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4.25 ⭐️

Even though this book did remind me a bit of a few other fake dating books I’ve read in the past (specifically The Deal by Elle Kennedy with a smidge of Not Pretending Anymore by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward) - I still really enjoyed it and found it to be pretty unique in its own way.

I think what I loved most about it was that even though they both had their sights set on what and who they wanted out of this fake dating thing�� it never felt like they were using each other or pretending with each other. The moments they were together were real and genuine and I liked how they became friends first and then they slowly realized they were catching feelings. Pretty classic for a fake dating setup, but I think it was done really well and I loved the whole progression of how it all played out.

I did get some mixed signals of how old the characters were, because at times they felt and acted years older than sophomores in college - but then the way some things played out (specifically the ending conflict with his mom) reminded me that Clay was only 19 and it helped me justify some of his actions and choices (even though they pissed me off).

And speaking of the ending�� I was ready to give this 5 stars up until the last 75 pages when we got that hiccup before the HEA. I didn’t like the whole situation and it felt a bit unrealistic to me. Definitely brought my rating down because I ended up skimming the last little bit because I hate third act breakups and they always play out the same way (more or less) - but besides for that whole thing, I really had a great time with this story.