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thebookishnarwhal's review
5.0
If high school friends who enter a fake dating situation are your thing, then let me introduce you to the perfect holiday read for Lunar New Year AND Valentines! This Asian-Canadian contemporary romance novella by Jackie Lau is the perfect light hearted read to brighten your day. I was hooked before the end of the first chapter.
Meet Helen. Last year on Valentine's Day, her boyfriend dumped her publicly. Like, filmed by a restaurant-goer and live-Tweeted by another kind of public. Then the clip went viral. Even though Helen has moved past this, she isn’t dating. Her friends and family are worried about her, so Helen comes up with a simple solution to her problem: get a fake boyfriend. Meet Taylor. He’s a social worker who is a ray of sunshine, a charming contrast to chemist Helen’s less-than-enthusiastic view on most things romance. But he agrees to be her fake boyfriend anyway.
A short and sweet romance with a smidge of spice, told entirely from Helen's perspective, Lau still delivers the, "is he into me, or no?" tension perfectly. A fair warning, the book does have a few explicit sex scenes from Helen's POV. BUT I didn’t mind them and I’m normally not a fan of spicer romance scenes, preferring clean romances.
I liked the authentic setting, from the dialogue of the people to the description of the TTC, Lau accurately captures the essence of Toronto. As someone who lived in different areas of the GTA for 12 years, I was screaming at the accuracy - it even made want to plan a trip to visit!
I really enjoyed the refreshing characters. They were imperfect in looks and personality, just like us! Also a big shoutout to the authenticity of racial representation in this novella. Lau accurately portrays different cultures and relationship dynamics beyond the romantic, and I’m here for it.
I both loved and loved-to-hate reading about the food. I’m all about good food and Lau has me still craving Japanese cheesecake. The original. I know the shop in the novella (I’ve shamelessly stood in line for hours when they only had one location) and I MISS IT SO!
I adore the "Girl Gang" and Helen's mom. I love how close they all are! I love how they care, are there, and really just embody what female friendship is all about. I just adore Helen’s mom and their relationship. I would love a cookbook from the duo because I feel like it would elevate my at-home date nights with the hubby?
Lau really left me wanting more of this story, in all the good ways!
Meet Helen. Last year on Valentine's Day, her boyfriend dumped her publicly. Like, filmed by a restaurant-goer and live-Tweeted by another kind of public. Then the clip went viral. Even though Helen has moved past this, she isn’t dating. Her friends and family are worried about her, so Helen comes up with a simple solution to her problem: get a fake boyfriend. Meet Taylor. He’s a social worker who is a ray of sunshine, a charming contrast to chemist Helen’s less-than-enthusiastic view on most things romance. But he agrees to be her fake boyfriend anyway.
A short and sweet romance with a smidge of spice, told entirely from Helen's perspective, Lau still delivers the, "is he into me, or no?" tension perfectly. A fair warning, the book does have a few explicit sex scenes from Helen's POV. BUT I didn’t mind them and I’m normally not a fan of spicer romance scenes, preferring clean romances.
I liked the authentic setting, from the dialogue of the people to the description of the TTC, Lau accurately captures the essence of Toronto. As someone who lived in different areas of the GTA for 12 years, I was screaming at the accuracy - it even made want to plan a trip to visit!
I really enjoyed the refreshing characters. They were imperfect in looks and personality, just like us! Also a big shoutout to the authenticity of racial representation in this novella. Lau accurately portrays different cultures and relationship dynamics beyond the romantic, and I’m here for it.
I both loved and loved-to-hate reading about the food. I’m all about good food and Lau has me still craving Japanese cheesecake. The original. I know the shop in the novella (I’ve shamelessly stood in line for hours when they only had one location) and I MISS IT SO!
I adore the "Girl Gang" and Helen's mom. I love how close they all are! I love how they care, are there, and really just embody what female friendship is all about. I just adore Helen’s mom and their relationship. I would love a cookbook from the duo because I feel like it would elevate my at-home date nights with the hubby?
Lau really left me wanting more of this story, in all the good ways!
the_discworldian's review
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
justabat's review
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Lau’s books are always lighthearted and fun. I liked this one’s main characters and the struggle with self doubt vs allowing yourself to be loved. I also really enjoyed the family dynamic and the contrast between the two mc’s family relationships.
myreadsjournal's review
3.0
Short and sweet! If you're in search of something light, then this is it!
The story follows Helen Tsang whos is terrified (or rather traumatized?) of Valentine's Day. All because a year ago her ex-boyfriend decided to break-up publicly with Helen on February 14th, and unfortunately for Helen someone decided to record the whole scene and post it online. Needless to say that Helen became quite a celebrity for not the very best reasons, because we all know how Internet works, right? I mean, ouch.
So Helen decided that love is not really her department and she's better off without it. But there's a small but. Helen is sick and tired of everyone around her pitying her and comes up with a brilliant and harmless idea: fake boyfriend. Ta-daaa! What could possibly go wrong, right?!
She asks her long-time friend Tyler Li to embrace the role of a fake-boyfriend for a few months just to prove to everyone that a) she moved on and b) she's not really against all the love thing (she so is, though!).
And Tyler is the perfect candidate: he knows Helen very well, they've been friends for a very long time so obviously there are no feelings there, he's single, he's actually a pretty nice guy and as a bonus - he actually likes Valentine's Day.
Little did Helen know that life itself had other plans for her and all the pretend would quickly turn into real feelings. From her side. But does Taylor even feel the same? Oh boy, what mess has she gotten herself into?
This was a very quick, light and read-in-one-sitting kind of book, and even though it took me a bit to get more involved with the story itself, overall it was a cute one.
Thank you NetGalley and Jackie Lau for providing me this ARC.
The story follows Helen Tsang whos is terrified (or rather traumatized?) of Valentine's Day. All because a year ago her ex-boyfriend decided to break-up publicly with Helen on February 14th, and unfortunately for Helen someone decided to record the whole scene and post it online. Needless to say that Helen became quite a celebrity for not the very best reasons, because we all know how Internet works, right? I mean, ouch.
So Helen decided that love is not really her department and she's better off without it. But there's a small but. Helen is sick and tired of everyone around her pitying her and comes up with a brilliant and harmless idea: fake boyfriend. Ta-daaa! What could possibly go wrong, right?!
She asks her long-time friend Tyler Li to embrace the role of a fake-boyfriend for a few months just to prove to everyone that a) she moved on and b) she's not really against all the love thing (she so is, though!).
And Tyler is the perfect candidate: he knows Helen very well, they've been friends for a very long time so obviously there are no feelings there, he's single, he's actually a pretty nice guy and as a bonus - he actually likes Valentine's Day.
Little did Helen know that life itself had other plans for her and all the pretend would quickly turn into real feelings. From her side. But does Taylor even feel the same? Oh boy, what mess has she gotten herself into?
This was a very quick, light and read-in-one-sitting kind of book, and even though it took me a bit to get more involved with the story itself, overall it was a cute one.
Thank you NetGalley and Jackie Lau for providing me this ARC.
britneysreads00's review
4.0
Oh My God.
This book is so CUTEEEEEEE I AM OBSESSED
Its got all of my favourite tropes friends to lovers and fake dating. And I cannot believe that someone would be so malicious as breaking up with someone on a Valentines date, in PUBLIC AND TELL THEM THAT "ITS NOT ME ITS YOU" BRUTAL but she deserved so much better and boy did we get that!
This is a super quick read, was no more than 150 pages on my iPad and I was hooked from the front cover all the way through.
I wanted to thank Netgalley and the publishers of this book for allowing me to ARC read this beautiful book, and thank you to Jackie Lau for writing this. I had so much fun reading it!
This book is so CUTEEEEEEE I AM OBSESSED
Its got all of my favourite tropes friends to lovers and fake dating. And I cannot believe that someone would be so malicious as breaking up with someone on a Valentines date, in PUBLIC AND TELL THEM THAT "ITS NOT ME ITS YOU" BRUTAL but she deserved so much better and boy did we get that!
This is a super quick read, was no more than 150 pages on my iPad and I was hooked from the front cover all the way through.
I wanted to thank Netgalley and the publishers of this book for allowing me to ARC read this beautiful book, and thank you to Jackie Lau for writing this. I had so much fun reading it!
highness_reads's review
4.0
Helen started off being tortured from the looks of pity her family and friends would give her. Which would definitely upset most of us! We all get it here and there “Where’s the Boyfriend?” “You seeing anyone new?” but I don’t think our break ups have gone viral! So Helen was dealing with a lot more frustration while still trying to move on.
In comes caring and loving Taylor who was by her side when the viral break up went down. So of course he was also there for her crazy fake boyfriend plan. The way he was into it from the beginning should have tipped Helen off but it was cute seeing both their feelings grow.
Definitely a cute friends to lover story to read!
In comes caring and loving Taylor who was by her side when the viral break up went down. So of course he was also there for her crazy fake boyfriend plan. The way he was into it from the beginning should have tipped Helen off but it was cute seeing both their feelings grow.
Definitely a cute friends to lover story to read!
readingwithstrangers62's review
4.0
One year ago, Helen was dumped on Valentine’s Day. He said “it’s not me, it’s you” in a restaurant and it went viral, soon everyone knew she was dumped. Fast forward to today and she still feels the pity from her family and friends. They all think she should get back out there but she has no desire to do that. Insert Taylor.
Helen has known Taylor since high school and when she went viral he was there to get her drunk and distracted. So obviously he would make the perfect fake boyfriend to get her family and friends off her back!
Unlike most fake relationship books, Helen and Taylor didn’t just fake it in front of their friends and family. They went all in in the fake relationship, they went on dates with no witnesses and became even better friends. They had an adorable fake relationship and I loved watching them finally work things out. I saw a lot of myself in Helen with how stubborn she was but Taylor just knew how to handle her make the relationship work.
Thank you @netgalley and @jackielaubooks !
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Helen has known Taylor since high school and when she went viral he was there to get her drunk and distracted. So obviously he would make the perfect fake boyfriend to get her family and friends off her back!
Unlike most fake relationship books, Helen and Taylor didn’t just fake it in front of their friends and family. They went all in in the fake relationship, they went on dates with no witnesses and became even better friends. They had an adorable fake relationship and I loved watching them finally work things out. I saw a lot of myself in Helen with how stubborn she was but Taylor just knew how to handle her make the relationship work.
Thank you @netgalley and @jackielaubooks !
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
caelinsullivan's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Racism and Abandonment
whatnolareads's review
4.0
This book was so adorable! It exceeded my expectations.. I saw this book on NetGalley and the title and the book cover caught my attention. Please understand although I received this from NetGalley my review is my own.
Let’s get into Helen I loved her as a main character. She is quirky and a little bit grumpy and I love that. She is very down to earth relatable to me in away she’s a little bit of a loner and so am I.
Helen wants to get everyone off her back so she comes up with the idea to pretend to date her high school best friend Taylor, Taylor who is opposite of Helen because his need for approval and constantly reaching out to Helen throughout their fake relationship.
Although the relationship starts off fake it quickly turns into something real something neither of them were expecting. This is my first time reading a book with Asian characters and I love the diversity in Asian MMC. I loved the representation that Jackie Lau’s characters presented.
There is a lot of wholesome goodness in this story and the ending omg I just adored. I loved the detail description around food, buses, travel that I loved it made me feel as if I was there with the family. Most people may not like the details but I loved them.
One of my favorite characters was Helens mom she reminds me of my mom, she was bad ass, supportive and mad sure she was understanding and there for Helen.
I would have loved for this book to be longer I can’t lie, but nonetheless it was an adorable read and was very heartwarming.
Thank you NetGalley, publisher, and author for allowing me the opportunity to read this lovely book.
Let’s get into Helen I loved her as a main character. She is quirky and a little bit grumpy and I love that. She is very down to earth relatable to me in away she’s a little bit of a loner and so am I.
Helen wants to get everyone off her back so she comes up with the idea to pretend to date her high school best friend Taylor, Taylor who is opposite of Helen because his need for approval and constantly reaching out to Helen throughout their fake relationship.
Although the relationship starts off fake it quickly turns into something real something neither of them were expecting. This is my first time reading a book with Asian characters and I love the diversity in Asian MMC. I loved the representation that Jackie Lau’s characters presented.
There is a lot of wholesome goodness in this story and the ending omg I just adored. I loved the detail description around food, buses, travel that I loved it made me feel as if I was there with the family. Most people may not like the details but I loved them.
One of my favorite characters was Helens mom she reminds me of my mom, she was bad ass, supportive and mad sure she was understanding and there for Helen.
I would have loved for this book to be longer I can’t lie, but nonetheless it was an adorable read and was very heartwarming.
Thank you NetGalley, publisher, and author for allowing me the opportunity to read this lovely book.