Flat-Out Matt by Jessica Park

Flat-Out Matt by Jessica Park

Good reads Blurb

Matt is a junior at MIT. He’s geeky, he's witty, he's brilliant.
And he’s also very, very stupid.
When beautiful, cool, insightful Julie moves in with Matt’s family, why (oh why!) does he pretend to be his absent brother Finn for her alleged benefit? 
It seems harmless enough until her short-term stay becomes permanent. And until it snowballs into heart-squeezing insanity. And until he falls in love with Julie, and Julie falls in love with Finn. 
But … Matt is the right one for her. If only he can make Julie see it. Without telling her the truth, without shattering them all. Particularly his fragile sister Celeste, who may need Julie the most.
You saw Matt through Julie’s eyes in FLAT-OUT LOVE. Now go deeper into Matt’s world in this FLAT-OUT MATT novella. Live his side of the story, break when his heart breaks, and fall for the unlikely hero all over again.
Take an emotional skydive for two prequel chapters and seven Flat-Out Love chapters retold from his perspective, and then land with a brand-new steamy finale chapter from Julie.

I loved this re-telling from Matt's point of view.  

Flat-Out Matt is a companion novella to Jessica Park's "Flat-Out Love".  I fell in love with Finn, Matt, and Julie during Flat-Out Love and I was very excited to get Matt's point of view on seven different chapters from the original story. Park also gave us two prequel chapters allowing us to see exactly when Flat Finn joined the Watkins family.  We even get a new chapter from Julie telling us how things get hot and heavy after the jump from the plane.

Knowing what we know now about Flat Finn, certain scenes from the book are so much more heart-breaking.  Matt feels like a second-rate stand in for the brother that everyone seems to want more than they want him.  This includes his new housemate, Julie, with whom he finds himself falling deeper and deeper in love.  This novella offers special insight into Matty's heart and his struggle between protecting the family that he loves and telling the truth to the girl of his dreams.