About this book:
“She needed a boyfriend. AI came to her rescue. But then her fake boyfriend showed up at school.
Brielle has never wanted a boyfriend. She's happy with her book boyfriends--purely fictional, right? Easy to maintain. She's also not a huge fan of sports, except baseball. Not playing it. No. Again, books and cozy afternoons are her thing. But Brielle can get into baseball with the best of them when it comes to watching, repeating stats, and wearing her favorite jerseys. But apparently, that's not enough in life. At least according to her four nosy aunts, who all think she needs a boyfriend, people at school who are convinced Brielle is a closet serial killer because she's happier with her books, and yeah. Valentine’s Day is on the calendar.
There is a purpose for AI, and Brielle decides the genius thing to do is make a fake boyfriend. Complete with deepfake photos, Brielle creates the perfect boyfriend, and no one needs to know he's entirely fictional. They just need to believe she met him over summer vacation, and he lives somewhere in North Carolina. Only he doesn't. When baseball catcher, Brooks Mason shows up at high school, a lookalike to Brielle's AI boyfriend, her entire world becomes a dog-eared, bent pages book nightmare.
Brooks is getting sick of all the girls at school wanting to date him. He wants to play ball and hang out. So, yeah. It makes sense to help Brielle out. Fake date? Why not? But once together, dating for show becomes an act that both Brielle and Brooks aren't quite prepared for, and dealing with unexpected attraction, complicated situations, and interfering aunts and bffs?”
Series: A sequel is planned to come out later this year (2026).
Spiritual Content- A Scripture is remembered; Prayers (including Brielle “whining to God” because she doesn’t think He would mind); Brielle believes that God takes a special interest in her, but thinks He might be rolling His eyes at her for lying (then says that she doesn’t think He would actually do that); Brielle felts guilt over lying about her “boyfriend” due to the Ten Commandments, but thinks that “a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do”; A couple talks about God and Him caring about us; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, a pastor, Sunday School classes, & youth group; A couple mentions of a Bible & a Bible study; A couple mentions of the Ten Commandments; A couple mentions of confessing sins;
*Note: A girl comments that Brielle “practically worships” Brooks; A couple mentions of luck; A mention of a teacher believing in evolution (which Brielle disagrees with); A mention of manifesting.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘geesh’, a ‘holy cow’, a ‘stinkin’’, a ‘what the what’, two ‘freaking’s, two ‘good grief’s, two forms of ‘kick butt’, two ‘shut up’s, two unfinished ‘what the—‘s, three ‘crud’s, three ‘darn’s, three ‘shoot’s, three forms of ‘ticked off’, three forms of ‘what the heck’, four ‘idiot’s, four ‘screwed’s, five forms of ‘dang’, five ‘duh’s, five ‘heck’s, six forms of ‘suck’, eight ‘gosh’s, nine ‘crap’s (including a ‘holy crap’), thirteen ‘stupid’s, sixteen forms of ‘oh my gosh’, and seventeen forms of ‘dumb’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Brielle lies to others about her “boyfriend” (including to her parents) and feels guilt over it at times, but refers to it as a necessity (Later she realizes that she’s made herself into a liar; Brielle knows that if her parents found out she was dating and didn’t know about it or the boy, she would be in a lot of trouble and grounded (she calls this the worst-case scenario unless they learned about her deception; *Spoilers* When her dad finds out she kept the secret of having a boyfriend, he removes her bedroom’s doorknob; When he finds out about the AI story, he thinks that Brielle is a victim of social media fiction and she doesn’t tell him that she was the one who used AI; Towards the end, Brielle’s parents finds out that she’s been lying to them about dating Brooks and says she will have to earn their trust back, but is not grounded *End of Spoilers*); Brooks believes his parents are one step away from splitting up and argue about him (which he tries not think is his fault, but still feels like it is at times); To avoid a reporter, Brielle’s brother makes her and Brooks play hooky and skip school for part of a day (Brooks’ father fibs to the school that Brooks had a dentist appointment); Later, Brielle skips school again (when her emotions are distraught); Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of throwing up/puking; Mentions of a possible divorce & Brooks’ parents having problems (including his mother leaving for a couple weeks to her parents); Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deception (including to parents); Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of eavesdropping; A couple mentions of terrorists & felons; A couple mentions of curses/bad words; A mention of wars; A mention of not smoking, drinking, or doing drugs;
*Note: Brielle used AI to create deepfake photos of her dream guy and tells others that he is her boyfriend (to get her aunts and friends to leave her alone about not having a boyfriend; She calls this a “necessity”); In an interview, there is a reference to teens developing romantic relationships with AI and then doing “awful things”; Brielle harshly tells her mom to leave her room when stressed, but tries to soften her words when she sees it hurt her mother (noting that while her mom is cool, she’s her mom and “all moms get in the way at times”); Brooks feels like he is a disappointment to his dad (due to not having anything in common); Mentions of celebrities & musicians (Tom Cruise, One Direction, NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys, & Niall Horan); Mentions of sports teams & athletes (Babe Ruth & Christian Yelich); Mentions of social media platforms & websites (Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, & Amazon); Mention of brand names & items (Pantone, Converse shoes, Uno, Euchre, Fruit Loops, Hershey’s chocolate, Barbie, Nerf, & Mountain Dew); Mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (‘Anne of Green Gables’, ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Twilight’, ‘The Princess Bride’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘The Inheritance Games’, ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, ‘The Odyssey’, ‘Ivanhoe’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, ‘Powerless’ by Lauren Roberts, Pepper Basham, Jane Austen, Dr. Seuss, Batman, Romeo and Juliet, & Disney Princesses); A few mention of movies & fictional characters (Tangled & John Wick); A couple mentions of National Geographic; A couple mentions of a therapist and medication for anxiety; A mention of zombies; A mention of R-rated movies.
Sexual Content- Two head/forehead kisses, two almost kisses (up to semi-detailed), and a semi-detailed kiss; Remembering almost kisses (barely-above-not-detailed); Staring at lips (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Tingles, Flutters, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Remembering touches, embraces, & nearness (up to semi-detailed); Blushes, Winks, & Flirting; Noticing & Staring (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Brooks and Brielle go into a janitor’s closet to talk (twice) and know it could raise questions if someone saw them (in one of the times: they almost kiss, but are interrupted by an adult); Brielle’s father tells Brooks that they aren’t allowed to be in her room or watch a movie alone downstairs (but, *Spoilers* both of these happen without her dad’s knowledge and though nothing happens between them, they both know her dad wouldn’t been happy about it *End of Spoiler*); Towards the end, *Major Spoilers* the truth comes out about Brielle and Brooks fake dating; Brielle’s father is disappointed in both of them, but also others for pushing Brielle into thinking she needed a boyfriend; Brielle and Brooks both want to date for real and get together at the very end with her parents having “some pretty strict guidelines in place” but they are both okay with it *End of Spoilers*; Brielle notes that she’s not going to do anything that her “future husband might be jealous of”; Others think that Brooks is “longing” for Brielle when seeing him interact with her; Two ‘babe’s and six ‘hot’s; All about & many mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, dating, fake dating, break-ups, & crushes; Mentions of kisses, first kisses, kissing, & making out (including one of Brielle’s aunts asking if her boyfriend has kissed her yet); Mentions of romance books, book boyfriends, Brielle and her best friend swooning over fictional guys, & Brielle’s father saying that romance books give girls “unrealistic perceptions of how relationships work”; Mentions of crushes, flirting, & girls turning into “goo” when around a boy they like; A few mentions of players; A couple mentions of spicy romance books (which neither Brielle or her best friend read); A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a married couple kissing; A mention of boy-crazy girls; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Brielle Walters, age 16
-Brooks Mason
1st person P.O.V. switches between them
210 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
I’ve seen a lot of buzz about this book since it released and because I love both YA Contemporary books and baseball, it’s been one I’ve been very curious about.
I believe this book has been marketed more as a Clean Fiction YA book, but because there were elements of Christianity and co-authored by a popular Christian Fiction author, I thought I would do this review on BFCG.
I will say that this book felt a little too fangirl/wattpad in the writing style and the Gen Z slang felt a little cringy to me (I lost count of the amount of times the characters went “bruh”), but hey, I’m getting old so that’s probably why. If I had read this book at around age 12/13, I probably would have enjoyed it more. 😂 Now at over double that age, I just wanted to “big sister” Brielle and Brooks and try to get them to see their worth wasn’t based on relationships or interests.
The plot might have been a little far-fetched, but it was clean and overall pretty cute—though I read most of the book through my fingers because the second-hand embarrassment scale was super high with these two ninny-maries and their lack of talking. I felt bad for Brielle that she let everyone’s comments about her needing a boyfriend get to her and wished she could have felt like she was enough despite what others may think because of her value in God’s eyes, not a boy. Obviously, this book is a romance book, though, so that’s the main point—the couple getting together. I enjoyed the baseball parts (despite Brielle’s negative comments about my Cubs!) and found myself interested to see what would happen next. There were a few typos that caught my attention while reading, but I think it was overall a cute YA romance book.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
