3 ⭐️

I won't lie, I had an amazing time reading this fun little romance. It's fun, cute and lighthearted which is everything I need in a romance book. I absolutely loved that it had such a wide range of diverse characters, unfortunately, this is something that is still lacking in the book writing community. The banter between the main love interest + the actual plot was very fun and interesting.
I loved the fluidity of the language Shellee Marie has, it's very quick to read, however, I feel like the descriptions were a bit too long for what was actually needed. I felt like it were too long to describe a small action the character was doing or taking too long to describe a room they just walked into. The main idea for the plot was good but I felt like it lacked something in it. It started with a small amazing idea but by the middle of the book, there were so many storylines I was a bit confused about what was happening, why & who was involved in what.

All in all, I am very grateful that I was sent this E-ARC for a review!

Rating: 2.5 rounded to 3

This book was hard to rate. I really enjoyed it up until the end, it had me laughing out loud multiple times. Basically the first 3/4 of the book was a 4 star read and the last 1/4 was a 2 star that pretty much ruined the rest of the book for me.

This book follows beauty influence Alivia Fae. She has a beauty blog and the story starts out with her serving as "best man" at her best friend, Dan's wedding. He is a professional baseball player, so there was some media attention given to the wedding, and a series of snafus lead to Alivia being romantically linked to the groom and the new bride absolutely hating her guts. In an attempt to move away from the negative media coverage she is receiving, Alivia creates a poll for her followers to weigh in on her next date. She ends up fake dating a fitness influencer named Moe but finds herself falling for Travis, his assistant. 

Alivia is supremely awkward and says the strangest things just to fill a silence, which I can definitely relate to. I thought that it was fun getting to hear about her projects and content creation. I liked the love interest, and even the fake love interest. I could buy Travis and Alivia as a couple. One small complaint is that there is not much female friendship present, but I did like what we saw of her friendship with Victoria and her interaction with her fans. 

Basically it was a fun setup and I had a good time with all the awkward situations and snafus. 
Now onto my issues. My lesser complaint, and the reason that this book was only at 4 stars until the end, instead of 5 was the storyline with Dan and Alivia. Dan felt like a child, and he was making absolutely terrible mistakes. I didn't like the storyline between Alivia and his wife, Donna, and everything involving Dan just seemed terrible. I thought there were really stupid miscommunications here that were completely needless, and I don't like the end result of that storyline. 

My biggest issue was the ending. We hit the big "issue" that cropped up, that I assumed was going to cause that romantic tension piece of things, but it didn't. At first I was really pleased thinking that there was just going to be an issue in Alivia's life that didn't affect the love life. But, alas, this was not the case. The issue that caused that moment of romantic strife was SO frustrating, especially because I was under the impression that they had already dealt with the "issue.' Alivia had seemingly resolved it in a conversation midway through the book. But apparently the words that I read meant something different to me than to the main character. So everything revolving around that issue for the last 1/4 of the book was supremely frustrating to read about. I thought that it was pretty cheesy. Then as all the issues were worked out and resolved, the dialogue and inner monologue around the resolutions felt very silly and cheesy. 

So all in all I am not sure that I would recommend this book because the ending kind of ruined it for me. But there were a couple moments that I continue to think about because they made me laugh so hard. 
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Influenced Love releases on February 22, 2022.

This was a pretty entertaining beach read! The fake celebrity relationship angle was amusing but it was really the drama surrounding the other relationships that kept me reading.

Beautifully written characters. Well devised plot. The journey was beautiful. A quick and an easy read. Happy to read it.

The "twist" doesn't happen until the end of the book, and after such a build-up and great summary, I was really expecting more. I love how real Liv feels and the story in general, but I was a bit disappointed overall with how it ended. I also just really didn't like Tyson.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book notes
“Influenced Love” is a debut novel, and the first book from the Black Beauty in Love series by Shellee Marie.

Alivia Fae is a beauty influencer who has a strong, devoted core of “Faes” who appreciate her honest product reviews and tips - especially because she is a person of color, and addresses concerns for the most underrepresented demographic in the beauty market. She is quite successful, and has turned her influencer passion into her full-time job. She’s even starting her own beauty product line to provide for others like her who have trouble finding quality, reasonable hair care and beauty products! #girlenterpreneur
We meet Alivia at her best friend’s wedding, as his “best woman” and pick up on some awkwardness right away. Dan looks uneasy, his bride looks livid, and Alivia seems to be harboring guilt/weirdness between she and Dan. As Dan happens to be a pro baseball player, naturally celebrity news starts reporting on Alivia as a speculated homewrecker, attempting to ruin her friend’s budding marriage.
Alivia decides to distract the media and haters by devising a scheme to fake-date fellow influencer, Moe Gava. Queue shenanigans: fake dates, staged photos on cute outings, and an expose interview on the celebrity network channel. To further complicate things, Alivia quickly falls for Moe’s assistant and friend, Travis!
Can she untangle this web before her followers find out? Is Moe really a datable guy? What more drama can she trip into with Dan? No spoilers, but it gets messy before it gets sorted!
What I enjoyed: LOVED representation for POC and a main love couple who are both POC! I found every Alivia/Travis interaction adorable and wanting more. Really clean lust/love balance between building chemistry while showing depth of emotion.
What I could do without: knit-picky, but, I’d cut Alivia’s brother- he calls/bothers her for money several times but otherwise doesn’t feature in the plot. More substantially, there is a lot going on in the pages - and it causes some of the plot to skim instead of dive deeper. Dan was a confusing additional love interest, and I think that’s why his character is forced into being so eye-rollingly immature - to force you not to cheer for him. This could have easily been a “friend-to-lover” story with his as a main interest.
Ultimately, it’s a cute romcom that I would absolutely watch if (and let’s hope it does) it becomes a Netflix movie!
Thank you to #netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

As an influencer-obsessed person, I loved the idea of this book before I even started reading.

We have Alivia, an up-and-coming Youtuber with a decent Instagram following. Her BFF is Dan, a well-known athlete. Alivia and Dan’s closeness causes an accidental scandal because he is a newlywed and apparently the public doesn’t think a man and woman can be JUST friends. To restore her image, she wants to appear disconnected from Dan and that leads us to Moe, another influencer, who Alivia starts to “date.” Their followers love it – win-win. Or so she thought. The connection just isn’t there and their dates end up bringing Alivia closer to Moe’s assistant, Travis.

I love how genuine and driven Alivia is. I think there could have been a bit more drama to build up the climax. There is some funny banter throughout the book and the storyline was simple but charming. I definitely think this book is worth the read if you’re into rom-coms!

This is an engaging and heart warming story for the modern day. Alivia, a beauty influencer and entrepreneur, is caught up in a fake news story after her best friend's wedding which quickly causes trouble in her personal and professional relationships.

Following Alivia as she tries to remedy things, albeit not in the wisest of ways initially. The tale serves as a reminder about the two way relationship of social media and celebrity gossip, while also ensuring that good defeats evil.

A great book filled with many touching and humorous moments, as well as good old romance, this is a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more.

It took me a lot longer than normal to finish this book. It started off slow but once it picked up it was a pretty quick read. I feel like it was rushed at some points and the story wasn’t fully developed but overall it was a cute romance story. Liv is caught in a fake relationship but ends up falling for her fake boyfriends friend. Things get even more complicated with her best friend and well known baseball player as rumor swirl that he is cheating on his new wife with Liv, his childhood best friend.

This was a quick, easy and adorable read that I read in one sitting. I loved the wriitng, the storyline and the fact that it was about an influencer as they are a part of everyday life for most people. IF I had one criticism about this book it would be that I found the ending a bit predictable, I guessed where the ending was going and sadly I was right, but overall a very enjoyable read.

I loved the idea behind this story. I was so into the POC MC, Alivia, who is a YouTuber that makes beauty videos. I really liked the romance between Alivia and Travis. Not so much a fan of the side characters. It was a quick, funny read that I would recommend others check out. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an overall cute book! It was less of a romance, which is what I had expected going in, and more of a women's fiction, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

It's definitely a cute read if you're looking for a light, easy book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Shellee Marie and the Independent Book Publishers Association for the chance to read this ARC. I am sharing my review voluntarily. The premise of this book seemed fun and it definitely delivered on that front. Alivia and Travis were so adorable and I liked Moe as a buddy. I felt conflicted about the relationship with Dan because it was so obvious he wasn’t being honest about something. The conflict between them that kept being alluded to about something being said the night before Dan’s wedding was never was really frustrating to me. It was a central point of tension and kept being referenced which I assumed meant it would boil to a head at some point but the author left it unresolved and never shared more detail about that night. I respected not resolving it while Dan was in a relationship but it just got forgotten and feels unresolved.

I liked that the story and plot got going right away with a background details added throughout the story, organically rather than taking a long time to set time and place and history in the beginning.

I was satisfied with the ending but it did feel a little anti-climactic. The conflict with Bradley and Melanie seemed superfluous. It added a level of ridiculousness that was fun but also felt far fetched. I didn’t understand Melanie’s motivation for being a villain in this particular way at all.

This book had a balance of drama and excitement and light hearted content. Learning more about influencing was fun, too.

While not particularly eventful, it still managed to hold my attention, so there’s that. There were quite a few things I didn’t necessarily like about this book, such as the fact that the only characters with a personality were Moe and Donna. However, Moe’s personality is solely dumb jock, while Donna’s is solely jealous significant other.

Another thing I didn’t like about this book was how few things happened in it. It seemed like very little build up to the very predictable “twist”. And in the end, it felt like every problem was resolved within 3 pages. You can’t be afraid to let your characters’ issues ruminate a little bit.

I did, however, like the relationship between Alivia and Travis. It was really sweet to read about, especially with how much he cared about her.

My overall favorite aspect, though, was the representation of black men and women. It was very well done and I wish other authors would take notes on how to do it like this.

Being a beauty guru can be rough. Especially when the paparazzi get a story all wrong and suddenly you are accused of being madly in love with your best friend on his wedding day! Word spreads like wildfire and suddenly social media becomes a nightmare and Alivia has to come up with a plan to escape all the negativity. After a crafty poll she puts together, she soon finds herself in a fake relationship with a classic gym bro with low mannerisms who, of which, also has an adorable assistant that makes your heart warm.

Alivia has worked her way up in the beauty industry creating a fun and educational view on products for POC and shining some light on the lack of color representation in beauty products and the lack of attention that stores have in their hair care departments for ethnic hair. I am incredibly proud of Shellee Marie for giving light on this topic. As I feel it is not spoken or written about enough. I loved how funny and witty the characters are. I found myself giggling and clasping my hand over my mouth to hide my ever-growing smile.

“Influenced love” was very fast-paced. I do feel that the characters were a bit cut and dry. The storyline seemed to jump as though the writer was ignoring certain characters or the development of characters to get to the meaty bits of the love story or drama quicker. Many times in the book I found myself sighing at ultimately very cliche scenes. I felt the book was super predictable and didn’t seem to focus on any kind of depth. Ultimately, i felt the book was a bit dull.

For a debut novel, this was a decent story. Quick, fun, and humorous. I feel like maybe there could have been a bit more work to create some more depth for the characters and the world around them. I did like this book and enjoyed that it did make me audibly laugh. Collectively id give this book 2 stars.
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

▪ "You deserve all the courage love can bear. At every moment it can fill it." ▪

Okay, so this book by Shellee Marie is a beautifull light romance read! It is her debut and I am fan! It just felt really written well and every loose end was tied up in the end. I had with 1 part that I was thinking, ooh is this it? Where is all the drama? It is so not satisfying and sort off resolved so quickly. But, she came back at it at the end of the book and I really liked how that turned out.

Influenced Love is about Alivia, a beauty influencer, and yes you can guess, social media. After the media accuses her of something what is being interpreted wrongly she decides to deflect the attention and asks her followers who she should date. Well, even then nothing is what it seems and unexpected friendships come to be.

The book also shows how hatefull social media can be and that definitely not everything of everyone is what they seem to be. That aside, it can also be an amazing way to interact with people, to find that one thing you desperately seek. The author betrayed that really well in this book!

Influenced Love is the first book in the Black Beauty in Love series and comes out in February 2022! Definitely put this on your wishlist as it was such a nice and quick romance to read!

4 stars!

A good read filled with lots of fun characters! I could see this being a series. (Maybe Kendra and her admirer?!?!?)

My favorite relationship in this book was actually between Travis and Moe. Their friendship is so strong and is a foundation of the actual love story. The love story took a few twists, I was so relieved when it all ended with a sweet HEA.

Alivia was such a relatable heroine. She was honest and forthcoming about her work and why she became an Influencer. I hope her character was based off a true YouTube star because I would love to follow her!

I was happy with the HEA ending, but would have loved an epilogue! What happens next? (Cue the next book Im suggesting in the series….)

I received a pre-published copy of this book via NetGalley. I’m leaving my honest review because I truly enjoyed reading this book!

Alivia is an influencer whose brand is struggling, so she suggests a poll to pick her next date and ends up with Moe. She doesn't realise she has actually been chatting to his assistant Travis - he is who she really wants while she fake dates Moe. But when the fake dating is revealed will she have a chance with Travis?

great read, looking forward to more from this author

Alivia is a social media influencer within the beauty community. When a "moment" between her and her best friend Dan is caught by the paparazzi- at Dan's wedding no less- Alivia hatches a plan to escape the scandal.
When she asks her followers to choose a date for her, Moe Gava, well known fitness influencer, is ultimately the winner.
A disastrous date follows, but Alivia and Moe choose to continue their fake relationship, in order to gain followers. Moe's assistant, Travis, is behind the scenes making sure this fake relationship looks authentic for the cameras, but Alivia finds herself quite fond of Travis and his company.

This book grabbed me at the beginning, but I had a hard time finishing this book. I can't put my finger on what it was that made it just ok for me, but I did enjoy the fake dating and influencer tropes.
Ultimately, it was a cute read and I would recommend it to others for a lighthearted, quick read.