Fans of the fake engagement trope will love this sweet love story. Wiley Grey is living quietly in his hometown, helping his BFF with her bakery, doing some design work, and going nowhere. Literally. Along comes childhood friend Kit Leydon, now host to a popular reality TV show that features a new wedding every week, and Kit pulls Wiley into his latest scheme. Kit’s brother, Holt, who helps with production of the show, is getting married (to give him an out to resign) and Kit announces that Wiley is his betrothed. Shocked speechless at first, Wiley agrees to the plan.

The story is literally all about the happy (and bumpy) road of wedding planning. Wiley is a total sweetheart, the kind of character I enjoy reading. He’s creative, intelligent, sympathetic to others, faithful to his friends, and deserves all the love. But here’s my big hitch with the story: I could not warm up to Holt, who came across as cool and stoic to me. Yes, he’s tall, muscular, sexy, enjoys helping others, and appears to Wiley. Most of his thoughts of Wiley are centered on how cute Wiley is and how sweet he is and how worried he is that Wiley may get hurt by this fake marriage situation. Their verbal discussions are primarily about the wedding and how to fake it, so they use standard get-to-know-you questions and answers to prepare. But over and above that, they don’t have life discussions, and Holt always has a blank expression when Wiley looks to him, leading Wiley to something I don’t — jumping to false conclusions. Communication would have gone a long way toward making this a better story. I wanted to hear Holt’s internal dialogue— or even hear him say something out loud— about what a good person Wiley is, how intelligent, or how much he’s coming to care for him.

The secondary characters were diverse, including Wiley’s BFF, Carla, who I found a bit harsh— too bossy, and a brassy caricature of a fag hag. Kit, Holt’s brother and host of the reality show, was sparkly and outgoing with a steamroller attitude and a ton of self-love, so I was happy he was only a secondary character. The POV of a blogger who hosted a fan page devoted to the show was featured off and on throughout the story to give the show’s fans a chance to interject their take on the progress of the romance. Though I didn’t get the context and content the first time it was introduced (on page one), by the end of the story I looked forward to more and was caught up in the fans’ excitement, so kudos for that inventive twist on getting readers on board with the reality show audience. The unknown blogger became my favorite character!

All in all, If you enjoy reality TV, fake marriage, and a sweetheart main character, this is a great book to pick up.

NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.fake-boyfriend for-review read-2020 ...more1 Sandra 1,810 335

Got this for free a while back. This is on of the Dreamspun Desires titles. Fun read.2022-book-challenge angst-and-drama blue-collar-hunks ...more1 Son Nguyen9

Let me just start off saying that all the events that occurred in this book seem "busy" ALL THE TIME. Every scene would jump right into action, which sometimes perplexed me. This leads me to my second criticism - the lack of setting and time. I had to establish some imaginary places in my head to accompany me through the events in the book. I couldn't clearly picture when and where they were at because these events were built upon characters' interactions. My last criticism would be the characters' backgrounds. There was little to learn about the main characters' backstories except the way they interacted with each other on the surface level since they met. Yeah, there was some chemistry between the two, but it was so slow-burn and there wasn't any excitement between them. Nevertheless, it was an alright read. Teresa3,479 40

4.5 stars

This was adorable and funny, with lots of great characters and a romantic HEA. I loved watch Wiley and Holt fall in love. The reality aspect was entertaining and I hope eventually Kit gets his happily-ever-after. contemporary fake-or-arranged-relationship mm ...more Kobie2,871 3

I didn't this. DNF at Chapter 3. Premise didn't make sense.dnf Geoff980 31

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