Book Review: Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance

Title: Jenna and Jonah’s Fauxmance

Author: Emily Franklin and Brendan Haplin

Pages: 299

Publication Date: 2011

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Buy: Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Teen TV celebrities Jenna and Jonah make more money in a month than most people do in a lifetime. They can't stand to be in the same room as each other, but to boost the TV ratings their agents make them a 'real life' couple. Then the deception is uncovered by the paparazzi, and Charlie and Fielding have to disappear to weather the media storm. (Goodreads)

A review for Jenna and Jonah’s Fauxmance was the first review I saw on a blog that has now become one of my favourites. It was one of the first books that I’d decided to get because of the book blogging community so I was super excited when it came out and purchased immediately.

I took the book on holiday because I thought it would be a quick and easy read. It definitely is and I would say that it is very much a beach read. I read it very quickly and found the narrative style simple and enjoyable.

I loved the premise of this book; it sounded funny and would be the kind of thing I would like. But I was a little disappointed; it turned out to be very light and I found it hard to really empathise or connect with the main characters, Jenna and Jonah, because they weren’t explored very deeply. Personally I found them unrelatable and even a tad unrealistic because they just seemed to be clichés –  Don’t get me wrong I love many clichés, say like the bad boy with the good heart, but this book had a never ending abundance of them.

As for Jenna and Jonah’s relationship I loved that it had a very staccato feel to it – one moment you’d feel like they were getting somewhere then one or them would back down, so there was a slow build of all these missed opportunities or tentative starts. It was a little bit different then most romances I’ve read, so I found that very refreshing.

I did enjoy how the story progressed and I loved that they made Jenna and Jonah go do some ‘serious’ acting (any mention of Shakespeare and I’m all for it) and it kind of explored how unsure Jenna was, which I liked, but I was sad that that wasn’t taken too far.

I found that Jenna and Jonah’s Fauxmance had a lot of potential but that hadn’t been properly utilized. I still enjoyed it but it wasn't a book that would, for me, standout or be very memorable – a light, quick read for anyone who loves a good romance