**A Review of "Fake Dating" Romances: A Personal Preference**

As I read through the various fake dating romances, I couldn't help but think that some aspects of the books were unrealistic. Characters who don't feel like they could exist in real life often left me feeling disconnected from the story. While I appreciate authors' efforts to create relatable characters, I find myself drawn to more escapist reads. Romance is a genre that I enjoy being swept off my feet by, and when it doesn't deliver on that front, I'm not impressed.

For example, in this particular book, the heroine felt too prickly to me. The dialogue also fell flat, which made it difficult for me to become invested in their relationship. It's essential to remember that personal taste plays a significant role in enjoying a book. I've found that when I share my dislike of certain elements, it can be universally disliked or appreciated by the majority of readers. In this case, I didn't enjoy anything about this book, which is why it's now a two-star read from an enjoyment perspective.

The representation in this book was fantastic, however. The heroine is autistic and bisexual, which added depth to her character. Unfortunately, that was not enough to redeem the rest of the book for me. The fake dating trope is often enjoyable, but when executed poorly, it can be frustrating. In this case, the reason for the fake dating felt like nonsense, and I couldn't get on board with it.

**Favorite Book in the Trope: Enemies to Lovers**

If I had to choose a favorite book in the enemies-to-lovers trope, it would have to be "Enemy Servers." However, when comparing this book to "Enemies Lovers," I found that fake dating actually edges out enemies lovers in terms of overall rating. This outcome isn't surprising, as my personal preferences often lead me to enjoy books that fit a specific trope. While I didn't connect with this particular fake dating romance, I've developed a taste for the genre over time.

**The Aggressive Word: Two Stars**

When it comes to how sexy this book was, I have to admit that I had mixed feelings. The author attempted to be very sexy, with plenty of longing glances and lustful descriptions. However, my body didn't respond in the same way, which left me feeling a bit icky at times. It's essential to remember that everyone has different tastes when it comes to romance and sex scenes.

**The Final Tabulation: Fake Dating vs Enemies Lovers**

In our final tabulation, we found that fake dating outperforms enemies lovers overall. This outcome wasn't surprising, given my preferences for the genre. When I told you what I didn't like about a book, it could be something universally disliked or appreciated by the majority of readers. In this case, my dislike of certain elements made "Fake Dating" a two-star read.

**The Power of Personal Taste**

Personal taste plays a significant role in enjoying a book. While some people may enjoy certain tropes or genres, others may not. It's essential to acknowledge that our tastes can evolve over time, and what we enjoy today may not be the same tomorrow. For me, this experience has been a reminder to trust my instincts and read books that align with my preferences.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, while I didn't connect with "Fake Dating," it has been an enjoyable challenge to explore this genre. I'm excited to continue reading fake dating romances in the future and discover new favorites. If you have a favorite friends-to-lovers book or would like to recommend one, please share it with me in the comments below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel in this video I'm going to be reading fake dating romances for an entire week super excited to be doing this this is the second in my Trope series that I'm doing here on my channel where I pick a particular book Trope and I try to read books from that show for an entire week to see ultimately at the end of the year which book Trope is the best I have already done the enemies to lovers version of this video I'll leave a link in the description in case you missed it but in this video again I'm going to be reading fake dating slash marriage of convenience books to me these tropes are kind of one in the same kind of operate similarly so I'm going to sprinkle in a little bit of both in this video I got recommendations in this video from a whole host of different sources they are basically the same sources that I got them from in the last video so we can keep things scientific and then I will be grading each book on a scale with three different categories how sexy is this book how sexy did I find this book how important is this Trope to the story as a whole is fake dating something that is really important to the story or could it have been good without it because I think that helps determine like whether or not fake dating is the Supreme Trope here and then lastly like what is Just My overall enjoyment ratings so three different categories I average those numbers together and at the end of this video I will average all of the numbers together and give you a final score like what kind of final enjoyment score is I guess of this particular Trope so I have done enough explaining let me tell you the six books that I'm going to be reading this time around for this Trope challenge first up we have the wall of Winnipeg and me I always like to pick a reread for these particular videos to kind of like set me off on the right foot I like to at least have one book choice that I know that I'm going to enjoy right so I don't only pick from books that I have no idea about I don't want the final score I guess to be too low so I like to kind of set my bar um High by picking a book that I know that I enjoyed previously so I picked them all fun to picking me for this reason I gave this book five stars the first time I read it and I wanted to reread it for a couple of different reasons which I'll tell you about whenever I decide to read this book next up we have the front runner by Elsie silver I like to go on Amazon from time to time and search up particular tropes to find find new reads if you search up something like enemies to lovers romance a lot of authors when they mark their books on Amazon will put that in the kind of like search results for their book in this case the front runner by Elsie silver said small town fake dating romance and I was instantly intrigued I love Elsie silver I have loved other books in this series next up I got a recommendation from YouTube as anyone would you know searching up on YouTube enemies to lovers or fake dating romance videos and I got the recommendation from Lacey Book Lovers on YouTube uh for that kind of guy by Talia Hibbert this one I'm really excited about I have not really read any Italian Herbert I would say outside of her Brown sisters Trilogy I think actually I read one other book outside of that trilogy but I'm excited to give this one a go the next place that I looked was Instagram and similarly to how I did it last time I just searched up the hashtag fake dating to see if I could find any good fake dating recommendations I found this graphic which really appealed to me because it had some books on it that I knew that I already liked and so I figured maybe this would be a good place to go because again if like I've liked some of the books on this list perhaps I would like one of the books that I have not read so I picked first down by Grace rightly this is a sports romance I believe set in college and I haven't read anything by this author before but I have heard good things so excited to give that one a go next up I got a recommendation from my Patron Emily uh this is another place that I love to get good book recommendations because I feel like my patrons really know me and I got the recommendation to read two wrongs make a right I am excited to give this one a try I have tried other Chloe lace books in the past and haven't had the best luck and I'm hoping that this one turns out better and then lastly I decided to add a sixth book into the mix because after having done that first video I got so many good comments giving me recommendations for fake dating books so going forward for these videos I'm going to let my comments decide a book for me to read and in this case I got the recommendation for honey and spice I've heard really good things about this book I have the audiobook but I've been putting off reading it because I wasn't sure like what genre category this fell into if it was like women's fiction or if it's why a or if it was romance I really didn't know and now that I know it's a romance and it's fake dating you bet you're asking me to read it so are these six books that I'm going to be reading here in this Vlog let's go ahead and get into the Vlog portion of this video and let's find out if fake dating is the superior romance Trope hello besties happy Monday we are kicking off this fake dating slash marriage of convenience Vlog off right I'm 50 into the wall of Winnipeg and me I decided to go for the romance that I knew first also it does help that I have the audiobook of this one hello kitten is here with the cookies so let me tell you about this and then we can do like a little mini review are you gonna film me when you're looking all good and I'm looking greased up to the gills I would never be able to film us if wow you know I went off of that I have read this book before obviously and I wanted to reread this one not only for the like top 10 sports romances of all time video that I did a couple of weeks ago but also because I knew that it was a fake dating romance and I didn't like it that much the first time I read it and I was like am I gonna like it more the second time around maybe or at least I hoped that I would because I'm not like directly comparing this one to culti there first time I read it I like red culty and then I read this one and they're so similar that I was like this one's Never Gonna live up sometimes it is not comparison that um you know makes a book look bad sometimes the book is just not that good book's better two main characters Vanessa and Aiden Vanessa has been the personal assistant to a pro football player for a while and he's recently injured I think he had to take a season off and now he's going to be going back to football because of a series of events Vanessa has like saved enough money to where she doesn't need to work for this man anymore she only took the job in the first place because she thought it would help her pay off her student loans more quickly if she really wants to do like graphic design or something or like practice art I don't know she has been like saving money so she can have her own business move out Etc so after a sort of shitty situation she gets herself into with him like he says some kind of like nasty stuff about her or or agrees with someone saying nasty stuff about her she decides to quit and basically says you and then a couple of weeks later he comes to her and it's like hey I actually need you to marry me because I need a way to stay in the United States because I'm Canadian visa is expiring and so she has to marry this man and he promises that he will pay off her student loans completely and buy her house if she does this they have to stay married for five years for the visa to like I guess work I don't really know the details of it my issue with this book is one that I have with like I'd say about half of Mariana Zapata's books half of the dudes definitely crossed the line from being a grumpy hero to being a complete and I don't think Aiden in this book is very fun to be around I guess you could say like oh he's done nice things for her and oh he's going to like pay for her house and get her student loans paid off like I guess you could say that sure like that's nice and all but at the same time I feel like it's supposed to be a romance right and like that's not that romantic he's just like doing this because he has the money too and because he needs someone to to be fake married to yeah I have felt no romance I know it's a slow burn but I'm just like kind of irritated when I'm reading it I just really don't understand the height of this book yes especially compared to culti I feel like they have like a fun kind of banter relationship in that book and the banter is totally lacking here she has more banter with the guy's roommate than she does with him um also yeah there's a roommate involved and I'm gonna be honest I don't actually like that I don't like the inclusion of a side character that like lives with them in their house I don't know I just don't think it like adds to the story very much and I'm gonna finish this book later let's review some more cookies I'm very hyped you're gonna taste test yours yeah look at the look at the like gooey toffee Pockets I show the camera it might be kind of hard to see it but there's like it kind of tastes like a Pop-Tart I think this is one of my favorite cookies that they make it's like Heavenly and like like buttery which is only crispy and buttery and it tastes like a biscuit did you get a little toffee in there too yeah it's pretty nice huh I already chocolate chips in here I think there are maybe I don't know do I like chilled cookies no not easily but you know what you could do microwave it no I was just gonna say like wait to eat the rest of it until you get home and then it won't be like cold anymore I mean I wasn't that excited for this anyway but sorry like stupid and I stand by that like it's not bad it's just like it looks pretty good also my hand is like there's a Sheen to it from holding that that cookie the only thing that I'll say at least it's like real raspberry topping like the topping is like it's pretty decent and there's a little bit of salt in there too which I think you know kind of adds I mean honestly it's it's okay it's not that bad I wish it was like fruit snacks on the top you know all right friends I finished the wall of Winnipeg and me just a second ago it is 8 36 on Monday and this is the first book that I'm reading for this video that I need to be done with by Thursday so you know live laugh love thriving didn't love this which is a bummer I didn't think that I was going to like absolutely love it this time around but I did again like want to read it again for multiple reasons I wanted to see if I would like it more this time around and I also just wanted to see if it would live up to my rating the first time I still gave this book five stars even though I didn't like it as much as kulti Upon finishing it I think this overall is a three star book for me it was A Fine Romance kind of I just think it was lacking in the actual romance I think Mariano Zapata does such a good job at giving you characters who feel real especially your heroines this book is only told from one point of view and you really understand Vanessa and where she's coming from I feel like I really understood her family and kind of why she behaved the way that she did and I think that's a really impressive skill I think a lot of the times authors are not great at fleshing out their main characters and I feel very distant from them but I did not feel distant from Vanessa I think that's why Mariana's a pot of books are so successful because you can really put yourself in the shoes of the heroines unfortunately felt like the romance was a little bit unconvincing and I think for me it's that there were too many things built up at the beginning of the story to make us feel like Aiden didn't really respect or like Vanessa and here's the thing I am all for misunderstandings when it comes to that sort of thing but it needs to be like one circumstance one instance right like and he just one time or had she just one time overheard him say something about her or agree about something that was said about her and she overheard it and like misunderstood the situation okay sure but it seems like there were too many situations where he was outright rude to her or where she overheard things and like wasn't happy with the way that he was talking about her that I was just like this isn't romantic to me and that says nothing about the sex scene at the End of This Book which to me was an instant back I don't remember it being so cringe in culti but the sex scene at the 99 Mark of this book was not sexy describing the slap of our hips was wet and sloppy like that note I'm gonna go with a no on that I don't really like like vivid descriptions of ball sacks and then the word penis I just really think it's clinical here's the thing I understand that that is the anatomical term I just don't want to hear in the sex scenes you know I would never say that during sex show me your penis no absolutely not let's write this book on the scale though right because the the whole point of this video is fake dating was this marriage of convenience fake dating novel successful on a scale of fake dating like was it integral to the story I'm actually gonna give it a five doesn't mean that I think the fake dating was fun but I do think that if the fake dating had been absent here or the marriage of convenience had not been in this book book wouldn't exist because these characters would have no reason to be together and it is the whole thing it is the Crux of their relationship right so I'm gonna give it a five in that regard on the sexy scale I'm gonna give it a one this was not a zero star situation it's not like this book is the antithesis of sex however despite her many descriptions of Aiden's ass throughout the story didn't really buy like the sexual component to the story I never really felt like Aiden was truly attracted to Vanessa like there just wasn't a sexual chemistry there like I didn't really feel it and give it a one in that regard and then the overall rating again is a three which makes our total average rating a three for this book which feels very right for the story given how I feel about it I think like if you're looking for a marriage a convenience fake dating novel I think this might work for you I know a lot of people love this book people just eat up Mariana Zapata books especially her Sports romances so perhaps this will be a book for you it just wasn't my perfect fake dating story so I think I am going to pick up the front runner by Elsie silver next let me some Elsie silver this is the Amazon pick just you know for your knowledge and or for your remembrance because I'm probably gonna forget as I go like what the sources of these books are but this one I got directly from Amazon and it was advertised to me as a small town a big dating story and I'm excited to see where it goes so I'm going to go ahead and get started with that and I will update you once I'm about 50 in Tuesday Morning Rain has barely ceased pouring good morning Let's ignore the Paul Revere hair while I do my makeup and tell you a little bit about the front runner by Elsie silver this book's actually like really good it's not that I didn't expect it to be right but it is beyond what I I had hoped and for that I am very grateful mostly because I read a photo finish first and that's supposed to be like the best book in the series whatever and I'm not saying I'm liking this one more necessarily but I think I'm liking it equally and I gave a photo finish five stars so you know looking up looking up after the wall of Winnipeg and me so this book's about our two main characters Stefan and I don't know if it's Mira or Myra it's m-i-r-a I think Mira sounds cuter so I'm gonna go with that our main characters are I don't want to say professional Nemesis or anything but definite is sort of like the villain of the past couple of books he owns a rival um like horse racing Ranch I think like the people that work for him are maybe not the best like the jockey of one of his horses is gross you got a little bit of a harasser definitely didn't know this but that obviously like makes his reputation bad he's also kind of a cunning guy so people just assume he is just a bad person we find out pretty quickly that that's not the case and I think that's what I'm loving about this book is that pretty quickly we find out that this man is not a villain he has you know sort of a sad past where I grew up in very unloving family mostly like just a really tense family because his mom was abused by his dad growing up and he went to boarding school when he was like 13. so he's never really known I guess like familial love like everyone else has and so it makes his dealings with people um maybe not the way that they should be but pretty instantly and pretty immediately we learned that he is just a really sweet guy at his core and he really just wants to have people to love him and he says that already in his internal dialogue really early on in the book and if there's one thing I love it is a soft man who is not afraid to be soft I really feel like this book is making the point as to why every romance should be first person dual POV it just gets you in the head of the characters in a way that nothing else can and I think it's really crucial to understanding like where people are coming from like their background their past traumas Etc like I'm just blown away okay other things that I'm liking about this book I really do like our heroine she is a vet heroin is like the in-house veterinarian or that rival Ranch so something comes up the beginning of the book where they have to kind of work together and Stefan has always he's kind of had an attraction to Mira so he is like hey girl I will help you out because she needs something from him if you go on a few fake dates with me and one of those dates is like her taking him to a family reunion it's like even though she didn't want to go on these dates she's gonna like use at her advantage or whatever and we've already seen him kind of like stand up for her which I think is a Trope that everybody really likes when the hero or the heroine stands up for their partner when their partner's family is like kind of bringing them down so you've already had a moment like that the sexual chemistry is just so there as well like there's nothing about this book that I'm like I don't know about that like I love this book so I feel like that's a really great sign I feel like it's leading to good things in terms of like the scale like I don't want to get too ahead of myself right so like I'm not there yet I don't want to like prematurely rate this book or like rate books in general but this is feeling a five-star read for me all right so I finished the front runner it is like 1pm two other books to read today so you know we're thriving because I feel like that's a good amount of time to read the other books anyway let's talk about the front runner this was so good this was everything that I needed it to be it was beautiful it was stunning and the hero give me a Stefan dalka is all I'm saying he was okay I don't have much to add that I haven't already said I feel like I kind of outlined my thoughts and feelings pretty well in the last clip but I just loved seeing two imperfect people come together and really complement each other I loved the little like plot twist I guess you could say that comes in at the latter part of the book I thought it was such a good touch especially for Stefan's character development and I also really liked seeing our heroine have to be the one that groveled a little bit especially since our hero is the one that has been pining for the heroine for longer and especially since she's the one that like up it's nice to see a heroin grovel from time to time I you know don't think that women should have to like beg necessarily and I do like a good hero that grovels but I do think it should be like an equal opportunity grovel right like depending on who did the wrong doing I think that person should be the one to apologize and like show the other person like hey I know I messed up but like I'm here for you and I'm not gonna fail you again it's deeply romantic it was very deeply romantic I also liked seeing Stefan kind of elevate in other people's eyes like the people from the other Farm uh Gold Rush Ranch I think is what they call it getting to see Stefan like become kind of like a hero in their eyes was just so sweet I loved this spring book I gave it five stars yay five star I don't think I've had a five star um in these videos yet and so that feels really awesome I could be wrong maybe I did have a five star last time so my overall reading for this book is five stars it was so good it was so excellently written it was not too long just everything about it was amazing and you should pick it up we'll see silver really never fails in my opinion but this is one that is definitely like up there for me in terms of her backlist so five star for overall rating in terms of sexiness I think I'm also gonna give it a five star I just feel like she does smut in the way that I want it to be done these books are deeply sexy without ever venturing into like overly smutty territory and I love SMUD and I don't care how raunchy it is like that's never going to turn me off but I don't want a million different sex scenes I don't need that I want it to fit with the character's development and with their relationship growth and I feel like the sex scenes in this book really helped with that and it was just nice seeing them kind of come together and sing each one not make compromises but um you know put their ego aside to like get with each other five stars in that regard and then for the fake dating I think I am gonna leave it at like a three I think the fake dating definitely help these two come together but I don't think it was like integral to the storyline I think had that plot line that subplot kind of like not been in the book at all I think we still could have gotten an equally pretty good story that being said I do think it elevated their relationship a little bit because you got to see kind of their vulnerabilities almost like they should be taken seriously but at the same time he knew that that was kind of like the only way that she would agree to like date him was if it was like a fake date situation I don't know I I really love this book like this is really really good that makes the overall reading for this book a 4.33 you know what actually I'm pretty sure I give the UN Honeymooners Five Stars last time as well but um this one's better than the unhunting winners I think we can all probably agree on that maybe not but this was this is really delightful and it had the character depth that I think like something like the on Honeymooners doesn't not that we need to compare the books but between the five star books I've had for these like trophy videos so that's it for me all right I'm done I'm gonna stop rambling I am going to pick up the Talia Hibbert book next I think um that's another short one and it sounds it sounds delightful I love a guitar I'll be back I am low-key thriving I do mean low-key because I'm really full I ate some pasta for dinner too much pasta for dinner and I'm feeling good and bad at the same time I'm actually 50 into two books so that's why I'm thriving first up I am 50 into that kind of guy by Talia Hibbert which is what I said that I was going to read I like it it's about our two main characters Rey and Zach and at the beginning of the book we get to know exactly he is I don't want to say the only POV in the story but he is kind of like I would say the main POV in the story and he is grappling with his I don't want to say Newfound sexuality but with the fact that he is demisexual this has been something that he didn't know how to work with for a while right Zach is known as like the town ladies man he has been sleeping with women because he thinks that's all that women want from him and he's realizing that like he just doesn't experience attraction in the same way that allosexual aloe sexual I was gonna say allosexual that's very Texan of me allosexual people do trying to set boundaries and trying to live the kind of life that he wants to live right at the beginning of the story one of his ex-lovers comes up to him and is like hey will you fix my car and she like bats her eyelashes at him and he agrees to help her because he's a nice guy as the story continues on he realizes like okay I need to actually stand up for myself in all aspects of my life like sexually and also just like in general people take advantage of me it's really cool seeing a hero just stand up for what he wants and like actually think about the things that he's going through I mean a lot of guys and books are just like woefully unprepared for the things that they face in life like they just don't really think about the things that are happening to them oh I like women now oh I have feelings need to deal with Zach is not that kind of guy I like I like Zach okay and then we have Rey who is about 40 and she is recently divorced and she's dealing with a lot right like her husband didn't treat her well he is in the same profession as she is like they're both authors she has only been with one man her entire life is dealing with like the loss of the one relationship she thought was going to like be up for everything she's not really looking for anything serious but she's really attracted to Zach and she actually comes on to Zach and Zach's like yo no I don't want to do that like we're not having sex yeah I'm not doing a good job at explaining this book but it is actually quite delightful I am loving the way that Zach again sets his mind injuries but he is also realizing his attraction for Rey as the book carries on the more that he gets to know her and then Rey the entire time has been really attracted to Zach but is respectful of his boundaries Elite is also again trying to like figure out her own life she has to go to a conference for work like kind of a convention almost I think for writers and she needs someone to go with her because her husband her ex-husband is going to be there and she doesn't really want to face him and so Zach decides to be her fake date for this event there is the like only one bed Trope at the 50 Mark they I think are about to get intimate which is kind of exciting like they're both going after what they want and they're both respecting each other's boundaries I know I said that a bunch but like just nice it's refreshing I think that's not talked about enough in Romance I'm not saying that like every romance is bad if you don't talk about boundaries and stuff but it's just nice to see in a romance sometimes like two adult people who know what they want out of life communicating their feelings like wow what a concept yeah it's just it's a it's an enjoyable read this isn't like the swooniest thing ever but I am rooting for the sexual relationship here which is a good sign you know I'm curious to see where things go I am a little bit wary because they are both saying that they don't want anything more or deeper or whatever but I feel like Zach does want a relationship with Rey and I think Rey does too she's just kind of scared I'm I know that that's probably gonna be the conflict of the book but interested to see where things go I really hope that Rey is able to say like you to her ex-husband because from everything we know about him he's the worst I think it probably would have been better to have read the previous books in the series before picking up this one it's the third book in this series it's kind of a small town romantic series set in the UK which is kind of fun so anyway uh at least I think it's in the UK having a good time I'm gonna finish this book and then I will come back to you with my final thoughts on this one and then my 50 thoughts on honey and spice alright hopefully the change in angle leads you to believe that uh this is being filmed at a different time than that last clip because it certainly is I finished that kind of guy personally like the title of this book always gets me like I forget it because it's kind of generic anyway I liked it I thought it was cute I thought it was sexy and it was overall enjoyable this I think is going to be like a four star for me rather than a five star and that is simply because I feel like the basis of the love between the two of these people was surprisingly lust based considering their hero is demisexual like I I guess I believe that he understands this woman and like knows her but I feel like I wanted more on page discovery of the relationship it's like it was sort of a friends to lover situation and I would have liked to see more on page like oh yeah them getting to know each other I feel like there were only a couple of moments where they really had sit down conversations Beyond like the sexual ones about like boundary setting and stuff like that I mean that being said it was still a really enjoyable read and this is a pretty awesome book considering the length of it too I think this is something that would be a really good palette cleanser if you have been kind of burnt out on like the same old same old romance but I do feel like this one feels refreshing and it does have tally Hibbert's signature style I would say this one's a lot less funny than some of her other stuff it wasn't a pitch to me as a rom-com so I'm not like mad at it so anyway let's do our scale I think this is going to be like I said a four star overall it was a really enjoyable time in terms of the sexiness I think I'm also going to give it a four star it was just genuinely sexy to me just a proper amount of lead up to the sex scenes I'm gonna dock at a star though because I feel like after that first initial joining coupling whatever you want to call it I didn't really need a ton of extra sex scenes I think there were like two maybe three more after that I think like one or two would have totally sufficed for me that's a four and then in terms of fake dating like this is definitely a fake dating book it's only in one circumstance where they really have to fake date I don't think it really like mattered to the story like I'm gonna give it a two on the fake dating scale he was certainly fake dating they didn't lie to me but I don't think that it needed to be in the story for it to be a good story so this is a 3.33 I feel like that makes a lot of sense considering like how I felt about this book compared to the other ones is better than all of Winnipeg but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I enjoyed the front runner but that being said like this is a really really enjoyable read and again I like actually highly recommend this one this is going to definitely make it into my wrap up at the end of the couple of months that I do wrap-ups for I don't know it's going to make it to like one of my hottest romances and like romance I think you should pick up so enjoyed it let's move on now and talk about honey and spice this book instantly um upon clicking play on this audiobook I was drawn in the audiobook narrator is fantastic but I think beyond that the writing of this is so crisp like there are so many references I love the way that our heroine like envisions herself envisions like the world around her her confidence kind of reminds me of the main character in chewing gum I don't know if y'all have seen that on Netflix you have to if you have not there's just this like self-assuredness that is just so pleasant to read about so this book's about our main character Kiki I believe and at the beginning of the book she is a radio DJ kind of like she has her own like talk show kind of thing it's something that a lot of the women at her University uh listen into and like take stock and she gives like a lot of empowering like advice to other women and she plays really good music and she's just a cool person her friend is kind of like managing I guess her reputation descents like I think her friends like a marketing major or something like that and is kind of helping her maintain Her Image and her reputation does kind of need to be managed after she makes sort of a big mistake on campus she gives a lot of women the advice to stay away from this guy named Malachi because he is not like any other boy that has ever existed he is smooth talking but intelligent and he it doesn't come on too strong um and it's a really good foil for the person that Kiki's been like sleeping with for a while um who like is just like a typical boy so Malachi like he comes in and he just is this like yeah smooth talking gentleman and all of the women are like falling all over themselves for him and or are like kind of backstabbing each other and she gives advice on her radio show and it's like hey don't with this guy like he's just not worth your energy queens and then she falls prey to it but after like some honest conversations with this guy because again like he isn't just like a typical you know dishonest boy they come to the agreement that she will help him with a project if he fake dates her and for some reason she thinks this will like help her in image that part of the story I'm kind of like a little bit confused on and the like fake dating Arrangement hasn't really started yet but I know that he is like you know trying to work on this project and he thinks like her voice and whatever will be like good for it um or maybe she is doing a project like I said I'm kind of unclear on the details I will say this book is a little bit twisty at points because of the way that it's written it is like so many references it's very quick-witted so if you're not paying like 100 attention or if you drift off for a second you're gonna miss something but I don't say that about all romances but I'm liking it I'm loving the attraction between our two main characters I just love again I love the way this is written but I looked at the cover when I first heard about this book I just wasn't drawn in by it I mean it's a beautiful cover but I was thinking like that's gonna be kind of literary um also honey girl came out and I was thinking like honey girl like is it going to be that kind of like semi-romantic literary thing that's like not that romantic like that isn't an actual romance but this is giving me actual romance Vibes it's Charming like I'm just so impressed by this thank you for the recommendation I don't remember and I guess I could look it up who recommended this to me and like where I got this recommendation but it is quite enjoyable our honey and spice I got for my YouTube comments so shout out to YouTube comments also shout out to YouTube and Lacey I guess specifically for that kind of guy from Tully Hibbert yeah honey and spice with my YouTube comments a couple of y'all actually recommended that one to me and uh yeah it's so good it's so good and I'm hoping the other two were good too because wow like dating y'all I think it might be this period trip to enemies lovers uh not surprised um I think if anything I've been reading so much romance at this point that I think my taste is be clear cut and I think like my enjoyment of tropes is also pretty clear-cut I haven't really had a ton of surprises up until this point but who knows maybe I will read another Trope for this video series and just be like blown away like I thought I hated this show but I actually love it that's not the case for fake dating I knew I loved it and here I am loving it I'm gonna go ahead and finish this book and I will update you tomorrow when I'm done another day another fake dating romance read I finished honey and spice and I loved it I thought it was so good reading Vlog has um really done things for me so far you know and I again I think like this might be this might be the best one of the whole series is fake dating this Superior Trove I don't know so um I got a little twisty confusy about the details of the plot and like why the characters were fake dating I believe our heroine wanted to get into some sort of like program at NYU postgraduate maybe or like middle of college I don't know she wanted to get into some sort of program and to do that she needed to like work well with others so she was gonna like fake take this guy to give her more experience and like more to draw from for her like podcasty talk show whatever and then he wanted someone to help him with his documentary kind of thing because he's a film student I just really loved the relationship between Malachi and Kiki like they were so cute together and I definitely feel their chemistry there were just so many details that made these two feel like real people I really liked their band Terry their dates that they went on the way that they were able to confide in each other and to be really honest with each other it did make me a little bit sad at the end of the book when they got had that like third act break up conflict whatever and they kind of used each other's vulnerabilities against each other but also felt pretty like real and true to life like different only something that I feel like I would have done when I was younger and dumb so I'm not like mad at that like there's really nothing to be mad at that being said I don't think this book is the most romantic thing like it's certainly a romance but it wasn't really a typical like it's definitely more in the Emily Henry vein you know what I mean like there's a romantic thread but it's also about the characters and their lives and less so about the I don't want to say less so about the romance but kind of I don't know I don't know why I'm trying to like qualify that but I just feel like I want to warn people of that because I think some people might go in expecting something different there's also a lot of like pop culture references and again like a lot of witty banter and dialogue that that moves quickly so if that's something that doesn't tend to like work for you or you get annoyed by that sort of thing I don't know this would be perfect for you but I'm not trying to warn you away from this book I really really loved it I'm gonna give this book five stars two five stars in one video I'm amazed okay overall reading for this book again five stars I think that there's nothing about this book I would have changed and that's really kind of what I go off of whenever I think of my readings of books and also would I reread this that's like kind of what sends a book from a 405 star read or something I would change and I would reread this book so five stars in that regard in terms of the fake dating I'm gonna give it a two because I really feel like justification for the fake dating was really weak I love that that normally bothers me but sometimes I'm just kind of like roll my eyes and I also feel like the story would have been just as good had they like actually dated you know for certain reasons there's like they couldn't have actually dated because they both had like their own vulnerabilities going in and like insecurities but I really think that the fake dating was pretty weak so I'm gonna give it a two in that regard and then for the sexiness I think I'm gonna give this one a three this was not very smutty or anything like that but I did feel like a palpable chemistry between the two of them and I was happy with it I always like things to be smuddier but I also feel like this one I'm not mad at like how it how it went smutty-wise I just feel like it wasn't like the sexiest thing like if you're looking for something that's really gonna like make you blush this might not be it for you so with that being said I think this is also going to be a 3.33 if I am doing my calculations right 3.33 how am I feeling about that I feel pretty good about that and it's interesting that like the scores are lining up really well with the way that I'm feeling about the books right and you would think like yeah but you're reading these like of course they would line up but the like the two categories that aren't like my actual feelings about the book I didn't expect those to line up so well with how I'm feeling about them because like the front runner and honey and spice I both gave five stars too but I do think I like the front runner just a little bit more than honey and spice again because it was sexy on top of just being a good solid romance so we are doing very good we're doing very good we have two more books left to read we have first down by Grace Riley and two wrongs make it right by Chloe lease I've already started first down by Grace Riley that was an Instagram recommendation so once I get 50 in I'll let you know how I'm feeling I haven't quite gotten there yet all right friends happy Thursday I am 50 into first down I actually have no idea what the name of this book is this is the first Gray Story book that I've picked up and I've heard good things about her as an author one of my patrons actually said that the second or third book in this series is their favorite I think that one's about like one of the brothers of the hero in this book this book's better two main characters and X and James James is a football player he has recently transferred to a new University it's called McKee it's in I don't know Northern New or Upstate New York that's what they call it he is a senior he's like the star football player and he is just looking forward to the draft basically but he has one class that he needs to pass you understand where this is going right I think we both know where this is going heroin Bex is trying to graduate as well she is I don't know if she's a junior or senior no she's a senior she transferred into McKee her junior year she went to a community college before that because she was helping her mom at her mom's Diner and she actually goes back every couple of weekends to go help at the diner as well she's being harassed by an ex so in exchange for tutoring he is going to fake date her and kind of keep her ex off her back obviously they're like sleeping together as well and like trying not to catch feelings blah blah blah it's a really basic storyline I'm gonna be honest with you however I like the writing of this book it's nothing spectacular I'm not like in love with the characters and just like you know Amazed by the storytelling but it's solidly written it feels like every other like case Sports romance I've read that hasn't sucked like it feels very three-star material but that's not a bad thing like sometimes I just want a solid Sports romance that's going to do the job and this book's doing the job do I wish it were maybe a little bit more unique perhaps but I think in terms of fake dating like this is definitely a perfect fake dating situation both parties are gaining something from this and you know it's cute I mean I'm not I'm not mad at it it's a fun time I don't really have much more to say at the moment I am excited to see kind of where the threads of the story go that seem to be a little bit more interesting it seems like James has a complicated relationship with his dad like he says both of his parents are supportive but his dad doesn't want him to date anyone uh which I think is interesting and then in terms of bex's stuff uh we know that her mom has I want to say issues we really don't know much about her mom except for her mom has trouble running the Steiner bar herself doesn't want to like modernize it or whatever this 50 mark back says mom has called her and said like you have to come quick like I I didn't mean to or something it happened so fast something like that we don't know what happened I don't know if like the diner is burning down or something bad's happening but Bex and James are going to go to the rescue of Beck's mom so X's bags anyway her mom it's cute I don't know like that nothing spectacular I think if there were maybe like some more Side characters or something to make the story feel a little richer I think this might be like higher higher rated for me but it is only the first book in a series so like if this series continues to get better I would totally be interested in reading more so so far so good uh in terms of fake dating this feels very standard and I'm actually glad that like I selected this one because again it just feels like I think the fake dating this is the kind of thing I think of okay my friends I finished first down last night really late last night actually and it was like the perfect timing I normally go to sleep at 11 30. they finish this book at 11 32 so it was perfect okay this is really cute I don't feel like this is a game changing book I don't think this is the most unique original story you're ever going to read but I feel like the writing was enough to make this really fun I'm not gonna lie it was kind of going back and forth on whether this felt like a three star or a four star read but I think I'm gonna leave it at a three star and get this author an opportunity going forward in the future to elicit a four or a five star reaction from me I think she has more in her and according to my patrons she definitely does which is nice I think the second book is about James's brother Cooper and I think that would be fun Cooper's a fun character in this book and so I think it would be fun to read uh more about him but the way this story developed I felt like was a fairly predictable there were a couple of things I didn't necessarily see coming but were pleasant surprises and or unpleasant surprises so the way that the storyline kind of goes with bex's ex-boyfriend and then James I didn't love that I didn't really love the way that that culminated and the way that it ended although it did feel semi-realistic in some regards like guys are kind of stupid and them fighting each other is really like not that unexpected but some of the outcomes of that and some of the additional things surrounding that were a little bit like I don't know the thing I did like was back to the storyline I liked seeing her and her character development and just kind of seeing the growth that she goes through she decides that she is going to kind of pursue her dreams and we get to see her kind of reconnect with her mom and also like have an actual heart to heart with her mom her mom like apologizes for the way that she's been Paving Etc which is really nice to to see I don't think that that's how every story should necessarily end like you know you have a bad situation with your parents and like oh you have to solve that I think sometimes that's just not possible but it was nice seeing that happen for our heroine like I like sat and felt fitting for the story I do think maybe the I'd love to use and the way this book wrapped up were perhaps a little bit too quick I don't know it just felt like wow okay y'all are in love and like you want to spend the rest of your lives together it felt a little bit um quick and also I think I wanted just a little bit more just a touch more relationship development right there were a few like fun moments of these two dating there were a lot of sex scenes in in my humble opinion and then they kind of like profess their love for each other I think I would have preferred there to be like fewer sex scenes and more kind of like heartfelt heart-tart moments it's not like these two were never honest with each other but I do feel like there could have been even more like depth to the story in terms of fake dating I feel like this was I'm gonna go with a four star for fake dating like this was your perfect stereotypical fake situation they did benefit both characters and it kind of made sense I feel like fake dating situations make much more sense in like a high school or college setting than Beyond so I do feel like it was fitting in that regard in terms of how sexy this book was I think I'm gonna give it three stars because I did find this book to be sexy but I do think that there were like a few too many sex scenes which kind of brought it down a little bit in my estimation again like not bad all right so this leaves us with another 3.33 rating and I will say for this one I don't know like how accurate I feel that is in comparison to like the other books that I really really liked like honey and spice and that kind of guy I don't know when it comes to like actual like just enjoyment and stuff I don't think my enjoyment of this book was like that different for this book and then like that kind of guy I do think onion spice certainly like I enjoyed more but anyway 3.33 okay we're we're doing pretty good we're doing pretty good maybe two wrongs make a right by Chloe lease our last book that was recommended by one of my patrons will be the one to really bring it home for us make fake dating the Supreme winner alright my friends the final book two wrongs make a right by Chloe Elise I am 50 in and you know something had to go wrong right like it couldn't be just a vlog of all books that I really enjoy which is such a bummer because I purchased this not even for this video I was just excited about giving this author Second Chance tried to read the first book in the Bergman Brothers series I didn't have good luck with that one so I dnf'd it but I didn't realize they were staying right next to each other how precious okay so I decided to pick this one up because I was like oh it's traditionally published like I don't know it's not like I had an issue with her writing the first time around and thought like oh she needs a bunch of editing or anything I just didn't have the best time and I was like okay maybe like maybe this will be better I think what I'm finding is I just don't Vibe with the way that this author rates her characters and I don't mean that she writes them poorly because she does a very good job at making them well-rounded and giving them mental health issues and neurodivergence and like a bunch of different things that make them feel real so I can't falter for that she's definitely not an untalented writer that doesn't mean that I like the way that she writes sadly I'm just failing to see the chemistry between these two characters and I'm failing to like really care about this as a romance okay so this book's about our two main characters B and Jamie uh they meet through kind of like mutual friends I guess Jamie is the best friend or like roommate bees twin sisters fiance or some like that they meet and instantly they kind of dislike each other they have some sort of like rude banter even though they both are attracted to each other kind of from the beginning and we are in B's head for the meeting for the first time and she is instantly attracted to him until they start talking so that definitely makes you curious and definitely makes you wonder oh what's gonna happen next like how is this going to go he's straight up licking him I mean that's like the sweetest thing I've ever seen I feel like I'll constantly comment that you're not paying attention to the words I'm saying because of my cats in the background I want you to know half the time I don't pay attention to the words I'm saying because I'm looking at my cats in the background where was I so they don't like each other immediately upon meeting and they're like okay I don't have to have anything to do with each other great except for they have like this sort of like text relationship and they don't know who the other person is they're set up by uh Jules B's sister or whatever and John Claude I think is his name like the fiance once they figure out who the other person is they feel duped and they're like okay we're gonna fake date to get them off our case and to stop being so annoying about the fact that neither of us date anyone so we're gonna fake date instead and that's just a stupid premise like I'm just gonna be honest with you I don't understand that at all one of the characters I think it's like Jamie takes a second to understand what B is trying to throw down when she offers this up to him and it makes sense because it makes no sense like it makes sense as to why he'd be confused because the idea doesn't really make very much sense I could Overlook that honestly because I am not someone who really cares that much I guess about how much oh much sense books make like I do but I don't I can I can Overlook it if it's an enjoyable read otherwise but it was glaring because I was already kind of like apprehensive about the relationship between the two of them and as the book is carried on I guess like I applaud this author for doing something that I think a lot of authors leave out which is the actual relationship building phase of a book you'll get an initial attraction you will get maybe a couple of like banter moments or not even that you'll get like tense interactions and then they turn into sexual scenes and then they're professing their love for each other like that happens often happened in the last book right so I guess hats off to Chloe lease for really giving us a lot to work with in terms of these two spending a lot of time together having conversations hanging out with their mutual friends Etc but I'm annoyed by their mutual friends who I think are shitty I am annoyed by her sister who seems to be making poor decisions I feel bad for our main character but she also irritates me Jamie seems cool because he's like a pediatrician likes kids and stuff has cats like on paper should be great and everything that I've got a man but I'm just like not that invested I really think it just comes down to I just don't Vibe with this author's writing it's not something I'm Charmed by but I know a lot of y'all are and it's hard when you personally don't Vibe with a book you have a hard time identifying why that is again I can objectively look at this book and say oh wow this is incredible like she's doing such a good job with these realistic characters and getting them falls through each other but I think they're initial disdain for each other didn't fall into like the fun enemy celebrities I think that's what's kind of impacting my enjoyment of the story it's now it's just kind of this like weird in between thing where they're not willing to admit their feelings for each other and while I understand why they're not I'm annoyed by it so anyway I've been rambling too much I don't really like this book which is a bummer but it's okay to figure out that you don't Vibe with an author shutting lamp and again I can acknowledge that like this is probably objectively a pretty good book so I'm gonna finish it I have the audiobook which is helping me get through this book because I don't know if I would be able to otherwise um also the font is so small in this book which is like kind of upsetting and annoying to me but um it's fine I think that is better because now I won't crack the spine um when I probably inevitably saw this back to have first books alright friends I finished two wrongs make a right and did I like it no but did I finish it I did I very much did sometimes books just aren't for you you know and I sat down and really pondered my thoughts and feelings on this book wrote a Goodreads review and I feel like I can better articulate now like exactly what didn't work and it wasn't anything this book did it is my expectations and what I enjoy from romance right I don't want my romances to be completely unrealistic right like I don't want characters who don't feel like they could exist ever in the real world however I just am looking for a little bit more escapism I'm looking for Romance I'm looking to be swept off my feet by a guy who doesn't splooge in his own pants like I just there's just something too realistic about this book that just didn't Vibe with me okay I felt like the heroine was too prickly I didn't enjoy the dialogue I it's just all personal preference right like all of this is but often when I tell you what I don't like about a book I think it's it could be something that could be universally not liked or by the majority of people you know not liking a certain element right I just read a book where the main character lies to his heroine for the entire book like I could see a lot of people not enjoying that and that's why I like to point things like that out you know you don't waste your time but with books like this I don't think you'd be wasting your time picking it up I think this will appeal to a lot of people think that it is a solidly written book I just didn't really like anything about it so it's you know it's not often that I I feel that way and then I look at a book and I'm like this is good for someone else just simply not me I'm gonna leave it there right for me this is a two-star read like I just did not enjoy anything about this it just wasn't my kind of romance it just wasn't and I thought the representation was fantastic our heroine's autistic she's also bisexual like there was some great stuff in here I just didn't like this book so it's a two-star from an enjoyment perspective and that's okay right I feel bad saying it but it just is what it is when it comes to how sexy this book was that's also a tough one because I think like this book attempted to be very sexy there were definitely a lot of like longing glances and my body was a light with lust for this man but I didn't feel like this was sexy in fact I I was I kind of had the ick a couple times someone gave it two stars in that regard too I know I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry and then the fake dating it's a two-star it's just gonna get a two-star aggressive word because here's the thing the fake dating was nonsense in this book as well that could have been the one thing that this book had going for it but the reason that they fake dated was just absolute nonsense so I'm sorry it is what it is across the board it's a two just period it's a two there's no decimal there's no um you know it's just a whole number two a two is what this book is and I feel fine with that I understand why people recommended this to me so I don't think this is a poor recommendation I just think I have very specific taste and I guess more specific time goes on because I read so much romance okay now let's talk about how fake dating went all right I am going to do our final tabulation and see how this one stacked up to enemy servers enemies lovers the overall rating was a 3.05 fig dating gets a 3.22 so obviously fake dating is superior to enemies lovers we knew that I mean did you know that I knew that like I knew it from one perspective of like what I enjoy so I'm not mad at that outcome honestly despite this not being for me okay despite it not being the one the one physical book that I own for this video um simply not being for me I still had a fantastic time with this video I had so much fun reading all of these fake dating romances and just getting to indulge in a Trope for an entire week like thought I might get burnt out but I didn't I just had so much fun with it and I'm excited to do this again next month so in the comments down below let me know your favorite friends to lovers books it is up there for me in terms of favorite tropes yeah just your favorite friends to lovers books in the comments and I will select one of your recommendations for the next version of this let me know in the comments as well if you agree with my thoughts and feelings on any of these books if you disagree I would love to know maybe you absolutely love all of Winnipeg and you think I'm crazy I would love to know that maybe you love two wrongs to make right I mean that one I would understand I'm so glad that I have taken on this challenge for 2023 but thanks so much for watching this video I don't want to ramble anymore I love you all so much and until next time thank youhello welcome back to my channel in this video I'm going to be reading fake dating romances for an entire week super excited to be doing this this is the second in my Trope series that I'm doing here on my channel where I pick a particular book Trope and I try to read books from that show for an entire week to see ultimately at the end of the year which book Trope is the best I have already done the enemies to lovers version of this video I'll leave a link in the description in case you missed it but in this video again I'm going to be reading fake dating slash marriage of convenience books to me these tropes are kind of one in the same kind of operate similarly so I'm going to sprinkle in a little bit of both in this video I got recommendations in this video from a whole host of different sources they are basically the same sources that I got them from in the last video so we can keep things scientific and then I will be grading each book on a scale with three different categories how sexy is this book how sexy did I find this book how important is this Trope to the story as a whole is fake dating something that is really important to the story or could it have been good without it because I think that helps determine like whether or not fake dating is the Supreme Trope here and then lastly like what is Just My overall enjoyment ratings so three different categories I average those numbers together and at the end of this video I will average all of the numbers together and give you a final score like what kind of final enjoyment score is I guess of this particular Trope so I have done enough explaining let me tell you the six books that I'm going to be reading this time around for this Trope challenge first up we have the wall of Winnipeg and me I always like to pick a reread for these particular videos to kind of like set me off on the right foot I like to at least have one book choice that I know that I'm going to enjoy right so I don't only pick from books that I have no idea about I don't want the final score I guess to be too low so I like to kind of set my bar um High by picking a book that I know that I enjoyed previously so I picked them all fun to picking me for this reason I gave this book five stars the first time I read it and I wanted to reread it for a couple of different reasons which I'll tell you about whenever I decide to read this book next up we have the front runner by Elsie silver I like to go on Amazon from time to time and search up particular tropes to find find new reads if you search up something like enemies to lovers romance a lot of authors when they mark their books on Amazon will put that in the kind of like search results for their book in this case the front runner by Elsie silver said small town fake dating romance and I was instantly intrigued I love Elsie silver I have loved other books in this series next up I got a recommendation from YouTube as anyone would you know searching up on YouTube enemies to lovers or fake dating romance videos and I got the recommendation from Lacey Book Lovers on YouTube uh for that kind of guy by Talia Hibbert this one I'm really excited about I have not really read any Italian Herbert I would say outside of her Brown sisters Trilogy I think actually I read one other book outside of that trilogy but I'm excited to give this one a go the next place that I looked was Instagram and similarly to how I did it last time I just searched up the hashtag fake dating to see if I could find any good fake dating recommendations I found this graphic which really appealed to me because it had some books on it that I knew that I already liked and so I figured maybe this would be a good place to go because again if like I've liked some of the books on this list perhaps I would like one of the books that I have not read so I picked first down by Grace rightly this is a sports romance I believe set in college and I haven't read anything by this author before but I have heard good things so excited to give that one a go next up I got a recommendation from my Patron Emily uh this is another place that I love to get good book recommendations because I feel like my patrons really know me and I got the recommendation to read two wrongs make a right I am excited to give this one a try I have tried other Chloe lace books in the past and haven't had the best luck and I'm hoping that this one turns out better and then lastly I decided to add a sixth book into the mix because after having done that first video I got so many good comments giving me recommendations for fake dating books so going forward for these videos I'm going to let my comments decide a book for me to read and in this case I got the recommendation for honey and spice I've heard really good things about this book I have the audiobook but I've been putting off reading it because I wasn't sure like what genre category this fell into if it was like women's fiction or if it's why a or if it was romance I really didn't know and now that I know it's a romance and it's fake dating you bet you're asking me to read it so are these six books that I'm going to be reading here in this Vlog let's go ahead and get into the Vlog portion of this video and let's find out if fake dating is the superior romance Trope hello besties happy Monday we are kicking off this fake dating slash marriage of convenience Vlog off right I'm 50 into the wall of Winnipeg and me I decided to go for the romance that I knew first also it does help that I have the audiobook of this one hello kitten is here with the cookies so let me tell you about this and then we can do like a little mini review are you gonna film me when you're looking all good and I'm looking greased up to the gills I would never be able to film us if wow you know I went off of that I have read this book before obviously and I wanted to reread this one not only for the like top 10 sports romances of all time video that I did a couple of weeks ago but also because I knew that it was a fake dating romance and I didn't like it that much the first time I read it and I was like am I gonna like it more the second time around maybe or at least I hoped that I would because I'm not like directly comparing this one to culti there first time I read it I like red culty and then I read this one and they're so similar that I was like this one's Never Gonna live up sometimes it is not comparison that um you know makes a book look bad sometimes the book is just not that good book's better two main characters Vanessa and Aiden Vanessa has been the personal assistant to a pro football player for a while and he's recently injured I think he had to take a season off and now he's going to be going back to football because of a series of events Vanessa has like saved enough money to where she doesn't need to work for this man anymore she only took the job in the first place because she thought it would help her pay off her student loans more quickly if she really wants to do like graphic design or something or like practice art I don't know she has been like saving money so she can have her own business move out Etc so after a sort of shitty situation she gets herself into with him like he says some kind of like nasty stuff about her or or agrees with someone saying nasty stuff about her she decides to quit and basically says you and then a couple of weeks later he comes to her and it's like hey I actually need you to marry me because I need a way to stay in the United States because I'm Canadian visa is expiring and so she has to marry this man and he promises that he will pay off her student loans completely and buy her house if she does this they have to stay married for five years for the visa to like I guess work I don't really know the details of it my issue with this book is one that I have with like I'd say about half of Mariana Zapata's books half of the dudes definitely crossed the line from being a grumpy hero to being a complete and I don't think Aiden in this book is very fun to be around I guess you could say like oh he's done nice things for her and oh he's going to like pay for her house and get her student loans paid off like I guess you could say that sure like that's nice and all but at the same time I feel like it's supposed to be a romance right and like that's not that romantic he's just like doing this because he has the money too and because he needs someone to to be fake married to yeah I have felt no romance I know it's a slow burn but I'm just like kind of irritated when I'm reading it I just really don't understand the height of this book yes especially compared to culti I feel like they have like a fun kind of banter relationship in that book and the banter is totally lacking here she has more banter with the guy's roommate than she does with him um also yeah there's a roommate involved and I'm gonna be honest I don't actually like that I don't like the inclusion of a side character that like lives with them in their house I don't know I just don't think it like adds to the story very much and I'm gonna finish this book later let's review some more cookies I'm very hyped you're gonna taste test yours yeah look at the look at the like gooey toffee Pockets I show the camera it might be kind of hard to see it but there's like it kind of tastes like a Pop-Tart I think this is one of my favorite cookies that they make it's like Heavenly and like like buttery which is only crispy and buttery and it tastes like a biscuit did you get a little toffee in there too yeah it's pretty nice huh I already chocolate chips in here I think there are maybe I don't know do I like chilled cookies no not easily but you know what you could do microwave it no I was just gonna say like wait to eat the rest of it until you get home and then it won't be like cold anymore I mean I wasn't that excited for this anyway but sorry like stupid and I stand by that like it's not bad it's just like it looks pretty good also my hand is like there's a Sheen to it from holding that that cookie the only thing that I'll say at least it's like real raspberry topping like the topping is like it's pretty decent and there's a little bit of salt in there too which I think you know kind of adds I mean honestly it's it's okay it's not that bad I wish it was like fruit snacks on the top you know all right friends I finished the wall of Winnipeg and me just a second ago it is 8 36 on Monday and this is the first book that I'm reading for this video that I need to be done with by Thursday so you know live laugh love thriving didn't love this which is a bummer I didn't think that I was going to like absolutely love it this time around but I did again like want to read it again for multiple reasons I wanted to see if I would like it more this time around and I also just wanted to see if it would live up to my rating the first time I still gave this book five stars even though I didn't like it as much as kulti Upon finishing it I think this overall is a three star book for me it was A Fine Romance kind of I just think it was lacking in the actual romance I think Mariano Zapata does such a good job at giving you characters who feel real especially your heroines this book is only told from one point of view and you really understand Vanessa and where she's coming from I feel like I really understood her family and kind of why she behaved the way that she did and I think that's a really impressive skill I think a lot of the times authors are not great at fleshing out their main characters and I feel very distant from them but I did not feel distant from Vanessa I think that's why Mariana's a pot of books are so successful because you can really put yourself in the shoes of the heroines unfortunately felt like the romance was a little bit unconvincing and I think for me it's that there were too many things built up at the beginning of the story to make us feel like Aiden didn't really respect or like Vanessa and here's the thing I am all for misunderstandings when it comes to that sort of thing but it needs to be like one circumstance one instance right like and he just one time or had she just one time overheard him say something about her or agree about something that was said about her and she overheard it and like misunderstood the situation okay sure but it seems like there were too many situations where he was outright rude to her or where she overheard things and like wasn't happy with the way that he was talking about her that I was just like this isn't romantic to me and that says nothing about the sex scene at the End of This Book which to me was an instant back I don't remember it being so cringe in culti but the sex scene at the 99 Mark of this book was not sexy describing the slap of our hips was wet and sloppy like that note I'm gonna go with a no on that I don't really like like vivid descriptions of ball sacks and then the word penis I just really think it's clinical here's the thing I understand that that is the anatomical term I just don't want to hear in the sex scenes you know I would never say that during sex show me your penis no absolutely not let's write this book on the scale though right because the the whole point of this video is fake dating was this marriage of convenience fake dating novel successful on a scale of fake dating like was it integral to the story I'm actually gonna give it a five doesn't mean that I think the fake dating was fun but I do think that if the fake dating had been absent here or the marriage of convenience had not been in this book book wouldn't exist because these characters would have no reason to be together and it is the whole thing it is the Crux of their relationship right so I'm gonna give it a five in that regard on the sexy scale I'm gonna give it a one this was not a zero star situation it's not like this book is the antithesis of sex however despite her many descriptions of Aiden's ass throughout the story didn't really buy like the sexual component to the story I never really felt like Aiden was truly attracted to Vanessa like there just wasn't a sexual chemistry there like I didn't really feel it and give it a one in that regard and then the overall rating again is a three which makes our total average rating a three for this book which feels very right for the story given how I feel about it I think like if you're looking for a marriage a convenience fake dating novel I think this might work for you I know a lot of people love this book people just eat up Mariana Zapata books especially her Sports romances so perhaps this will be a book for you it just wasn't my perfect fake dating story so I think I am going to pick up the front runner by Elsie silver next let me some Elsie silver this is the Amazon pick just you know for your knowledge and or for your remembrance because I'm probably gonna forget as I go like what the sources of these books are but this one I got directly from Amazon and it was advertised to me as a small town a big dating story and I'm excited to see where it goes so I'm going to go ahead and get started with that and I will update you once I'm about 50 in Tuesday Morning Rain has barely ceased pouring good morning Let's ignore the Paul Revere hair while I do my makeup and tell you a little bit about the front runner by Elsie silver this book's actually like really good it's not that I didn't expect it to be right but it is beyond what I I had hoped and for that I am very grateful mostly because I read a photo finish first and that's supposed to be like the best book in the series whatever and I'm not saying I'm liking this one more necessarily but I think I'm liking it equally and I gave a photo finish five stars so you know looking up looking up after the wall of Winnipeg and me so this book's about our two main characters Stefan and I don't know if it's Mira or Myra it's m-i-r-a I think Mira sounds cuter so I'm gonna go with that our main characters are I don't want to say professional Nemesis or anything but definite is sort of like the villain of the past couple of books he owns a rival um like horse racing Ranch I think like the people that work for him are maybe not the best like the jockey of one of his horses is gross you got a little bit of a harasser definitely didn't know this but that obviously like makes his reputation bad he's also kind of a cunning guy so people just assume he is just a bad person we find out pretty quickly that that's not the case and I think that's what I'm loving about this book is that pretty quickly we find out that this man is not a villain he has you know sort of a sad past where I grew up in very unloving family mostly like just a really tense family because his mom was abused by his dad growing up and he went to boarding school when he was like 13. so he's never really known I guess like familial love like everyone else has and so it makes his dealings with people um maybe not the way that they should be but pretty instantly and pretty immediately we learned that he is just a really sweet guy at his core and he really just wants to have people to love him and he says that already in his internal dialogue really early on in the book and if there's one thing I love it is a soft man who is not afraid to be soft I really feel like this book is making the point as to why every romance should be first person dual POV it just gets you in the head of the characters in a way that nothing else can and I think it's really crucial to understanding like where people are coming from like their background their past traumas Etc like I'm just blown away okay other things that I'm liking about this book I really do like our heroine she is a vet heroin is like the in-house veterinarian or that rival Ranch so something comes up the beginning of the book where they have to kind of work together and Stefan has always he's kind of had an attraction to Mira so he is like hey girl I will help you out because she needs something from him if you go on a few fake dates with me and one of those dates is like her taking him to a family reunion it's like even though she didn't want to go on these dates she's gonna like use at her advantage or whatever and we've already seen him kind of like stand up for her which I think is a Trope that everybody really likes when the hero or the heroine stands up for their partner when their partner's family is like kind of bringing them down so you've already had a moment like that the sexual chemistry is just so there as well like there's nothing about this book that I'm like I don't know about that like I love this book so I feel like that's a really great sign I feel like it's leading to good things in terms of like the scale like I don't want to get too ahead of myself right so like I'm not there yet I don't want to like prematurely rate this book or like rate books in general but this is feeling a five-star read for me all right so I finished the front runner it is like 1pm two other books to read today so you know we're thriving because I feel like that's a good amount of time to read the other books anyway let's talk about the front runner this was so good this was everything that I needed it to be it was beautiful it was stunning and the hero give me a Stefan dalka is all I'm saying he was okay I don't have much to add that I haven't already said I feel like I kind of outlined my thoughts and feelings pretty well in the last clip but I just loved seeing two imperfect people come together and really complement each other I loved the little like plot twist I guess you could say that comes in at the latter part of the book I thought it was such a good touch especially for Stefan's character development and I also really liked seeing our heroine have to be the one that groveled a little bit especially since our hero is the one that has been pining for the heroine for longer and especially since she's the one that like up it's nice to see a heroin grovel from time to time I you know don't think that women should have to like beg necessarily and I do like a good hero that grovels but I do think it should be like an equal opportunity grovel right like depending on who did the wrong doing I think that person should be the one to apologize and like show the other person like hey I know I messed up but like I'm here for you and I'm not gonna fail you again it's deeply romantic it was very deeply romantic I also liked seeing Stefan kind of elevate in other people's eyes like the people from the other Farm uh Gold Rush Ranch I think is what they call it getting to see Stefan like become kind of like a hero in their eyes was just so sweet I loved this spring book I gave it five stars yay five star I don't think I've had a five star um in these videos yet and so that feels really awesome I could be wrong maybe I did have a five star last time so my overall reading for this book is five stars it was so good it was so excellently written it was not too long just everything about it was amazing and you should pick it up we'll see silver really never fails in my opinion but this is one that is definitely like up there for me in terms of her backlist so five star for overall rating in terms of sexiness I think I'm also gonna give it a five star I just feel like she does smut in the way that I want it to be done these books are deeply sexy without ever venturing into like overly smutty territory and I love SMUD and I don't care how raunchy it is like that's never going to turn me off but I don't want a million different sex scenes I don't need that I want it to fit with the character's development and with their relationship growth and I feel like the sex scenes in this book really helped with that and it was just nice seeing them kind of come together and sing each one not make compromises but um you know put their ego aside to like get with each other five stars in that regard and then for the fake dating I think I am gonna leave it at like a three I think the fake dating definitely help these two come together but I don't think it was like integral to the storyline I think had that plot line that subplot kind of like not been in the book at all I think we still could have gotten an equally pretty good story that being said I do think it elevated their relationship a little bit because you got to see kind of their vulnerabilities almost like they should be taken seriously but at the same time he knew that that was kind of like the only way that she would agree to like date him was if it was like a fake date situation I don't know I I really love this book like this is really really good that makes the overall reading for this book a 4.33 you know what actually I'm pretty sure I give the UN Honeymooners Five Stars last time as well but um this one's better than the unhunting winners I think we can all probably agree on that maybe not but this was this is really delightful and it had the character depth that I think like something like the on Honeymooners doesn't not that we need to compare the books but between the five star books I've had for these like trophy videos so that's it for me all right I'm done I'm gonna stop rambling I am going to pick up the Talia Hibbert book next I think um that's another short one and it sounds it sounds delightful I love a guitar I'll be back I am low-key thriving I do mean low-key because I'm really full I ate some pasta for dinner too much pasta for dinner and I'm feeling good and bad at the same time I'm actually 50 into two books so that's why I'm thriving first up I am 50 into that kind of guy by Talia Hibbert which is what I said that I was going to read I like it it's about our two main characters Rey and Zach and at the beginning of the book we get to know exactly he is I don't want to say the only POV in the story but he is kind of like I would say the main POV in the story and he is grappling with his I don't want to say Newfound sexuality but with the fact that he is demisexual this has been something that he didn't know how to work with for a while right Zach is known as like the town ladies man he has been sleeping with women because he thinks that's all that women want from him and he's realizing that like he just doesn't experience attraction in the same way that allosexual aloe sexual I was gonna say allosexual that's very Texan of me allosexual people do trying to set boundaries and trying to live the kind of life that he wants to live right at the beginning of the story one of his ex-lovers comes up to him and is like hey will you fix my car and she like bats her eyelashes at him and he agrees to help her because he's a nice guy as the story continues on he realizes like okay I need to actually stand up for myself in all aspects of my life like sexually and also just like in general people take advantage of me it's really cool seeing a hero just stand up for what he wants and like actually think about the things that he's going through I mean a lot of guys and books are just like woefully unprepared for the things that they face in life like they just don't really think about the things that are happening to them oh I like women now oh I have feelings need to deal with Zach is not that kind of guy I like I like Zach okay and then we have Rey who is about 40 and she is recently divorced and she's dealing with a lot right like her husband didn't treat her well he is in the same profession as she is like they're both authors she has only been with one man her entire life is dealing with like the loss of the one relationship she thought was going to like be up for everything she's not really looking for anything serious but she's really attracted to Zach and she actually comes on to Zach and Zach's like yo no I don't want to do that like we're not having sex yeah I'm not doing a good job at explaining this book but it is actually quite delightful I am loving the way that Zach again sets his mind injuries but he is also realizing his attraction for Rey as the book carries on the more that he gets to know her and then Rey the entire time has been really attracted to Zach but is respectful of his boundaries Elite is also again trying to like figure out her own life she has to go to a conference for work like kind of a convention almost I think for writers and she needs someone to go with her because her husband her ex-husband is going to be there and she doesn't really want to face him and so Zach decides to be her fake date for this event there is the like only one bed Trope at the 50 Mark they I think are about to get intimate which is kind of exciting like they're both going after what they want and they're both respecting each other's boundaries I know I said that a bunch but like just nice it's refreshing I think that's not talked about enough in Romance I'm not saying that like every romance is bad if you don't talk about boundaries and stuff but it's just nice to see in a romance sometimes like two adult people who know what they want out of life communicating their feelings like wow what a concept yeah it's just it's a it's an enjoyable read this isn't like the swooniest thing ever but I am rooting for the sexual relationship here which is a good sign you know I'm curious to see where things go I am a little bit wary because they are both saying that they don't want anything more or deeper or whatever but I feel like Zach does want a relationship with Rey and I think Rey does too she's just kind of scared I'm I know that that's probably gonna be the conflict of the book but interested to see where things go I really hope that Rey is able to say like you to her ex-husband because from everything we know about him he's the worst I think it probably would have been better to have read the previous books in the series before picking up this one it's the third book in this series it's kind of a small town romantic series set in the UK which is kind of fun so anyway uh at least I think it's in the UK having a good time I'm gonna finish this book and then I will come back to you with my final thoughts on this one and then my 50 thoughts on honey and spice alright hopefully the change in angle leads you to believe that uh this is being filmed at a different time than that last clip because it certainly is I finished that kind of guy personally like the title of this book always gets me like I forget it because it's kind of generic anyway I liked it I thought it was cute I thought it was sexy and it was overall enjoyable this I think is going to be like a four star for me rather than a five star and that is simply because I feel like the basis of the love between the two of these people was surprisingly lust based considering their hero is demisexual like I I guess I believe that he understands this woman and like knows her but I feel like I wanted more on page discovery of the relationship it's like it was sort of a friends to lover situation and I would have liked to see more on page like oh yeah them getting to know each other I feel like there were only a couple of moments where they really had sit down conversations Beyond like the sexual ones about like boundary setting and stuff like that I mean that being said it was still a really enjoyable read and this is a pretty awesome book considering the length of it too I think this is something that would be a really good palette cleanser if you have been kind of burnt out on like the same old same old romance but I do feel like this one feels refreshing and it does have tally Hibbert's signature style I would say this one's a lot less funny than some of her other stuff it wasn't a pitch to me as a rom-com so I'm not like mad at it so anyway let's do our scale I think this is going to be like I said a four star overall it was a really enjoyable time in terms of the sexiness I think I'm also going to give it a four star it was just genuinely sexy to me just a proper amount of lead up to the sex scenes I'm gonna dock at a star though because I feel like after that first initial joining coupling whatever you want to call it I didn't really need a ton of extra sex scenes I think there were like two maybe three more after that I think like one or two would have totally sufficed for me that's a four and then in terms of fake dating like this is definitely a fake dating book it's only in one circumstance where they really have to fake date I don't think it really like mattered to the story like I'm gonna give it a two on the fake dating scale he was certainly fake dating they didn't lie to me but I don't think that it needed to be in the story for it to be a good story so this is a 3.33 I feel like that makes a lot of sense considering like how I felt about this book compared to the other ones is better than all of Winnipeg but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I enjoyed the front runner but that being said like this is a really really enjoyable read and again I like actually highly recommend this one this is going to definitely make it into my wrap up at the end of the couple of months that I do wrap-ups for I don't know it's going to make it to like one of my hottest romances and like romance I think you should pick up so enjoyed it let's move on now and talk about honey and spice this book instantly um upon clicking play on this audiobook I was drawn in the audiobook narrator is fantastic but I think beyond that the writing of this is so crisp like there are so many references I love the way that our heroine like envisions herself envisions like the world around her her confidence kind of reminds me of the main character in chewing gum I don't know if y'all have seen that on Netflix you have to if you have not there's just this like self-assuredness that is just so pleasant to read about so this book's about our main character Kiki I believe and at the beginning of the book she is a radio DJ kind of like she has her own like talk show kind of thing it's something that a lot of the women at her University uh listen into and like take stock and she gives like a lot of empowering like advice to other women and she plays really good music and she's just a cool person her friend is kind of like managing I guess her reputation descents like I think her friends like a marketing major or something like that and is kind of helping her maintain Her Image and her reputation does kind of need to be managed after she makes sort of a big mistake on campus she gives a lot of women the advice to stay away from this guy named Malachi because he is not like any other boy that has ever existed he is smooth talking but intelligent and he it doesn't come on too strong um and it's a really good foil for the person that Kiki's been like sleeping with for a while um who like is just like a typical boy so Malachi like he comes in and he just is this like yeah smooth talking gentleman and all of the women are like falling all over themselves for him and or are like kind of backstabbing each other and she gives advice on her radio show and it's like hey don't with this guy like he's just not worth your energy queens and then she falls prey to it but after like some honest conversations with this guy because again like he isn't just like a typical you know dishonest boy they come to the agreement that she will help him with a project if he fake dates her and for some reason she thinks this will like help her in image that part of the story I'm kind of like a little bit confused on and the like fake dating Arrangement hasn't really started yet but I know that he is like you know trying to work on this project and he thinks like her voice and whatever will be like good for it um or maybe she is doing a project like I said I'm kind of unclear on the details I will say this book is a little bit twisty at points because of the way that it's written it is like so many references it's very quick-witted so if you're not paying like 100 attention or if you drift off for a second you're gonna miss something but I don't say that about all romances but I'm liking it I'm loving the attraction between our two main characters I just love again I love the way this is written but I looked at the cover when I first heard about this book I just wasn't drawn in by it I mean it's a beautiful cover but I was thinking like that's gonna be kind of literary um also honey girl came out and I was thinking like honey girl like is it going to be that kind of like semi-romantic literary thing that's like not that romantic like that isn't an actual romance but this is giving me actual romance Vibes it's Charming like I'm just so impressed by this thank you for the recommendation I don't remember and I guess I could look it up who recommended this to me and like where I got this recommendation but it is quite enjoyable our honey and spice I got for my YouTube comments so shout out to YouTube comments also shout out to YouTube and Lacey I guess specifically for that kind of guy from Tully Hibbert yeah honey and spice with my YouTube comments a couple of y'all actually recommended that one to me and uh yeah it's so good it's so good and I'm hoping the other two were good too because wow like dating y'all I think it might be this period trip to enemies lovers uh not surprised um I think if anything I've been reading so much romance at this point that I think my taste is be clear cut and I think like my enjoyment of tropes is also pretty clear-cut I haven't really had a ton of surprises up until this point but who knows maybe I will read another Trope for this video series and just be like blown away like I thought I hated this show but I actually love it that's not the case for fake dating I knew I loved it and here I am loving it I'm gonna go ahead and finish this book and I will update you tomorrow when I'm done another day another fake dating romance read I finished honey and spice and I loved it I thought it was so good reading Vlog has um really done things for me so far you know and I again I think like this might be this might be the best one of the whole series is fake dating this Superior Trove I don't know so um I got a little twisty confusy about the details of the plot and like why the characters were fake dating I believe our heroine wanted to get into some sort of like program at NYU postgraduate maybe or like middle of college I don't know she wanted to get into some sort of program and to do that she needed to like work well with others so she was gonna like fake take this guy to give her more experience and like more to draw from for her like podcasty talk show whatever and then he wanted someone to help him with his documentary kind of thing because he's a film student I just really loved the relationship between Malachi and Kiki like they were so cute together and I definitely feel their chemistry there were just so many details that made these two feel like real people I really liked their band Terry their dates that they went on the way that they were able to confide in each other and to be really honest with each other it did make me a little bit sad at the end of the book when they got had that like third act break up conflict whatever and they kind of used each other's vulnerabilities against each other but also felt pretty like real and true to life like different only something that I feel like I would have done when I was younger and dumb so I'm not like mad at that like there's really nothing to be mad at that being said I don't think this book is the most romantic thing like it's certainly a romance but it wasn't really a typical like it's definitely more in the Emily Henry vein you know what I mean like there's a romantic thread but it's also about the characters and their lives and less so about the I don't want to say less so about the romance but kind of I don't know I don't know why I'm trying to like qualify that but I just feel like I want to warn people of that because I think some people might go in expecting something different there's also a lot of like pop culture references and again like a lot of witty banter and dialogue that that moves quickly so if that's something that doesn't tend to like work for you or you get annoyed by that sort of thing I don't know this would be perfect for you but I'm not trying to warn you away from this book I really really loved it I'm gonna give this book five stars two five stars in one video I'm amazed okay overall reading for this book again five stars I think that there's nothing about this book I would have changed and that's really kind of what I go off of whenever I think of my readings of books and also would I reread this that's like kind of what sends a book from a 405 star read or something I would change and I would reread this book so five stars in that regard in terms of the fake dating I'm gonna give it a two because I really feel like justification for the fake dating was really weak I love that that normally bothers me but sometimes I'm just kind of like roll my eyes and I also feel like the story would have been just as good had they like actually dated you know for certain reasons there's like they couldn't have actually dated because they both had like their own vulnerabilities going in and like insecurities but I really think that the fake dating was pretty weak so I'm gonna give it a two in that regard and then for the sexiness I think I'm gonna give this one a three this was not very smutty or anything like that but I did feel like a palpable chemistry between the two of them and I was happy with it I always like things to be smuddier but I also feel like this one I'm not mad at like how it how it went smutty-wise I just feel like it wasn't like the sexiest thing like if you're looking for something that's really gonna like make you blush this might not be it for you so with that being said I think this is also going to be a 3.33 if I am doing my calculations right 3.33 how am I feeling about that I feel pretty good about that and it's interesting that like the scores are lining up really well with the way that I'm feeling about the books right and you would think like yeah but you're reading these like of course they would line up but the like the two categories that aren't like my actual feelings about the book I didn't expect those to line up so well with how I'm feeling about them because like the front runner and honey and spice I both gave five stars too but I do think I like the front runner just a little bit more than honey and spice again because it was sexy on top of just being a good solid romance so we are doing very good we're doing very good we have two more books left to read we have first down by Grace Riley and two wrongs make it right by Chloe lease I've already started first down by Grace Riley that was an Instagram recommendation so once I get 50 in I'll let you know how I'm feeling I haven't quite gotten there yet all right friends happy Thursday I am 50 into first down I actually have no idea what the name of this book is this is the first Gray Story book that I've picked up and I've heard good things about her as an author one of my patrons actually said that the second or third book in this series is their favorite I think that one's about like one of the brothers of the hero in this book this book's better two main characters and X and James James is a football player he has recently transferred to a new University it's called McKee it's in I don't know Northern New or Upstate New York that's what they call it he is a senior he's like the star football player and he is just looking forward to the draft basically but he has one class that he needs to pass you understand where this is going right I think we both know where this is going heroin Bex is trying to graduate as well she is I don't know if she's a junior or senior no she's a senior she transferred into McKee her junior year she went to a community college before that because she was helping her mom at her mom's Diner and she actually goes back every couple of weekends to go help at the diner as well she's being harassed by an ex so in exchange for tutoring he is going to fake date her and kind of keep her ex off her back obviously they're like sleeping together as well and like trying not to catch feelings blah blah blah it's a really basic storyline I'm gonna be honest with you however I like the writing of this book it's nothing spectacular I'm not like in love with the characters and just like you know Amazed by the storytelling but it's solidly written it feels like every other like case Sports romance I've read that hasn't sucked like it feels very three-star material but that's not a bad thing like sometimes I just want a solid Sports romance that's going to do the job and this book's doing the job do I wish it were maybe a little bit more unique perhaps but I think in terms of fake dating like this is definitely a perfect fake dating situation both parties are gaining something from this and you know it's cute I mean I'm not I'm not mad at it it's a fun time I don't really have much more to say at the moment I am excited to see kind of where the threads of the story go that seem to be a little bit more interesting it seems like James has a complicated relationship with his dad like he says both of his parents are supportive but his dad doesn't want him to date anyone uh which I think is interesting and then in terms of bex's stuff uh we know that her mom has I want to say issues we really don't know much about her mom except for her mom has trouble running the Steiner bar herself doesn't want to like modernize it or whatever this 50 mark back says mom has called her and said like you have to come quick like I I didn't mean to or something it happened so fast something like that we don't know what happened I don't know if like the diner is burning down or something bad's happening but Bex and James are going to go to the rescue of Beck's mom so X's bags anyway her mom it's cute I don't know like that nothing spectacular I think if there were maybe like some more Side characters or something to make the story feel a little richer I think this might be like higher higher rated for me but it is only the first book in a series so like if this series continues to get better I would totally be interested in reading more so so far so good uh in terms of fake dating this feels very standard and I'm actually glad that like I selected this one because again it just feels like I think the fake dating this is the kind of thing I think of okay my friends I finished first down last night really late last night actually and it was like the perfect timing I normally go to sleep at 11 30. they finish this book at 11 32 so it was perfect okay this is really cute I don't feel like this is a game changing book I don't think this is the most unique original story you're ever going to read but I feel like the writing was enough to make this really fun I'm not gonna lie it was kind of going back and forth on whether this felt like a three star or a four star read but I think I'm gonna leave it at a three star and get this author an opportunity going forward in the future to elicit a four or a five star reaction from me I think she has more in her and according to my patrons she definitely does which is nice I think the second book is about James's brother Cooper and I think that would be fun Cooper's a fun character in this book and so I think it would be fun to read uh more about him but the way this story developed I felt like was a fairly predictable there were a couple of things I didn't necessarily see coming but were pleasant surprises and or unpleasant surprises so the way that the storyline kind of goes with bex's ex-boyfriend and then James I didn't love that I didn't really love the way that that culminated and the way that it ended although it did feel semi-realistic in some regards like guys are kind of stupid and them fighting each other is really like not that unexpected but some of the outcomes of that and some of the additional things surrounding that were a little bit like I don't know the thing I did like was back to the storyline I liked seeing her and her character development and just kind of seeing the growth that she goes through she decides that she is going to kind of pursue her dreams and we get to see her kind of reconnect with her mom and also like have an actual heart to heart with her mom her mom like apologizes for the way that she's been Paving Etc which is really nice to to see I don't think that that's how every story should necessarily end like you know you have a bad situation with your parents and like oh you have to solve that I think sometimes that's just not possible but it was nice seeing that happen for our heroine like I like sat and felt fitting for the story I do think maybe the I'd love to use and the way this book wrapped up were perhaps a little bit too quick I don't know it just felt like wow okay y'all are in love and like you want to spend the rest of your lives together it felt a little bit um quick and also I think I wanted just a little bit more just a touch more relationship development right there were a few like fun moments of these two dating there were a lot of sex scenes in in my humble opinion and then they kind of like profess their love for each other I think I would have preferred there to be like fewer sex scenes and more kind of like heartfelt heart-tart moments it's not like these two were never honest with each other but I do feel like there could have been even more like depth to the story in terms of fake dating I feel like this was I'm gonna go with a four star for fake dating like this was your perfect stereotypical fake situation they did benefit both characters and it kind of made sense I feel like fake dating situations make much more sense in like a high school or college setting than Beyond so I do feel like it was fitting in that regard in terms of how sexy this book was I think I'm gonna give it three stars because I did find this book to be sexy but I do think that there were like a few too many sex scenes which kind of brought it down a little bit in my estimation again like not bad all right so this leaves us with another 3.33 rating and I will say for this one I don't know like how accurate I feel that is in comparison to like the other books that I really really liked like honey and spice and that kind of guy I don't know when it comes to like actual like just enjoyment and stuff I don't think my enjoyment of this book was like that different for this book and then like that kind of guy I do think onion spice certainly like I enjoyed more but anyway 3.33 okay we're we're doing pretty good we're doing pretty good maybe two wrongs make a right by Chloe lease our last book that was recommended by one of my patrons will be the one to really bring it home for us make fake dating the Supreme winner alright my friends the final book two wrongs make a right by Chloe Elise I am 50 in and you know something had to go wrong right like it couldn't be just a vlog of all books that I really enjoy which is such a bummer because I purchased this not even for this video I was just excited about giving this author Second Chance tried to read the first book in the Bergman Brothers series I didn't have good luck with that one so I dnf'd it but I didn't realize they were staying right next to each other how precious okay so I decided to pick this one up because I was like oh it's traditionally published like I don't know it's not like I had an issue with her writing the first time around and thought like oh she needs a bunch of editing or anything I just didn't have the best time and I was like okay maybe like maybe this will be better I think what I'm finding is I just don't Vibe with the way that this author rates her characters and I don't mean that she writes them poorly because she does a very good job at making them well-rounded and giving them mental health issues and neurodivergence and like a bunch of different things that make them feel real so I can't falter for that she's definitely not an untalented writer that doesn't mean that I like the way that she writes sadly I'm just failing to see the chemistry between these two characters and I'm failing to like really care about this as a romance okay so this book's about our two main characters B and Jamie uh they meet through kind of like mutual friends I guess Jamie is the best friend or like roommate bees twin sisters fiance or some like that they meet and instantly they kind of dislike each other they have some sort of like rude banter even though they both are attracted to each other kind of from the beginning and we are in B's head for the meeting for the first time and she is instantly attracted to him until they start talking so that definitely makes you curious and definitely makes you wonder oh what's gonna happen next like how is this going to go he's straight up licking him I mean that's like the sweetest thing I've ever seen I feel like I'll constantly comment that you're not paying attention to the words I'm saying because of my cats in the background I want you to know half the time I don't pay attention to the words I'm saying because I'm looking at my cats in the background where was I so they don't like each other immediately upon meeting and they're like okay I don't have to have anything to do with each other great except for they have like this sort of like text relationship and they don't know who the other person is they're set up by uh Jules B's sister or whatever and John Claude I think is his name like the fiance once they figure out who the other person is they feel duped and they're like okay we're gonna fake date to get them off our case and to stop being so annoying about the fact that neither of us date anyone so we're gonna fake date instead and that's just a stupid premise like I'm just gonna be honest with you I don't understand that at all one of the characters I think it's like Jamie takes a second to understand what B is trying to throw down when she offers this up to him and it makes sense because it makes no sense like it makes sense as to why he'd be confused because the idea doesn't really make very much sense I could Overlook that honestly because I am not someone who really cares that much I guess about how much oh much sense books make like I do but I don't I can I can Overlook it if it's an enjoyable read otherwise but it was glaring because I was already kind of like apprehensive about the relationship between the two of them and as the book is carried on I guess like I applaud this author for doing something that I think a lot of authors leave out which is the actual relationship building phase of a book you'll get an initial attraction you will get maybe a couple of like banter moments or not even that you'll get like tense interactions and then they turn into sexual scenes and then they're professing their love for each other like that happens often happened in the last book right so I guess hats off to Chloe lease for really giving us a lot to work with in terms of these two spending a lot of time together having conversations hanging out with their mutual friends Etc but I'm annoyed by their mutual friends who I think are shitty I am annoyed by her sister who seems to be making poor decisions I feel bad for our main character but she also irritates me Jamie seems cool because he's like a pediatrician likes kids and stuff has cats like on paper should be great and everything that I've got a man but I'm just like not that invested I really think it just comes down to I just don't Vibe with this author's writing it's not something I'm Charmed by but I know a lot of y'all are and it's hard when you personally don't Vibe with a book you have a hard time identifying why that is again I can objectively look at this book and say oh wow this is incredible like she's doing such a good job with these realistic characters and getting them falls through each other but I think they're initial disdain for each other didn't fall into like the fun enemy celebrities I think that's what's kind of impacting my enjoyment of the story it's now it's just kind of this like weird in between thing where they're not willing to admit their feelings for each other and while I understand why they're not I'm annoyed by it so anyway I've been rambling too much I don't really like this book which is a bummer but it's okay to figure out that you don't Vibe with an author shutting lamp and again I can acknowledge that like this is probably objectively a pretty good book so I'm gonna finish it I have the audiobook which is helping me get through this book because I don't know if I would be able to otherwise um also the font is so small in this book which is like kind of upsetting and annoying to me but um it's fine I think that is better because now I won't crack the spine um when I probably inevitably saw this back to have first books alright friends I finished two wrongs make a right and did I like it no but did I finish it I did I very much did sometimes books just aren't for you you know and I sat down and really pondered my thoughts and feelings on this book wrote a Goodreads review and I feel like I can better articulate now like exactly what didn't work and it wasn't anything this book did it is my expectations and what I enjoy from romance right I don't want my romances to be completely unrealistic right like I don't want characters who don't feel like they could exist ever in the real world however I just am looking for a little bit more escapism I'm looking for Romance I'm looking to be swept off my feet by a guy who doesn't splooge in his own pants like I just there's just something too realistic about this book that just didn't Vibe with me okay I felt like the heroine was too prickly I didn't enjoy the dialogue I it's just all personal preference right like all of this is but often when I tell you what I don't like about a book I think it's it could be something that could be universally not liked or by the majority of people you know not liking a certain element right I just read a book where the main character lies to his heroine for the entire book like I could see a lot of people not enjoying that and that's why I like to point things like that out you know you don't waste your time but with books like this I don't think you'd be wasting your time picking it up I think this will appeal to a lot of people think that it is a solidly written book I just didn't really like anything about it so it's you know it's not often that I I feel that way and then I look at a book and I'm like this is good for someone else just simply not me I'm gonna leave it there right for me this is a two-star read like I just did not enjoy anything about this it just wasn't my kind of romance it just wasn't and I thought the representation was fantastic our heroine's autistic she's also bisexual like there was some great stuff in here I just didn't like this book so it's a two-star from an enjoyment perspective and that's okay right I feel bad saying it but it just is what it is when it comes to how sexy this book was that's also a tough one because I think like this book attempted to be very sexy there were definitely a lot of like longing glances and my body was a light with lust for this man but I didn't feel like this was sexy in fact I I was I kind of had the ick a couple times someone gave it two stars in that regard too I know I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry and then the fake dating it's a two-star it's just gonna get a two-star aggressive word because here's the thing the fake dating was nonsense in this book as well that could have been the one thing that this book had going for it but the reason that they fake dated was just absolute nonsense so I'm sorry it is what it is across the board it's a two just period it's a two there's no decimal there's no um you know it's just a whole number two a two is what this book is and I feel fine with that I understand why people recommended this to me so I don't think this is a poor recommendation I just think I have very specific taste and I guess more specific time goes on because I read so much romance okay now let's talk about how fake dating went all right I am going to do our final tabulation and see how this one stacked up to enemy servers enemies lovers the overall rating was a 3.05 fig dating gets a 3.22 so obviously fake dating is superior to enemies lovers we knew that I mean did you know that I knew that like I knew it from one perspective of like what I enjoy so I'm not mad at that outcome honestly despite this not being for me okay despite it not being the one the one physical book that I own for this video um simply not being for me I still had a fantastic time with this video I had so much fun reading all of these fake dating romances and just getting to indulge in a Trope for an entire week like thought I might get burnt out but I didn't I just had so much fun with it and I'm excited to do this again next month so in the comments down below let me know your favorite friends to lovers books it is up there for me in terms of favorite tropes yeah just your favorite friends to lovers books in the comments and I will select one of your recommendations for the next version of this let me know in the comments as well if you agree with my thoughts and feelings on any of these books if you disagree I would love to know maybe you absolutely love all of Winnipeg and you think I'm crazy I would love to know that maybe you love two wrongs to make right I mean that one I would understand I'm so glad that I have taken on this challenge for 2023 but thanks so much for watching this video I don't want to ramble anymore I love you all so much and until next time thank you\n"