Rent A Boyfriend
By: Gloria Chao
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 400
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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?
First Impressions
I saw the cover of this book on Twitter and immediately had to go check it out, so I’d say that’s a solid first impression. I then read the summary and immediately was in. A rent a boyfriend who ends up becoming a real boyfriend? I’m a total sucker for those kinds of stories.
What I thought
While I liked this book as a whole, it did seem a bit long and could’ve had bits removed and still been just as good.
When Chloe/Jing Jing goes home for Thanksgiving, she decides to rent a boyfriend from Rent for Your Rents in order to stop them from trying to set her up with terrible Hongbo. Drew/Andrew is the boyfriend rental who is supporting himself after he dropped out of college to pursue his passion of being an artist. They realize that there is a real connection there and the lines between what’s fake and what’s real become blurred.
I was a little bit surprised that the book started with Chloe (who goes by her Chinese name of Jing Jing when with her parents) picking up Drew (who goes by Andrew when on a job) right before meeting her family. I didn’t know how the book was going to go on when we were already starting with the rental. I will say that it did keep moving, since Chloe ended up needing to rent Drew again for Christmas, but in that sense it felt a little bit repetitive.
What I found really fascinating is that this storyline is based off of real life situations that occur in China. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for women to rent fake boyfriends over Chinese New Year to appease their families for whatever reason. Having not come from that kind of culture or familial pressure, I was a bit shocked that this happened in real life. It just seems like it would cause so many complications! I know that there are families that aren’t accepting of the way their children live their lives, but it was sad to me it has to go this far.
In the story, I hated Chloe’s parents. I didn’t find any of their behaviors to be excusable and there wasn’t anything redeeming about them. They kept claiming that what they were doing was because they loved her but it just came off emotionally and verbally abusive and I wanted nothing more than for her to cut herself off from her family and never talk to them again. As I’m writing this, I realize this is my biggest issue with this book. I worry that young adults will read it and think that it’s ok that their parents talk to them or manipulate them in these kinds of ways because “they love them.” It’s not ok. None of their behaviors are ok.
The redeeming part of this book was Chloe and Drew. I loved how they supported each other and accepted each other as the person who they truly were and wanted to be. They didn’t immediately fall in love, but there was an immediate connection. I enjoyed watching them work through issues together and could see them making it for the long haul.
It’s a very cute concept and I liked the cultural aspects that were included in this book with this type of storyline. I also liked the two main characters but couldn’t stand her parents. Also, by starting with the rental and then having a second rental it seemed a bit repetitive and I do feel like the tory could’ve been a little bit shorter. Overall, if it sounds interesting to you, I’d read it, but otherwise it’s going to be one I forget about shortly.