Cassie Everson just wants to find the right guy and settle down but all she seems to find is Mr. Wrong. After trying out a dating app she’s given up on her dream. Her best friend doesn’t give up on that dream and responds to an email on the aforementioned app on Cassie’s behalf and puts her face to face with a guy she went to high school with… a guy she doesn’t remember at all but wants to get to know better. Then life and responsibilities start knocking on her door. Will Cassie make the time for love?

Unlike some other reviewers I had zero expectations for this novel and was really happy with how much I liked it. Yes, the synopsis gives the reader the feeling this might be a lighthearted rom-com, and The Dating Charade really was not that book. However, it really delivered on a solid plot, great characters, and a ton of heart. Cassie and Jett were both such nice people that you couldn’t help but root for them to overcome all obstacles to make their dreams come true. Those obstacles may have been a little deeper than some other readers liked, but this novel packed a lot of emotion into it’s 336 pages! I read it straight through from start to finish.

Cassie works in an after school facility that helps keep teens off the streets and provides a safe environment for them to hang out in. When Star doesn’t show up one day and Cassie goes looking for her she finds Star and her sisters on the border of being thrown into foster care. Cassie dives into the deep end and offers them her home and becomes even more attached to these three girls. I thought this plot was so well written! Cassie is kind of a bleeding heart but Star and her sister’s add something to Cassie’s life that was missing and I thought this really helped bring something extra to Cassie character. Melissa Ferguson could’ve gone down the road so many other authors have tried but she chose to write something with meaning and I support that decision whole heartedly!

This novel was about love, but it wasn’t just about love between two people it was about how love creates a family, not blood. The message was beautiful. The Dating Charade may have been mis-cast by it’s publishers but don’t punish this author by not reading it because of a few mediocre reviews. I always say that you have to be in the right frame of mind to read any book and The Dating Charade was the book I needed to read at the time I read it. I hope you will give it a chance to be that book for you too. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest!

I am almost always sucked in by a cute cover and a moderately interesting blurb. This book has both. At least two me. Y’all know by now that I am almost always going to click on a book that mentions online dating. And this blurb mentions single parenting. I felt like I had to read it.

Then I noticed it was published by Harlequin’s Christian Printing imprint. I debated not reading it, but I decided to give it a go. I watch plenty of Hallmark movies that kind of dance around faith/religion. I figured this couldn’t be much different. And it wasn’t. Cutesy story of a woman in her early 30’s trying to find love. She is giving online dating a try. But then she decides it is trash and opts to just live her life. (I feel like there is a lesson in there for me.) Naturally before she completely deletes her profile she connects with a handsome man who just happens to be someone she went to high school and wouldn’t you know it he works across the street.

CW & Spoilers: mention of infertility, child abuse/neglect/abandonment, drug addicted parent(s), car wreck, abuse of 911 services, mentions of foster care, surrendering of parental rights

Back to the book. The love match was cutesy and had moments of sweetness but that was only about half the focus of the book. There is some mention of faith- Jett takes his family to church. There were a few mentions of prayer. It didn’t feel too heavy handed but also I had bigger issues to work through.

Cassie works at an all girls organization that read to me like Boys & Girls Club, except all girls. Star is one of the girls that attends the after school program. Star and her sisters are removed from the home due to child neglect and abandonment. Cassie decides to take Star and her sisters home with her and provide care for them. She truly cares for them and wants to see them stay together as a unit and doesn’t want them to go to foster care. There was one early mention of Star’s hair that felt like code for Star being black. Once Cassie takes in the girls, the author states the girls are black. Cassie is white. The whole situation made me uncomfortable. So much so that I researched the number of children in foster care. Per Statista, in 2018 there were over 190,000 white kids in foster care and 99,000 black or African American kids in foster care. Childwelfare.gov shows similar stats with 44% White, 25% Black or African American children in foster care. I am not a social worker,

Weirdly enough, the hero, Jett also ends up parenting children that are not his. His sister, who is battling some sort of addiction, show up on his doorstep with her three children. She is there for a day and then leaves the kids in his care. There were a few times that Jett described his sisters addiction battle that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. He was pretty judgey.

Once Cassie and Jett are caregivers to their respective charges, they don’t tell each other about their situations and hilarity does not ensue. They don’t talk about it until close to the end and then there is a big misunderstanding that was ridiculous but also I was not invested in the story and just wanted to know how it ended.

Spoiler ending- Star’s long lost uncle agrees to take Star, Diedre and Kennedy. This is after Cassie finds out that their mother has surrendered her parental rights. Cassie is devastated. The girls leave her care. But in the epilogue they are back together. We don’t know why.
Jett’s sister takes her kids from Jett’s house without telling him and is driving impaired and causes a major accident that kills someone and causes injury to the children and because Jett is a fire fighter/EMT he is there to save them. They all end up together with a happily ever after.

I am not here to say that the author didn’t research this (foster care and/or transracial adoption) and attempt and want to handle the situation with care. I am here to say that there were no other characters of color that I could easily identify. To have the only characters of color be a neglectful mother whose children end up in foster care seems to be a potentially very hurtful narrative. I know that children of all races end up in foster care for a variety of reasons. But it had me feeling uneasy that the only time I was easily able to identify people of color was because they committed a crime or they were children in foster care. Jett’s niece and nephews are white and perhaps that is a balance and I am overthinking it. However, I felt how I felt and that is okay.

Long story short I didn’t love this book. I felt the romance was completely overshadowed by each of the main characters journey with becoming a caretaker. It felt like they didn’t really get to know enough about each other in order to sustain a long term relationship. When I factor in how I felt about the children, I didn’t enjoy this book.

Okay.

I wasn’t expecting this...

When I read the blurb I was expecting a cliche romance but what I receive was this amazing book that it’s funny to read but also so so touching, I caught me with tears in my eyes in some moments, I love the characters and the way I could connect with them so well, the relationships between the main characters and the kids was beautiful to see. The subjects covered are so delicate but so careful and beautifully handled that made me want to read more and more and more because it was so well written and it flowed so well that I reached the end of the book in a heartbeat.

Overall I really loved the book, the characters, and would love a book about bree.

Melissa Ferguson's first novel is full of laughter, surprises and heartfelt relationships. I am really excited to receive my preordered copy to hold in my hands!

To say Cassie Everson's life is complicated would be an understatement! A non profit leader, Cassie has no time for drama in her dating life. But that's exactly what has happened over and over again-- in fact, it's happened so many times that she's developed a clear emergency exit from the really bad dates. It doesn't help that the dating site she's signed up with seems to send her guys who are otherwise engaged or not her type at all.

As Cassie continues to search for the man of her dreams, she seems to run into firefighter Jett Bentley more than she'd like to admit. After their amazing first date, what could go wrong?

Life gets in the way, however, and in a few short days, both Cassie and Jett end up becoming guardians of children. Not just one child--children! Now that they've figured out their attraction to each other, will they come clean or hide their new additions? The result is a endearing, hilarious and often sobering reminder of the challenges of instant parenthood while falling in love.

The realities of foster care and guardianship are spotlighted, as well as the highs and lows of learning to parent from scratch. Singletons that become families, children dealing with trauma and loss...there's a lot to unpack here. However, the characters are well written, humorous and full of personality. I loved the book and know it will strike a chord with those who have experienced fostering or guardianship within their families or circle of friends. Being accepting of life's surprises and finding joy in the journey are key themes here.

This was a great debut! I can't wait to read more from Ferguson. I was an early reader, thanks to the publisher. All opinions are my own and I was not required to leave a review.

Contemporary romance is one of my all time favorite genres, and I love nothing more than discovering a new favorite author within this genre. I absolutely adored The Dating Charade. It had every aspect I enjoy in a romance novel, and included a completely unique premise. I'd never really read anything like it before, and it was everything I was hoping for and more.

The writing is witty, comical and addictive, and I truly can't believe this is Melissa Ferguson's debut novel. Her mastery of this beautiful story speaks of someone seasoned in the craft, and not of someone new to the scene. The Dating Charade is outright hilarious. Between Cassie and Jess both adjusting parenthood, meddling senior citizens, and an awkward developing romance, the comedic portions are spot on. However, interspersed throughout the story are many more serious issues like child abuse and child abandonment, and I personally loved the light that is centered around infertility, fostering and adoption.

Cassie and Jett are easily one of my new favorite couples, and I loved how awkward and adorable their entire relationship is. I only wish that Jett and Cassie had a little more page time together, but I was happy with the moments we did get of the two of them together. I sped through this story, as I just couldn't bear to put it down, and now I can't wait to discover what Melissa Ferguson has in store next for her readers.

I'm really hopeful that we're going to see Bree get her own story, but regardless, I will definitely be reading Melissa's next release, no matter with story it is, and I'm adding her to my list of favorite authors. I highly recommend this one for anyone who loves contemporary romance, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more.

Final Rating: 5/5

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for allowing me to advance read this!

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.

Have you ever had a friend that you don't see regularly, but when you finally get an opportunity to see each other, they talk to you about things like you stay caught up with each other daily? I don't mean in a pick-up-where-you-left-off kind of way, but like they're talking to you about things as if you're already aware of who certain people are or events like you've already discussed them. Like picking up in the middle of a conversation, but you missed the entire first part? Well, that's how The Dating Charade felt to me at times. Too many instances where I felt like I was missing the first half of a conversation and had to use context clues to figure it out. Of course, I could do that, but each time I felt pulled out of the story and had to stop and backtrack to see if I'd missed anything.

I did enjoy The Dating Charade. I have a special place in my heart for people who step up for children in need. My cousin fostered two kids before they were placed with their maternal grandmother, and two of my cousins were fostered and ultimately adopted. Doing this in my own life is not out of the realm of possibility. So both Cassie and Jett's stories were wonderful.

I felt emotionally invested in every single character. I loved Cassie and Jett and each of the six kids involved in this story. I loved Sunny and Sarah. And I even loved the brief scenes involving Cassie's mom and best friend Bree.

I will say that this is one book I wish was a little longer. We can obviously tell that Cassie and Jett have a great first date and feel a connection. But their interactions beyond that are pretty short and infrequent since each is dealing with some major home challenges and changes. We're told how much they connect, but I just wish we could have experienced it more first hand. A show vs tell situation here.

The Dating Charade wasn't a perfect read for me. I wanted more romance. Understandably, the two struggled to get any alone time considering their home situations, but I felt like one or two more in-depth dates would have benefited the story significantly. The side characters all came to life, and I cringed for each and every one of the children--especially as a mother. I just wanted to love on them all. The Dating Charade gets 4 Stars. Have you read The Dating Charade? What did you think? Let me know!

Solid debut but I wouldn’t quite call it a romance. This is me the story of two people who meet, are attracted to each other, and then each end up with three surprise children to take care of and are unsure how to tell the other. They don’t actually spend that much time together and I would have loved more banter (and interaction) between Cassie and Jett because what there was was funny and sweet. But the lion’s share of the story is the two learning to care for these unexpected kids and finding out what that means for them individually.

Also I was surprised by how sparse the Christian references were. The main characters go to church but never once mention how their faith impacts who they are, what they do for a living, or how it affects their decisions regarding these kids and their dating relationship. Not sure why a novel from a Christian publisher would be so vague. Don’t have to beat us over the head with sappy Christianese but it would make sense to incorporate that important element into the motives of the characters.

I have a hard time reviewing this book. Did I like it? Yes. Did I want to get back to reading it if I hadn't read in a while? Not always. Was I wondering if all of the things in regarding child welfare were correct? Definitely. Did I grow to care about the characters and the children? Yes. Did both of the MCs drive me bonkers quite often? Unfortunately, yes. Did I love the way the MCs interacted (chemistry, check. banter, check.)? Yes. Yes I did.

I think it does show how hard it is to be a single parent, and how time consuming and awe inducing that must be (not having children, I can't even fathom motherhood as a partnership, let alone on my own). This book had a lot of things going for it, but there's something holding me back from saying it's great. It's not necessarily one I would rush to recommend (zero steam, for those interested), but it wasn't a bad book at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the gifted book and opportunity to read and review it prior to its publication date! This in no way affected my review, all opinions are my own.

I received a free eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I wasn’t prepared for how much I enjoyed this. I am normally not a fan of romances. However I have to say, this one was really cute and not too cheesy, full of heart and also left me crying for reasons other than romance more often than not. I would say this was a very realistic story about not only love, but family and the strength of community. It also depicted true struggle and tragedy. It was a pretty complex story.

SPOILER-FREE SUMMARY
Cassie Everson is an expert at escaping bad first dates. And, after years of meeting, greeting, and running from the men who try to woo her, Cassie is almost ready to retire her hopes for a husband—and children—altogether. But fate has other plans, and Cassie’s online dating profile catches the eye of firefighter Jett Bentley. In Jett’s memory, Cassie Everson is the unreachable girl-of-legend from their high school days. Nervously, he messages her, setting off a chain of events that forces a reluctant Cassie back into the dating game. No one is more surprised than Cassie when her first date with Jett is a knockout. But when they both go home and find three children dropped in their laps—each—they independently decide to do the right and mature thing: hide the kids from each other while sorting it all out. What could go wrong?

In the end, I was rooting for our main characters, Jett and Cassie. We do get both of their POV’s which was nice in developing their separate plots. The characters were all decently complex and I enjoyed the secondary ones too, and I thought the scenes with all the children were realistic. Also, my mom works at a school for girls so I loved reading about Cassie’s job!

The only thing I could’ve done without was Jett crushing on Cassie in High School.. it was too predictable and typical to me. But their romance was sweet nonetheless, and this was a PERFECT Christmas read because it was very Christmasy and many of the scenes took place during December.

loved this story so much!!!!!!!!!
I loved the humor, I loved the kids, I loved the the heart!
While some books have me chuckle out loud while I read it and smile later on when I think about the funny parts, this book had me bursting out laughing days after I was finished with it!
My family kept asking me what I was laughing about!
The humor is so spot on! So true to life!
However this is not just a funny book, this is a book that tackles some real tough, real heartbreaking truths, yet it has hope and so much depth.
It moved me to tears at one point, because of something similar that my family has gone through when helping children in crisis. It is just so true to life! I cannot recommend this novel enough for anyone who wants a fun rom-com with such a great message and depth.
I am always a sucker for a story about helping children. This book is more than it looks, it is perfect to me!
Seriously, get this book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. All of these opinions and rants are my own!

Thanks to netgalley for the advanced copy! This book was way better than I expected. Great character development. Awesome, true to life story. Just a total joy to read. I highly recommend it.

Cassie has had her share of seriously bad dates. So many in fact that she can tell in mere seconds of meeting what the outcome will be and how to escape them with her sense of self and humor in tact. She reconnects with Jett, a friend from school years ago. Join them on their way to finding each other, trusting, while also dealing with circumstances that neither one wanted or planned on and tried to keep from each other. Ultimately there learn to trust and have their own HEA. Sweet quick read.

This was such a cute and fun read! For a debut novel, I loved everything about it. It had just the right amount of romance and as someone who visits Tennessee and particularly Gatlinburg every December, I fell in love with this one as I could relate. I’ve already pre-ordered myself a physical copy to keep forever along with 3 other copies to share as a giveaway on my Instagram and gift for Christmas. Thank you so much Netgalley and Melissa Ferguson for allowing me to read this one!

The Dating Charade is a debut novel by Melissa Ferguson. This book is a real-life story about children being neglected by their parents, about kind family/individuals diving into parenthood overnight, whether it was their choices or not, and about our foster care system. This is not really a romance novel, no sex scenes at all 😂, and the first kiss only happened at one paragraph away from the epilogue 🤷‍♀️. So if you’re into a clean story with honest reality, adorable children with all their havocs, and parenting struggles, then this book is for you!

Cassie worked at a center to support and empower young girls from troubled family background. She almost gave up on her online dating activity after having a series of failed date. Jett was a local fireman👨‍🚒, 3 years her junior, who had a crush on Cassie in high school. After seeing her profile on the dating website, Jett decided to reach out to her. Their first date was much more pleasant and promising than Cassie had expected, but then life threw them both a curve ball! They ended up taking in 3 kids each under their care overnight, Cassie with a 14-yo and her 2 sisters, a 6- a 4-yo, and Jett with 2-yo twins 👫 and a new born. Their subsequent encounters/dates turned into embarrassing, awkward, and funny moments when they tried to hide the existence of the children from each other.

I would say this book is more about the lives of 2 separate individuals who got thrown into parenthood out of the blue. There was not much romantic connection between Cassie and Jett, their cross paths were sparse and short. The book is focused a lot more about the children whose stories were heartbreaking, how they changed Cassie’s and Jett’s lives, and the support Cassie and Jett received from their community, friends and family. I feel the ending was too abrupt and forced, it left me wonder how that happened 🤔, even though it had a HEA after all. I quite enjoy the author’s writing style with great humor and sweet narrative, and I believe she really put in her personal experience and passion about foster care, which made the story more real. It’s a 4-⭐️ read for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Released date December 3rd, 2019.

The Dating Charade was a very cute story. It is a roller coaster of emotions. Cassie runs a government funded haven for teenage girls. Jett is a firefighter. Miscommunication and misunderstanding keeps them apart. Both are thrown into situations and become immediate guardians to three children each. Neither thinks the other wants kids.
My emotions were up and down and I could not put the book down.

I was taken by surprise by this delightful, laugh out loud funny, and heartfelt debut novel that also deals with serious issues of child abandonment and adoption in a realistic and loving way. Melissa Ferguson is an author to watch. I will be delighted to read her future novels. I highly recommend The Dating Charade!

This cute rom com had me hooked from the start. I very quickly fell in love with every character. I hope a follow up will have a story for Bree!

This was such a cute rom-com! It'll have you laughing out loud and also deal in some serious situations. The serious situations never felt too heavy. In my opinion, there's a perfect balance to the book. This story had me engaged from beginning to end and I highly recommend this book to rom-com lovers!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

I love reading books by new authors because it is a great way to find something new and fresh. I think The Dating Charade is one of the cutest books I have read in a long time. I love heartwarming stories, especially this time of year and this one was full of heart. Cassie and Jett are lovable characters that you can't help but root for. I always enjoy a good blast from the past re-connection and Jett is just too adorable when he sees Cassie's profile and the events that unfold that make Cassie interested. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good clean romance novel.

Thank you for the chance to read a copy of this, unfortunately I requested it by accident and there is no way to cancel requests on Netgalley. I have ordered a copy for our library.