Hannah Thompson's secretly a published erotica author and she's under pressure to write a sequel that's better than the first book. Struggling to write anything remotely sexy because, life, Hannah decides it's time to transform into her alter ego, maybe that will get things flowing.

Faking It was absolutely hilarious. All of the relationships and characters felt so real. I loved that Hannah and Nick's relationship wasn't in shambles and a source of drama, it's more about communicating and supporting each other. I could feel everything from the struggle of letting your kids go and grow up to trying to figure out who you are beyond a mom and wife. I'm probably the target audience here, if you have kids, get weighed down by life and sometimes struggle to remember who you are beyond a mom and wife, this is the book for you, it's absolutely relatable and will have you laughing out loud.

3.25/ 5 stars

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

First off, I feel like the cover and the synopsis drew me in and I felt like this would would be a novel I'd find entertaining.

Hannah, mom of 3, school-teacher, and secret erotica writer the pseudonym "Twinky Malone." I felt like this book was a bit of a slow burn and I didn't engage with it in the beginning. I kept expecting more to happen, there were genuine funny bits but still I needed a bit more to happen ya know.

Also, I think the shame of being a romance/erotica writer is not something I agree with so I had a difficult time with the MC's shame with her profession difficult.

All in all, I think I'll read more books by this author as I liked the writing style.

This was such a fun read and I wish its pub date was earlier because it would be such a fun beach read for so many people. It was such a wonderful plot and I found the book to be so funny and could relate with pretty much everything. I"m also grateful that I'm a United States citizen who watches Love Island because I understood some of the jokes, like how Hannah refers to herself as a mug.

**Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for an early copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review**

I didn't realize until after finishing this book that it is a companion novel to another book on the same characters, but it didn't really matter as you don't need to read the first to understand what is going on in the second. The plot is fully identified and explained without relying on previous knowledge.

I was very excited about the premise of this book. I could totally imagine a normal woman starting a career as an erotica novelist and having doubts about being known as someone who writes erotica. The main character, just seemed so normal. Three kids, middle aged life, working as a teacher, having financial problems. But this book just fell seriously flat for me.

First everything about Hannah seemed so contrived. She writes erotica and believed that her sex scenes were pushing the boundaries, then we find out her editor actually thinks they are more humorous than sexy. Hannah is appalled, so she tries to be "sexier" in order to write the next book. But all she does is basically slut shame herself and everyone else for most of the book? I seriously didn't get it. She made terrible assumptions, put her husband in weird positions, (literally and figuratively) and just overall was a strange character. Also, the snippets of her book we got to read? Not at all entertaining or funny or even erotic.

I'm also missing how this is a romance novel. Hannah is contentedly married, and there really isn't much focus on her relationship with Nick. There's more focus on her relationship with her sons and daughter or her friends than there is about her and Nick. Even the main plot, getting ready to attend Sex Con, takes 80% of the book to get to - and then it's only like a chapter long. Her arguments with her daughter took up more page time.

I think I went into this book expecting humor, romance, and some ~sexy~ writing - and that just wasn't this. It's possible that because my expectations were totally different I didn't enjoy it because I was so focused on getting to the parts that I wanted to be there... but didn't exist. So reader, if you're looking for a true romance novel, this isn't it. it's more Women's Fiction/Chick Lit. I'm sure there's an audience for this book, who will find it to be funny & relatable but that just isn't me!

The premise of this story seemed like a cute, but felt almost YA in the way it was written. It just didn't hook me the way I hoped it would based on the blurb!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Faking It follow our main character Hannah as she navigates life after the publication of her first ever book. Hannah wrote an erotic novel that is getting some major hype and she doesn't know how to handle it. She is also working on writing an anticipated follow up novel.

Unfortunately for me, this book was just not doing anything for me. For much of the book I felt like nothing was really happening. I didn't really feel like the characters were well enough developed. Nobody had a very distinct personality. It was kind of just a list of the issues that Hannah was facing. The book wasn't bad, it just wasn't very exciting for me.

I absolutely loved this book! I love how real the characters are and it was so funny and relatable. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.*

This book was just "okay". Didn't love it, didn't hate it. I did find parts to be entertaining and funny, but so much of it was just silly and cheesy. Think it will help once the editing is finished and the formatting is fixed.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is okay. It's a lighthearted romp about a middle-age woman finding herself. In addition, to be a mother and teacher Hannah is now an erotic novelist. The premise is interesting, and the book has a lot of laugh out loud moments to keep you engage but Hannah's story left me a little lost. Hannah was lost but I didn't want to be.

There is definitely an audience for this book I just think I might be ten years too early.

This was rough.

Honestly, it's not the level of finish I'm used to for an ARC so I'm hoping that this is a pre, pre-release and it will still go through a professional editor and formatting. Besides the numerous grammatical errors, the formatting was all over the place. Words had random spaces or none at all. Paragraphs were broken up all weird with hanging words. It made it extremely hard to get through.

And then there was the story itself. I kind of expected more about the MC and her "self-discovery" but really, it was a lot of cringy dialogue and not very likable characters. I guess I should have seen it coming when the daughter full-on goes disrespectful hyena in the 1st CH and the mom does literally nothing about it and is all "oh honey what's wrong?"

I also don't really like that the author played into the "shame" of being a romance/erotic author. It's like we jumped back in time. Yes, there are some people who still view romance as beneath, but hello, it's made a lot of strides and is one of the most-read genres. I just don't like how this book perpetuates that negative view. Even the MC is ashamed of it.

In the end, I didn't walk away from this book satisfied and I hope that it's pulled together a bit tighter before release.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced copy.

An okay book but not for me. I found it to be a fairly typical middle aged mum trying to prove there is more to life story. Family life, work, housework, sex, with glimpses of her new life as a secret erotica author. Mildly funny but did not grip me, I'm afraid.

Sequel to More Than Just Mom, comes Rebecca Smith’s newest release Faking it available on August 7th!

Hannah is a secret writer of a best seller erotica novel. She started writing for herself to remind her that she’s much more than just a mother to her three children, a teacher, and a wife. Upon meeting her publicists to talk about the release of a second follow-up book, they tell her she needs to loosen up and to put more comedy into her books that the readers can’t seem to get enough of. Then they tell her that she also has to come publicly forward to sell more of her books. But, how is Hannah supposed to do that when she feels like she’s lost her own identity?

Faking it by Rebecca Smith was fun and had the perfect amount of humor in it. The idea for this book was original and made for a cute read. I had no problem flying through this book!

Thank you to @Netgalley for allowing me too read this early readers’ copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

1 Star

This book was hard to get through. The dialogue is cheesy and the ‘jokes’ just don’t hit. The author tried too hard to fit impressive vocabulary into the book and it just doesn’t work. I don’t like how Hannah is filled with all of this shame about being a romance novelist. It felt like going back in time 40 years.

All of Hannah’s relationships were terrible but her daughter was truly awful. Everything about Hannah is unlikable from the way she parents to the way she thinks to the way she writes.

Honestly, the whole book just misses the mark.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Unfortunately, this has to be the most advanced ARC I've ever read as there were so many formatting errors the book was unreadable. In most cases, it was words run together (for example, instead of 'run together' it would be 'runtogether'). Since I read very quickly, these errors were quite disruptive as I had to stop my flow to figure out what the words actually were. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it frankly took all the enjoyment out of the book. It's a shame, as the writing was light and fun. I'll try the book again once it's published so the formatting errors are corrected.
DNF at 36%.

I loved the blurb for this book and was so excited to get started. it started well, the writer has a nice, light style, but then yawnsville... nothing happens. I've gotten to 50% and just cannot go on.

I feel bad for the author, because I think my lack of enjoyment is aggravated by the truly appalling formatting of the ARC copy (but I've also read other books with the same formatting issue and been so immersed in the story I've forgotten about it), so giving an extra star to account for that.

I did enjoy and finish this book however I think the storyline needs bulking out in the middle as it’s a bit slow and repetitive and you just can’t see where it’s going.

Wow I have not laughed out loud at a book in a long time. This book had some really funny moments that had me streaming tears down my face. I really enjoyed the concept of this story and felt like I could relate to the mother part of her in many parts of the story. The story however at times seemed a bit rushed as we went from chapter to chapter.

Overall it was the perfect light funny read. If your looking for a book that you can relate to, laugh with and at, then this book is for you. I give this book four out of five stars.

Formatting was so poor it was too difficult to read. Please provide some formatting.

Formatting was so poor it was too difficult to read. Please provide some formatting.


Formatting was so poor it was too difficult to read. Please provide some formatting.

Repeat repeat repeat repeat

I really struggled with this book. Not alot really happened and whilst there were definitely bits I could relate to, the pacing was so off it made it a slog at times.

The concept was sound and I would reach for another of Rebecca's books in the future, just this one was a miss for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so bummed out right now. I really, really, really, wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t get into it.

I DNF’d at about the 50% mark and skipped to the last couple of chapters.

I'm not saying it was a total disaster. I laughed my ass off plenty of times throughout the book. The pacing was just too slow. I was waiting for the exciting bit to happen, sex-con, and it didn’t, until the very end. By then, I was bored and a little disappointed. I felt like the sex-con chapter could have been an epic moment for Twinky Malone.

This has in no way deterred me from reading more books from Rebecca Smith. Her humor is definitely my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.