Series: Standalone
Release Date: November 10, 2020
Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.
Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.
When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.
But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?
• Taiwanese-American Hero
• Taiwanese-American Supporting Characters
• Really difficult relationship with parents
• Strong themes of sexism
• Brief mentions of homophobia and racism
• Cancer
• No OW drama
– But, the Hero does continue his fake boyfriend job, which the Heroine knows about.
• Does have OM drama
– Heroine’s parents are trying to set her up with the extremely sexist only son of their elitist friends
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
I struggled with how to rate Rent a Boyfriend because I think Gloria did an excellent job navigating the really difficult dilemma the Heroine, Chloe (also known as Jing-Jing) was in. However, as a romance, I didn’t really get why out of all the girls the Hero, Drew, was a fake boyfriend for, Chloe was The One. But, besides that snag, their relationship felt both cute and realistic. I liked how Gloria didn’t shy away from the hard truths and assumptions most people hold (that college is the key to success, for example). The way Chloe reacted to Drew having dropped out to focus on his art was realistic and that people can give each other a little grace to get over their biases/assumptions.
Despite how cute the romance was, for most of the book I really was more focused on Chloe and hoping she found a way to live the life she wanted – which included her dreams and a relationship with her parents. I think Gloria did a great job illustrating how that can be possible but it requires a lot of effort and forgiveness on all sides. Rent a Boyfriend excellently demonstrated how important perspective is; in a critical moment to assert her autonomy over her life and future, Chloe makes a rash decision that has consequences on her parents’ standing in their community. During the scene, I was breathing in relief that Chloe finally stood up for herself but a discussion with her mother showed how her emphasis on Chloe’s purity was not only rooted in sexist values… in Chloe’s mother’s mind, she was protecting her daughter’s future.
Overall, Rent a Boyfriend was cute but certainly more emotional and angsty than expected.
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[…] Weekly Wrap: March 15th to March 21st📖 Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao […]