A review by graendoll
Deke by Eden Finley

funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The third installment of the Fake Boyfriend series by Finley and James follows the story of a closeted hockey player who stumbles into a somewhat unlikely scenario whereby he asks a random stranger he met in a bathroom to pretend to be his new boyfriend. While this definitely requires some suspension of disbelief, it sets up a tale of mistaken identity that ends up spicing up the romance with a bit of rivals to lovers. 

For fans of the collaborative works published by these two authors, our mains are familiar characters for the fans of their Puckboys series, as this follows the love story between Ollie, our hockey player, and Lennon, a sports writer. The tension between these two is decent, but the real narrative driver is the assumption that Ollie isn't ready to be outed and that anything these two have is temporary as a result. There are a couple of funny scenes in here and I enjoyed it, but I did kind of end up feeling like I was reading it for the easter eggs of the hockey world these two created rather than for the story itself.

Also I genuinely thought Deke was going to be a character and it took me about 1/3 of the book to realize the error of my ways because I don't sports.