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A review by teawiththefates
The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson
medium-paced
2.5
I picked this up because I like the fake dating trope, and I’m always here for some grumpy sunshine. But alas, this book was very much not for me. Vague spoilers (referencing tropes and not specifics) below.
I already struggle with the very common romantic trope of “everything would be fine if only these two dummies would talk to each other” to create conflict and keep the leads apart. But there are few things that annoy me more than the “man refuses to let woman make her own decision and instead makes it for her and lies/withholds information”; it’s condescending and misogynistic because the basic premise is that she can’t be trusted to do what’s best for herself and he “loves her too much to let that happen” so he has to maintain all the control, and it ruined any enjoyment I might have gotten out of this story. The external conflict was still real enough that they could have faced it together and still had it function as a reason to complicate things and separate them before the happy resolution. Booooo.
More personally, this was also way spicier than I’d anticipated (which is totally on me - upon closer inspection, it has a quote on the front cover saying the book is “epically smutty” so really, they did try and warn me). It shifts (hah) to more sex than actual relationship development and I ended up skimming through a lot of it. Between that and writing that started to feel repetitive half way through, I also found it sort of a boring romance?? Like, I was willing to still root for them but I also just wanted the book to be over so I could move on to something I’d enjoy more.
I already struggle with the very common romantic trope of “everything would be fine if only these two dummies would talk to each other” to create conflict and keep the leads apart. But there are few things that annoy me more than the “man refuses to let woman make her own decision and instead makes it for her and lies/withholds information”; it’s condescending and misogynistic because the basic premise is that she can’t be trusted to do what’s best for herself and he “loves her too much to let that happen” so he has to maintain all the control, and it ruined any enjoyment I might have gotten out of this story. The external conflict was still real enough that they could have faced it together and still had it function as a reason to complicate things and separate them before the happy resolution. Booooo.
More personally, this was also way spicier than I’d anticipated (which is totally on me - upon closer inspection, it has a quote on the front cover saying the book is “epically smutty” so really, they did try and warn me). It shifts (hah) to more sex than actual relationship development and I ended up skimming through a lot of it. Between that and writing that started to feel repetitive half way through, I also found it sort of a boring romance?? Like, I was willing to still root for them but I also just wanted the book to be over so I could move on to something I’d enjoy more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Death of parent