Synopsis:
When my math tutor made me sign a contract promising I wouldn’t fall in love with him, I thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
Yes, Carter Hastings is the prince of Eden Falls Academy—one of the most beautiful humans on earth—and boy, does he know it. But I can use this to my advantage. Since I basically signed a paper saying I’d never catch feelings for him, it makes my plan even more perfect.
So I offer him a a fake relationship. The arrangement helps Carter get revenge on his ex and helps me hide the fact that I’m not smart enough to be at this prestigious school. Win-win.
Only, as we pretend to be in a relationship, I find out he’s different from what I expected. He’s better. So much better. And when he kissed me last night, I just wanted it to be real.
But as I’m searching for a loophole in that stupid contract I signed, a huge family secret comes to light and all the sparks I started feeling for my fake boyfriend suddenly become forbidden.
I know I should walk away from him. That I should go back to keeping our tutoring sessions strictly professional . . . But I don’t want to.
Review:
I finished listening to The Charade literally 10 minutes ago and I just had to get my thoughts out straight away. What the heck did I just read? My thoughts on this book may be a little all over the place but so was the story so that makes sense.
The one positive I have to talk about for The Charade is how well the narrators did. I can’t imagine it was easy narrating a book like this (that comment will make more sense further into this review) so the performance they gave was pretty good.
Just within the first chapter there are some questionable moments. Firstly you are introduced to the only person of colour in this book and they are described multiple times as having ‘big lips’. This descriptor is used multiple times in the first chapter and that’s a little icky if you ask me. It’s bad enough there is only one character of colour in the whole of The Charade but to have their description consist of ‘brown skin and big lips’ is gross.
You also get presented with the lovely line of “There was just something so nice about feeling petite and small next to a guy”. Firstly, that made me feel a little uncomfortable and secondly, everyone in this book is obsessed with height.I don’t think there’s a single chapter that doesn’t mention someone’s height. Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration but as Ava is the ‘oh gee I’m not like the other girls because I’m 5”9’ type of girl, which she pretty much says word for word, she comments on the height of absolutely everyone she meets. It’s so weird.
‘Hot brooding guy’ only dates supermodels despite being in high school. Yet another trope that is so overused it’s ridiculous. Especially when it’s about 17-year-olds. Carter starts out really creepy. I had literally shivers of discomfort when he said “And before you say it, I don’t have the hots for my sister. Never have, never will”. Um ok? Don’t compare anyone’s “hotness” to your sister then. That’s just weird. He becomes quite likeable in the middle, but ruins it in the end when he still wants to be with Ava despite the fact that they could be related. Yes, you didn’t read that wrong. This is one of those weird potential incest books. Gross.
Now, I know what you’re thinking ‘but you’re a Cassandra Clare fan, it’s a little hypocritical to be saying that’. Well, The Mortal Instruments is my least favourite series of hers for a reason. Plus, she didn’t have the potential siblings make out despite knowing they could be related.
So yeah, Carter’s creepiness comes back into play when he says he “doesn’’t care” that he could be related to Ava because he wanted to make out with her one last time is really gross. Ava didn’t seem up for it but Carter was way too persistent so they did it anyway. I could forgive the fake dating part of the whole thing if nothing physical actually happened between them, but making them have a physical relationship despite knowing is actually diabolical.
Also, Ava’s sister saying “I didn’t want to say anything until I had more information” seriously?! You think your sister may be in a romantic relationship with someone that could be her brother but you didn’t want to say anything until you were sure. That’s extremely messed up. Surely you’d tell them immediately, even if you aren’t sure. Better to pause your relationship than accidentally (or on purpose in this case) commit incest.
You’ll be glad to hear they aren’t actually related, which is great and all, but it’s still so gross of the author to write this book in the first place. I had no idea this was where the story would go as the synopsis just said ‘forbidden romance’ which I took to mean ‘romance book that exaggerates tropes and they’re actually just rivals in some way’.
Also, there’s no way you could convince me Ava and Carter would still be together five years later. I’m adding those two to my ‘couples that didn’t make it past the epilogue’ list.
I 1000% do not recommend you check out The Charade. What I thought was going to be a silly little fake dating romcom about academic rivals turned out to be something much worse.
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