This was a pleasant surprise! I love a good fake dating trope. I really enjoyed that the FMC was the grumpy one, she’s 29, and single. I really related to her as past relationships made me feel happier to be alone and be ok with it, but still knowing deep down of course you still want to find love. What made me really resonate is the imperfections that were highlighted and talked about. Not only about personality but about bodies and it was really refreshing to just bring up that bodies are not perfect but can still be beautiful! Not every guy has to be ripped, not every woman has to thin with perfect breasts. It was just relatable. It was short, but still a perfect length. It didn’t feel rushed, it’s relatable, it has some spice that was the perfect amount, love the Mom, it was just a great read. I also appreciate learning about Asian culture and hearing some of the challenges they face in relationships. Definitely a book I’d read again. 4.5 stars for me, but rounding up to 5 because of how much it snuck up on me that I ended up really loving this book. I will for sure be checking out other books by this author!

I found my favourite romance novella?
I ADORE HELEN AND TAYLOR!
Helen was the grumpy heroine of my dreams and Taylor was the sweetest cinnamon roll! This was friends to lover goodness. And as someone who has never been into fake dating THIS RESTORED MY FAITH IN THE TROPE!

I’m so happy that this takes place in Toronto and the GTA! It felt so nice and cozy to recognize all the places they visited! I had never experienced this with a book before. But most importantly, THEY HAVE PERSIAN FOOD!!!!!!!!! Like they mention Ghormeh Sabzi and Gheymeh Bademjan. It made me so freaking happy to see food that I grew up eating mentioned in a book and by characters who aren’t even Iranian! It was the most pleasant surprise!

More on Helen, I really felt for her and her cynicism towards Valentine’s Day and love in general was understood by me! I also liked the brief discussion of how she felt like she needs to take advantage of the opportunities she’s been given as a child of immigrants BECAUSE SAME.

This novella hit all the rights spots. Definitely a comfort read for me! I’ll be reading it every Lunar New Year and Valentine’s day!

Loving romantic comedies more and more these days, so when I saw it on the NetGalley Read Now list, I thought I might enjoy it. Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau is the least gushy valentine book you’ll ever read. Helen actually dislikes the day, particularly after her ex-boyfriend dumped her on Valentine’s Day and a video of the break up when viral.

She has every reason to not like the day. Helen turned to her long time friend, Taylor, when she was super upset after the breakup. He was courteous and kind to her. Everyone else, though, has been giving her such grief! How can anyone get over such a breakup after that kind of trauma?

Helen decides one day to create a fake boyfriend. She even asks Taylor to be her fake boyfriend! He even agrees to the charade! They fake date for a while, post lots of photos to Helen’s new social media. Has she fooled everyone? Does everyone believe she’s dating someone new after swearing off love the past year?

Taylor is the perfect fake boyfriend. He guys her flowers, sends her chocolate in the mail, takes her to the Distillery District on a date, takes her for a romantic weekend getaway, even cooks for her. Everything seems to be going well. It appears to be the perfect relationship. Who are they fooling, though?

I absolutely love this book! 5 out of 5 tiaras! I love the background stories about racism in your own family, even your own parents. It’s a heartwarming story. I did not expect all the erotic details, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

A super sweet, fake-dating, friends-to-lovers novella!

Helen’s boyfriend publicly and humiliatingly dumped her on valentine’s day a year ago. The breakup was recorded, ended up online and went viral. In order to prove that she is OVER IT, not sworn off love, and totally fine, she asks her oldest friend, Taylor, to be her fake boyfriend and valentine. What could go wrong?
This was a quick, easy, and enjoyable read, although super troupey and not very original.

Thank you NetGalley and Kobo books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by Not Your Valentine. It is cute, quick, funny & steamy. This was my first book by Jackie Lau, but it won’t be my last.

Helen is cynical about love & dating. She’s one of my favorite types of main characters. I love when the female is sarcastic, grumpy & easily annoyed with girly things like Valentine’s Day (maybe I can relate a little). After a very public break-up, Helen has sworn off dating. But after a year of everyone asking when she will date again, she creates a fake boyfriend. Yes, it was predictable but many rom-coms are. This book was a perfect laugh after reading a heavy book.

Thank you NetGalley & Kobo Originals for the advance e-arc for an honest review.

Faking it with a friend

With Taylor's help, Helen will finally get everyone off her back about jumping back in the dating world. They just don't need to know that he's just her old friend doing her a favour by pretending to be her boyfriend. Simple and won't blow up in her face, right? It would have been if this fake relationship wasn't better than all her previous real ones and that suddenly all she is thinking about is Taylor.
An out there, quirky read that suddenly turns unexpectedly yet amazingly hot as there is definitely more than a friends vibe coming off that boy too!
Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this book and give my honest opinion.

This might be my absolute favourite novella !?

I didn’t realize it was a novella when I started reading which would normally be a problem but you know what? It was almost perfect. Usually I find myself left wanting more with novellas but this was just *chef’s kiss* perfection from start to finish.

Spice level was PERfECT for this otherwise sweet themed (heart shaped) story about fake dating friends to lovers in Toronto featuring a lady in STEM (!!!) and a supportive but not intrusive cast of characters.

Bravo!

Jackie Lau writes such engaging books. Her stories are so enjoyable. Not Your Valentine is spicy and fun. One can feel the pull of Helen to Taylor as their not really girlfriend/boyfriend relationship progresses from just friends. She, however, doubts everything and is very poor at reading Taylor’s signs. You wonder if she will ever catch on.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a super cute quick read story about fake dating turns to lovers. This author truly captures the love story beautifully and it was so nice to read.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Kobo Originals for giving me access.

This cover drew me in immediately, it just sang right to my baker heart and I needed to read it. I am glad I did! Not Your Valentine is a short and cute read with some extra steamy scenes. This is your standard cookie cutter story but with some some Asian flair.

Not Your Valentine will leave you wanting wonton soup, a heart shaped cake, and a valentine.

If you love the whole Friends to Lovers AND/OR Fake Dating Troupes, this is for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Kobo Originals for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

“Not Your Valentine” is a short book about a woman that has been traumatised by her previous break up on valentine’s that had gone viral. She makes up a boy-friend and then asks her friend from highschool if he wants to pretend to have a relationship. Then we know how it goes…

I really enjoyed this, it made me laugh hard.
I love the reverse grumpy x sushine dynamic and this is a very good example.
It felt like all happened too quickly but then I realised it was a little more than 200 pages so I had devoured it. 4⭐️

Jackie Lau never fails to deliver. This is another great romcom with perfectly flawed characters and lots of food porn. I love the fake relationship trope in general. In this case it's got a beautiful build-up that gave me all the feels. <spoiler>I also love it when the love interest has had feelings for the main character for years/decades so I was quite happy when this was initially suggested here as well. But I loved it even more when we found out he had been crushing on her for longer but not when they had been younger. </spoiler> Lau is always great at putting little details in that venture away from the standard. Here the guy isn't tall at all and the main character loves that about him. So yes, another fab romance by Jackie Lau. And food porn.

Thanks NetGalley, the author and publisher for having this available as an ARC.

I had so much fun reading this book. Helen’s internal thoughts had me laughing a lot! The whole premise with her ex dumping her on Valentine’s Day and have that break up go viral would be so devastating! In todays world, that really could happen, which is a bit sad as no one’s personal life should be on display like that!

I thought Taylor was so cute! Their friendship or should I say conversation did seem a bit odd when they met for lunch. It seemed as though Taylor was a bit short in his answers. I thought maybe he was reserved and when Helen asked to fake date, it’s like it opened his personality. I guess we found out later why that was.

I thought the pacing was good and length of the book was perfect. Loved Helen’s mum as it just reminded me of a typical Asian parent. Would have loved more scenes with Helen’s friends, so if this is made into a series, I’d be there for it.

This is easily a read that can be done in a few hours because it flowed so well.

After a very public break up gone viral on Valentine’s Day a year ago Helen is determined to prove to everyone including her family that she had in fact moved on. But not sworn off love by convincing her long time friend to act as her fake boyfriend.
This was a short and cute read. Taylor was an absolute sweetheart. I loved how sweet he was with Helen. Loved the friends to lovers fake boyfriend grumpy sunshine trope.

Often I end up wanting more out of a novella, but this one felt very well-rounded. Because it's a novella, the focus is almost exclusively on the romance, and I really enjoyed this, it was super fluffy. I've become a little tired of the fake dating trope just because I've read it so often, but I really enjoyed it here, and I always have a soft spot for friends to lovers. My one issue is that I loved Taylor so much I would have loved this book even more if it had been a dual POV story.

Helen Tsang is a lovable, malcontent grump who talks to her fish Lucifer more than other people, and likes nothing more than staying home to binge shows. She has a mug that says "fuck off". She is a mood. And she happens to have gone viral in her city the year before, for a disastrous public Valentine's Day breakup that someone livestreamed.

A year later, under pressure from friends, family, and even her local bubble tea vendor, she snaps and says she has a boyfriend again - her oldest friend, Taylor Li. Now to get him to agree to fake-date her, and dodge real feelings along the way...

I loved this. It was charming, cozy, and filled with Lau's signature love language - Toronto's food scene. This story had me craving beef noodle soup at nine in the morning. Helen's gradual crescendo to "Oh No, I've Caught Feelings" was very cute to read. Her thirst for Taylor's forearms was relatable. The story even tackled racial fetishes and how they had harmed our two main characters. The narrative cherry on top that I really appreciated was that one of the steamier scenes involved solo female masturbation, still a rare beast on-page in romance novels that I come across. Many kudos to Lau.

I just really enjoyed this, as I usually do Jackie Lau's work. And that cover is so cute! A perfect contemporary pick-me-up.

Helen asks friend Taylor to pretend to be her boyfriend for Valentine's Day. What happens when the fake relationship turns all too real?

This novella is cute if you like Valentine's Day and the fake dating trope.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you NetGalley!

I love the author so much that i knew i was gonna love this immediately and i did!
Jackie Lau never disappoints. This pretty cover and the story was so much fun. I’m so glad i was able to read it early.
I’m pretty sure many will fall in love with it without doubt.

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m a very sunshiny person and like for characters to be relatable, so while overall it was a cute romance it was just ok for me. Helen is very much the grumpy with a serious case of denial of this grumpy sunshine and I just wasn’t feeling it. Nor was i feeling all the weird bowling shoes sex dreams, once was funny, let’s just say it got old fast. But There are so many other great things about this book! I love a good he falls first/fake dating combo so I think many others will like this book. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

The heroine is tired of the pitying looks that everyone is giving her due to her ex-boyfriend breaking up with her in a very public way that made her infamous in social media. With the approaching first-year anniversary of the breakup, the heroine decided to have a fake romantic relationship with her friend, the hero. As the two began to fake date, their relationship changes. Will the heroine let herself be open to love with the hero or will she close herself away from ever falling in love again?

This Jackie Lau story is entertaining and delightful to read. It's short and sweet, told from the heroine's perspective. This contemporary romance features friends-to-lovers between a grumpy heroine and the sunshine hero. I liked the support that the heroine got from family and friends. I also enjoyed reading the sexy scenes between the hero and the heroine. I would have liked to have the hero's perspective, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. Overall, I recommend this Jackie Lau book.


**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.**