Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Iâd remembered wrong and thought it was another kind of story. Iâm not in the mood for bad boy romance.
Clare has had a terrible crush on her twin sister's best friend for such a long time. When her sister asks her to switch places to help him out, she reluctantly agrees. However, the night of the favor, it's his bad boy 1/2 brother who shows up to pick her up.
Bauer has never felt like he was a part of his family. His mother died when he was young and his stepmother never took to him. Once his dad had a baby with the stepmom, he felt like no one wanted him.
Bauer is such a cinnamon roll. His past has scarred him in ways that he does not wish to look at. I loved that even though he gives off the bad boy vibe underneath he is so loving.
I look forward to reading the other other sister's stories.
Bauer has never felt like he was a part of his family. His mother died when he was young and his stepmother never took to him. Once his dad had a baby with the stepmom, he felt like no one wanted him.
Bauer is such a cinnamon roll. His past has scarred him in ways that he does not wish to look at. I loved that even though he gives off the bad boy vibe underneath he is so loving.
I look forward to reading the other other sister's stories.
Overall Grade: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸+
I finished Karla Sorensenâs Faked a couple of days ago, and the words for this review have been mulling around in my head. As I was shopping today, while I was reading another book, the words wanted to emerge, but they require me to offer up a general opinion about Faked without a lot of detail about this book. Even more, they want me to talk about my own experiences to illustrate why Faked is an essential kind of book. Why I will read all of Karla Sorensenâs booksâŚ
To best understand my review, I think we have to begin with a quote that hit my Twitter feed today: âYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you #read.â âJames Baldwinâ This quote IS the reason you, the reader, should read Karla Sorensenâs Faked, along with anything else sheâs written. There is a relatability in her writing that acts as a mirror to your own experience. Itâs the treasure you receive as you turn each page. It acts as a reminder that you arenât alone, that the feelings and thoughts you felt at some point in your life werenât your creation, that they were felt and thought by others. This is Sorensenâs superpower: an ability to articulate the human experience through a seamless, melodic style that grips your soul and makes romance important. That may sound heavy, but let me articulate this for you through my reading of Faked.
For one, this message of this book is foreshadowed in her blurb: âEvery action has a consequence..â You think this relates solely to the twin swap (which isnât a spoiler as itâs also in the blurb). But this isnât the case. There are moments in Claire and Bauerâs pasts, experiences with others that have had a profound effect on their lives in the present. When those actions occurred, no one understood the gravity of those consequences, but, for Claire and Bauer, they were ingrained in their development. As such, these consequences influence Claire and Bauerâs coupling and create the tension of the story. Within the first couple of chapters of Faked, I found myself looking directly in the mirror of my own experience as Claire laid out her hurt. Itâs no secret that Claireâs mother, Brooke, left her girls with their older brother, Logan. If that is new to you, go and download The Marriage Effect and read it immediately, Itâs my favorite Washington Wolves book. Anyways, Brookâs neglect changes Claireâs life, and as we are privy to her life, Sorensen shows us its impact. It influences her choice of career and it affects her relationships with others. In this one moment in the book, the place where I felt my own life reflected back at me, Sorensen captured one of my truths. With her exquisite writing, it isnât hard to do. However, in this moment, she very gently pushed on a bruise from my own experience and she connected me to Claire and Bauerâs story. She softened my soul and opened it to their romance, and I couldnât put the book down after that. Through her careful plotting of their story, she articulates a message that people (not just parents --- they are simply the culprits in this story) need to remember: our words and our actions can create meaning or trauma in a personâs life. Iâm a teacher of writing, and I think about the words and actions Iâve taken with my students. I can change their perceptions of themselves easily, and thatâs scary. In this story, Sorensen deftly illustrates this. And itâs the powerful reminder of Faked.
Iâve said this time and time again in my reviews of Sorensenâs works: we NEED more of this romance. We need to read a book such as Faked to remind us that our words and actions change others not just ourselves. We need a genre like romance to emphasize the sometimes negative qualities of humanity because we can wrap the difficulties of human nurture in a message of love. Itâs a safer space to unpack trauma in a world where an intuitive and insightful heroine can see the impact of words on a âbad boyâ hero, validate him, cover him in love and kindness, and pour peace into his life. When read stories like Faked, we can be reminded to be better people, to stop and think, and to love people through their hurts. If you love this depth of experience wrapped in a beautiful story about the resilience of the human spirit, then you should be reading Karla Sorensenâs Faked.
I finished Karla Sorensenâs Faked a couple of days ago, and the words for this review have been mulling around in my head. As I was shopping today, while I was reading another book, the words wanted to emerge, but they require me to offer up a general opinion about Faked without a lot of detail about this book. Even more, they want me to talk about my own experiences to illustrate why Faked is an essential kind of book. Why I will read all of Karla Sorensenâs booksâŚ
To best understand my review, I think we have to begin with a quote that hit my Twitter feed today: âYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you #read.â âJames Baldwinâ This quote IS the reason you, the reader, should read Karla Sorensenâs Faked, along with anything else sheâs written. There is a relatability in her writing that acts as a mirror to your own experience. Itâs the treasure you receive as you turn each page. It acts as a reminder that you arenât alone, that the feelings and thoughts you felt at some point in your life werenât your creation, that they were felt and thought by others. This is Sorensenâs superpower: an ability to articulate the human experience through a seamless, melodic style that grips your soul and makes romance important. That may sound heavy, but let me articulate this for you through my reading of Faked.
For one, this message of this book is foreshadowed in her blurb: âEvery action has a consequence..â You think this relates solely to the twin swap (which isnât a spoiler as itâs also in the blurb). But this isnât the case. There are moments in Claire and Bauerâs pasts, experiences with others that have had a profound effect on their lives in the present. When those actions occurred, no one understood the gravity of those consequences, but, for Claire and Bauer, they were ingrained in their development. As such, these consequences influence Claire and Bauerâs coupling and create the tension of the story. Within the first couple of chapters of Faked, I found myself looking directly in the mirror of my own experience as Claire laid out her hurt. Itâs no secret that Claireâs mother, Brooke, left her girls with their older brother, Logan. If that is new to you, go and download The Marriage Effect and read it immediately, Itâs my favorite Washington Wolves book. Anyways, Brookâs neglect changes Claireâs life, and as we are privy to her life, Sorensen shows us its impact. It influences her choice of career and it affects her relationships with others. In this one moment in the book, the place where I felt my own life reflected back at me, Sorensen captured one of my truths. With her exquisite writing, it isnât hard to do. However, in this moment, she very gently pushed on a bruise from my own experience and she connected me to Claire and Bauerâs story. She softened my soul and opened it to their romance, and I couldnât put the book down after that. Through her careful plotting of their story, she articulates a message that people (not just parents --- they are simply the culprits in this story) need to remember: our words and our actions can create meaning or trauma in a personâs life. Iâm a teacher of writing, and I think about the words and actions Iâve taken with my students. I can change their perceptions of themselves easily, and thatâs scary. In this story, Sorensen deftly illustrates this. And itâs the powerful reminder of Faked.
Iâve said this time and time again in my reviews of Sorensenâs works: we NEED more of this romance. We need to read a book such as Faked to remind us that our words and actions change others not just ourselves. We need a genre like romance to emphasize the sometimes negative qualities of humanity because we can wrap the difficulties of human nurture in a message of love. Itâs a safer space to unpack trauma in a world where an intuitive and insightful heroine can see the impact of words on a âbad boyâ hero, validate him, cover him in love and kindness, and pour peace into his life. When read stories like Faked, we can be reminded to be better people, to stop and think, and to love people through their hurts. If you love this depth of experience wrapped in a beautiful story about the resilience of the human spirit, then you should be reading Karla Sorensenâs Faked.
YUP ate!!!! super enjoyable read. realistically made no sense bc everything happens in like less than three week then epilogue but if u choose to ignore the timeline and just take it it, it slays. i love a good grumpy guy that turns mushy and i still love seeing the continuation of the ward family, they have my absolute heart
I had such high hopes for this story but it wasn't what I expected, maybe it's the typical: it's me not the book... but honestly I think it might me the book too. This was a very short book and the relationship seemed so insta-lovey and fast and just the whole story seemed more like a short story and not a full length novel. This would honestly be a nice wintery novella but as a standard novel it was weak in my opinion.
I adore the Ward family, I actually really liked Claire's character but she felt a little flat and undeveloped, there were so many interesting things about her, I loved her college major, I really thought the book would be much more focused on her and her relationship with her mom but there was absolutely nothing ( I honestly think that either Lea or Isabel are gonna deal with that later on), I also liked the premise of her having a crush on Finn but that boy was barely there and even then he was absolutely useless and secondary, I wanted to see some conflict and more depth but the book was just too short and surface level to deliver those things.
Bauer (don't even get me started on that name, I listened to the audiobook so the whole time I thought it was spelled Bower, but even if it was that is honestly not the best name I'm sorry to all Bauers) was a great character too, I found him very intriguing and complex but there just wasn't any time to flash him out on the page and I wanted to see so much. ore of his personality, I loved that he was a snowboarder because that is just so cool but we didn't get to see any of that. He was also supposed to be this big trouble maker but non of it was really shown everyone was just saying it and I know it's supposed to be blown out of proportion but there is some truth to it too if it is his reputation. I also wanted to see some progress with his family, the conversations and discussions but there was literally nothing.
Claire and Bauer were characters with very complex personalities and pasts, with interesting hobbies and goals in their careers but barely anything of that was shown. The whole book took place in a span of maybe four days and by that time the two of them went from complete strangers who only heard things about each other from others to telling each other I love you and being completely obsessed with each other thinking about forever together. It was highly unrealistic (not that romance books are usually the most realistic things ever but this was just so rushed) and they were also isolated from literally anyone for the majority of the story.
I really loved how much time they spent together and how well they got to know each other but it was already set up so they felt immediate connection, even attraction, and were able to like read?? each other well after like what? a day?... I liked them together and I actually loved how this book really shows that you should really get to know the person and form your own opinion and not listen to others because it might just turn out that the person will be just the right match for you, I also liked that Bauer was so open with Claire and she with him, the setting of the book was very beautiful and I loved being transported from hot sunny June day to a snow storm in the mountains.
I saw the conflict coming from a mile away, I wish that the whole Finn crush wasn't the conflict because it was so obvious. There wasn't a lot of drama and absolutely no groveling but honestly the whole conflict was kind of pointless, it was basically a normal fight couples have blown out of proportion because the characters never had a real relationship before so they didn't know how to handle it. The epilogue was fine, all of the interesting conflict and disfunctional relationships were overlooked in the story itself and so there were like three lines in the epilogue which updated the reader that "things were getting better slowly" and like that was it.
Overall this was the weakest book from Karla that I've read so far but it was still enjoyable, I read it in two sittings, I loved the characters and the setting and I think Bauer and Claire were a good fit I just wish it wasn't so insta-lovey. Plus I still had a good time and if I overlook the quickness of it all and the unresolved family relationships it was a cute romance perfect for a winter day (and a summer one if you want to fell like it's winter). and now, I'm really not excited for book three because well, first of all I don't necessarily love listening to books where the characters have british accents and second of all I despise unexpected pregnancies so I am really dreading this book a bit, plus I can just see the drama of them living on different continents.... Honestly, pray for me.
I adore the Ward family, I actually really liked Claire's character but she felt a little flat and undeveloped, there were so many interesting things about her, I loved her college major, I really thought the book would be much more focused on her and her relationship with her mom but there was absolutely nothing ( I honestly think that either Lea or Isabel are gonna deal with that later on), I also liked the premise of her having a crush on Finn but that boy was barely there and even then he was absolutely useless and secondary, I wanted to see some conflict and more depth but the book was just too short and surface level to deliver those things.
Bauer (don't even get me started on that name, I listened to the audiobook so the whole time I thought it was spelled Bower, but even if it was that is honestly not the best name I'm sorry to all Bauers) was a great character too, I found him very intriguing and complex but there just wasn't any time to flash him out on the page and I wanted to see so much. ore of his personality, I loved that he was a snowboarder because that is just so cool but we didn't get to see any of that. He was also supposed to be this big trouble maker but non of it was really shown everyone was just saying it and I know it's supposed to be blown out of proportion but there is some truth to it too if it is his reputation. I also wanted to see some progress with his family, the conversations and discussions but there was literally nothing.
Claire and Bauer were characters with very complex personalities and pasts, with interesting hobbies and goals in their careers but barely anything of that was shown. The whole book took place in a span of maybe four days and by that time the two of them went from complete strangers who only heard things about each other from others to telling each other I love you and being completely obsessed with each other thinking about forever together. It was highly unrealistic (not that romance books are usually the most realistic things ever but this was just so rushed) and they were also isolated from literally anyone for the majority of the story.
I really loved how much time they spent together and how well they got to know each other but it was already set up so they felt immediate connection, even attraction, and were able to like read?? each other well after like what? a day?... I liked them together and I actually loved how this book really shows that you should really get to know the person and form your own opinion and not listen to others because it might just turn out that the person will be just the right match for you, I also liked that Bauer was so open with Claire and she with him, the setting of the book was very beautiful and I loved being transported from hot sunny June day to a snow storm in the mountains.
I saw the conflict coming from a mile away, I wish that the whole Finn crush wasn't the conflict because it was so obvious. There wasn't a lot of drama and absolutely no groveling but honestly the whole conflict was kind of pointless, it was basically a normal fight couples have blown out of proportion because the characters never had a real relationship before so they didn't know how to handle it. The epilogue was fine, all of the interesting conflict and disfunctional relationships were overlooked in the story itself and so there were like three lines in the epilogue which updated the reader that "things were getting better slowly" and like that was it.
Overall this was the weakest book from Karla that I've read so far but it was still enjoyable, I read it in two sittings, I loved the characters and the setting and I think Bauer and Claire were a good fit I just wish it wasn't so insta-lovey. Plus I still had a good time and if I overlook the quickness of it all and the unresolved family relationships it was a cute romance perfect for a winter day (and a summer one if you want to fell like it's winter). and now, I'm really not excited for book three because well, first of all I don't necessarily love listening to books where the characters have british accents and second of all I despise unexpected pregnancies so I am really dreading this book a bit, plus I can just see the drama of them living on different continents.... Honestly, pray for me.
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Death of parent