Publication date: November 1st, 2022
Synopsis:
The Boyfriend List is a 2022 Contemporary Romance Writers Stiletto Finalist!
High school is about to get complicated for Maegan Murphy. The quiet, nerdy girl who wears science-themed graphic T-shirts, posts TikTok videos about frogs, and likes to hang out in the school library reading books. The shy, awkward girl with two left feet who is prone to having monumentally embarrassing accidental mishaps; something Maegan blames on her last name, Murphy. As in Murphy's Law, the adage that states: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." And Maegan's biggest Murphy's Law mishap of all? The Boyfriend List -- a secret list of the names of all the boys she has ever had a crush on. A list she creates in a moment of feeling sorry for herself because she feels like she's the only girl in school who has never had a boyfriend. Has never been kissed. Has never found that special someone who sees her and not the awkward, weird sister of her older, very popular brother and star pitcher of the varsity baseball team, Braedan.
Maegan doesn't realize it yet, but that dreaded Murphy's Law she feels cursed with may just give her what she has always wanted. And it all begins with an accidental hallway collision with Grayson Ramsey, her best friend's very cute older brother, a wayward half-eaten apple core that hits Christian Alexander in the back of the head at lunch, and a lost Boyfriend List. The list that includes the names of both Christian Alexander and Grayson Ramsey. The list she swears she put in her backpack but absolutely, positively cannot find. The list that suddenly appears taped onto every locker and on every wall at school the next morning. The list that changes everything.
The Boyfriend List is a sweet YA rom-com that will have you laughing and falling in love at the same time.
You'll love The Boyfriend List if you like:
- Laugh out loud romantic comedy
- Sweet and sassy heroine
- Swoon-worthy book boyfriend
- Fake relationship that turns real
- Small town
- High school romance
- Murphy's Law hi-jinks
- Awesome best friend (who happens to be a guy)
- So many cupcakes
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Excerpt
I walk over to the trash receptacle and throw the wad of gum away. Wiping my sticky fingers on my shorts, I notice the nice streak of dark indigo that appears. Great. Fantastic. Fashion tip: never clean your hands off on your clothes if you just chewed a purple gumball. The candy dye gets on your fingers and anything you touch.
I stick out my tongue. "Is my tongue purple?"
"Yep. So are your teeth." Noah burst out laughing again.
I may have to add Noah to my list of people I'm giving the silent treatment to today.
Retrieving my water bottle from my backpack, I swish my mouth a few times. Just in case, I'll make sure not to smile for the next hour.
Drying his eyes, Noah asks, "What are you wearing?"
I look down at myself. Oh, for Pete's sake.
Since I wasted time and pouted for most of the morning because I was grounded and mad at Braedan, I didn't pay attention to the shirt I grabbed from the dryer. It's Mom's. Hopefully, no one will notice the I Only Looks This Exhausted Because of My Kids meme.
The first bell rings, alerting us to get to class.
"Where's Enzo?" Noah asks Kaitlyn as we make our way up the front steps.
Kaitlyn checks her phone. "Huh. He hasn't texted yet. Guess he's running behind."
Students are shoving past, jostling me in their haste not to be tardy.
At least, that's what I assume. I'm about to find out how wrong that assumption is.
We reach the front doors, and the noise level from inside is so loud it makes my ears ring.
Have you ever been in one of those mosh pits at a heavy metal concert where everyone is crowded in together, bumping into one another while they jump up and down like pop sticks? Me neither, but I've seen what they look like on television. That's basically what's going on now inside the school.
Noah raises up on his tiptoes, trying to look over the crowd. "Did someone toilet paper the school again?"
Beyond Noah, I catch glimpses of Mrs. Teasdale, the school's receptionist, and Mr. Fawkes, our vice principal. I can't tell what they're doing as they dash around from locker to locker.
Seniors are always pulling pranks. I can't wait to be a senior because I've got some great ideas for pranks Noah and I can do together. Last year, Braedan said that someone put glitter bombs in all the tenth-grade lockers. He came home from school covered in it. It took a week of showers before he stopped sparkling like Edward Cullen from Twilight.
"Assembly, maybe?" Kaitlyn guesses. She taps the shoulder of the girl in front of us. "Hey, what's going on?"
The girl turns around, and it's Mandi. Her eyes narrow when they fall on me, and not in a nice way.
"You want Christian to be your boyfriend?"
And.
My.
Stomach.
Drops.
Because in her hand is a photocopy of The Boyfriend List. The very one I couldn't find yesterday. The one that has my name written on it in big, blue bubble letters decorated with pink hearts. The same list that is taped to almost every senior locker in the front corridor.
Face heating to a thousand degrees, I stutter out, "I, uh... I... uh..." Why am I so itchy?
I can't lie. I'm not that good at it. I do like Christian. Have had a crush on him for a while. But I can't tell her that. Even though Noah said they broke up -- Oh my gosh, Noah! Grayson's name is on that list.
GRAYSON'S NAME IS ON THAT LIST!
Panic. Pure panic crashes into me. I'm going to faint. No. I'm going to throw up. No. I'm going to faint while throwing up.
Why did I write that dumb list?
Noah snatches the sheet of paper from Mandi's hand. I know exactly when he sees his brother's name. His brown eyes flare wide.
Can a fifteen-slash-almost-sixteen-year-old spontaneously combust from mortification? I think we're about to find out.
Suddenly, Noah snickers beside me.
Have I ever mentioned to you just what a wonderful, awesome best friend Noah is? In true bestie fashion, he has my back.
Doing one of his big, fake laughs where he bends over at the waist and holds his belly, Noah lets it fly. He laughs and laughs and laughs. He laughs so hard and so loud, everyone in the corridor stops talking and turns our way to see what's so funny. For the second time in as many days, I want the floor to open and swallow me.
Dramatically wiping fake tears from his eyes, Noah says almost as loudly as he had been laughing, "Oh, that's a good one. Soooo funny. Somebody got you good, Maegan."
He shoves the paper back at Mandi. She looks confused. Kaitlyn looks confused. Everyone around us looks confused. I look confused.
"You wrote this," Mandi says to me, tapping a pink-painted nail at my name on the top left of the paper.
I get distracted because the tips of her nails have these pretty, tiny daisy nail stickers glued to them. I wonder if they make ones with little frogs.
She taps on my name again. "Your name is written right here."
Yeah, I know. I can see it. In great big bubble letters. Duh.
Before I can babble more uhs and ums, Noah comes to my rescue once again. Such a great friend. "Of course she didn't write this. Why would you think that?" he scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Everyone knows she's dating my brother."
Say what now?!
Remember when I just said that Noah was the most awesome, most wonderful best friend a girl could have?
I take it back.
JENNILYNN WYER is a Rudy Award-winning author for Romantic Suspense, a three-time Contemporary Romance Writers Stiletto Finalist, and an internationally best-selling author of steamy, new adult, college, young adult, and contemporary romantic fiction. She lives with her family in the Gulf States, is married to a Brit, and you can usually find her in her favorite reading spot, e-reader in hand, with the latest romance novel. Her teen and young adult books are written under the pen name of J.L. Wyer.
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