Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

It was cute, but nothing special, this story has been done to death in general. The characters are well written, the story is cute, but I'm not going to rush out and tell everyone to read it right now.

This is the 4th book in series. This is a lighthearted fun read. Frasier & Jenna meet at an American high school. Frasier is an actor from Scotland & has to take a crash course at the high school for a role. This book is funny with some quirks and some serious times too. This is a clean YA novel that teens should enjoy.

This was a fun read!! I loved the characters and the plot was a lot of fun too!! I thought the writing was easy to read and I will be recommending this to my friends!

It's all been done before... That would be a nice summary of this book. A boy who is a Scottish TV celebrity pretends to be someone else in Texas, USA. He meets a girl, they fall in love and then the girl doesn't know if it was real or pretend. And of course there's a happily ever after. No humour, no anything that would make this book sand out a little bit more from many others.

Being my first read in this series, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, hilarious is the right word. While the book did deal with some heavy topics, the story was an easy read that kept the reader turning the page. Even though this is part of a series, the story can be read as a stand alone. I have not had the pleasure of reading the others and look forward to ordering them and reading them. I received a copy through Netgalley. A review was not required.

Unfortunately, this book was archived before I was able to download it. I was looking forward to reading this one, even though it was the fourth in the series. I like when series have companion books and can be read in any order. This book sounded like the perfect book for summer and I was looking forward to getting to know the characters.

Overall this was really good book. I love the character Jenna, she was super relatable. I also think Frazier story with his run away drug addicted sister is relatable to anyone else dealing with that situation. I would recommend this to a student in the future and I definitely do not think you have to read the whole series to know what is going on.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for sending me and ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4/5 stars. This was a cute contemporary read. I liked both Frasier and Henna’s characters, and I liked the chemistry between them. The whole actor-pretending-to-be-a-normal-kid thing was harder to believe because they didn’t really set anything up well for it. It worked out alright, but the first half of the book lasted about a week. The second half of the book picked up both the pace and the drama, and I found it easier to read. Frasier and his family are dealing with a family emergency, and Jenna is trying to cope with learning about his real identity. The mishaps these characters went through trying to reconnect were believeable and the end was both sweet and funny. Overall an enjoyable read.

This was a quick read. Cute, fun, and easy. Did it feel a tiny bit short? Well, yeah, I guess it did a bit, but sometimes it’s nice to have a shorter read, and I’ve read a few books that are more novella length lately, and it’s fine.

I can say that I didn’t think this book was confusing at all for someone who hasn’t read the rest of the series. Thankfully it is a YA contemporary romance series, and each book technically follows a different couple, so I maybe missed some cameos, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this book.

As I said in the intro section of this post, I picked this book up because of the cover and then because of the summary. The Scottish flag caught my attention and the title saying Hickville. I grew up in the country, went to a rural school surrounded by farms and such, so oftentimes I do refer to myself as a hick, so that called out to me. Then I read the summary and it seemed like a cute and possibly predictable YA contemporary romance with a Scottish actor and an American nerdy high school student. Sure, I like stories like this.

There’s the typical high school drama, a lot of it revolving around relationships, school events, and secrets and the rumor mill. But it’s somewhat comforting to fall into a story filled with all those trappings of the standard story. I like to follow it in books, movies, and TV shows. It’s easy to fall into and the plots and tropes are so standard that it’s almost comforting in its familiarity.

I did enjoy learning about Frasier/”Ethan” and Jenna, and seeing them get to know each other, become friends and maybe something more, get torn apart by secrets and the tabloids, and then find their way towards a happy-for-now ending. If the rest of the series is like this, I could see it being a series of made-for-TV movies, maybe on a network like the Hallmark channel.

I might pick up the rest of the series, particularly if I’m in the mood for an easy and quick contemporary romance read. It’d be nice to learn about the other couples to see if there actually were cameos in this book that I didn’t know about.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary YA romance novel. This book was a part of a series but could be read as a stand alone. I had not read any of the previous novels and was just fine with this one. Th e plot of this was Fraiser Andsrso n a famous Scottish actor goes undercover at a rural Texas HE and falls in love with Jenna Wiley despues being told to avoid girls. The two share a kiss and the Frasier leaves to go back Rockland to help his drug addict sister Fiona leaving Jenna hurt, confused and dealing with the paparazzi all on her own. The book is a quick read and is cute but the characters fall into a quick relationship in a matter of two days or something like it. The reader knows where this plot heads the who!e book but it is not meant to be a deep thinking n novel. It was clean without language too and I really appreciated that. Quick and breezy summer read.

Heat Factor: Innocent little high school kisses
Character Chemistry: This person looks into my eyes and I get all the tingles. I am not doing relationships right now. But the tingles…
Plot: Scottish actor embeds in rural Texas high school to understand his next role better, accidentally falls for local girl
Overall: It’s YA, so I shouldn’t, but I want to rant.

This book started as expected and largely continued as expected. If you’re an adult who reads YA, I’d say this reads like your predictable rom-com, so if that’s what you want, you’re golden. Presumably youth readers are not expecting adult prose, so this probably exists as a YA romance just fine as well.

I knew what I signed up for. I read the blurb and it was accurate. But here are some takeaways for the prospective reader:

Synopsis:
Fraiser played another character’s son on a BBC period drama thing. Now that show’s over and he’s got a contract to play a leading role in a Hollywood production, but as a child actor he was primarily tutored. So, in order to get him familiar with American high school life, the film producers decide to have him attend an American high school for a couple of weeks - anonymously, of course. Because he’s not going to stick around, there’s one rule - no girls, no dating. But he meets Jenna, who is a very average American high schooler. She has her group of friends, she has a big family, she has her truck and her partial independence (as seniors do). Because she’s one of five children, she needs a scholarship to attend her dream university and become a biomedical engineer. That means she needs to be valedictorian. That means she needs to focus on her studies - boys are a distraction, so there will be none of that during her senior year.

Commentary:
Unsurprisingly, these kids are not all that mature. They are seventeen. Frasier, having had a completely different life than Jenna, is a bit more mature than her, but he still lets his hormones guide his actions. He knows he’s deceiving Jenna and everyone else, and he knows he’s only in town for a couple of weeks. But there’s just something about that Jenna.

Okay, so Frasier is deceiving Jenna (and everyone), and then before he can make things right he has a family emergency and has to take the next flight back to Scotland. Are his actions ideal? Not really. But Jenna is next level self-involved and it made me totally nuts. And when the opportunity presents for the adults in her life to maybe help her realign her perspectives, they only give half good advice. It’s pretty narrow-minded. This, compared to Frasier’s mom, who actually gives him really good advice.

What does Jenna do? This story follows the typical deception plot trajectory:
1. Hero assumes fake identity, falls for heroine, realizes he needs to come clean
2. Heroine learns about the deception before hero can tell her and loses her mind
3. Heroine refuses to talk to hero because he’s such a terrible person for deceiving her
4. Hero, with patience of a saint, doesn’t give up until he can talk to heroine

First of all, Jenna immediately jumps into “Frasier lied to me about his identity so obviously literally everything he ever told me is also a lie, and how could he play with me like that, especially when he knew I didn’t want to deal with boy issues this year!?!”

Frasier tries to get in touch with her almost 20 times in just a couple of days (including before she figures out his identity), before he gets to Scotland. But Jenna is butthurt because some mom recognized Frasier before he could confess and she refuses to talk to him. So when she finally decides she’s ready to confront him at school, he’s already in Scotland.

THEN, Jenna is enraged because Frasier just LEFT?! Without even SAYING ANYTHING?! HOW DARE HE!? (At this point she does acknowledge that he did try to contact her a bazillion times, so I guess she gets millipoints for that. Things do not improve.)

While Jenna is in her insular world of “how dare he do this to me,” Frasier is dealing with some really serious stuff. He’s also pretty constantly being harassed by paparazzi in Scotland, so a quick online search would probably tell Jenna what his deal is, but she’s very busy being indignant. Even when there’s this big reveal press thing about his secret at the school, instead of having an inkling that maybe she doesn’t have the full picture, she gets angry that he deceived everyone and can’t be bothered to come to the school himself instead of sending other actors.

I pretty much lost it at this point because HOW SELF-ABSORBED IS THIS GIRL? This guy, about whom she knows basically nothing, and whom she has known for one week, deceived her, yes. But she never gave him an opportunity to explain anything, and she has no idea what’s going on in his life. How could she? She’s completely cut him off, and by the time she decides to reach out, he’s returned his American phone to the film production company. And yet she’s continuously offended by everything about him.

And somehow I’m supposed to believe that this girl who doesn’t trust this boy is meant to be in a long-term, long-distance relationship with him because their connection is THAT GOOD? Are you kidding me?

I mean, yeah, it’s a YA romance, so things get resolved in a neat little bow. I’m just super over this whole hero-has-the-patience-of-a-saint / heroine-has-the-maturity-of-a-tadpole narrative.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

This is a lower young adult book perfect for those who are just starting out in high school and want a laugh while reading. Includes the undercover trope as well as the friends to lovers.
I enjoyed the book but it definitely needs a lot of work before final printing. The characters are good base models and have room for lots of growth. I think once it is out it will be a good read.

Hickville Crossroads by Mary Karlik is the 4th book in the Hickville High young adult romance series. Frasier Anderson is the hottest young adult actor in the UK. To research his next roll, playing a Texas high school student, he enrolls in a Texas high school. No one knows who Frasier is, and he falls for a local girl. I found this book to be a quick read, but it left me wanting more. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. If you love YA romance, I recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you so much for the advanced copy, but I’m sorry to say that this just wasn’t my cup of tea. I can admit that I’m all about an undercover romance and the drama that surrounds it. This just.. wasn’t that. The writing was so choppy that I could never feel fully into the book. There were so many typos it was hard to get past the idea that I was reading a first pass, not an arc.
The characters were flat, and the constant switching of tone and accent really started to grate on me.

I’m sure when this is edited, sixth-eighth graders will get at least the giggles for this. It just wasn’t for me.

With the target of a more adolescent audience, this is a low key pleasure read that could be enjoyed by students who have been reading or never read the series. Jenna and “Ethan” have to overcome many obstacles to ensure their relationship works. There’s a worthy theme of the pressure of social appearances, dealing with typical adolescent problems, and the mash up of being the “new kid” moving to a new country. I do think some of my sixth grade girls would adore this storyline.

I couldn't get into this book and maybe it's because it's #5 in a series. I was under the impression that it could be read as a stand alone and while that is pretty true, I think it would be much more readable if I had read the others first. I felt that the entire book was a little too cheesy for my taste.

This is a sweet book. The premise was fun and interesting. It read like a fluffy book, which was nice and easy to read. It switched perspectives of the main characters, which was annoying at first but fun later. The characters were entertaining to get to know but not too remarkable, which is a shame. I didn't really like that the two main characters built a relationship on a lie. There was also a bit of insta-love which was also kind of annoying. Overall, it wasn't too remarkable or memorable but enjoyable.

2.5/5

Fraiser Anderson is one of the hottest teenage actors in UK. He has been offered a film in US where he has to play a Texas boy. How do you prepare a Scot into a Texas high school student? Get him into a Texas high school but on three condition. No girls, No drama and telling no one who he really is.
Jenna Wiley is smart, funny, has a super crazy loving family and a tight group of friends. But she just don't want to date. She wants to concentrate on her academics, get the valedictorian and get an admission to the best college.
But a certain Ethan Smith is distracting her from her goals. He is shy, goofy and definitely hot. But what happens when she will know Ethan Smith is none other than Fraiser Anderson? Is Friaser the same as Ethan or was it all just an act? Can Jenna handle the consequences of knowing a certain teenage actor?

Review-

I had really high expectation from the book. I thought this would be high school fun romance. But this book is slightly disappointing.

The first half of the book is really good and keeps you invested in the story. But after the revelation it just drizzle out. I felt it was too chaotic with the timing between US and UK. I just couldn't understand the relationship between the characters.

Characters are teenagers so I am not expecting them to be too much mature. But I felt there was no proper communication or any solving of the issue in the second half. They were just there with each other inspite of all the lies and confusion.

The family part was great. I love the all crazy, mad, big and too loving family of Jenna and small, broken and dramatic family of Fraiser. Both the families were the star of the book and they stood out the most. The drug abuse situation was handled very carefully.

This book definitely has its moments but it fails to impress overall. The second half just felt dragged and more of a family story rather than being a romantic one. And some would love the ending but I just hate it because characters never resolved their issue and that ending was not suitable.

Super adorable, teen-starring romance book. I'm a big sucker for a romance story set in our starring a character from the U.K., and with the Scottish-bred Frasier, this book immediately had my attention. It's a quick read, although a bit slow to start and introduce the main storyline of Frasier and Jenna. Super cute and adorable, and that epilogue! I mean, absolutely adorable. A perfect, stay-inside-and-cozy-up-with-a-book read.