This was my first Mhairi McFarlane book and oh my gosh I can't wait to go read ALL of her books now!! I loved it so much.

Laurie is dumped by her boyfriend of eighteen years (yes, you read that right), so her and her male coworker, Jamie, devise a plan to fake date in order to get back at Laurie's ex and help Jamie secure a promotion. As all of us romance readers know, fake dating is one of our beloved tropes, but it can sometimes veer on, oh, being completely and totally unrealistic. However, that wasn't the case here! The pacing of this book was slow IN A GOOD WAY. It wasn't a situation in which the characters jumped into bed/had a friends with benefits sitch and then realized it was something more. It was a slow, growing attraction out of friendship more than anything else and actually seemed like it COULD happen. There were also several twists and turns that I wasn't expecting that kept the plot fresh. The characters were likable and both the male and female protagonists had fantastic depth that made you understood why they were the way they were. I'm surprised the phrase "impostor syndrome" never came up, because Laurie certainly had it (girl, you can be a law firm partner!!), but Laurie was still depicted as a strong, bad@$$ career woman, despite her less than stellar relationship with her male colleagues. Sometimes it really is enough to be good at your job. I would highly recommend this book and can't wait to read more of McFarlane's work.

5 stars - 9/10