Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  True Brit

AUTHOR:  Con Riley

PUBLISHER:  Figment Ink Limited

LENGTH:  200 pages

BLURB:  

Winning the United Kingdom’s favorite singing contest is a challenge for half-Afghani Pasha Trueman. He doesn’t have the best voice, but success would be life-changing. His strategy is simple—he’ll make the British public love him.

Ex-soldier Ed Britten has a different agenda. Winning means he’ll keep a promise made after a deadly Afghan ambush. His voice is his weapon, but he leaves his heart unguarded.

Ed and Pasha’s discovery that the contest isn’t a fair fight calls for creative tactics. Staging a fake love story could bring victory, only there’s more at stake than the prestigious first prize. If winning means surrendering each other, they could both end up losing.

REVIEW:  

Charlie hummed as if considering. “I’ll do what you ask if you tell me one thing.”

“Name it.”

“Tell me the truth.” Charlie drew in a quick breath that was audible. “Is #TrueBrit for real?”

Pasha Trueman and Ed Britten both want to make it to the final of BritPop!, England’s newest reality singing competition. Ed because he wants to sing a song written by his best friend–who died while serving with Ed in Afghanistan–and Pasha because he wants to prove something to himself, as well as to his family. But there is very little ‘reality’ running around this reality show, and the show’s producers are all set to send both Ed and Pasha packing, well before the final. After overhearing a conversation telling them this, Pasha comes up with a mad scheme to get the public on their side, and stick it to the producers who seem determined to wipe out their chances at success: they’re going to pretend to be lovers.

And yeah, Pasha is pretty sure that Ed is straight–and that he hates Pasha–but the ends must. They only have to play up their epic love story to the internet, there doesn’t need to be any real loving going on for team #TrueBrit. A perfect plan, really–only nothing ever does go according to plan when Pasha’s around.

I really hate reality tv. I hate how fake it is, how plastic and shallow everyone becomes. I dislike the manufactured fights, the even more manufactured ‘love,’ and the audacity of calling any of it ‘real.’ I just really really hate reality tv.

And during that first chapter? God, I hated Pasha. I was cursing my rotten luck for having picked up this book. I knew what it was about, and still I asked to review it. Why would I do this to myself? (Well, the fact that I really love some of the author’s other works probably played a role in that). Pasha was all the fake smiles, all the vapid, two-dimensional, Ken-doll-esc blandness that I loathe about reality tv.

I was honestly thinking about walking away. I didn’t know if I could do 200 pages of this and not go insane.

But then the cameras went off(ish), and in walks Ed. And my god, something clicked. Strong, relisant, fight till the last breath, and yet still unimposing…Ed sparks something on the pages that is real amongst so much ‘reality.’ And when Pasha is with Ed…then I start to see past the mask that Pasha is wearing. And when you see the man behind all the veneer, you can’t help but fall in love.

Even when they as still playing at love, hamming it up for the crowds and the votes, there is nothing fake about it. There is such chemistry between them. I would not call this love at first sight, but when they finally let down their guards, it is like falling in love is as easy as breathing. It may take them a while to see it, but it is right there on the page and it is a bit mesmerizing.

It was rather stunning how quickly I went from not-liking to loving this book. The characters are very well done, and while there is a certain someone who deserves to have his (still lit) cigar shoved up where the sun don’t shine, I had a lot of fun discovering these guys. Ed’s family is great, and Anya was pretty damn awesome. The boy band, however, I would call massive dicks, except that is probably vastly overrating their packages by a large margin.

This was a very fun book, with some great characters, and one awesome love story. I had a blast reading it, and was pretty happy with how the competition ended. It seemed fitting. But if you want to know who wins, you’ll just have to read the story. I don’t think you will end up regretting it.

#TrueBrit is #TrueLove

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

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