Tag: fake dating

Book Review | Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane

Posted January 22, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane

Bel’s joined the tiny Manchester office of a national paper from her indie podcast.

Thirty-something Connor is going to back to the start as the new intern.

The latest office news? They can’t stand each other.

So of course Bel bumps into Connor when she’s working undercover on the biggest scoop of her career. And of course she’s forced to improvise, pretending they’re a couple. A couple deeply in love.

Two rivals. One fake romance. The headline writes itself…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #40: Author’s first and last name start with same letter)

The Reason

I have loved many of the author’s other works and would read anything by her.

The Narrator(s)

Kristin Atherton. I really like her narration! Her male voices were a little funny, but not funny enough to be an issue. It was quite a pleasure.

My Thoughts

I loved this book and it reminds me why I love McFarlane’s works so much! Her books are always thoughtful, sensitive to real life issues, and yet still feeds the romantic need in my soul. I love the chemistry between Bel and Connor, and I love how their relationship builds as we move forward in the story and they continue working together. I also love the premise of the story itself; the undercover story that they work on together, the other issues that they face individually and as a team, their personal backstories, and their professional lives at stake. McFarlane’s books always hit, and I am very strongly tempted to binge read and reread all of McFarlane’s books right now.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa

Posted December 11, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa

The USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man is back with another hilarious rom-com about two strangers who get trapped in a lie and have to fake date their way out of it…

Just weeks away from ditching DC for greener pastures, Solange Pereira is roped into helping her wedding planner cousin on a random couple’s big day. It’s an easy gig… until she stumbles upon a situation that convinces her the pair isn’t meant to be. What’s a true-blue romantic to do? Crash the wedding, of course. And ensure the unsuspecting groom doesn’t make the biggest mistake of his life.

Dean Chapman had his future all mapped out. He was about to check off “start a family” and on track to “make partner” when his modern day marriage of convenience went up in smoke. Then he learns he might not land an assignment that could be his ticket to a promotion unless he has a significant other and, in a moment of panic, Dean claims to be in love with the woman who crashed his wedding. Oops.

Now Dean has a whole new item on his to-do list: beg Solange to be his pretend girlfriend. Solange feels a tiny bit bad about ruining Dean’s wedding, so she agrees to play along. Yet as they fake-date their way around town, what started as a performance for Dean’s colleagues turns into a connection that neither he nor Solange can deny. Their entire romance is a sham… there’s no way these polar opposites could fall in love for real, right?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A

The Reason

I desperately needed some romance after reading so many dark and heavy books.

The Quotes

“You know, I think the more something’s important to us, the more we feel we’ll lose if it doesn’t work out. So we convince ourselves not to want the thing.”

“One thing’s clear: Not being in a relationship is better than being in a bad one. Because one bad relationship can change your life forever.”

“Like maybe I don’t deserve you but I want to try to earn a place in your heart.”

“Sometimes we feel things we know aren’t rational, but we still feel them.”

My Thoughts

I picked up this book because I had been reading a lot of horror and hard-hitting books lately and I needed a nice, light-hearted romance. There were a lot of cliches, tropes, and hijinks, but all in good fun and mostly delivered well. I enjoyed the chemistry between the two MCs, and I love the relationships they have with the other supporting characters as well. I think the family aspect of the book is one of my favorite things about it, though I normally don’t like family being too involved in personal stuff. It feels like there was a nice balance between nosiness and respect for privacy with the relationships here. There was some graphic sex on the page which I wasn’t expecting but I thought was done pretty tastefully, considering. It was a really quick read and I enjoyed it very much!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Posted December 8, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

Christina Lauren, returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.

Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.

The Reason

I just really needed something light-hearted after a lot of horror for October, plus other heavy reads.

The Quotes

“When we care about someone, they deserve the benefit of the doubt. We have to consider not only what they did, but also why they did it. Intent matters.”

“We get to decide how much of our hearts we want to give them.”

“Being an artist is sometimes about not being afraid to do it badly first.”

“The day my husband moves out of our apartment is also the day Resident Evil Village releases for PlayStation, and you might be surprised which of these things lands with a greater emotional impact.”

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this one because I absolutely love the fake dating trope. But also, a lot of the story resonated for me in terms of having a difficult relationship with family and finding someone who advocates for you no matter what. One of the reasons I love the found family trope as well.

The premise is a little fantastical because we all want to be married to a rich heir who’s actually a really good guy, but they are few and hard to find in our real world. But who cares? This is a book, for escapism, and fantasizing about being the adored wife of a hot billionaire who’s absolutely into you. So I am totally here for it!

I loved Anna and West. I love their story and the way their fake marriage turned into a real one. I hated West’s parents with a passion, and I’m not completely satisfied with their comeuppance, but as long as Anna and West get their HEA, I’ll accept it.

This was just the book I needed after reading so many heavy/horror books over a short period of time. I think I need more!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

Posted March 18, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

She’s got his back. He’s got her heart. They’ve got a secret. What could possibly go wrong?

Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with her bare hands. But the truth is, she’s an elite bodyguard and she’s just been hired to protect a superstar actor from his stalker.

Jack Stapleton’s a Hollywood heartthrob – captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, rising out of the waves in clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity.

When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah – against her will and her better judgment – finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover.

Protecting Jack should be easy. But protecting her own heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #28: A yellow spine)
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’ve been seeing a lot of praise for Katherine Center in general and this book in particular. I also needed a fun book to get me out of a reading slump, and this one fit the bill.

The Quotes

“I guess there really is something profoundly healing about letting somebody love you.”

“Maybe love isn’t a judgment you render – but a chance you take. Maybe it’s something you choose to do over and over. For yourself and everyone else.”

“People who want to be famous think it’s the same thing as being loved, but it’s not. Strangers can only ever love a version of you. People loving you for your best qualities is not the same as people loving you despite your worst.”

“Every chance you take is a choice. A choice to decide who you are.”

The Characters

I love that Hannah Brooks, the female protagonist, transcends all stereotypes of what a bodyguard should be. I love her as a character, and I love Jack Stapleton too. I love his family so much (his brother was a little bit of a jerk though, but only a little).

You know who I hate? Robby. I hate him so much! And just when I thought I couldn’t hate him more, guess what? Yep, I hate him more!

I did wish that some of the characters were more fleshed out; there were a couple of scenes where I felt like some of them were only there as plot devices, and that they weren’t given fair representation, but overall, they were all interesting enough, and I loved the two main characters together, which is the whole point for this story!

My Thoughts

Fake dating? Check. Banter? Check. Only one bed? Check. All the fun tropes!! Plus I really, really love banter in a budding romance.

I love that the female protagonist is the bodyguard, and the male protagonist is the one who needs protecting. It was really cool seeing Hannah be a badass and do her job while also allowing the story to move the romance along. I thought the balance between male and female, masculine and feminine, yin and yang, was just so perfect here.

I also love that the author was able to write about difficult topics while telling a light-hearted love story. I’ve read one other book from the author, What You Wish For, and I remember that was one of the things I loved about that book as well.

My Feels

Honestly, I cannot resist a romance with banter and conversation. It is my biggest weakness and I just swoon whenever I read about how the MCs fall in love through conversation. I loved their conversations so much; how they got to know each other, and trusted each other enough to talk about the vulnerable things. It keeps me reading and wanting more!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. It’s so much fun and it got me through a reading slump!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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