By: Heather Dowell
*Originally posted on Heather’s blog.
The plan was to catch footballs, not feelings.
Tomboy Marissa Munns has a passion for acting and athletics.
And she’s just landed a role of a lifetime—fake dating Northwood High’s golden boy quarterback, Archer Montgomery.
Marissa wants to catch the eye of her fellow soccer star crush.
Archer wants to save face after being dumped.
A fake relationship gives them both what they want.
The tomboy gets popularity. The quarterback gets privacy.
The plan is perfect.
Until the lines they’ve drawn begin to blur.
While mending his broken heart, Archer begins to realize that Marissa is everything that’s missing from his life. But how can he convince her his fake feelings have turned real?
Archer’s good at throwing footballs, not throwing his heart on the line.
Falling in love with his fake girlfriend was never part of the plan.
But if he doesn’t tell her how he feels, it could cost him more than just the big game.
A sweet stand-alone high school sports romance.
REVIEW
Marissa is super into acting. When she sees Archer being ruthlessly and annoyingly flirted with, she pretends she’s on a date with him so that the girls will leave him alone. She’s already caught him retreating to the music hall to get away from all the attention now that he’s recently single and available. One time she even hears him playing the piano.
Through his hideouts, they become close. Archer thinks it might not be a bad idea if they just continue the charade and fake date for a while. Then all the flirty girls will get off his back, and she’ll be able to test her acting skills and possibly make her real crush jealous. But as most fake dating schemes go, they find themselves catching feelings. Unfortunately, neither of them are mind readers, so they don’t know if the other person is feeling the same or is ready to break off the charade.
I loved reading this book. Archer was the sweetest, and I really felt for Marissa. It’s been quite a while since I finished reading, so I don’t remember all of the details. I do remember the epic ending, the grand gesture to end all gestures. Archer definitely had to prove that his feelings were real in order to win her over. After all, Marissa didn’t quite believe the quarterback would be into her, since she’s just a tomboy.
Throughout the book, people question if their relationship is actually real. He did just get dumped by his girlfriend. And she was crushing after a soccer player who didn’t seem to pay much attention to her in the same way that he did the girly girls. Her friends try to help her get his attention, but I was rooting for Archer from the beginning. He’s such a little softy.
The cafeteria scene just about broke my heart, and I had doubts everything was going to work out. I won’t tell you if it did, but this is a romance, so I think it’s pretty obvious. I also liked getting to see Archer and Marissa again in Tomboys Don’t Love Christmas. And I liked seeing a little bit of Nicole from Tomboys Don’t Crush on the Captain in this one. I really need to go back and read Casey’s book Tomboys Don’t Wear Pink since I haven’t read that one yet. It’s the first in the series.
All of the tomboys are really fun to read about. They’re so relatable and unique from one another. I also want to read Playing the Field about a tomboy character that goes to the same high school whose name is Alex. I saw her and her boyfriend in the Christmas book as well, so I have some catching up to do. If you like sweet young adult romances, you should definitely give this series a chance.
Functionally Fictional 
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