every way. She has the whole badass, bad girl, thing going on, with tattoos, piercings, and dyed red hair, with an attitude and snarky sense of humor to match. (All the qualities of the guys I typically go for in books). There was just one little problem. Max's mom and dad were in town and on their way to see her, and they had no idea about this aspect of her life. Max had been trying to live her dream of being a musician, while keeping her real appearance, tats, piercings, and all hidden when she would see her parents. Unfortunately, she still needed their help financially to make ends meet. As fate would have it, she convinces Cade to play the part of her boyfriend when her parents come in the coffee shop to meet her, but Cade does his job so well that the parents want him to come to Thanksgiving dinner. Thus, the beginning of what is Cade and Max's story, and boy is it a good one. I think I liked Faking It even better than Losing It. What starts out as an "agreement" soon turns into something more, despite Max's desperate attempts to keep it from happening. Max is a very hurt, broken, and emotionally wounded person as a result of tragedy in her life that she has never recovered from. She tries to cover it up as best she can, but somehow Cade can see past the facade and into the heart of who she really is. The truth be told, Max doesn't think she is good enough or good for Cade. What she doesn't know is that Cade is just as broken and wounded as she is, and that she is the first light that has come into his life in quite some time. I loved watching their relationship progress. Max refers to Cade as Golden Boy, and he in turn refers to her as Angry Girl. They hurt each other, they help each other, they can't keep their hands off each other, and Max tries her best to run away from the thing that she needs the most, Cade. Cade's whole life he has been used to having to let things go, so when Max runs away from him, he has to make a choice, a choice as to whether he is going to go after what he wants or let it slip away. They did have a little help in the form of Cade's friend and neighbor Milo, who I just loved. I actually hope he gets a book to. While Faking It still had the element of humor that you find in Losing It, it is much more sober, intense, and heart consuming, as you journey with Cade and Max while they work through their issues. I found it amazing at how good Cade was with and for Max. Faking It is a great story that is romantic, sometimes funny, definitely intense, heartbreaking, heart warming, and even has its steamy moments. I thoroughly enjoyed it and most definitely recommend it.

Rating: 5

Alright, it's official. I love Cora Carmack's novels. They're such cute, fun, sexy reads, with just enough real life issues to keep them from being entirely fluffy. With Losing It, Carmack tackled virginity and deciding what to do in the real world. In Faking It, Carmack continues to focus on real life issues suffered by "new adults" everywhere: embracing yourself and deciding between money and passion.The obvious interpretation of the title is that Max and Cade are faking a relationship in a classic romantic comedy gambit. Obviously, their feelings turn out to be something real beneath the ruse and all of that. That's not the crux of the book, and not the essence of what the title's referring to, though. In fact, both Max and Cade are faking so much more, and, no, I'm not talking about orgasms here.Both leads are pretending to be okay with their lives as they are. Cade's pretending that he's over Bliss, and that he's not upset by her relationship with Garrick. He's pretending that he's happy in grad school, and not drowning in debt. If he pretends hard enough, his life really will be perfect, right? Max, on the other hand, fakes fearlessness to mask her emotions. She also fakes her personality around her family, pretending to be the perfect daughter, the one that died.Honestly, no one can mess someone up like their parents, am I right? Max's parents put a lot of pressure on her, and express their disappointment at her died hair and dreams of being a musician. They help her pay her bills and loans (left over from her two years of college before she dropped out), but they hold that aid over her head. Could they ever really accept Max's tattoos and piercings or her bad boy boyfriends? Though she's a badass elsewhere, in front of her parents, she reverts back to the scared little girl, unable to talk back or step out of line.Cade and Max are a case of opposites attracting in a lot of respects. He's all prep and she's a rock girl. Though there relationship does proceed on a much faster timeline than I prefer, they do have chemistry and it sizzles. Actually, as a couple, I like them much better than I did Bliss and Garrick. Their bond just comes off as more real, with more confronting of the other person's baggage and acceptance thereof. They're really making one another better and stronger. Also, Carmack reverses the traditional romance tropes, with Cade being the sweeter, more emotional one in the relationship, the one most desirous of a lasting connection. I wish Carmack didn't go quite as heavily for the happily ever after again at the end, but, still, Faking It was an awesome read for me.The interesting change from Losing It is in the narrative style. Losing It was written entirely in Bliss' first person perspective, but Faking It alternates between Cade and Max. Though initially skeptical of this decision, Carmack does a nice job with it. I never had any difficulty discerning which POV I was reading at any given time. Plus, this really highlights how much edgier Max is compared to Cade, which I like. She's got emotions, but he's definitely the more emotional of the two, which is great to see this way.Carmack's sophomore novel proves that she's not a one hit wonder. If you enjoyed Losing It, Faking It is a must read, even if you were on the fence about whether you wanted Cade's story. Now to wait impatiently for book three about Bliss' college roommate, Kelsey.

Rating: 5

I was a little disappointed in the end. I kind if wish there had been further resolution with her family. Or maybe a smackdown with her sister-in-law.

Aside from that, this was a stellar read. I was more invested in the characters than I expected to be. Max was everything I love in a heroine; strong, outspoken and in tune with herself yet also vulnerable and scared.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Cade after seeing him in the last book. He ended up being the perfect mix of Golden Boy and Bad Boy. He was the perfect match for Max, though it didn't seem like it at first glance.

An excellent read.

Rating: 4

This book is somewhere between 4.5 and 5 for me. I really enjoyed it.

After Bliss and Garrick's story, Cade is left somewhat broken hearted, and pretty much the minute he decides to take a break from seeing Bliss, until he's positive he's over her, not to mention Garrick's little reveal to him that he will propose to Bliss very soon, in storms Max.
Mackenzie (Max) has suffered a very traumatic event in her early teens and is still not quite dealing with the aftermath. She lives a double life and is very much tormented by it.

When Cade agrees to be her fake boyfriend to appease her parents, her request the minute they meet, he slowly starts breaking down her walls and shows her her true self is beautiful.

There's some sad in this book, and a fare share of angst, drama and surprisingly enough, some laughs. One of my favorites is:
"I got my first kiss from my babysitter's son when I was five and he was seven. He kissed me and then pulled my hair."
He chuckled, and dabbed at a scrape just above the waistline of my skirt.
"We have different definitions of dirty."
I smirked and added, "To this day nothing turns me on more than when a guy pulls my hair."
There was silence above me, and his hand stilled against my back. I would have killed to see his expression.
Me too, Max. Me too!!!

Families are hard. Traumatized by tragedy familier are so much harder. When Cade enters Max's life (or vice versa) he shares her burden in a beautiful way, and Cora Carmack writes it beautifully.

Rating: 5

You know how sometimes you have no idea what drew you to a particular book? That was definitely the case for me with Cora Carmack's Faking It. I mean, I like a good romance as much as the next person, but a dyed, tattooed, and pierced heroine? Not generally my thing. Maybe it was the suggestion of steamy sex on the cover that inspired me to bring this one home. Or maybe it was the idea of two opposites masquerading as a couple. Or maybe I was just trying to find something different. And this was different, for sure.Mackenzie Miller, known as Max, thrives on being edgy. She's tattooed and pierced, working as a bartender and dancer and trying to make it as a singer. Her current boyfriend, Mace, is quite possibly 180 degrees from the sort of guy that her very conservative parents would have chosen for her, heavily tattooed, not terribly intelligent, with large gauges in his ears. When those same buttoned-up parents spring a surprise visit on Max, she has to think fast to keep them from meeting him at the coffee shop where they are sitting. She ditches Mace when her eyes light on Cade. She propositions him because she knows he is the epitome of everything her parents want her to choose. Cade, still hurting from the women he loved finding someone else, agrees. The fact that Cade completely charms Max's parents and lobbies Max for a real date turns the limited time acting job as Max's boyfriend into something more. And as they get to know each other, they find that not only are they explosively attracted to each other but they appreciate each other for the real, uncovered, unhidden, deep down person that they each are. Cade and Max are very much a good guy and bad girl couple. Cade is tired of being quite so good, looking to cut loose a little bit with Max. Max discovers that having a knight in shining armor, a guy who treats you well, respects you, and encourages you to live in the skin you're in doesn't have to be a bad thing. Max clearly has a lot of baggage with her parents, always feeling inferior and conscious that she is not the golden child. The novel is told in alternating first person perspectives so that the reader has the chance to see into both Max and Cade's heads. Unfortunately, inside Max's head is an immature, insecure, childishly annoying character. She's just not likable enough for Cade, who is drawn as lovely, perfect, and thoughtful. The end resolution with Max's family is too pat and easy, making a lie of her years of hiding who she was from them and solving the requisite estrangement between Cade and Max far too quickly. Over all, the pacing and narrative tension are off and the writing is unspectacular. There are frequent grammatical errors (and not just during the dialogue) and the too plentiful similes and metaphors were over written and often ridiculous. Perhaps I'd have been better served to take note of the things that didn't appeal to me right in the cover copy and leave this one for a reader who wasn't already on the fence who might have been able to overlook these issues.

Rating: 2

I was a little upset to learn I had read the series out of order, but I'm patiently waiting for my library to get a copy of "Losing It" so that I may finally understand Cade a little better. At the end of this book, I just felt acquainted with Cade. I loved Max! She has an amazing and confident personality I loved!

Rating: 5

I
really liked this book and I'm so really glad that we got to see Cade
ina whole new light that showed how that much more amazing he was
without all the moping with Bliss. I really liked Max too and how strong
minded she was. The ending was realy sweet,albeit a little bit
predictable.

Rating: 4

Another great read in this series. I loved Cade getting his own story and his own happy ending. It was wonderful to see both him and Max grow through the story.

Rating: 4

This was an amazing read. Cade is trying to move on from his heartbreak over Bliss but is having a hard time. He meets Max in the most unusual way but she is exactly what he needs. Unfortunately, she comes with a ton of baggage but Cade will never back down from the challenge. This is a good one and I definitely recommend it.

Rating: 5

Faking It by Cora Carmack"Losing It" series #2Mackenzie "Max" Miller is a college drop-out trying to make her way as a singer in a band in Philadelphia. She is tattooed, pierced, and dyes her hair in bright colors--everything her ultra-conservative parents would hate if they knew. She's currently dating Mace, the drummer in her band, but is starting to feel a little ambivalent about the relationship. She gets a call from her parents discovering they planned a spontaneous visit from Oklahoma and are already in town. Quick! She has to ditch the boyfriend they would hate and hide her body art within the next five minutes. She spies a preppy-looking guy seated by himself in the coffee shop where she is currently in panic mode. In desperation, she asks him if he will pretend to be her boyfriend for 24 hours while her parents are in town. He agrees. Now the fun starts. Cade Winston is the ultimate of perfect fake boyfriends and her parents love him. Max is drawn to him as well, but keeps pushing those feelings to the back burner since she already has a boyfriend. Cade, however, proves himself to be irresistible when one thing after another happens and he is always there in the nick of time to get her out of a jam, including when a man attacked her outside of her place of employment.They develop an easy friendship and have amazing chemistry, but they first have to work their way through some old baggage on both sides, and Max has to face the fear of showing her true self to her family.This is a nice story of a young couple finding their way. The H is pretty perfect, a great example for the type of boyfriend you should snap up if you are lucky enough to find (honest, sensitive, full of integrity, patient, etc.). The h is a sweetheart deep down but it takes a while to get through her layers. She has reasons for her hesitation, but she comes across as pretty self-centered throughout the book. Really, just a typical 20-something so it's nothing abnormal. We've all been there. I'm twice that age now so I have less patience for it. No time for it; I've got $h!+ to do. hehe

Rating: 3

I liked Bliss’ story better, it was good, but get like it was missing something. Still a good read.

Rating: 4

I love this book , I wish the author would have wrote another one about max and Cade

Rating: 5

This book is so sweet. I can't even... OK. First things first. I did not love Losing It. I didn't love it for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the title, which made me uncomfortable (I'm a married grown up; I don't know what's wrong with me). And it's about actors at theater school. I act for a living, so I find stuff about acting and actors to be kind of embarrassing to read. I also read it maybe a little to soon after the abysmal Slammed, which covers a similar relationship (although Slammed handles it in a way that is yucky, unethical, and short on charm), so I never really gave it a shot. Slammed is a terrible book, and if you haven't read it, don't. Please don't read it. Please.

But this week, something magical happened. Faking It went down to $2.99 in the Kindle store, and I was stuck in bed with a cold, an injured back, cramps, and three flavors of pudding. And guess what? It is the most charming book in the whole wide world. Holy moly. During an early scene, I caught myself giggling aloud. Giggling. Me. I don't giggle--my laugh is a humiliating guffaw of Julia Roberts proportions.

The meet-cute is more of a meet-adorable. It's...you guys, I can't write this. I just started giggling again thinking about it. Man. OK. Be serious, Katie.

OK. Max, our awesome rockabilly female love interest (we bounce back and forth between her and Cade's first-person accounts of what has happened, and that narration style, while generally annoying, works fine here), is at a coffee shop with her terrible boyfriend when her parents call to say they're in town from Oklahoma and they'll be at the coffee shop in five minutes to meet the boyfriend. So obviously he bails, leaving Max kinda hung out to dry, and she convinces Cade, who's having coffee alone following an awkward meeting with his former best friend, to play her boyfriend for the weekend. You guys, I know it sounds dumb. I know. But it's so, so good.

Oh! So Max is in a band with her best dude friend and the useless boyfriend we met earlier. When her best friend says she has "balls of steel," she calls him out on how crappy that is, and guys, it made me really happy. Because she points out that women can be strong and that complimenting a woman by saying she's masculine is actually insulting to our gender. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, and this book stole my heart by having a character take a stand on it.

I also really like that a big deal is not made of the fact that Max occasionally smokes. YA and NA literature tends to treat smoking as either really disgusting or really cool, and this book is just like, "Hey, some people smoke sometimes because it forces them to take big breaths and that calms them down," and that's it.

It also talks about the thing where you're not religious and when you go back home for the holidays you have to hold hands with everyone and say Grace before you can eat any food. Because sitting through the prayers of a different religion from what you personally believe is really awkward. And you have to hold someone's sweaty hand while enduring it.

Things that bothered me, and I'm really grasping at straws here:

"Drink" is, very early in the book, used as used as both a noun and a verb in the same sentence. Just specify what's she's sipping on and you won't have to say things like "She took a drink of her drink." In fact, we already know it's coffee. So say that and it won't be weird.

This author also makes some unfortunate pronoun choice mistakes. She tends to say "you and I" when "you and me" would actually be grammatically correct.

I also have a major pet peeve that's kind of dumb, but this book touched on it several times: Original song lyrics in books make me extremely uncomfortable. Where She Went is the only book I've ever read with song lyrics that were actually good and did not make me squirm, and as much as I loved this book, it is no Where She Went. So if you have thsi same issue, prepare to cringe a lot.

Also, there's a big emotional reveal at the end, and it's kind of a dud. Like, I kind of felt like, "Oh, that's sad. Ten years it's taken you to get over it, huh?"

So as far as New Adult lit goes, Cora Carmack is not as good a writer as, say, a Gayle Forman or a Tammara Webber, but who cares? This is a fun, sweet series. And if you have a kindle, Losing It is currently $1.99 and Faking It is $2.99. That's pretty awesome. AND the next book is going to follow a new main character while she backpacks around Europe. What's not to love?

Review also posted at Finding Bliss in Books

Rating: 4

Great book 1 to this trilogy. Cora cormack is a must buy

Rating: 5

I think is a great book. An original story that transmitted a lot of emotion easily. Love, humor, confusion, fantastic

Rating: 5

My biggest issue with Faking It was the character development. It was really hard to get a good read on Max. Her personality was all over the place. She was actually kinda of annoying, and I really don't like not understanding the main character. Cade was easier to figure out and more enjoyable to follow. But at the same time, he was an open book and really had no depth. As for the supporting character, there were a small handful of them and they were all pretty weak.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. The story was just too predictable I knew what was going to happen, it left for no excitement while reading the book. I just feel like there wasn't much meat to this book. Maybe, I'm getting too used to books that feature characters that have tons baggage, but this book just didn't do it for me. More or less, I just didn't really connect with the story or characters.

To read more reviews like this one, check out my site, www.ObsessiveBookNerd.com

Rating: 2

better than the first!

Rating: 5

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Rating: 1

I loved this one just as much as I loved the first book. On to book three!

Rating: 4

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Faking It

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Faking It

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Faking It

Seeking Her: A FINDING IT Novella

Losing It

Rusk University

Losing It

Twisted

Wild: The Ivy Chronicles

Beautiful Oblivion: A Novel

Losing It

Tangled

Seeking Her: A FINDING IT Novella

Tease: The Ivy Chronicles

Nash: A Marked Men Novel

Keeping Her: A LOSING IT Novella

Breathe

A Beautiful Wedding: A Novella

Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles

Lead Me Not

Rule: A Marked Men Novel

Find You in the Dark

Wicked Sexy Liar

Ms. Manwhore: A Manwhore Series Novella

Rome: A Marked Men Novel

Effortless

Tamed

Until It Fades: A Novel

Manwhore +1

Thoughtless

Ten Tiny Breaths: A Novel

Nothing More

Manwhore

Torn: Book 1 in the Torn Series

Nothing Less

One Tiny Lie: A Novel

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Faking It - Cora Carmack

1

Cade

2

Max

3

Cade

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