Monica Murphy is becoming one of my favorite authors. Her books are so good, you won’t want to put them down.

Fake Date gives us everything we love about a fake relationship. These two couldn’t be more different. Who would of thought that Sarah would end up helping Mr. Jared Gaines out. These two meet at Bliss Lingerie. Jared is a client of Sarah’s and thinks he’s a ladies man with many mistresses. But once the truth finally comes out, feelings start to take over and begin to surface.

Jared is a hard businessman and has been burned. He doesn’t live and would rather work than be around his family. But Sarah helps him see that he can drop the walls and he can learn to love again.

Who would of thought that the sales clerk and the business could fall in love when everything was supposed to be fake.

Highly recommended.

*I was given a free copy of this book by Net Galley in exchange for my honest and voluntary review. All thoughts and opinions are those of my own.*

The story of Sarah and Jared. They meet at the store where Sarah works. Shes thinks they dislike each other, but he has other ideas. What starts off as a fake date soon ends up being real, until she finds out the secret he is keeping. Will he get a second chance?

A fun and entertaining read. I am looking forward to the srest of this series

This was a cute romance that has done really good parts and some not so good parts. I like the heroine, Sarah, but I struggled with Jared’s character. My favorite character was Candice and I look forward to reading her book. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Opposites Attract but if they fight it, how can they fit together?

Terrific story about a pair of complete opposites who end up on a fake date. Sarah Harrison works at a high end lingerie shop called Bliss. She has worked there for the past two years in order to make ends meet. Her parents died 4 years ago, when she was twenty and she had to give up her future dreams to help raise her siblings, a brother who was still in high school and a sister who was only twelve at the time.

Sarah has worked her way up to sales and is now full time and works as a personal shopper to some of the clients. One of her clients that she sees every two to four weeks is Jared Gaines, a Billionaire businessman who drives her crazy. He is not only wealthy, but extremely attractive and he buys intimate lingerie for his many women or “mistresses” as she likes to call them to get on his nerves. They exchange barbs during their meetings but heated looks now and then as well.

From there on the story is great. It is funny how Sarah can’t figure out what to do with him. She is attracted to him without a doubt, but afraid because of all the lingerie he buys for other women. She knows what a player he must be. Jared, on the other hand is completely attracted to Sarah and hasn’t actually been dating anyone for the last six months, but has been buying lingerie just to see Sarah. However, he doesn’t do relationships. Ever since he fell in love when he was younger and was dumped four months before the wedding. He no longer believes in love, only lust.

These two are funny together because they can never seem to just get things right. It is a fun story and it held my interest the entire time. The side characters, including Jared’s sister Candice and Sarah ‘s family are great. The next book will be about Candice and looks good. She is quite a firecracker herself.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm kinda of conflicted with this review, because on the one hand, it uses two of my favorite tropes -- hate-to-love and fake dating--but on the other end I felt like some of the conflicts were just TOO dramatic. Maybe it was just me? This is actually book two, but I feel like I didn't need to read book one to get this book. So I don't think that's why it didn't completely click for me. I still enjoyed myself reading this, but ugh did these two annoy me!

I did love the beginning of this novel where we could see just the sheer animosity between the two of them. I freaking loved it! I also loved that when we get to Jared's POV, he basically does it because he thinks she's hot when she's angry. HAHA! I do think he was a hard character to love. He's very cold and standoffish. I can really relate to that, and we later understand why he walls himself off, but I just wanted to shake him! I also felt like it was a little sketch that he just convinced Sarah's coworker to give him her home address. The whole gift giving thing was starting to get a little too creepy for me.

There are definitely some scenes where I felt like Sarah way overreacts and I honestly felt like she was a little too pushy with getting Jared to reconnect with his family. Like, he definitely needed to do it, but her pushing him to do everything in one weekend was a little much. I did love his relationship with his sister and Candice and I'm glad she was there to make sure they have their HEA!

This is a romance that does have some sex scenes, but there is really only one that is explicit and I didn't think it was that descriptive. The rest just kind of mention sex. So I think in terms of heat level, I would maybe say it's a medium.

I definitely want to go back and read the first book in this series, and i'm excited that the third book is about Candice!

*I received an advanced reader copy from the PR firm Social Butterfly PR via Netgalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3,5 stars
When I started to read this one, all I could think about was One Week Girlfriend. I liked Fake Date. It was cute. I felt Jared went from bad boy to wishy washy when he was around his family.

This is Sarah and Jared book, Sarah works at Bliss lingerie and she deals with all kinds of interesting clientele! But nobody peeks her interest more than the ultra rich ultra sexy businessman Jared who frequents her shop buying delicate gifts for the women of his life! But one day she gets her own gift! From none other than Jared himself! Jared is a wealthy businessman and he can’t stop thinking about the sexy sales girl at his local lingerie store! He keeps buying all these sexy gifts for nobody lol but he gets the smart idea to send one to Sara! So when Sarah walks into his office demanding to know why he keeps sending her gifts he makes her an offer she somehow can’t refuse, to be his fake girlfriend for the weekend! This book was really good I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it! it definitely had a little Bit of steam to it personally I would’ve liked a little more but it was definitely hot LOL I do recommend reading it it had a great storyline it was funny it was definitely a decent read! Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for sharing this book with me!

Jared was a big NO for me. To be clear, he was a massively petulant, immature, cold, self-absorbed NO of a lover, brother, son, and all around person. I loved that Sarah read him the riot act and made him apologize to his family members, but the guy never got a clue. Jared was the same jerk at the end of the book as he was from the start. You can imagine my reaction when I read the author's note that she originally wrote Jared to be an even bigger ass.

Let's start with Jared's bizarre wooing of Sarah: after months of buying lingerie purportedly for other women, Jared sends to Sarah's home a bra and panty set from the store she works at. (Sarah, no matter how much your friends tell you this is not creepy, this really is.) Sarah has no idea Jared's interested because he's always been "rude and demanding and cold and discerningly quiet", and "most of the time he looks at me like I disgust him". Things ramp up when Jared sends her a pair of Louboutins with a note, "Call Me".

Turns out Jared firmly believes that his money, power, and looks mean he doesn't need to be nice. Other than Sarah's looks, it appears he's only attracted because she doesn't fall at his feet like all other women:
"Women tend to just fall at my feet and do whatever I want, whenever I want it.”

Her delicate brows shoot straight up. “Ego much?”

I ignore her little jabs. “They don’t ever play hard to get.”

“Really? Well, I’m pretty sure I do,” she says with the faintest hint of triumph.

“Yes,” I agree. “You do.” And that’s what I like the most about her.
Ok, but what's to like about Jared? He pretty much tuned out his dad and siblings after his mother's death from cancer years ago. He's still smarting over the fact that his ex-fiancee broke off their engagement years ago. Basically, everyone has moved on but Jared. That doesn't explain his brusque, rude manner towards everyone, including Sarah who has to call him out every time he says or does something hurtful.
“You have to understand, Sarah. Sometimes when I’m tired or feeling impatient I act like…”

“An asshole?” I supply for him.

Jared glances over his shoulder, giving me the faintest smile. “Yeah. That.”

He remains quiet for a while and I’m ready to choke on the words I want to say to him, so I just let it all spill out. “If you want my help, then you need to treat me with respect at the very least, Jared. You keep acting like a total asshole all the time, and I don’t want to have anything to do with you,” I tell his broad back.

Go, Sarah, go! Unfortunately, Sarah ends up not only pointing out what a jerk Jared is to his stepmother, brother, and sister but Jared also embarrasses her in the worst way in front of his family and ex-fiancee. And if not for his little sister's interference, Jared would have done nothing to fix it. I was so done with him. I only wished that Sarah was, too.

Sarah Harrison works at the upscale Bliss lingerie, and she’s used to dealing with interesting clients. But none of them are more interesting than perceived playboy, Jared Gaines. He’s handsome, he’s rich, he’s inscrutable, and he buys a lot of lingerie. So when he begins sending Sarah gifts, she doesn’t know quite how to process it. Because, try as she might, she’s attracted to this man, even though she knows he’s probably trouble. Add in a fake relationship pact and a weekend in San Francisco with Jared’s family, and the lines of what’s pretend and what’s real begin to blur. Sarah and Jared definitely have chemistry, but do they have what it takes to make a real relationship last?

‘Fake Date’ is a contemporary romance that ticks all the boxes. Fake relationship trope with a new a fresh spin? Check. A supportive friend group that tells it like it is? Check. Palpable, sizzling, chemistry between the heroine and the hero? Check. A slow burn of said chemistry with a highly satisfying resolution? Check, check, check.

I really enjoyed this novel, so much so that I read it in one sitting. It’s fun, flirty, and entertaining. This was my first time reading Monica Murphy, and I’m happy to report that it won’t be my last.

**Thanks, NetGalley, for sending me an ARC of ‘Fake Date’ in exchange for my honest review.**

I'll start with the good: I liked Sarah, the female protagonist of this. She's only in her early 20s but took on the responsibility of caring for her two younger siblings when she was only 20 years old when their parents died in a car accident. That's an enormous amount of responsibility for someone her age, and I think it's made her more mature. She certainly came across as the more mature of the two protagonists, at least--and the male protagonist, Jared, is 10 years older than her, so that says something.

I also liked the female friendships in this; not just Sarah's group of friends, but also the friendship that develops between Sarah and Candice, Jared's sister. And it was refreshing that Jared's ex is not an Evil Other Woman.

The real issue with this book is Jared. I couldn't stand him!

First, it's completely in appropriate for him to ask Sarah, in her position as his personal shopper/sales associate at the lingerie store, what size clothing and bras she wears. And she... tells him? Like, seriously? I knew from the blurb that he was ordering her lingerie, so that should've been a red flag, but I dunno... I didn't think about how he found out. Also, he asks one of her colleagues for Sarah's address, and the colleague gives it to him! Again, what on earth? What if he was dangerous? What if he turned out to be some kind of stalker? Hello, these rules exist for a reason!

Jared is a MAN CHILD. He's incredibly rude to everyone, including Sarah. I know antagonism is a common ~theme in romance, but he's honestlyawful to her. And he's also terrible to his family members. There is one point in the story where he makes the most judgmental comment to his sister about what she eats for breakfast, and I was FURIOUS. I mean, Sarah storms out and tells him to apologize to his sister, but they make up soon afterwards. Then suddenly he's like, "I want to make this a real relationships because I care about you." I found that almost... jarring. And honestly? didn't really understand their attraction to each other beyond the physical.

Sarah has to call him out for his terrible behavior over the course of the book. I'm not saying characters have to be perfect--on the contrary, I appreciate a nice character arc as much as the next person--but it doesn't work here at all. Why? Because 1) he's an adult and he still acts like a teenager; 2) he only apologizes when he's compelled to by another person (e.g. his sister or Sarah), because he's incapable of realizing on his own that his behavior sucks; and 3) Sarah shouldn't have to get him to stop being a CHILD and grow up.

Honestly, by the end of the book, I wanted him to drive off a cliff and for Sarah to find someone who actually deserved her. I don't care how much money he has, or how ~damaged~ he is from losing a parent and a failed engagement... he's a jerk. He is not life partner material at all.

I would not recommend this book, sorry!

This is the first Monica Murphy book I’ve read, and I realized a couple chapters in that to be a fair reviewer, I needed to take into account the genre, as comparing it against a literary heavyweight wouldn’t be fair. Fake Date is a breezy, lighthearted romantic read, and if you’re seeking escape, a few steamy scenes, and the happily ever after, then Fake Date certainly meets those expectations. Sarah and Jared are likeable without being annoyingly perfect, and their romance is full of your typical storybook problems, but Murphy doesn’t try to saturate the plot with overdramatic and serious issues. After all, it’s supposed to be entertaining. Fake Date, if you frame it in the genre for which it’s written, does what it’s supposed to do. Bonus points for being set in my old town of the Monterey Peninsula.

I received this as an advance reader’s copy, but all opinions are my own.

Fake Date is the second book in the Dating series. Characters from the first one do appear in this one, but it’s still a standalone. It’s a contemporary romance with a fake relationship trope. However, this is not your usual fake relationship trope. It doesn’t follow the usual storyline for that, and there are several parts they make fun of romance movies and specifically fake relationship tropes. It was refreshing, different, and quite creative.

Sarah was a great character. She is raising her younger siblings, always does the right thing, and is responsible and mature for her age. Also, all of the girls in the book were nice and supportive of each other, even the one you would assume would be horrible. This is so rare in books and I loved this so much.

I did struggle with Jared’s character a lot. He came off as an entitled jerk. He had very few redeeming qualities in my opinion. Therefore, I really thought Sarah deserved better than him and didn’t like them together at all. Although, he does get slightly less jerky with Sarah trying to make him into a better person.

Overall, I thought it was a creative, entertaining take on a fake relationship trope and I would recommend this.