Another of Freida's Delights: The Boyfriend

yesterday

The months of September to November were nearly historical for me, mostly because I read the highest number of psychological thrillers, ever. I mean, I’m one for mixing genres, and if I read two thrillers, you can be sure that the next three books would be romance, African, or something else.

But I read one book, “Keep it in the Family,” I think, and it was all downhill from there. So, even though I absolutely promised myself that the end had come to my psychological thriller journey, here I am with yet another book, written by the same author as the last three or four books.

The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

Sydney has been catfished on her date. Heavily, might I add. The man she’d seen on the dating app is polar opposites to the man who sits in front of her, appearance wise and every other way. He’s grossness is an understatement by way of description, and against Sydney’s better judgement, she sits through the date.

Kevin (the date) ends up making her pay half the bill, which is mostly what he ate, and insists on walking her home, and against Sydney’s better judgement, again, she lets him. With a surprising shred of common sense, Sydney stops a block to her apartment, so Kevin doesn’t know her residence, and Kevin tries getting aggressively handsy with her.

She is saved by a handsome stranger, and when Kevin, the trouble maker, has been put in his place, the handsome stranger walks away, leaving a flustered and bewildered Sydney behind, who wonders why he didn’t ask for her number. This, brethren, is where we draw the curtain.

My Thoughts and Rating

I realize that this is not a befitting way to end the premise, but it’s as good as you’re going to get from me, because I do want you all to read this book, if you can. I’ll start by saying that I love books that cut from the present to the past and back again. You just know that at some point, the present and the past will together nicely, and although it’s possible for authors to butcher this concept, Freida actually made it work. To an extent.

I have a thing against dumb female leads. The ones who always feel like they’re making a bad decision at every turn, yet go ahead to do it, and guess what, it’s actually a bad decision. Big surprise there. Freida, on the other hand, seems to adore the classic dumb women as protagonists because she fills her books with a lot of them. Women who are intuitive and have good instincts, yet stubbornly refuse to follow them.

The storyline in itself was good enough, and although there was no incredible development on any of the characters, but one, it didn’t diminish the story. I don’t want to give too many spoilers, yet I want to mix the good parts about the book with the bad ones. I loved the pacing, and it’s certainly better than a good number of Freida’s novels. You could feel a bit of that slow burn. Like, where-is-this-book-leading-to type.

I loved that there was a long array of suspects, and you couldn’t really get who the real culprit is till nearly the end of the book, and that in itself is a classic element that made this novel such a beauty to read. However, there were other things like repetitiveness and how one dimensional Freida makes her characters. Like, are these supposed to be real people? She tries really hard to either make you hate or love a character because of how she describes them.

The ending was a bit over the top, and I wouldn’t call it chef’s kiss by any standards, but it at least tied it all neatly in a cute box. The Boyfriend is a delight to read, and like the rest of Freida’s books, despite the flaws, it’s super fun, and you just want to keep reading. A good 3.4/5 stars from me. I still have one or two more books of hers to read before I call it a wrap. Hope you enjoy this.