I just finished this book, it was a quick enjoyable read. It was brother’s best friend, with a little fake dating and toss in a little one bed trope goodness. It felt like a warm comforting romance.
I did feel like I was missing the mystery plot a bit since I picked this up mid series, but besides that it was an enjoyable read. It was easy to relax into this story for a night.

I've read and enjoyed the previous book in this series under Harlequin's imprint (The Problem with Playboys: An opposites attract, workplace romance). I was curious about Alexandra's character and the cover for her book got me even more eager to read it. Curvy heroines and fat rep remain few and nary in romance so I jumped on the occasion to read this one.

That being said, I found the story pretty boring and unimaginative. Not because of the tried tropes at play but because of the execution. I'm actually here for the tropes.
The character development was flat, the dialogues were dated and cheesy, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a backlist story from a couple decades dusted off and slapped with an attractive cover.

Not only this but the cover is pretty much A LIE.
The heroine is barely described has having any curves, for all intent and purposes she could have been a size 2. No fat rep whatsoever. Highly disappointing. I found that both cover and blurb were misleading here.

And last, the sex scenes were blah. I mean, I'm fine with every level of steam but nothing was remotely sexy to me. I always find it ridiculous when characters in romance get super chatty during lovemaking. Dirty talk? Sure. Pretty please, even! But lyrical musing and purple prose? Please, DON'T.
The sex scenes were so dry.

"I want you. Every inch of you. I want you to bury yourself in me. I want us to get lost in each other."
"She gasped when he found her apex"
"They began to move in a way that was mutually pleasing."

Also, I've read my fair share of older brother's best friend and I must have done some growing up since because the portrayal and reasons the heroine's brother had to FORBID and warn his best friend off Alexandra were strange and juvenile. Why was her brother so ticked about the idea of them together? They're all adults!?

How to Fake a Wedding Date was a fun, flirty romance between a woman whose reputation has been torn apart by the tabloids and her brother's best friend. They both need something out of a wedding they must attend, and decide to team up as a 'fake' couple to accomplish it. Alex wants to go to her friend's wedding without the tabloids saying she can't get a date and Ryder just doesn't want to go. He's had a crush on Alex for years, but knows that the can't date her since he works with his best friend who is also her brother. Daniel talks him into it because a client they want to land will be at the wedding.

Soon, Alex and Ryder figure out that there is nothing 'fake' about their dates and they're connecting and falling more in love with each other. The problem is, her family. I'm just going to keep it real. They're snobs. They don't think Ryder is good enough for Alex and Daniel is a huge jerk about it. I also didn't like how rude her brother was supposedly in the name of love for his sister when it was really just callous disregard of her feelings for his business gain, but Ryder got his hits in and pushed back, and that started to change, which I was happy to see.

The only thing that I was hugely disappointed by was how they didn't address 'curvy' romance except for once when he referred to her thighs as 'curvy' at the very end. That was it. Otherwise, if you hadn't seen the cover, you never would have known this was supposed to be a curvy romance. I was seriously bummed about that. I didn't dock any stars because the book was such a fun romance, but if you're going to claim it's representing a community, then it should represent that community or it shouldn't be included at all.

All in all, I loved this book for how fun and easy it was to turn the pages to see if Alex and Ryder end up together. I did like the little black book aspect of it, and wished that had been more prominent and her brother less prominent. I was happy to get the resolution of it at the end of the book and can't wait to go back and grab the first two books. If you love a fast, flirty romance with heart, definitely grab How to Fake a Wedding Date!

Brothers best friend, fake dating, fat heroine - basically everything that I love wrapped up into a steamy delightful romance! Imagine grown-up gossip girl; that’s exactly what this book is! I didn’t realize that this was book three and I immediately went back to read the other two. This book was an absolute delight. Relatable billionaires at a wedding?

I wish that there was less of a brother/friend conflict, because I felt like it was really possessive in a weird way. But I really did love this book. I think Karen Booth is a new fave author!

First thing to note is I picked this up because of the cover and because it's pitched as a "curvy" romance, so I was hoping to see some solid fat representation. What I got instead was ONE reference to the heroine being "curvy" and it otherwise read like any other straight size romance. So if you're going looking for actual representation, you won't find it her. Though I love the cover model choice!

That aside, this was an enjoyable, very tropey romance following a woman who needs a date to a wedding for PR reasons and ends up going with her brother's best friend who she has secretly had a thing for for years. And also they had a one-night stand months ago. But her brother doesn't know and made his friend swear to never do anything romantic with his sister.

The main thing I didn't like was how much of a jerk her brother is. They are supposedly close but he's so dismissive of who she is, and is aggressively freaked out by the idea of his friend and his sister being together. Which for grown adults strikes me as strange. The romance itself was pretty good though and it's a quick read. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.