Helen and Taylor have maintained a friendship since high school. Helen is embarrassed after her Valentine's Day break up goes viral for all the wrong reasons and turns to Taylor for help. In order to get her friends and family to stop meddling in her love life Helen convinces Taylor to be her fake boyfriend. The overall storyline was predictable but was a very fun read with just the right amount of romantic tension.

This was such a cute & super quick read with a sprinkle of spice making it perfect for valentines day. As a Canadian, I loved the Toronto setting and all the references it made me happy to see places I’ve been to in a book.

The plot was pretty standard and predictable but I’m a sucker for the fake dating trope especially when it’s friends to lovers where Helen is a grumpy chemist and Taylor is a social worker ball of sunshine pining for his friend it’s just so adorable. Helen & Taylor are Asian- Canadian so I loved seeing the rep and also them talking about their struggles. For a short book, it still had some emotional depth with their traumas. The food was yum I want her moms famous wanton soup gah

Taylor is a short king standing at 5’5 like we rarely see short men in rom coms I was loving it so much!! Overall, I had a fun time reading this while eating my breakfast!

Thank you netgalley for the Earc!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This novella is a perfect pre-Valentine's snack. Short, sweet, fun and with just enough unique elements. It tackles romance and also some heavy stuff, but in a way that's woven into the story and the developing relationship. Helen and Taylor feel like people you probably know, and are widely relatable. Helen is grumpy, but also kind. Taylor is sunshine, but has had a rough go of it in some ways, which he neither brushes off nor buries. Both of them have had some ugly stuff happen in relationships, and both of them do a great job of supporting the other in different ways. As is usual in Lau's work, there's plenty of amazing food, and she does a fantastic job of making it part of the story and the growing relationship.

The cover is insanely cute, it's what made me add this book to my TBR list in the first place. It's modern minimalistic clutter in a good way. I *need* a physical copy of this book,

The author's writing style was smooth and immersed me in the character well enough. It's a great Valentine's Day read, perfect if you want to laugh and swoon, and will be a yearly reread for me.

Fake dating is wash, rinse, repeat at this point but this book followed the recipe very well to make sure it stayed enjoyable. I loved the shared culture between the MCs and how it was portrayed as a deeper connection through an understanding of shared experiences rather than just a "convenience" or even a preference, although there's nothing wrong with preferences.

My only gripe with this book was that it was Single POV as I prefer Dual POV or 3rd Person POV.

As a huge lover of Jackie Lau's books, I was super excited for this one. The idea was cute and the romance was fun, I just wanted a bit more from the story! It was a little predictable and the characters weren't super well developed so I didn't feel a real pull to them.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

3.5 stars

This book was short single POV with some spice. I think I would have liked it more if we got the MMC"s point of view as well. The writing also didn't flow as well as Jackie's other books that I've read in my opinion, but it was still enjoyable.

Very cute, super fun and highly entertaining read with the adorable main characters! Highly loved and enjoyed it!!

I was on the search for a sweet little Valentine romance (with a little bit of spice, of course) and Not Your Valentine was the perfect bite-sized book to deliver. It had some tropes that I enjoy, fun banter, and was an all around enjoyable read.

Helen is tired of the pitying looks from her friends and family and she is just not interested in dating (or anything that the holiday has to offer) after what happened to her last Valentine's Day. She hatches a plan with her longtime friend, Taylor, to become her fake boyfriend so she can make it through February 14th with her sanity intact.

Despite being a novella, the story didn’t feel overly rushed and the fact that Helen and Taylor were friends prior to their fake dating scheme certainly helped that. Although this did include some popular tropes I felt like there were quite a few things that also helped step outside of what is super trendy and mainstream in romance. Taylor as the love interest and the sunshine half of the grumpy/sunshine trope was refreshing. I hope to see more romances where the male lead can’t be mistaken for a model, where he doesn’t tower over the female lead with an enormous height difference, and he’s genuinely a kind guy.

As sweet as Taylor was he unfortunately was unable to top my favorite character... Lucifer, the goldfish. 😂

The ending was a little more overtly sweet than my palette prefers, but overall enjoyed it. Thank you to netgalley and Rakuten Kobo for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Short and sweet and perfect for this time of year. It's a fun take on fake dating, and Helen just feels like such a real character, which makes it all the easier to root for her and Taylor. The only thing is how much the narrative jumps around; it goes off on tangents or random asides that feel very "why is this here". That said, it's not a long enough novella for that to really be a problem, but it did keep jolting me out of truly getting into the story.

A cute, and easy rom-com read just in time for Valentine's Day! This novella was short and perfect for getting out of a reading slump. I’ve gotta say I’m a sucker for a cute cover.

Helen Tsang is a grumpy heroine who has sworn off dating and love. Taylor is a cinnamon roll hero. In the past, she was broken up with publicly at a restaurant on Valentine's Day. Much to her surprise, it ended up going viral. Sick of the pitying looks she received from family and friends, Helen decides to take matters into her own hands. She ends up fake dating one of her good-friends, Taylor. Along the way, she finds something unexpected in him.

I would have loved to have had Taylor's POV. Overall, I enjoyed this book and was not expecting the spice in this book.

- Friends to Lovers
- Fake dating
- Based in Toronto
- Heart-shaped cakes and charcuterie chalet
- Briefly discusses racism, microaggressions, Asian fetishism and body insecurity

3.5 stars

Thank you, NetGalley, Kobo Originals and Jackie Lau for letting me read “Not Your Valentine” in exchange for an honest review.

I unfortunately had to DNF at about 30%. It just didn't grasp my attention and felt a bit too juvenile for me with the scenario she put herself in.

This was a cute, fun, and fast read with all the typical stylings and tropes of the romance novel genre. If you're looking for a quick book to pick up in the month of February to get your holiday fix, this would be a good option. The diversity in this book is great. I appreciated that the author addressed some heavier topics (such as racism and fetishization of Asian folks), but without letting those topics outweigh or overshadow the everyday lives and joys of her characters. The writing itself was not exactly to my taste, with the main character's POV being very sarcastic and eccentric at times. However, I can see how this leant itself to the more comedic, light-hearted tone of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Kobo Originals for this ARX. This adorable book was the perfect, fluffy rom com that I needed after being on a thriller kick. Even though this read was HIGHLY predictable. it still was a fun, easy read. Our leading lady, Helen, got her heart broken in a very public way and has sworn off dating and guys because of that. She is sick of everyone in her life asking her about her relationship status, so she asks a friend to pose as her boyfriend to keep everyone at bay. Obviously, we know what happens :). One thing I thought was cute was instead of the love interest being tall , dark, and handsome, he was a 5'5 dork showing there truly is someone for everyone. I would absolutely recommend this adorable book, especially right around Valentines Day!

I have mixed feelings with this one. I usually love Jackie's books, so my expectations were high and I'm kind of sad that this book, although it's good, I didn't like it as much.
I want to say that this is more a ME problem, I really did not like the reason behind the fake relationship and just couldn't let it go <spoiler> to post pics on social media and people stop feeling pity for the FMC </spoiler>
For the rest, I loved that it has everything that characterizes Jackie's books: great food descriptions, sweet and fun characters, great friendships and a pining hero.

I'm a big fan of Jackie Lau's romance and love that her MCs, especially her heroines go against the grain just a little bit. They are often in a STEM field, don't believe relationships/marriage/kids are the be-all and end-all of a woman's hopes and dreams and are allowed to be the grumpy one in a relationship. Not Your Valentine, her latest romance, fits well with the author's brand.

Helen Tsang is a lab technician whose public breakup at a restaurant on Valentine's Day the previous year went viral, much to her horror and disgust. She hasn't dated since, and just wants everyone to forget about it, but her well-meaning family and friends keep looking at her with such sympathy/pity that she decides to change the narrative. She asks Taylor, a good friend from HS, to fake date her, just until Valentines' Day is over. The only problem is that somewhere along the way, the fake dating turns very real for both of them.

This was very cute. Taylor was the perfect cinnamon roll sized hero, sweet, caring, romantic, and not at all put off by Helen's grumpy exterior. In fact he usually just laughed whenever she expressed disdain for various romantic gestures. They were great together and the fact that they had a long-standing friendship (that did not include any previously unrequited crushes on either side) lent depth to their relationship that was needed since this was a relatively more of a long novella/short novel in length. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jackie Lau for this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3/5

This book was super cute! It was a quick read, and although it wasn’t that deep - it was extremely sweet. I enjoyed it!

Cute sweet story following Helen, a slightly neurotic woman., after a really bad Valentine’s Day, she gives up on love. But her family and friends keep asking her about a relationship and so she invents a fake relationship with her friend from high school, Taylor. I liked how neurotic both of the characters were, and they were paired very well together. The story is short, sweet, low angst. Overall, a fun way to spend a couple of hours. I only wish that we got Taylor’s point of view as well. I like the dual POV.

Simply put, this book is cute. It's a short, fast-paced read that'll guarantee to put a smile on your face at least once. I was done with this in no time given the short chapters. Plus, the storyline is one that anyone would eat up.

Fake dating? Love it! Friends to lovers? Sign me up!

That being said, there wasn't anything special about this book. Yes, it was cute and yes, it made me smile but... there was nothing new about it. There's nothing about this book that'd make it stand out against all the other fake dating, friends-to-lovers books out there. The storyline was very standard and it was obvious how to story was going to progress from the get-go.

Predictability isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong! It makes for an enjoyable read while you're actually reading it. And familiarity is always nice once in a while. This was a little pocket of sunshine where you didn't have to worry about having the rug pulled out from under you. Only thing is that once you're done, this probably won't be the first book to come to mind when you think of the primary tropes.

Overall, a fun time! Will I be reading it again though? Probably not.

This is a short and sweet book.

Helena hates Valentine's Day because of an embarrassing experience in the past. She swore not to date again. But getting asked a lot when she will date again annoys her that she came up with a plan. She asked her high school friend if they can be in a relationship, just to keep everyone asking her again and again.

I loved that she was slowly falling in love with Taylor and their date just to show off that their relationship is real. I just wished this book was longer.

Overall, if you love fake dating and the grumpy/sunshine trope then this book is for you!

So I thought this was a cute book and a fun read! I liked the story and I really liked the characters. I felt like the character development could have been better however the plot did move steadily I did not get tired of it or get bored at any point it was a steady read. All in all the story was really cute is definitely a good Palette cleanser considering what i typically read. The covers would attract me to request this so I do wanna thank the publishers the author in that gallery for giving me an arc of this book I really liked it and I will definitely look out for more books from this author in the future and I do recommend it to anyone it is a fun read it is a quick read and it's not daunting what Big fancy titles that I typically do are.