My Favorite Half-Night Stand

by Christina Lauren

Amazon Prices:

Paperback: $16.00

Kindle: $8.99 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Audible: $11.90 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Before Reading Facts:

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren was published in 2018 by Gallery Books.

Page Count: 384 pages (paperback) 385 (Kindle)

Audiobook length: 07 hrs 08 mins

Chapters: 17

Languages: English 

Summary of Book:

“Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a university function turns into a black-tie gala, Millie and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones. But there’s a hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of her guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest night of their lives together, but decided they would be better off platonic.

Online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches, Millie’s first profile garners nothing but dick pics. Enter “Catherine” -Millie’s fictional persona, in whose shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship . . . but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear–intimacy–or risk losing her best friend.

Perfect for fans of Roxanne and She’s the Man, you’ll want to swipe right on My Favorite Half-Night Stand.” – Gallery Books

Author Biography:

“Christina Lauren is the combined pen names of longtime writing partners/besties/soulmates and brain-twins Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 international bestselling authors of the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, Love and Other Words, Roomies, Dating You / Hating You, Sublime, The House, and Autoboyography.” -Gallery Books

Book Review:

Overall Book Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

My initial reaction: Eh. It’s okay. Just not for me. 

This was not my type of book. I read it for a book club, otherwise I would have never even have thought of to pick it up. The plot line in interesting and kept my attention, so it was not bad. It was good enough to keep me invested in the story to see what would happen next. I found the idea of the group of friends searching for dates interesting and wanted to see where that would take them; however, I was fairly disappointed when the book took a turn down a plot that I was not really invested. Given that the main point of them searching for dates was the black-tie gala, I was expecting the story to lead the story and characters in that direction. However, the book did take a path that I was not expecting or cared much about. 

The characters themselves were not fascinating or interesting to me. I really didn’t care about any of them. The only one I ever truly sympathized with was Ed. He was the only character that I was somewhat interested in. I would have really enjoyed knowing more about each of their lives, and honestly, as soon as I found out their professions, I somewhat disconnected from the story. I don’t quite know why I didn’t want to connect with them. Maybe it’s because I am currently a college student . . . I don’t know, but as soon as I found out their profession, I didn’t really care much about any of them.

I finished reading this book for the sake of the book club, but it was not one that I would pick up and read a second time or recommend to anyone. Again, this book was simply not for me. It doesn’t mean it is a horrible book. It is simply not the type of book that I like reading; that made the reading experience difficult for me. By the time I finished the book, I found myself saying, “really that’s how this ends.” I was let down by the ending and was expecting more.

Audible Review:

Narration Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

Narration by Shayna Thibodeaux and Deacon Lee

Thibodeaux and Lee’s narration was done very well, and I did not have an issue with either narrator. I really enjoyed the sarcastic nature Thibodeaux adds to her narration; it gives the story an added layer that brought the story and characters to life for me. I enjoyed Thibodeaux’s narration more than I enjoyed Lee, but Lee also does an excellent job in his part of the narrating. Their narration at 1.0 speed was also well done. For a lot of audiobooks that I listen to, 1.0 speed is way to slow for me and seems like its in slow motion. However, both of their narrations at that speed is really good. Their narration 1.25 speed was at what I would consider normal, conversation speed. The favorite listening speed for me was at 1.50 speed. For those of us who like to multitask and listen on the go, I recommend listening at a 1.5 speed, so one does not miss anything. For those who are listening while reading the book and want to listen at a faster pace, I found 2.0 speed to be the best speeds. 2.5 speed was good too, but I liked 2.0 speed better and easier to follow. 3.0 was too fast for me, and I was missing a lot of what the narrator was saying and had to eventually slow down the narrator’s reading speed. However, it is manageable. If you’re used to speed listening, 3.0 speed should be manageable. 3.5 speed was definitely too fast for me.

Other works by this Author:

Novels

• Dating You / Hating You
• Roomies
• Love and Other Words
• Josh and Haze’ls Guide to Not Dating

The Beautiful Series

• Beautiful Bastard
• Beautiful Stranger
• Beautiful Bitch
• Beautiful Bombshell
• Beautiful Player
• Beautiful Beginning
• Beautiful Beloved
• Beautiful Secret
• Beautiful Boss
• Beautiful

The Wild Seasons Series

• Dirty Rowdy Thing
• Dark Wild Night
• Wicked Sexy Liar 

Young Adult

• The House
• Sublime
• Autoboyagraphy