Sexy romantic comedy about online dating, friendships and honesty.

Millie and her male colleagues at the university are good friends and all tragically very single. Looking for dates for a big banquet dinner (Obama!) they make an agreement to start dating profiles. Predictably, Millie ends up falling for her best friend Reid and chaos ensues.

Told with alternating points of view and creatively through group chats (loved seeing their avatars), this was a fun and feel good book that I devoured in one sitting.

It was ultimately predictable but it was exactly what I was looking for during the pandemic. During all this uncertainty and chaos, give me predictability and happy endings.

Side note- it was also a treat to read about men and women with advanced degrees. Give me more!! Love people with big brains 🧠

This was a decent read. Probably not my favorite CL read, but enjoyable. Millie and Reid are friends but never really thought about each other in the love interest way. But they're pretty adorable together.

A fun romance book that I highly recommend for a lighter read between heavy books. Enjoyed the characters and the storyline. I love everything that Christina Lauren writes! Thank you to Galley book and Netgally for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

I love Christina Lauren’s books and this one did not disappoint! I did, however, spend most of my time feeling really frustrated with Millie and her dishonesty. Like other CL novels though, the characters felt relatable and it was easy to get sucked into their world and feel like I was living their story right alongside them. Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

The premise behind this was really dumb, and I found it frustrating how Millie had a pathological inability to be honest. However, I found myself still reading it because I wanted to see how it all worked out.

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren is a fun contemporary romance that is another win for the writing duo. I enjoyed the story and am always a fan of friends-to-lovers trope. Happily recommend.

A fantastic friends to lovers romance that had me swooning over Reid AND Millie and jealous of their amazing, supportive group of friends. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into their world and make myself at home.

Millie Morris likes to look at her life as a cup half-full. Preferably, half-full of the best coffee around.

Nearly everything she needs is comfortably within her reach, and for those few things that are a little too far up … well, Millie has a squad that can fetch anything, even from the highest shelf. And they’d do the fetching without one grumble.

Well … maybe one. But she could ply them with beer and board games to make up for it.

Millie knows she’s lucky. She has not one, not two – but four best friends. And what does it matter that they’re all men? It’s 2019, for goodness sake.

She earned their friendship when her romantic relationship with their mutual friend (and resident douchebag) crumbled to the ground. They were there for her, giving her a soft place to land and not allowing her to wallow in her misguided misery for one second. They showed her that the princess can save herself, and they’ve never minded playing sidekick to her super-hero-status since.

To Millie, they aren’t just guys who have been given an honorary title due to logistics and location, or even out of obligation. They are men who are actually the bestest buds any gal could have. Guys who are her ultimate homeboys. Her main dudes. All of which have strong, dependable shoulders she can lean heavily on at any time, and for any reason. And because they are all strictly platonic relationships, Millie has been able to fully relax into their friendship over the last couple of years – without ever having to worry about falling into a period cycle with any of them, or bonding over which Gilmore Girls episode is the most epic.

The best thing they have in common? They are all single. Unequivocally unattached. Free as proverbial birds.

And more the happy for it … because, who needs those types of complications?

Ed, the resident comic relief. If Seth Rogan and Amy Poehler had a lovechild, it would be Ed. His fridge may be full of Mountain Dew and his dinner of choice might be cheese in a spray can, but his heart is as warm as his bear hugs are encompassing. When Millie can drag him away from kicking some teenager’s ass in Call of Duty and distract him from settling in with a 12-pack of beer, he’s the best one in the group to find the silver lining with.

Chris, the strong, silent type. When Mille needs a straightforward opinion laced with brutal honesty, he’s the one she turns to. He’s an accomplished chemist and his brain works in absolutes, by way of logical hypothesis and proven experiments. Chris is literal and loyal to the very core, and with a world full of deep blacks and bright whites, he does his best to keep the crew in line and out of the gray.

Alex, the veritable Don Juan. Millie is thankful that he’s never turned his sultry, dark eyes her way with any sort of passion play. His disinterest might very well be because he’s too busy pulling willing teacher-assistants into the dark room for private sessions that have nothing to do with photography, or lighting up the dance floor for some suggestive salsa dancing with the girls he meets off of Tinder. There simply isn’t enough time for all the women he wants to please in his bedroom. But his womanizing ways don’t make him a bad friend to have, on the contrary – it makes him valuable to Millie when it comes to assessing her adventures (or lack there of) with the opposite sex.

Reid, the cross between boy-next-door and gallant knight in shining armor. Reid is the one who pops in for late night Netflix binge sessions (minus the chill), with Millie’s favorite pizza in tow. He’s the one who greets her before she heads in to teach her first class, with a steaming cup of artisanal coffee. He’s the one who really knows her … the one who is privy to her deepest, darkest secrets … or rather, the ones she’s decided to share. He’s her very best friend, and she’d never let anything threaten their relationship.

Except …

There’s one night when things go a little too far. Millie has one beer too many, and the rose-colored glasses she’s looking through show her everything that’s always been right in front of her. Reid looks too good in those well-fitting jeans and snug t-shirt, and she can’t seem to help herself from reaching out to touch. He’s like a warm slice of gooey chocolate cake, and she’s a woman starved. Before Millie can talk herself out of it and back to reality, she pounces.

And to her delayed-by-alcohol-surprise and exhalation, Reid lets her.

Millie truly couldn’t function without her gang there to keep her sane. In a world where female professionals have a hard time getting themselves taken seriously, Millie knows she has hit the mother-load with her all-male support system. And it’s not just the impenetrable fortress they’ve built around their friendship that makes her feel safe – it’s the little things too. The guys are workaholics just like she is, so they get it. They understand her late nights, her muddled mornings, the rabbit holes of obsession that she invariably falls into, and her need to blow off steam at least once a week. And even doubly lucky for Millie, they all happen to work at the same university, resulting in the crew always lingering in close proximity to both her and the local coffee shop.

But for one night, Reid had belonged to her … and now, Millie can’t get him out of her mind. So what does that mean for the group? Does it even mean anything?

With a work function looming on the horizon, the five-som declare that each will arrive dressed to the nines and with … dates. Unable to cash in on the shallow pool at the university, what with all those underage co-eds and all, they agree to turn to a dating app for help. While some are rather reluctant to bare all for their profile, Millie finds the process more than a little cathartic. When she’s matched up with Reid, Millie wonders if she’s on to something … it’s so easy to talk to him through the app … but not so cool that he doesn’t realize that it’s her he’s talking to.

Millie finds herself in the most precarious of places. Does she blow the foundation of her cemented friendships with the guys and admit to her feelings about Reid, or does she say nothing and leave it all to chance?

The writing duo known as Christina Lauren is back at it with another rom-com full of good humor, steamy bedroom antics, and flawed characters with My Favorite Half-Night Stand.

The good, the bad, and the ugly:

Much like Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, Half-Night showcases the kooky female main character Christina Lauren tends to favor as of late. But while Hazel is only annoying some of the time and most of it can be chalked up to her child-like sentimentality, I found Millie to be annoying … most of the time – and for no good reason at all. She was one of those cliche chicks who hangs around dudes too long and begins to resemble one, then finally decides she wants to be more than just one of the guys. I didn’t mind her friendship with the men at all, but I found it curious Millie had no female friends. It’s not that friendship with men automatically means a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to sharing feelings and having layers of honest emotion entwined in the relationship, but it bothered me that Millie had no real connection to any female. It allowed her to disassociate. And while that could be a valid storyline, Lauren never traveled down that path long enough for it to matter.

The mentions of Millie’s family and their needs only made me dislike her character more. Instead of making her relatable, as I assumed the authors wanted us to feel, her lack of any real empathy for her sister turned me off.

Millie was cold. She was closed off from her emotions and had zero depth. Lauren wants us to believe the reason Millie is this way is because her mother died when she was young and she was forced to pick up the pieces in her household … all while watching her younger sister and father bond and leave her out. I wasn’t buying it. Millie’s dismissal of her sister’s calls for help with their ailing father had me shaking my head at the constant show of callousness, and it made me not really care that things weren’t going Millie’s way in the other aspects of her life. She was selfish and one-dimensional.

And speaking of selfish … I found it kind of gross the way she pounced on Reid the night of the “half-night stand.” The guys in this story were its saving grace, Reid maybe most of all. The story is written from both his and Millie’s POV, and he came cross so likable and warm and compassionate. He was plugged into his sentimentality and it was inviting. He was (in my opinion) way out of Millie’s league.

The storyline was cute, and I loved the back-and-forths with the other guys in the group – especially Ed. Each had their own distinctive personality, and I enjoyed their banter and friendship. I would love to see some sort of spin-off that involved more of them and … less of Millie.

All in all, I can only give three stars to this book, which makes my heart hurt a little. As a rule, I will recommend any and all Christina Lauren books … but this one … left a little to be desired in the female category.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’ve liked other ones by this author, but it was a quick and easy and simple read. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I think that Christina Lauren books used to really have so much chemistry and zing! and that just isn't there for me anymore. I'm sure it's me becuase so many people I know continue to enjoy these books and consider them a favorite author duo, so ignore me and just go with everyone else. But this just felt phoned it and little boring. Hoping i'll find that magic once again with them.

A friend told me that this book was amazing and that I needed to request it on Netgalley and so I did. I found that I really need to not do that next time. I found the plot to be quite lacking and I didn't enjoy the catfishing story.

Millie is emotionally stunted—often frustratingly so—but also kind and quick-witted. Reid won me over with his charm and easygoing nature. This is a friends-to-lovers romance, and while I obviously couldn’t wait for Reid and Millie to get their act together and jump aboard the love train, I fell equally in love with all five best friends. The funniest moments in the story come from their get-togethers and wacky group chats. They have such a wonderful camaraderie that I really wanted to be part of their close-knit group.

Having just finished a string of highly emotional books, this very fun romantic comedy was just what I needed.

Love another light-hearted rom com from Christina Lauren. I enjoy the whole gang Millie, Reid, Ed, Chris and Alex. The love story is between Millie and Reid. I like the concept of online dating. Millie and Reid had a short half-night stand but decided it best they stay friends. Along with their friends, Millie then created an on-line profile using a different name but by faith she was matched with Reid. They chatted and eventually fell in love. What happened when Reid found out who the real Catherine is? Whoa! There are some steamy sexy scenes. The characters are lovable. Awesome chemistry. Over all, lighthearted, charming friend-to-lover romance.

When two friends start to mess around they don't want their friends to know. Then they both go online to look for dates for a big event. Things go off the rails from there.

Christina Lauren's books seem to be moving more towards "women's fiction" with romantic elements than actual romance novels. I have complicated feelings about that. And yet I keep coming back anyway, which no doubt says something about their writing voice. My Favorite Half-Night Stand was an average read for me -- not the worst I've read from them, but definitely far from the best.

It’s no secret that I love Christina Lauren’s romance novels. I actually just reread all of the ones before this one because, even though they’re not connected at all, reading <i>My Favorite Half-Night Stand</i> and <i>The Unhoneymooners</i> were a good excuse to do so. I do not regret my life choices in the slightest. Their books just get me. I love the characterization and the ships, even if they do have one plotting thing they do every single time I wish they would stop doing every single time, which I’ll discuss more. <i>My Favorite Half-Night Stand</i> falls on the bantery end of the Christina Lauren spectrum, and there’s a big friend group, which is rare for one of their standalone novels. Super cute and with a great character arc, this is another fabulous Christina Lauren contemporary.

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Millie’s a professor whose focus is on female serial killers, but most of the time she’s just one of the guys. She hangs out with a group of four other male professors, and they’re really close, complete with a group chat they update constantly and highly competitive games of Monopoly. In Lauren’s previous novels, there really haven’t been girls who have straight male best friends, so that made a nice change. I also really loved the dynamic between them all from the very beginning when all the guys argued about which one of them would be Reid’s type.

The romance is friendship to love, which is a trope I love in cases like this where you get to watch the feeling shift. One night, Millie suddenly starts noticing how hot her best friend Reid is, and so they end up having a half-night stand (which apparently means sex where you don’t sleep over after ward). They keep it pretty chill mostly and end up both trying to do online dating, along with all their friends, to try to find dates to a black tie gala at the university. It doesn’t get that much into online dating, but what is there is mildly relatable. It’s pretty clearly set on Millie and Reid from the start, though, even online.

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The one thing I didn’t love about <i>My Favorite Half-Night Stand</i> was the way that Millie ends up messaging with Reid from a separate profile. It starts innocently, as a joke, but ends up being a way for the incredibly private Millie to open up to him without having to do it in a particularly vulnerable way. All of that’s fine, actually, and I get it, but I wish it hadn’t played out exactly like you expect it to play out from the outset. Christina Lauren love to break the couple up and let them mourn the relationship for a bit before they get back together. They literally have done it in every single book, and I’d love to see them throw a twist on that.

However, given that I don’t love that formula they use, I do think it works better here than in prior of their novels, just because it does really feel like something that Millie would do. She’s very convincingly closed up, turning anything emotional into a joke or a changed conversation. Even with her best friends and family, she cannot talk about her feelings, and, as someone who once really struggled with that, it’s so much easier to talk when you’re not face to face. Sometimes the fights that cause the nth hour separation feel manufactured because it’s something the couple really would have just talked through, but I did believe that Millie would be that bad at conversing and that Reid might be overwhelmed.

Also, I do just love romances with an emotionally withdrawn heroine and a guy who fucking loves feelings. Reid’s such a squishy, hot, nerdy marshmallow who just wants Millie to tell him how she feels. He’s so frustrated and honest, and that’s just not really the guy you get much in romance novels. He even says that he’s uncomfortable with sex without a relationship. That’s still rare to find in a romance hero, though Lauren have done a couple guys more like that.

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Millie’s character arc is so strong, and I love that at the end she gets therapy and starts truly working on her communication, not just with Reid but with her family. Her characterization was set up initially clearly enough to explain how she got to be this way, and her journey is pretty slow and very believable. I love when romances work in mental health stuff in a way that’s not overpowering but very clear.

The friend group adds some cuteness to the background, though I’ll admit I’m unsure on how acceptable Ed’s romance in the end really is. Chris and Rayme are pretty cute, and I hope there’s a spinoff book about them at some point. I loved the group chats a lot throughout and the constant banter between the group, along with the nerdy references.

In case you couldn’t tell, I loved this book. Christina Lauren’s romances are outstanding, and I hope they keep gifting us with two per year.

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MY FAVORITE HALF-NIGHT STAND by Christina Lauren is the first book I’ve read by this author duo. It pulls at your heart strings from the very beginning. Christina Lauren never lets them go and keeps you involved and interested in the story until the very last page. Millie is in her late thirties and is an Associate Professor at UC Santa Barbara. Her four best guy friends, Chris, Ed, Alex and Reid also work at the University and they are all single. Their relationship is perfect and lots of fun. They hang out several times a week, play board games, make dinner together and text back and forth constantly. Their messages are so funny that I was giggling out loud while reading.

Who says friends of the opposite sex can’t stay “just friends?” So what happens if maybe there’s moment of weakness? Just a slip one night…or should I say a half night? Can you go back to being just friends? The laugh-out-loud antics are plentiful in MY FAVORITE HALF-NIGHT STAND as Millie, and her group of academic friends dip their toes into the dating world through an online dating app.

When an upcoming Gala is scheduled where Obama is going to be the guest speaker, all of them decide to go on an online dating website to find dates. Millie, being the sarcastic, funny and witty one, writes their profiles. Since her real profile isn’t as successful as the rest, she creates a fake one for herself and wouldn’t you know it, Reid takes the bait! Read MY FAVORITE HALF NIGHT STAND…….believe me, you will love it!

I have been very excited to read this author duo! MY FAVORITE HALF NIGHT STAND does not disappoint. I fell in love with all the characters and found myself cheering for them in different ways. I especially had fun with this one… because I’m very familiar with online dating. I met quite a few guys that were actually fun and nice off of it but hearing some of the profile “duds”.. I was thinking that happened to me! I don’t have a single complaint about this book—great writing, fun characters, cute story, and perfect pacing.





I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thought this was super cute friends to lovers book! Thank you for this opportunity to read it before it was released.

I thought this story was a cute and fluffy story. Millie and her four friends decided to sign up on a dating website to get dates for their work social event. When Millie uses an alias Catherine, she connects with a date and they hit it off online.
Some specific phrases that her online guy used led Millie to deduce that her online mystery man was in fact her best friend Reid. Millie had found Reid physically attractive but they had never connected in this way before. Millie is torn on whether to continue the charade or tell Reid that she is Catherine. Meanwhile, the online couple gets closer and closer, prompting Reid to want to meet face to face.

The group of friends was my favorite part of the group. They were funny, they teased each other but they were supportive as well. The writing was entertaining and flow was pretty consistent. I loved Reid and Millie together and wondered why they didn't put all their cards on the table sooner. There was a part of them that saw the other, they just didn't communicate honestly and allow themselves to be vulnerable. It was angst enough to give the story an emotional kick. I love how Millie redeemed herself and the role the friends played in it all. Overall, an enjoyable and fun read for those who enjoy romantic comedy or contemporary romances.

If there is a book from Christina Lauren I immediately do a happy dance. These Authors write smart, relatable characters that I never have an issue connecting with and My Favorite Half-Night Stand was no different.

There were moments in this book where I laughed, there were moments I had to stop and catch my breath. I think that's why I enjoyed this particular title so much. Once upon a time I used a dating site to find my husband so this felt like something I knew could happen. I swear, I wanted to shake Millie at times but she's someone I could see myself being friends with.

This book was set in a place I"m not familiar with but after reading it I felt like I knew it. That is the talent of these Authors. They craft an impeccable story while keeping you so invested in the characters that you almost feel they could jump off the page.

I absolutely adored this book.