title: My Big Fat Fake Marriage
author: Charlotte Stein
publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
publication date: March 11, 2025
pages: 304
peppers: 3 (on this scale)
warnings: none
summary: Connie/Hazel has had extraordinarily bad luck with dating, so much so that she doesn't trust any nice men she meets, including her new neighbor Beck. He's not just nice, he's Ted Lasso nice, so of course, he must want something from her. Through a series of silly events, she discovers that he's been pretending to be married for the benefit of a jerky co-worker. In a fit of protective spirit, she claims to be Beck's wife, a ruse they have to maintain on a two-week writers' retreat run by his publishing house.
tropes:
- fake marriage
- Ted Lasso
- burned by love
- low confidence main characters
- only one bed
- we have to practice kissing
- he's got no sexual experience; hers is all lousy
what I liked:
- His Ted Lasso-ness was well done, including a basketball equivalent to the famous dart scene
- spicy intimacy scenes
what I didn’t like:
- bad guy is too icky to be believable
- takes her too long to figure out how much he likes her
overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)