I enjoyed the synopsis for this book and was excited to read it. Although It was a fun read and parts made me laugh out loud, I did struggle a bit to get through it. I enjoyed the intertwining of humor with the story. Personally, I couldn't identify much with the point in life the main character was at but I could definitely see how one could. I enjoyed all the humor that was intertwined throughout.

I decided to just use the summary that I first read about this book, because it was what made me desperate to read it. This sounded life it could be funny, charming, thought provoking…. and just a really, really good time. As I had been in an emotional funk for some time and hoped that a good laugh would pull me out.
This was not that book. While there were some pretty hilarious parts, I found the main character to be far too unlikable. It became the job of her family and friend to keep the book on a more interesting and funny keel. As I did receive an uncorrected proof we aren’t going to get into all the typos that jerked me out of the story line- those will no doubt be taken care of before the book goes on sale. One thing I will say, though, is that the author seemed to sometimes choose words that made her sound more intelligent…. and sometimes I felt like they were misused. For instance, she tried to say that Hannah feels like her book is ‘zeitgeist’…. really? Let me lay out the Merriam-Webster definition:
Definition of zeitgeist
: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

Following this, Free love would be Zeitgeist of the 1960’s. Is she really trying to say that her first book is the embodiment of the current times? It seems overly egotistical even for this character. Honestly, the book was cliché and cringy with pockets of hilarity. Think Mean Girls meets How Stella Got Her Groove Back (only she didn’t). Also, I understand that her writing as Hannah- especially the more sexually explicit scenes-are supposed to be bad, but I am fairly certain my cat could write better sex scenes (Not Maude, but Boo- she’s definitely the sexy one). For me, this was a two star book. It wasn’t bad, per se… it just couldn’t keep my interest and didn’t live up to my expectations.

On the adult content scale, there was some coarse language and very mild sexual content. While it’s really very tame- even a bit boring- I would still say older teens and above. Let’s give it a four.
I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and One More Chapter in exchange for an honest review. My thanks!

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

I couldn’t really get into this story. I tried all day and my attention just wasn’t into it. I got about halfway through before I stopped reading.

There were a lot of parts of this book that I found very relatable. And I really liked the main character. But there were some places where the humor didn't quite work. Overall, I liked the book, but I didn't love it.

Thank you NetGalley, One More Chapter and Rebecca Smith for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
This book is a slow burn with the perfect sprinkle of humor and real life. I’m in my mid twenties and I think my age kept me from really connecting with Hannah. I can think of a few people who may enjoy this, but the sex shaming is a bit much here. We go from writing erotica and finding her sexy to shaming strippers and encouraging the erotica author stigma. I don’t know, just made it hard to truly like her.

Faking It by Rebecca Smith stars Hannah Thompson as a wife, mom, teacher and author. I loved seeing Hannah go after her writing career and go outside of her comfort zone. The book did leave me feeling a little stressed by her juggling everything and fell a bit flat in humor department.

I didn't realise this book was a follow on from More Than Just Mum which I haven't read. Perhaps if I had read that one first, it would have put things into perspective for me a bit more but regardless I was still able to pick up where the first book left off.

Hannah is a mother of 3, a part time teacher and a writer of a erotic fiction novel that unwittingly became more funny than risque.

Hannah now has the task of writing her second funny erotic fiction book which is a struggle for her as the first book was not meant to be funny, it was meant to be sexy.

This book explores the way Hannah tries to shake up her sex life with her husband Nick and get into the mindest of an erotic novel writer.......basically faking it until she can make it, all the while spinning the plates that are children, work and home life which most of us can relate to.....well maybe not the erotic author part!

This was an easy read and fairly enjoyable. I didn't have any laugh out loud moments but I did enjoy the end and Hannah's speech at the sex con which sums up how I feel about erotic fiction novels.

I loved this book, the writing was witty and made me laugh on multiple occasions. The beginning was a little slow for me but after I got over the hump (around page 25) I was glued to the pages.

Hannah Thompson's secretly a published erotica author and she's under pressure to write a sequel that's better than the first book. Struggling to write anything remotely sexy because, life, Hannah decides it's time to transform into her alter ego, maybe that will get things flowing.

Faking It was absolutely hilarious. All of the relationships and characters felt so real. I loved that Hannah and Nick's relationship wasn't in shambles and a source of drama, it's more about communicating and supporting each other. I could feel everything from the struggle of letting your kids go and grow up to trying to figure out who you are beyond a mom and wife. I'm probably the target audience here, if you have kids, get weighed down by life and sometimes struggle to remember who you are beyond a mom and wife, this is the book for you, it's absolutely relatable and will have you laughing out loud.

3.25/ 5 stars

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

First off, I feel like the cover and the synopsis drew me in and I felt like this would would be a novel I'd find entertaining.

Hannah, mom of 3, school-teacher, and secret erotica writer the pseudonym "Twinky Malone." I felt like this book was a bit of a slow burn and I didn't engage with it in the beginning. I kept expecting more to happen, there were genuine funny bits but still I needed a bit more to happen ya know.

Also, I think the shame of being a romance/erotica writer is not something I agree with so I had a difficult time with the MC's shame with her profession difficult.

All in all, I think I'll read more books by this author as I liked the writing style.

This was such a fun read and I wish its pub date was earlier because it would be such a fun beach read for so many people. It was such a wonderful plot and I found the book to be so funny and could relate with pretty much everything. I"m also grateful that I'm a United States citizen who watches Love Island because I understood some of the jokes, like how Hannah refers to herself as a mug.

**Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for an early copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review**

I didn't realize until after finishing this book that it is a companion novel to another book on the same characters, but it didn't really matter as you don't need to read the first to understand what is going on in the second. The plot is fully identified and explained without relying on previous knowledge.

I was very excited about the premise of this book. I could totally imagine a normal woman starting a career as an erotica novelist and having doubts about being known as someone who writes erotica. The main character, just seemed so normal. Three kids, middle aged life, working as a teacher, having financial problems. But this book just fell seriously flat for me.

First everything about Hannah seemed so contrived. She writes erotica and believed that her sex scenes were pushing the boundaries, then we find out her editor actually thinks they are more humorous than sexy. Hannah is appalled, so she tries to be "sexier" in order to write the next book. But all she does is basically slut shame herself and everyone else for most of the book? I seriously didn't get it. She made terrible assumptions, put her husband in weird positions, (literally and figuratively) and just overall was a strange character. Also, the snippets of her book we got to read? Not at all entertaining or funny or even erotic.

I'm also missing how this is a romance novel. Hannah is contentedly married, and there really isn't much focus on her relationship with Nick. There's more focus on her relationship with her sons and daughter or her friends than there is about her and Nick. Even the main plot, getting ready to attend Sex Con, takes 80% of the book to get to - and then it's only like a chapter long. Her arguments with her daughter took up more page time.

I think I went into this book expecting humor, romance, and some ~sexy~ writing - and that just wasn't this. It's possible that because my expectations were totally different I didn't enjoy it because I was so focused on getting to the parts that I wanted to be there... but didn't exist. So reader, if you're looking for a true romance novel, this isn't it. it's more Women's Fiction/Chick Lit. I'm sure there's an audience for this book, who will find it to be funny & relatable but that just isn't me!

The premise of this story seemed like a cute, but felt almost YA in the way it was written. It just didn't hook me the way I hoped it would based on the blurb!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Faking It follow our main character Hannah as she navigates life after the publication of her first ever book. Hannah wrote an erotic novel that is getting some major hype and she doesn't know how to handle it. She is also working on writing an anticipated follow up novel.

Unfortunately for me, this book was just not doing anything for me. For much of the book I felt like nothing was really happening. I didn't really feel like the characters were well enough developed. Nobody had a very distinct personality. It was kind of just a list of the issues that Hannah was facing. The book wasn't bad, it just wasn't very exciting for me.

I absolutely loved this book! I love how real the characters are and it was so funny and relatable. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.*

This book was just "okay". Didn't love it, didn't hate it. I did find parts to be entertaining and funny, but so much of it was just silly and cheesy. Think it will help once the editing is finished and the formatting is fixed.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is okay. It's a lighthearted romp about a middle-age woman finding herself. In addition, to be a mother and teacher Hannah is now an erotic novelist. The premise is interesting, and the book has a lot of laugh out loud moments to keep you engage but Hannah's story left me a little lost. Hannah was lost but I didn't want to be.

There is definitely an audience for this book I just think I might be ten years too early.

This was rough.

Honestly, it's not the level of finish I'm used to for an ARC so I'm hoping that this is a pre, pre-release and it will still go through a professional editor and formatting. Besides the numerous grammatical errors, the formatting was all over the place. Words had random spaces or none at all. Paragraphs were broken up all weird with hanging words. It made it extremely hard to get through.

And then there was the story itself. I kind of expected more about the MC and her "self-discovery" but really, it was a lot of cringy dialogue and not very likable characters. I guess I should have seen it coming when the daughter full-on goes disrespectful hyena in the 1st CH and the mom does literally nothing about it and is all "oh honey what's wrong?"

I also don't really like that the author played into the "shame" of being a romance/erotic author. It's like we jumped back in time. Yes, there are some people who still view romance as beneath, but hello, it's made a lot of strides and is one of the most-read genres. I just don't like how this book perpetuates that negative view. Even the MC is ashamed of it.

In the end, I didn't walk away from this book satisfied and I hope that it's pulled together a bit tighter before release.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced copy.

An okay book but not for me. I found it to be a fairly typical middle aged mum trying to prove there is more to life story. Family life, work, housework, sex, with glimpses of her new life as a secret erotica author. Mildly funny but did not grip me, I'm afraid.