Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend by Becca Ann

Title: Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend
Author: Becca Ann
Blurb:
It’s stupid to fall for your brother’s ex. It’s even worse to enlist another’s help to win the ex over. But Brody is desperate and Hayley, his partner in American Sign Language, is more than willing to lend him a few tips.

She’s the school’s matchmaker,’ and with her bizarre and positive personality, Brody finds her easy to talk to, even about the most awkward situations. Hayley’s tips seem to be working, but as Brody learns more about his matchmaker, he starts finding reasons to spend time with her, and not the girl he thought he was in love with.

But Hayley isn’t ready to fall for anyone. Labeled the “Funny Fat Friend” within her group, her self image makes it impossible for Brody to share his feelings without Hayley shrugging it off as a joke.

Convincing her Brody can, and did, fall for the “Funny Fat Friend” turns out to be harder than simply falling in love.

Links:
Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
This book was bizarre. I mean, the plot itself is unoriginal and fluffy, typical of a YA romance novel (which I don't mind!), but the characters themselves were just... strange. And I don't know if I mean that in a good or bad way.

Brody is the narrator of this book, our male lead, and I wonder if that's why it has such a strange feel to it. Some writers can do a believable male POV and some can't. I don't want to say it was awful, but it just didn't feel right. Brody is pretty vanilla, we can call him a Bella Swan if you will. He's kind of just there, being hot, nice, funny, smart (aka no real flaws).

(slight spoilers after here)

Hayley is the really bizarre one. She considers herself the "funny fat friend" but of course she isn't "really" fat. Then again, Brody's brother calls him a "chubby chaser" for being interested in her, so I can't really tell. Brody says she's not, his brother says she is. I'm not really sure. Hayley also is apparently really against things like swearing, but she has no problem having sex with Brody THE FIRST TIME THEY KISS.

Yes, you read that right.

Hayley has never been kissed before and when she and Brody try it for the first time, it's so awesome she has to have sex with him right then and there. Most teenage girls value their virginity a little more than that and I would expect a girl as straight edge as Hayley to wait a bit longer before giving up the V-card.

As far as the swearing, Hayley apparently hates swearing so she uses all sorts of weird phrases instead of swear words (like 'holy f-bombs of glory').

She also uses the word "fart" instead of the "f-word" which drives me nuts. I've no doubt that it's a huge pet peeve of mine, but I hate the word fart. I hate talking about it. I don't like hearing it. And not only does Hayley use it as a curse word in this book, but she and other characters giggle over how it rhymes with "shart" multiple times. It grosses me out and that turned me off of this story a lot.

We also get to hear constantly about how bad Brody's room smells (like corn chips and ass). Over and over again.

I guess I just like to leave the 'gross' things about real life in real life. Farting and sharting and pooping and everything else along those lines just doesn't belong in a romance novel (IN MY OPINION).

My other major issue with this book was Brody's voice. He often loses the 'g' at the end of words (ie: comin' goin' droppin' etc). This isn't done consistently though. In one sentence we'll have the 'g' dropped off of 'droppin' but not off of 'thinking.' Some people might like it, but I'm not a fan of this type of writing (I also didn't like the strikethroughs and numericals in Shatter Me, for example). I prefer writing to be clean. That said, if you're going to write like this, be consistent!

Regarding the plot, it was nothing special. Brody is supposedly in love with his brother's ex-girlfriend Quynn. Hayley randomly decides to help him get with Quynn, but while he's getting tips from Hayley he starts liking her instead. I thought the first half dragged on wayyyyy too long. We have pages and pages and pages of conversations that are just dull. I thought the second half was much better (where we get more in to Hayley's personal life and issues with her mom) as well as the progression of her relationship with Brody.

I feel like this writer has talent, but she needs to streamline the plot more. This book stalled out so badly in the first half that I almost marked it as a DNF. I put it down and read other books for awhile, then came back and finished it. I'm glad I did, because it got better, but the first half was still a struggle.

I'd probably read another book by this author in the future, but I wasn't impressed enough to put her on the auto-buy list.
 
3 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/481354942