ARC Review: Playing Pretend by Juliana Haygert

Playing Pretend by Juliana Haygert is a light and quick read that left me happy and smiling. This book was really easy to get into, and I breezed right through reading this one. I found it really entertaining, and I liked the characters a lot. I liked that there were politics and some scandal thrown in, but that it was still a fun and sweet read. This was the first book I have read by Juliana Haygert, but I really liked her writing style and it definitely won't be my last.

Charlotte lives her life according to what her mother the Governor tells her to do. She decides to go with her three best friends to California for spring break and doesn't tell her mom where she is really going. While in California, Charlotte meets a hot bartender named Mason and spends the week with him. They agree not to share any personal information and just enjoy the time they have together. After Charlotte returns home, both she and Mason are unable to forget their time together. Mason decides that he needs to get out of town and away from his ex and he heads to D.C. While working a party, he runs into Charlotte and is shocked to see her. At first Charlotte tries to push him away, but they keep running into each other. Eventually Mason convinces Charlotte to give them a chance, even if it has to be a secret. They begin to see each other, and their feelings continue to grow. But what happens when their secret relationship is made public?

I really liked Mason. He was a good guy and I thought that he was really sweet. I liked how determined he was to get Charlotte to come around to being with him. He was never a jerk or demanding, and he was willing to sneak around just to be able to spend time with her. I also liked that although he got jealous, that he wasn't over the top about it. It was really refreshing to read about a hero that was just an ordinary guy who happened to fall for a high profile girl. Charlotte was fun and down to earth despite growing up the way she did. I hated that she hid so much from her mother and just let her mother decide her life for so long, but I was glad that she was finally able to truly open up to her in the end. I thought that Charlotte and Mason had a really great connection and a ton of chemistry between them. I was so glad that Mason stuck it out with her, and I thought that he handled everything really well. Mason and Charlotte were just a lot of fun to read about, and they had some great sexy moments together.

Overall, I thought that this was a really great New Adult book. This story was sexy and sweet, and I really enjoyed it. I also really liked Charlotte's friends as well as Mason's. I would love to get their stories as well. This book was really easy to get lost in, and I found myself finishing it really fast because I was enjoying it so much that I didn't want to stop reading it. I liked the fact that there was some scandal and drama, but that it never weighed the story down. This book was really a light and refreshing read, and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a good book to lose themselves in for a few hours. I can't wait to read more from Haygert in the future.

**ARC provided by YA Bound Book Tours**

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