The Fake Wedding Project by Pippa Grant

 

2*

This was an okay (not) Christmas story, although the small, fictional town of Tinsel, MI celebrates the holiday year-round. The premise is that Amanda, visiting from NYC, in an effort to avoid having a dreaded conversation with her pushy grandmother, pretends to be engaged to her secret best friend Lorelei’s brother Dane who is visiting from San Francisco. Why a secret BFF? Well, that’s because their families have been feuding for about 150 years and no one remembers why. Unfortunately, the whole town walks on eggshells because their parents’ and grandparents’ primary pastime, when they’re not running rival bakeries (her family’s gingerbread and his family’s fruitcake), is to play a mean game of oneupmanship, not hesitating to use their offsprings’ accomplishments as pawns in their petty war rather than just showing pride. Dane, who hasn’t really seen Amanda since high school (when he harbored a crush on her), readily agrees to fake an engagement with the lie that they’ll elope to Vegas a month later. However, the feud-weary townsfolk decide they should get married within the week. Do they not have enough to keep themselves busy that they can drop everything to throw together a wedding in a matter of days…and not have the courtesy to even ask the couple if they’re okay with it?

I just couldn’t get on board with the idea that they’re both such pushovers and are so easily bulldozed by everyone, that they really think they can use their very brief engagement to end the feud, and that announcing it is fake just before the ceremony won’t have everything blow up in their faces. There’s just so much that’s unrealistic about this story, and I got bored and frustrated with how rude and inconsiderate Dane’s uncle and all their grandparents were to their supposed future spouses. Although there was spice (as in the sexy kind, not the baking type), I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. I also didn’t buy into the instalove trope, even if they were sharing a cabin for a few days. Not a horrible book, but not the least bit memorable either.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Montlake through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

 

4*

Shep’s the perfect book boyfriend in this friends-to-lovers, best friend’s older brother romance with an accidental pregnancy set in New York City.

Eve floats through life, never really knowing what she wants. When she accidentally gets pregnant after a one-night-stand with Ethan, she struggles with acknowledging that her life is going to profoundly change once she has a child. When she tells her best friend Willa the news, her response is angry instead of congratulatory, since Willa and her husband has been trying to get pregnant while Eve never even talked about wanting children. Shep is the only one who’s happy for her and is there for her every step of the way.

Eventually, Willa accuses Eve, in the gentlest of ways, of never knowing what she wants, whether it’s having a baby, starting a romantic relationship with Shep, or even getting promoted at work where her dream has always been to be a policy analyst in wildlife conservation (if she’s willing to get her Masters to earn the promotion). As her pregnancy advances and her crush on Shep grows, she has to do a lot of soul-searching and growing up.

This is a charming, sexy romance with really likable characters. The chemistry between Eve and Shep is hot, as evidenced by how even a seemingly innocent hand massage is titillating. The lifelong friendship between Eve and Willa is tested, but their bond is so strong that it withstands Willa’s distancing herself and the natural displacement of being number one in each other’s lives when they each find their life partners. I really appreciated how Ethan wants to be involved in his baby’s life and that Eve helps him clear a path to make that happen. Shep is loving, kind, supportive and so tuned into her needs, instinctively knowing that he must play nice with Ethan because anything less will hurt Eve and the baby. If you’re looking for a feel-good, low angst, somewhat steamy, slow burn romance, here it is. Recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from The Dial Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

4*


Brendon Lowell wins the prize for 2021 Book Boyfriend of the year. If only unicorns like him existed in real life. Every great romance novel includes main characters who reject love because of some trauma from their past or parents who modeled the worst in married partners. Yet Brendon does just the opposite. Blindsided by his parents’ divorce when he was twelve, he makes it his mission to help people find love. He has a hero complex so deeply-ingrained that he created a hugely-successful dating app (OTP = One True Partner) that focuses on real love connections rather than casual hook-ups. He watches rom-coms with the belief that the HEAs in them can be replicated in real life.

So when his sister Darcy’s best friend Annie comes to visit her in Seattle and he realizes his childhood crush pales in comparison to the attraction he feels for her now, he makes it his mission to woo her by re-enacting scenes from the movies. Annie, who has decided to give up on finding love since she’s always the one who puts in the effort only to be rejected, does everything in her power to deny the chemistry and affection she almost instantly shares with the very grown-up Brendon. She’s convinced that, as soon as she agrees to pursue the relationship, he’ll grow tired of it and move on. No way does she trust that the feelings she has for Brendon, after just the two weeks in Seattle (before starting her new job in London), will be worth walking away from a lucrative career...even if her heart isn’t in it and is, in fact, already left behind when she leaves. The question is whether she’ll be able to work through her fear to seize the life she craves with Brendon, her best friend Darcy, and the other true friends she’s made.

In Bellefleur’s previous book, Written in the Stars, she told the story of Darcy and Elle who were set up on a blind date by Brendon. So it’s such a treat that she has now shared the love story between Darcy’s brother and her best friend. It’s refreshing to have a gender-swapping best friend’s little brother romance in which the older sibling doesn’t go all alpha when her friend violates the “bro code.” She’s turned the trope on its head, and it’s so refreshing to have an older sibling who encourages and supports the budding relationship instead of throwing up roadblocks. There’s so much to love about this story. So, if you’re looking for a swoon-worthy romantic hero, pick this book up. You won’t be disappointed!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Avon Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.