Just for Show

Fake dating has become one of my favourite tropes over the last few years, and I'm always weak for some slow-burn with mutual pining, and this story follows that pattern pretty well: Claire, a psychologist who's about to sign a deal for her first book, gets dumped by her fiancée, and since the book is about how to make your relationship work and last, that doesn't exactly provide her with a convincing image. Therefore she hires actress Lana to play her fiancée for the publishing company and her colleagues, but of course soon their friends and families get involved, as well. The characters are some classical "married to the job, a little stuck up, a bit too closed off" and "easy-going, living in the moment, a bit messy" kind of types, both growing and changing a bit through and with each other throughout the book, and. This is exactly the kind of predictable romance I needed at the moment, and I enjoyed it, I just didn't love it as much as I thought I would? I guess the writing just isn't really my style, and the perspective changed back and forth between the two main characters too much for my liking (and being in both of their heads pretty much all the time took away something of the suspense, the suffering, and somehow even the chemistry for me?). Anyways, I still had a good time reading it. Also: seeing lots of queer women as side characters was pretty cool!