Act Like You Love Me by Cindi Madsen

4.5 shining stars!!

Blurb

 

What would you do for a second chance with your first crush?

 Brynn McAdams isn’t the awkward drama geek she was in high school—she’s grown up and confident, or at least she likes to think so. But when her old crush, the impossibly handsome and impossibly unattainable Sawyer Raines, comes back to town to direct her community play, Brynn finds herself determined to be someone other than the girl he doesn’t even recognize. Good thing she’s an excellent actress. 

After his bad breakup in NYC, the last thing Sawyer wants is to get involved with another actress. But the glamorous and beautiful Brynn draws him in, even though as her director, he knows she’s off-limits. There’s just something about the woman that feels…familiar. Like home. 

As Brynn’s lies start to snowball, she struggles to stop acting and come clean. But what if Sawyer is already falling for the fake Brynn, not the Brynn she truly is? 

 

 My Review

I've been incredibly lucky with my run of great books lately, and this one was no exception. Act Like You Love Me was wonderful from beginning to end.

Brynn McAdams was a dork in high school. One of her most embarrassing moment happened during a school play when one of her co-stars stepped on her skirt, thus inadvertently flashing the whole school. Due to this mishap, she would be forever known as McFlasher. Her other most embarrassing moment happened to be with the only boy she has ever pined for in high school, school jock and all around cool guy Sawyer Raines.

Brynn never got over Sawyer's rejection in high school and the fact that people still know her as McFlasher didn't help. So when they meet again, Brynn expected another rejection from him. But to her surprise, he seemed to be interested in her. But here's the catch, Sawyer doesn't remember who she is and has wrongly assumed things about her. Should she tell him the truth about who she was and be rejected again or should she just go with the flow and see where their feelings take them?

I simply adored this book. I know the plot has been done many times before, but as I have always said, if it is done well, then it's still going to work. And for this book it did. Having two relatable characters helped as well. Brynn for all her insecurities was a wonderful character. Her insecurities and the fact that she never felt that magic that she was looking for in her relationships was endearing to me rather than annoying. Maybe because she was a really well written character and her quirks and her sass made her real to me.

It took me longer to warm up to Sawyer but when I did, I was hooked. In spite of the labels attached to him in high school and later on in life, he was just a normal guy dealing with some really shitty situations in his life. I loved his relationship his father who suffered from a debilitating disease which affected his view on love and relationship. He saw his mother struggling with his father's disease and when he was told that he may or may not inherit the same disease changed his views on relationships. He doesn't want to burden anyone with it. In other words, he doesn't want his life to mirror his parents.

He's wrong of course, and it took a lot of convincing to make him change his mind. There were times when I just wanted to shake him and tell him to get his head out of his ass and admit his feelings already. Plus, there is the fact that he made the wrong assumptions about Brynn which almost destroyed their relationship.

Another plus for this book is the funny and witty banter between Brynn and Sawyer. There is also a side romance going on with Brynn's brother Paul and Sawyer's ex-girlfriend in high school. Small town.

And oh, this book is clean. No smut. So if you love smut and can't stand reading a book without it, then this book might not be for me. I was okay with it. I barely even noticed it. And besides, the sexual tension between the two characters more than made up for the missing sex scenes in the book. Enjoy!

Purchase Links: B&N    AMAZON