Normally I love the fake relationship trope. Unfortunately here it didn't work for me. I had a difficult time connecting with the main character, and her love interest. The writing style was at times confusing for me, the inner dialogues repetitive, and I missed the cute banter.

This book has absolutely outdone itself! One thing I loved about Kathy Strobos' last book, Partner Pursuit, is that the main character's career doesn't fall to the background for the sake of the romance, and this wasn't any different in that sense! I seriously love how Kathy focuses on Penelope's aspirations and goals, while seamlessly blending in the romance into her story. Rory was also such an endearing character, and the perfect complement to Penelope's character. My one wish was that we got more groveling from Rory at the end! Maybe just because I'm a sucker for a dramatic reunion, but I wish Rory really went through the trenches to get Penelope back haha. With that being said, I LOVE that she included an epilogue in this one!! I have such a soft spot for epilogues and she delivered. This is a little premature, but I absolutely cannot wait for Kathy's next work, about Miranda's journey! The little sneak peek of the first few chapters already makes me want to have Caper Crush in my hands right now.

I received this book via NetGalley for my honest review.

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally. While it did have some tropes I’m usually not a fan of I did really enjoy it! There were moments that felt a little bogged down and I found myself speed reading through, or found myself flicking over to some form of entertainment so I can’t give it a full 4 stars. This is definitely something I would recommend reading, but probably wouldn’t read twice. I give it 3.5 stars.

Great friends to lovers romance dealing with rejection loss and opening up to love again. A great read Thanks netgalley.

The concept of friends pretending to be dating is a good start but with a twist. Through in an old crush, an ex girlfriend who doesn't like being an ex.
Dare penelope risk her feelings and the friendship to make the pretend relationship a real relationship.
Unusual jobs and pressure from friends and family to be more conventional. A few more bumps leaves you up to the last page crossing your fingers for a happy ending.

Adorably romantic fake dating trope. I found the story rather quaint. I would say it is a great premise since who doesn’t love fake dating someone and finally realizing you’re SEEING. a friend you never SAW before?!

This is a beautiful friends to lovers story which really tugged at your heartstrings as our main characters battled with their own insecurities and background, and falling in love with each other whilst also battling this so as not to wreck their friendship. My only complaint was the ending felt rushed, especially as the book had been quite long, so it felt as though it deserved more than a couple pages

Overall a cute rom com. A fake dating story where they are friends prior. I wasn’t as connected to the characters as I wanted to, but it was a cute story.

I received this ARC through #netgalley and I am voluntarily reviewing this book

This was very cute friends to lovers and fake dating romcom!! It followed classic Katy Strobos formula and I really enjoyed it. Penelope was my favourite character in the book. She was really charismatic and witty. Also I really enjoyed the romance between Rory and Penelope.

Is This For Real is a cutesy, fake dating romcom. Since fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, I was looking forward to reading this and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was a fun, lighthearted read that I devoured pretty quickly. The writing style was simple and easy to understand and the humor was also done pretty well. I loved Penelope and Rory together, when they were fake-dating and when they actually became a couple. They were friends first but I could see that they had chemistry.

While I did feel that there was a lot of telling rather than showing, overall, this was a pretty great read and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

A light and funny romance that explores two friends Penelope and Rory that agree to fake date to avoid the questions about their personal life. Although I do like the friends to lovers trope as well as fake dating, I couldn't fully engage with the characters. Despite this, it was an easy, cute and predictable read.

She is almost thirty and trying to be a published writer . She is doing odd jobs to survive . I love her passion for creating miniatures . She has to see and old friend who told him she loved him and he said he didn' t so she asks from her best friend to pretent to date so he will need a date for a party at work . What start as fake with time it feels real for her and she is trying real hard not to lose him .
I received this book from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

2⭐️

Tropes;
Friends to Lovers
Fake Dating
Slow Burn
One Bed Trope
Fade to Black

This book follows Penelope, a struggling author, and her best friend Rory. They have been friends since college although throughout their friendship Penelope has had an on and off crush on him.

Rory reveals to Penelope that a colleague’s wife keeps hitting on him at work events so suggests she be his fake girlfriend. Penelope agrees to fake date so she can use this experience as research for the romance book she is currently writing.

This book had so many great tropes so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.

The book had quite a slow start for me. I found the heroine kind of boring and I couldn’t really connect with her all that much.

As she’s a struggling writer, she has been getting a lot of rejections from agents and publishers. I did sympathise with her the first time it was mentioned but then she kept bringing it up and kept getting more rejections to the point that it just felt very repetitive and annoying.

I feel like I can’t even comment much on Rory. He was also pretty boring and there wasn’t much banter between the two main characters, which is what I expect to see when reading a romance about friends to lovers.

I honestly don’t think that the characters had that much romantic or sexual chemistry and when they finally got together, my view of their relationship didn’t change. They were boring as friends and boring as a couple.

Unfortunately this book was just not it for me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“Is This For Real” by Kathy Strobos is the second in a series. However, I didn’t realize that - although I have previous read the first book (Partner Pursuit) - so this book is a full stand-alone. In this book, the reader follows published romance writer-wanna-be Penelope - who also has side-gigs helping out at a family friend’s sporting store, creating and selling miniatures, pet sitting, and running a blog.

The pros - one thing I like about Ms. Strobos’s books is that they are really set in NYC - not just “we walked around Central Park” but specific routes, stores, and museums passed. That helps make this book for this reader a bit more solid and “real.” I also like how Ms. Strobos included a wanna-be-writer and shares the general writing experience with the reader. Also, Ms. Strobos’s writing style is fun and enjoyable. And any time an author has a fake-dating trope, while the outcome is predictable, it’s usually a fun ride and this book was no exception.

With all that praise, my one problem was that this book seemed a bit all over the place - fake date for this reason (okay, gotcha), then this happens, then this is brought up and this happens, then this, oh and flashback to this thing … while everything moved in a forward direction, at times this book felt too much like so much was happening because, well, it could happen. Maybe that was on purpose, but it didn't work cohesively for me. Also, while I liked Penelope and her writing struggles, she felt a bit flat at times - and ditto for Rory, her fake date and the male main character.

Let me note- I really wanted to enjoy this book more! I would read another book by Ms. Strobos (since I did enjoy her previous book), especially if it covered Zelda (Penelope’s room mate) who seems like a firecracker and a half. Also, I like how Ms. Strobos mentions in the author’s notes how she researches different cities and professions.

This is a cute story of Rory and Penelope as they navigate fake dating, he in order to evade the advances of his boss's wife, and she in a bid to get material for a romcom she's writing.
Overall, the story was wholesome (the part that I have read anyway). I loved the comedy: the writer has an impeccable sense of humor that shines through.
However, I could not connect to the characters, and having a hard time with it, so I'm dnf'ing. I felt that sometimes the writing was a tad stilted and the characters' thought processes felt disconnected.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a very cute story featuring the friends-to-lovers storyline. Penelope is a wrter of romance books and her new story seems to mirror her new situation. She gets her friend Rory to agree to fake-date to make one guy from her past jealous and so that she can be his date for his business retreat and other business-related dinners. Cute story and you know how it will end before you read it.

Let me begin by saying that I would risk it all for Penelope and Rory. I'm not even joking when I say that. They are absolutely adorable! It's a best friends-to-lover romance with faking dating and a slow burn, which is my personal favorite.

This novel depicts a wide range of emotions, which I enjoy. Penelope is a struggling novelist who is sending out her manuscripts to publishers in the hopes that they will be accepted. Although she receives some positive responses initially, they ultimately reject her because they believe she needs to expand. Fake Dating Folly and Caper Crush are the two books she's concentrating on back-to-back, and Kathy's next book is expected to be Caper Crush, which is super cool. She not only manufactures and distributes miniatures to support her income, but she also manages a blog about her dollhouse, which is linked to her Fake Dating Folly narrative.

Since college, Rory has been Penelope's best friend. His encouragement for Penelope's books has to be the cutest thing ever. While the other characters in the novel are supportive of her literary career, Rory occupies the top rank. Especially when he's trying to help her out by reading romance novels. When Penelope approaches Rory for help with her Fake Dating Dolly book, he asks her to fake date him since he, too, needs to keep his boss's handsy wife off his back.

I indicated that this narrative incites a lot of emotions because, to put it simply, it does. We follow Penelope's progress as her writing improves over time. Especially when she stops allowing rejection to control her life. She also works on her feelings for Jamie since she is unsure if she still has any affection for him. Spoiler alert: she is no longer likes him, but they have a mature friendship. Callie, on the other hand, is a different story. She's free to pack her belongings and leave. Having to deal with his parents going on a break when he thought they were perfect was extremely difficult for Rory, and it caused him and Penelope to break up. Overall, I admire the intensity with which this novel elicits feeling.



*thank you to NetGallery of an arc in exchange for an honest review*

The story
Penelope is a twenty-something New Yorker. She’s given herself two years to get her career as a romance writer off the ground, but her stories keep being rejected by agents and publishers. A lot of the feedback she gets is that the stories hold back the emotional stuff, and she knows it probably has to do with the fact that she herself holds back on emotions. When her parents were killed in a light aircraft accident when she was in college, it changed her life. When Penelope’s best guy-friend Rory suggests fake dating to help him avoid a client’s amorous wife and help Penelope with her storyline, she agrees. She knows that she will probably end up feeling more than she should and has her doubts. But it seems that maybe Rory suggested the fake dating less to help himself and more to test the waters with Penelope.

My thoughts
I loved how closely the storyline in Penelope’s books and miniatures blog mimicked the events of her real life. Her side business in miniatures is her own form of art and expression, and seems to be a successful business even when her writing career is a challenge. So many aspects of this story felt like those photos of photos taken in a mirror, reverberated into infinity. I felt like I was sitting on Penelope’s shoulder, sharing her viewpoint and getting a clear line of sight into her thoughts. I felt so close to the story that at some points, I wanted to whisper to Penelope to just throw a tantrum and tell Rory to get rid of his his horrible ex. I loved how, similar to Partner Pursuit, the city is such an integral part of the story, almost a character in itself. It’s a goodie!

Cute funny rom com with one of the best tropes , “fake dating”. Whilst the ending was predictable it was still a really good journey to get there. Would recommend.

I struggled to get into this which was probably my fault since this is the second book in a series. It felt like I walked into the middle of a story and spent way too long trying to figure out who the characters were and what their relationship were. I did like the fake dating trope between Rory and Penelope. It is one of my favourites and was cute and romantic if somewhat lacking in depth. (2.75⭐️)