This book started really slow for me. It took me weeks to get into the first 25%

I love the enemies to lovers trope and think that was my favorite part do the whole book. There were definitely the comedic points and the banter was there, but I feel like I needed something more from the characters and storyline. I'd love to check out another book from this author, and see what she can do.

Can a fake date fix everything? This question lingers throughout the story, as Abbey navigates her new fake relationship with her neighbor and realizes that sometimes, the unexpected can lead to the most fulfilling journey. With witty banter, relatable characters, and a swoon-worthy romance, this book will leave readers feeling uplifted and hopeful. The author skillfully weaves in themes of family, friendship, and finding oneself, making this a heartwarming and enjoyable read. So, if you're in the mood for a charming and feel-good romantic comedy, look no further than Can a Fake Date Fix Everything?

I really enjoyed this book. I love fake dating so this is right up my street and both characters were so cute together.
I did wish there was a little bit less deception but it did not over power the whole book which I liked. I am getting married this year so anything about a wedding day seems to make me a little nervous at the moment but thats a me problem and not actually a problem with the book which is why I rated it lower than I maybe would have liked because of stress.

There was nothing about this book I didn’t enjoy. Both characters felt sincere, the slow burn tension was there, the conflict was handled maturely and the banter was so fun. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, especially as it starts to blur into something real. SWOON. Ted was sweet and I loved watching him find his confidence. Abbey was trying to figure out who she is and it was such a pleasure to watch her own her personality. I even enjoyed watching each of them deal with their ex, as it showed their growth and their new feelings. No spice, but wouldn’t have changed a thing. Read it in a day. Loved it.

I received an advance review copy for free via Netgalley (THANK YOU) and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a charming read, sweet and simple.

I found myself wishing for a little more spice, but that was just personal preference, and in no way took away from the storyline and character development.

What happens when you fake it until you make it, but the lies become indecipherable from the truth? Abbey finds a fake boyfriend in pro-baseball player Mike…only his name isn’t Mike, and he’s no sportsman. He’s just a tech nerd hiding away in his brother’s penthouse flat.

Well worth a read!

Fake Dating Geschichten gefallen mir eigentlich immer, daher bin ich auch sehr motiviert in diese Geschichte gestartet. Und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Der Schreibstil (im Englischen) ist sehr flüssig und ich konnte mich richtig schön in die Geschichte fallen lassen. Abbey fand ich von Beginn an wirklich sympathisch und auch Ted mochte ich direkt wirklich gerne. Die Gefühlswelt der einzelnen Charaktere konnte mich dann besonders zu Beginn der Geschichte auch überzeugen. Die Handlungen und die Wirrungen, die sich aus einigen Situationen und Entscheidungen beider Seiten, dann entwickelt haben, haben mich mit der Zeit dann etwas weniger überzeugen können. Für mich wurde es dann etwas zu konfus und etwas zu konstruiert. Dadurch wirkte die Handlung für mich am Ende dann doch etwas gezwungen und zu sehr gewollt.

Besonders schade fand ich, dass ich die aufkommenden Gefühle und später auch das Prickeln zwischen den Charakteren nicht so wirklich gespürt habe.

Insgesamt eine unterhaltsame Geschichte, die mich gut unterhalten hat. Für mich fehlte aber dann doch etwas das Prickeln beim Lesen, um ein wirklich gelungenes Romance Buch zu sein.

This is a cute romantic comedy set in New York. The FMC Maggie finds out her long-term boyfriend has been cheating on her, and loses her job and her flat all in the same week causing her to reevaluate her life and what she wants.

After making some big changes to her life- she meets her new neighbor, who she believes to be Mike Thomas a famous baseball player. Unbeknownst to her, he is actually his younger brother Ted who has also just had a big shock in his life after finding out his finance has been sleeping with his best friend and business partner and hiding out at his brother's apartment licking his wounds.

Both characters are trying to reinvent themselves during this heartbreak and betrayal, but unfortunately, this causes more mistaken identities and lies. To help each other out they start fake dating as her horrible ex starts dating a new girl living in the same building - all the little lies start snowballing.

This book was an easy read and a great palette cleanser with a HAE.

I absolutely adored the book. There is nothing I would like to change about it. I have alway been a fan of fake it till you make it idea and this book just matches my flow. Funny, sweet and romantic.

Oh gosh, I adored this book. I think Abbie and Ted were amazing characters and to be honest I'm a sucker for a fake dating plot line!

this book does have miscommunication in it but i felt it was done well and didn't really take from the story.

Very enjoyable story and totally recommend!

A banger of a book with fake dating and miscommunication trope which was done surprisingly well. The characters were well rounded and really easy to root for! The book wasn't laugh out loud funny but it did make me smile like a fool so there's that!!

*I was given an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are solely my own.*

Fake It 'Til You Make It by Laura Carter

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Can a fake date fix everything? On a day Abbey thought would be the best of her life – her boyfriend is surely going to propose tonight, right? – it all falls he tells her he’s met someone else. And then to make things worse, she loses her job.

In an act of reimagination, she splurges her wedding savings on renting an apartment in a building she’s always dreamed of living in and kits out her wardrobe to match.

But when her family invites her ex – a close family friend – plus a date(!!) to her parents’ vow renewal, Abbey realizes her façade won’t be enough. There’s nothing for it but to fake one more thing – a romance. And she knows exactly who to ask... her hot new neighbor...

My Opinion

This was a book I struggled with, not because I didn't like it but because I really wanted to take my time with it. From the beginning I knew that it was a book that I wouldn't want to end. This was a light-hearted, slow burn romance. There is a lot of miscommunication but for once it was done in an enjoyable way.

Laura Carter uses the perspective of both Abbey and Ted to keep the reader in the loop. Ted and Abbey were such lovely characters that I would love to catch up with them again in the future.

Rating 4/5

Thank you Net Galley and publisher for this ARC!

What a great story! I really enjoyed this. I love how well the characters worked together. Love the MCs and the secondary characters. Loved the humor, spice, romance, dramas all of it!! I loved Abby and Ted story!

I loved the cover of this book when I first saw it and that is originally what interested me. Fake Dating is one of my favorite tropes and I really enjoyed it in this book. This book also contains the misconception trope and while I am usually not a fan of this trope some of the assumptions the main characters made about each other were pretty funny. Throughout the book I just kept wishing Abbey would just speak her mind rather than holding her tongue and I was so glad when she finally did. The author did a wonderful job of portraying all the characters the way she wrote Abbey ex as such that I really disliked him. The only thing I did not enjoy about the book was how rushed the ending was I wish the author had at least written an epilogue.

“It feels like we’re caught in a moment. That moment in a cheesy romcom movie, when the characters fall for each other, but don’t know it”

Fake it ‘til You Make It follows Abbey & Ted who were both recently cheated on. Both find solace in the same apartment building. Ted who lives there courtesy of his brother who is an MLB player. Since Abbey was kicked out of her apartment that she shared with Andrew. She now lives in the apartment underneath Ted.
After an embarrassing encounter, the two begin an unusual friendship. They both lie about their careers & circumstances. In Ted’s case, he’s often mistaken for his brother, so he doesn’t correct Abbey.
Ted quickly comes to the aid of Abbey when she encounters Andrew, portraying her new boyfriend.

With Andrew being invited to Abbey’s parent's wedding vows renewal, Ted offers to be her fake date.
The two have to keep up with their own lies along with pretending to be in a relationship. I wish the two would’ve been honest from the beginning. Or at least halfway through the book, instead of dragging it out. Relationships aren’t meant to be built from lies, but it was pivotal to the plot.

Of course with fake dating comes banter, chemistry and the realization of feelings not being so fake anymore. The two have to navigate these growing feelings and admit the truth to one another.

Tropes:
-Dual POV
-Slow Burn
-Closed door romance


Thank You to NetGalley, Laura Carter, and Boldwood Books for an eARC. All opinions are my own.

sweet no-spice romcom with the fake dating trope 💞🌷

Ted / Mike is the nicest male MC of any romcom I've read, maybe too soft and too "written by a woman" to my taste. It definitely had some of the typical romcom quirckiness, especially with the cringy nicknames (Lady Big Panties? Miss Fluffy Boots?? ew) and I'm not a fan of the lying / stolen identity trope but they made it work ok.

I didn't have a lot of butterflies reading this, although Ted's body made up for it several times. The "out of the shower with only a towel" scene is a classic and never getting old 🙏

overall a cute and nice romcom, not a lot of drama or action but full of sweet moments 🫶

[review posted on goodreads]

Abbey’s checklist-perfect life falls apart when her boyfriend dumps her and she loses her job. Ted discovers his beautiful fiancé and best friend/business partner are having an affair. As they met at the lowest point of their life, Abbey and Ted do not have the best impressions of each other. However, they grow closer to each other in their joint misery of failed relationships. Certain circumstances lead them to start fake dating until nothing seems fake anymore.

The book was very entertaining with lots of sweet heartfelt moments. For a change, both the main characters had something to hide and hence the miscommunication was not one-sided. The back-and-forth banter between the main characters and their chemistry was cute.
Although I liked the book, I felt the ending was a bit rushed. There are a few things that are left unanswered. How did Ted’s confrontation with his business partner go? What did Abbey decide regarding her career? I wish I could know more about it.

The book is perfect for those who love a clean romance with a slow burn and for fans of The Spanish Love Deception.

Thank you Netgalley, Laura Carter and Boldwood Book for giving me a chance to read this ARC!

RATING: ★★★★

The cover had me hooked and the trope of this book was interesting the first chapter feels like romcoms from the 2000s you can kind of see where things will go and you just want to see where this is going to take the main character.
It was interesting having the trope of the main character not knowing who he is but because we have dual point of view I would think that having his pov would bring something to the table, but it didn't, it was kind of boring also because I would have preferred to have the audience not know really who he was and some things that had to do with him, like the main character thought something wrong about the love interest and in the next chapter we have him telling us the truth so we don't really have any suspense or doubts which was a little disappointing, and also the ending is just so abrupt and we don't even get an epilogue, the story was good in theory but needed a better execution.
I would give it a 2.5 stars rating, which isn't possible but, sadly, this didn't feel like a 3 star read
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this book 💕

Fake It ‘till You Make It Review

TLDR: I quite enjoyed this novel and I would strongly recommend it, especially to fans of Christina Lauren’s “The Unhoneymooners” and Elena Armas “The Spanish Love Deception” (in my opinion, this novel is far superior to either of these novels).

Abbey’s whole life is thrown upside down when she gets dumped and loses her job. At the encouragement of her slightly eccentric sister, Abbey decides to fake her life until she makes it. That involves a brand-new wardrobe, a swanky new apartment and a hot new boy who lives next door.

Ted’s life is thrown upside down when he finds his fiancé in bed with his business partner. Seeking an escape, he goes to stay with his brother in New York and finds himself involved in a case of mistaken identity with the girl next door.

What I Loved:
The message in this book was well done and empowering – I loved the whole self-love aspect and encouragement. It didn’t come off as sickly sweet or anything like that.

The slow reveal of the compatibility of Abbey and Ted. I really enjoyed how long they took to get to know each other and how the reader was given small insights into their compatibility even before they were.

What I Liked:
The chemistry between Abbey and Ted was quite well done, I loved how they didn’t just automatically fall into bed and love with one another. There was build up and intrigue and it definitely paid off.

While this book has a heavy use of tropes (fake dating, forced proximity, mistaken identities, self-love), it never felt like it relied on those tropes to carry the reader through. I was already engaged and intrigued even without the tropes.

What I Disliked:
Sometimes the mistaken identity trope went a little too far. Ted tells Abbey a lot of lies as he pretends to be his brother and there were times when it felt a little icky just because of how many lies there were. I will say that this was quite well resolved, and it felt like Ted did make appropriate amends with Abbey and her family.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend it.

4/5 stars
2.5/5 Chiles

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The chemistry and banter between Abbey and Ted (hot neighbour) was palpable and leapt off the pages. The plot was entertaining and kept me engaged from the first page.
Ilaughed often from Abbey's witty come backs, she was so sassy and gave Ted such a hard time. I only wish she could have been more like that with her ex.
For anyone who enjoys the fake dating trope this book is a must read.

This book was so good and the character development in the book was so good and kept me locked in the entire book!