The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise

Title: The Boyfriend App
Author: Katie Sise
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
Release Date: April 30 , 2013
Buy: Amazon
Goodreads Summary

In The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, super-smart, somewhat geeky Audrey McCarthy can’t wait to get out of high school. Her father’s death and the transformation of her one-time BFF, Blake Dawkins, into her worst nightmare have her longing for the new start college will bring.

But college takes money. So Audrey decides she has to win the competition for the best app designed by a high schooler—and the $200,000 that comes with it. She develops something she calls the Boyfriend App, and suddenly she’s the talk of the school and getting kissed by the hottest boys around. But can the Boyfriend App bring Audrey true love?

After reading a whole bunch of fantasy and paranormal I decided I needed a chic lit and so I requested this.

One of my reasons for requesting this book in particular was that it was a book about geeks. I happen to be one myself; not a computer geek but you know a geek never the less.  I’ve heard quite a few people complain about the technical language in the book and how they didn’t understand it. I am hopeless with computers but I think I could mostly understand because it was very easy for me to relate to the character, plus her descriptions about the programming stuff were always fun to read for me. She was so passionate about computer programming that I was able to enjoy it despite the fact that I suck with computers.

She uses this as a way to connect to her father who died when she was a freshman because of an incident at work. The little bit of insight we are given into their relationship does make me incredibly sad because they shared such a wonderful father/daughter relationship.

Another reason I requested this book was that in one of the reviews I had read it mentioned that this was what I call a best friend romance; where two people who are good friends get together. I happen to love those.

Aidan was the said “best friend”. He took Audrey under his wing when she had no one left; her best friend had become a bitch to her because she thought Audrey had betrayed her.

Aidan is the super cute, shy geek. I happen to have a soft spot for those. There are so many brooding/jerk/badass heroes out there, what happened to the cute shy guys?

It’s always fun to see him clam up because someone who is as cute as him could easily attract girls and should be confident about himself. Although he did attract girls when he first moved to the school but when they realized how shy he was they backed off. I believe this probably has something to do with the fact that his father left them. Things like that are bound to leave some sort of mark on you.

What we are shown of her past relationship with Blake is also interesting. Blake has always been popular and back when they were best friends, so was Audrey. But Blake wasn’t particularly cruel until they became freshmen. Then Blake had so much more competition that she became a bitch to keep up. This was also around the time Audrey’s father had died and after seeing Blake hurt so many people she finally snapped, she had her own grief to deal with, she didn’t want to see anyone else’s . After that their relationship dwindled until well they became nemesis of sorts and Blake did everything in her power to make Audrey’s life miserable.

I also like how Audrey’s crush on the jock, Xander, is justified. She used to be nice to him when everyone else bullied him. I usually don’t understand what girls see in jocks in books, they are usually portrayed as womanizing douche bags, but Xander had a depth to him and I appreciated that the author tried to separate him from the usual clichés.

Lindsay is also a great cousin, she is somewhat of an airhead but she is always there for Audrey and extremely loyal.

Of course this book happens to be a chic lit so it isn’t the best thing ever but some of the things that really stand out in it are the relationships and the characters; the author does a good job with developing the relationships between the characters and the characters happen to be interesting.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for a good chic lit to chill out with.