Member Reviews

I really enjoy this book! It was such a good read! It made feel giddy. I laughed and swooned so much.

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A delicious romance fit for foodies and fake-dating loves alike! Not Your Valentine was an absolutely adorable and surprisingly steamy grumpy x sunshine story. Filled to the brim with humour, banter and steam, I’m so surprised with how much I grew to love this couple in such a short amount of story.

I’m a sucker for the fake-dating trope but I had no idea how it’d play off in a novella without that usual slow burn but somehow Lau smashes it! She manages to fully flesh out the main characters with endearing personalities and truly palpable chemistry as well as bring us some equally as lovely secondary characters. This was a delight!

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A humiliating, public, Valentine’s Day breakup has Helen Tsang dreading the next V-day. To take the pressure off everyone pressuring and pitying her, she enlists her long time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend.

You know what fake dating in romcoms always leads to? Feeeeelings!!

I loved the Canadian setting and references, and the spice was perfect.

I went straight from this one into another Jackie Lau, Donut Fall in Love (I’m halfway through), and I’ve got another (The Stand-Up Groomsman) ready to go next. A new fave!

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Fake dating. Friends to lovers. An extremely cute and quick read with a bit of spice just in time for Valentine’s Day.

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I enjoyed the story and the length of this book. I appreciate that it wasn’t dragged out just to make it a longer book. I really liked Taylor from the beginning. He was a nice guy that cared deeply for Helen. I enjoyed the flirtatious encounters of the two despite them both not admitting their feelings. What stopped me from rating this higher was the main character. She deeply annoyed me and I couldn’t stand the way she spoke in her thoughts. I understand her character and her nervousness to be in the dating world again, but her inner monologues just frustrated me. It isn’t a writing issue or something I think the author did wrong. It is just a character I personally didn’t mesh well with.

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Thank you for this copy NetGalley. Thank you Kobo Originals for making this available.

Actual rating: 3.75/5

❕Fake Dating
❕Guy falls first
❕Friend to Lovers

My second Jackie Lau novel after Donut Fall In Love—which by the way, had me eating donuts for a week—and I knew this will get me craving more sweets!

~ Helen has sworn off of love after her humiliating breakup one valentines day, was taped and the video went viral. One year later and her family and friends—even acquaintances—still pity her and are concern she has not moved on. To get them off her back, Helen asks her long time friend to be her fake boyfriend. Will history repeat itself? ~

🔸The beginning of the book introduced us to our FMC, Helen and when she described herself as “I prefer being alone in my apartment with a book and a glass of wine, tea, or similar” — I knew I’m going to like her very much. Then she told us the story of her break up and she had me hooked!

🔸Usually, it‘s exasperating or annoying to read a character try to figure out their feelings—sometimes, not even clueless but almost an airhead—but not Helen. Her conflict is realistic enough to understand why she’s cautious and wary.

🔸 I appreciated that our MMC is not your typical romance fictional man with broad shoulders muscles, height of a tower, etc (you know what I’m talking about). It’s quite endearing that he isn’t yet he makes me as giddy and hot for him anyway.

Overall, this story is sweet—literally and figuratively. It is a quick, light and easy read that’s perfect to get the romance kicking in you for Valentine’s Day.

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While I ultimately liked this book I really struggled to get through the first half of this book because I found the main characters head to be a very annoying place to be. I almost put it down so many times because I just kept hearing about the things that she did not like and that really just got on my nerves. The more I read though the better the story became and it ended up being a fun Valentines Day weekend read.

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Disclaimer: I received a free e-book copy from NetGalley and the Publisher

This was a nice short read if you are looking for something with a bit of spice, and don't want a romance story with a bunch of pre-story or build-up.

Helen, in the attempt to prove to everyone that she is OVER her ex who brutally broke her heart publicly on valentines day, has enlisted the help of what seems to be a close, but not really, friend with whom she connects with to hang out occasionally.

Not to give away any spoilers, but of course, we all know how to expect this story to go - it was a really quick and sudden transition and it felt really weird that this was like.... years in the making and at the same time it wasn't years in the making?

This is a very promising storyline that so much more could have been done with, but 3 stars instead of 4 because it just all seemed very rushed and lacking in a build-up of emotional connection with the character.

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Title: Not Your Valentine
Author: Jackie Lau
Pages: 136
Genre: RomCom
Format: Kindle via NetGalley
Goodreads Rating: 3.73 ⭐️
My Rating: 4.0 ⭐️

If you like a little sugar and dash of spice, this one’s for you. After Helen’s boyfriend dumps her on Valentines Day and it goes viral she’s reached her limit on her •lack of• love life being front and center. Desperate for friends, family and even strangers to move along she ropes in her long time friend to pretend to be her boyfriend long enough to survive another ridiculous heart shaped mushy gushy Valentines Day. It was no surprise when she quickly realized that these fake feelings were real feelings. Despite the predictable turn of events this cute short rom-com had just enough sugar and spice to keep you turning the pages.

Thank you @netgalley for a copy in exchange for my review.

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Helen has a bad experience on Valentines day which has put her off love, relationships and valentines day.
She feels pressure from her family and friends to move on and find love.
Helen comes up with the idea of having a fake boyfriend so that everyone can stop feeling sorry for her.
Taylor is Helen's friend and he agrees to be her fake boyfriend.

Unfortunately this book took a while to get into. I felt the beginning was really slow and the end was rushed.
For a short story I expected to be hooked and for it to be memorable but I feel it didn't deliver.

I love the concept but I don't think it was executed very well. The spicy scenes were also very cringe..

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This is a sweet romance with some of my favourite tropes; fake dating and friends to lovers. There's also a bit of spice! It's a rather short read and you can easily finish it in one sitting. Perfect if you want to read something thematic for Valentines Day!

The story is pretty straight forward and therefore also quite predictable, but I still enjoyed it. I like that the characters are flawed and still fall for each other, it's one of those little details that makes the story feel more realistic. I also really enjoyed the parts about food and restaurants in this read. Great vibes.

All in all a quick, cute read!
3,5/5

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SO SWEET.

Not Your Valentine follows Helen and her journey to appreciating and wanting love again. Helen HATES valentine’s day after a viral video of her ex dumping her ON valentine’s day has ruined the holiday and love for her. She decides to ask her best friend Taylor to be her fake boyfriend to get her friends and family off her back about moving on & the rest is history!

This story was super sweet, and a SUPER fast read! I felt parts of it were super repetitive for being such a short book. There wasn’t much depth to the story, which didn’t necessarily bother me because it was a light palate cleanser but it also had me feeling like I wanted more of Helen and Taylor.

Definitely an enjoyable, sweet romance but nothing super memorable in my opinion.

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This book is a cute, short (under 150 pages), fake-dating, friends-to-lovers story. It's not as grumpy-sunshine as I thought it'd be, but it's a great read for February. It's also set in Toronto over Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day, and I love books that take place in Toronto! Quick read, you really can't go wrong. Not my favourite thing ever but I love novellas as pallette cleansers.

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mf - contemporary romance - Asian-Canadian MCs - food centric - fake relationship - he falls first - holiday romance - ARC - 4 stars. A nice super sweet read, typical Jackie Lau: low angst, making me hungry for all that food, and a nice guy hero (who’s 5’5” with long hair!)

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3 stars

I have to admit it took me almost half the book to like our main character. I liked grumpy characters but I don't like when they're awful to everyone just because and want everyone to care about their insecurities and feelings but they don't care about anyone and that was my main problem with our heroine. She came out cold and rude, especially with our Hero who was an angel!!!
I even considered dnfing because I just couldn't connect with our FMC but I pushed through and I have to say second half when she started opening up I enjoyed the story a lot more and by the end I liked her.
The romance was fine although I kept wondering why the hero even liked the heroine at times still I end up rooting for them.
Overall in the end the story was fast-paced enjoying and cute.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I just devoured this in one go! This is my first book by Jackie Lau and I will absolutely be checking out her future work. My students will love this.

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The following review was posted on my blog two days ago, on Tuesday, February 7th, a few weeks after publication but looking to promote the book closer to Valentine’s Day. It was shared on Instagram yesterday and today, and has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.







Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses parental abandonment and going viral over something embarrassing. Contains explicit sexual content.

“Not Your Valentine” follows Helen Tsang, a chemistry lab instructor, as she decides that the best way to get people to stop asking her about her relationship status after having a very public break up was to start fake-dating her high school best friend.

This book is your perfect fake-dating, friends to lovers novella. It’s also described as a grumpy/sunshine situation—I honestly didn’t see it that way, but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Set around Valentine’s Day, this is a perfect seasonal read for February. The cover doesn’t have much to do with the actual story and I hate misleading covers, but it’s cute so I’ll let it pass.

I would highly recommend this novella if you’re looking for a short romance that’ll give you all the spice and all the aw’s you’ll need for days.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Kobo, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Kobo Originals in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

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Fun quick read. Very much enjoyed the characters, but wish I had a little more insight on Taylor's feelings. Overall, good plotting and pace. Very enjoyable!

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Thank you NetGalley, Kobo Originals and Jackie Lau for letting me read Not Your Valentine in exchange for a review.
This was a quick easy read that put me in the Valentine's Day spirit. Also loved that it was based in Toronto. Story is very straightforward, a little on the predictable side, but very sweet. Love the support that the main character received from her friends and family once they understood the situation, and the disdain for all things heart shaped.
Would've loved for it to be a bit longer, delve more into their story once they both admit to their feelings, but all in all, it was a great read!

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I’m very thankful to NetGalley of this eARC.

This book just didn’t hit for me unfortunately. The miscommunication and not talking about ANYTHING was such a downer. I almost DNFed it but stuck through hoping it’d get better.

I like Jackie Lau’s work but this one just didn’t do it for me sadly.

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