Rê 's Reviews > The Replacement Crush

4 “I want a McNerdy” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, Entangled Teen!

Well, Lisa Brown Roberts... I’m becoming a fan.

A few weeks ago (maybe a little longer) I read “Resisting the Rebel” by this same author, and let me tell you, it was sooo good and sooo hot! Go read it. Here’s my review in case you’re still in doubt.

Anyway... when I saw “The Replacement Crush” had been written by Mrs. Roberts too I immediately developed a serious case of *grabby hands*. I wanted it, and I wanted it bad. Thankfully I got it and it didn’t disappoint.

TRC is the story of book blogger Vivian, who’s a romance addict (hello!) and works at the bookstore helping her mother. Vivian’s life revolves around books (hello!), her awesome friends and a crush who broke her heart. The idiot spent all summer kissing her, but as soon as classes started again he pretended he didn’t even know her and moved on to his next target. Devastated, Vivian starts a mission intending on getting over that heartbreak: find a replacement crush.

But Vivian didn’t want to risk getting her heart broken all over again, so the main criteria for her RC was that they should have zero chemistry. That ruled out hot-nerd, new guy Dallas, a.k.a. McNerdy (because apparently Vivian watches Grey’s Anatomy. How I miss the early seasons of that show!).

Dallas is everything you could ask for in a love interest. Mysterious, super smart, great sense of humor, too hot for his own good and a nice guy. Yep, teen me would totally fall for Dallas.

Of course Vivian did, too. While they spent time together while Dallas worked on bringing the bookstore into the computer-age, Vivian ended up falling for Dallas. But Vivian was stubborn and she didn’t want to let go of her RC plan to give the boy who clearly liked her a chance.

See… Vivian could be a bit frustrating at times because she was really stubborn and made things more complicated for herself than she needed to, but she also had a great voice, which made reading about her a lot easier. None of her actions or reactions were bad enough that I wanted to stop reading, but there were a couple of times I wanted to shake some sense into her.

Dallas, on the other hand, was pretty perfect. I loved how nerdy and smart he was. How he kept trying to win Vivian over without being pushy. How he flirted with her and then… okay. No spoilers. But it was hot. Sure I was a little irritated at something he did when Vivian pushed him away, but it wasn’t bad enough to ruin him for me.

Dallas and Vivian had great chemistry, which was both important because of the plot and because who doesn’t like to read about characters with great chemistry? I’m coming to the conclusion that Mrs. Roberts writes romance in a way that speaks to me, because I always find her books have the kind of romance that’s a little more intense and hotter than others from the same genre and publisher.

The rest of the characters were likable, especially best-friend-turned-big-brother, Toff and her successful-mystery-author mother. I loved Vivian’s relationship with both of them, as well as the bromance between Toff and Dallas.

Overall, this was a pretty great read with lots of elements that spoke to me (hello, romance addict book blogger!) and the kind of romance that had me swooning hard. Okay, so when do I get a new book from Lisa Brown Roberts? How about right now?