Review by jamieseemsamused - The Girlfriend Agreement

jamieseemsamused 's review for:

The Girlfriend Agreement by Rowan Croft

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is the best fake dating romance I have ever read. I loved how grounded and real the characters and their family and life situations are. It deals with very difficult themes of caretaking, illness, death, grief, intergenerational trauma. I love the story it tells about how different people are shaped by and react to grief differently. It might not resonate with everyone, but it did resonate with me very specifically because I lived through some of the similar situations that the characters did in this book. I loved how flawed the characters were at the beginning and that there was genuine development and change over the course of the book.

The romance is a very well-developed slow burn. The reasons for why the MCs didn't want to fall in love felt real. The falling in love felt genuine. The respective climaxes for the MC's respective plots were very well done. There is no

miscommunication trope or third act breakup.

I loved that

both of them showed up for each other and helped the other through that particular difficult situation

. My favorite part is

how finding "your person" makes such a big difference in fighting life's battles.

One small gripe is that I didn't like how the book relied on

Lexi getting drunk to move the plot forward and using it as a device for her to reveal her feelings that she otherwise would not have.

I think it happened like 3 times.

Genre: Contemporary romance (no fantasy)
Series information: Book 1 of new Conwick U series. Ongoing series of interconnected standalones. Book 2 is The Boyfriend Vendetta and will follow a character introduced in Book 1. No announcement for Book 2 release date yet.
Steam Level: 4 out of 5 (Explicit open door)
Romance Level: 5 out of 5 (Romance story)
How I Read It: Kindle Unlimited
Audiobook: No audiobook available (that I could find)

Content Warnings