You want #grumpysunshine (she’s the grump), #friendstolovers, and #fakedating? Well than this might be the book for you. This was a super quick read. It was oh so predictable and just a bit over the top (as all the best romances are).

#read #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #netgalley #ARCreview #notyourvalentine

The best Valentine’s Day novella, friends to fake dating to love written absolutely to perfection. My first Jackie Lau book I’ve read and won’t be my last. I enjoyed reading Helen and Taylor friendship they seem to be good friends and a mutual longing for each other.

One year ago, Helen was dumped on Valentine’s Day. He said “it’s not me, it’s you” in a restaurant and it went viral, soon everyone knew she was dumped. Fast forward to today and she still feels the pity from her family and friends. They all think she should get back out there but she has no desire to do that. Insert Taylor.

Helen has known Taylor since high school and when she went viral he was there to get her drunk and distracted. So obviously he would make the perfect fake boyfriend to get her family and friends off her back!

Unlike most fake relationship books, Helen and Taylor didn’t just fake it in front of their friends and family. They went all in in the fake relationship, they went on dates with no witnesses and became even better friends. They had an adorable fake relationship and I loved watching them finally work things out. I saw a lot of myself in Helen with how stubborn she was but Taylor just knew how to handle her make the relationship work.
Thank you @netgalley and @jackielaubooks !
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥 Scene: cabin

I enjoyed Not Your Valentine. It was short, cute, sweet and steamy. I loved how prickly the heroine was. I loved how the hero was with her. I think they were a perfect complement to each other. If definitely recommend to those looking for something quick and enjoyable.

Not only did Helen get dumped last Valentine’s Day while at dinner, it got filmed and went viral. Worst Valentine’s ever. She was humiliated and hasn’t dated since. Her supportive group of friends and loving family keep encouraging her to get out there. They think she hasn’t moved on. She has!! How to prove it? Get a fake boyfriend.

Who to ask? Her longtime friend Taylor. She is surprised he agreed. She is even more surprised when she catches feelings. That wasn’t supposed to happen. What is she going to do now?!

This is a fantastic fake dating, friends-to-lovers Valentine’s novella. She was the grump to his sunshine. There is a lot of talk about all kinds of sweets and heart-shaped cakes and an unexpected layer of spice. This book also tackled tough issues like being mixed raced. I do wish it was dual POV because Taylor’s perspective would have been incredible, but I still recommend this book

Happy pub day! Normally I don’t care for romance novels, but this book was a sweet romance that I could actually get behind. Part of it is I often think romance novels drag on too long and this one clocks in at only 136 pages. It’s a spin on a classic grumpy sunshine trope with her being the love hater/ hater of happiness and him being a total sweetheart. I would totally recommend this book as a cute quick read. The plot was easy to follow and the characters were very likable. I would recommend this book to people who like Every Summer After or Love and Other Words.

Super sweet friends to lovers fast read. Just what I wanted for Valentine’s Day. Grumpy heroine (not that I blame her) fake dates her cinnamon roll friend just to get everyone to stop asking her about her dating life post a bad break up. Lots of eating and snacking around Toronto. One dimensional and low stakes with two adorably stupid people who needed to have a 5 minute real conversation.

This was such a fun book! My favorite trope in all the world is grumpy sunshine and the fact that Helen was the grumpy one! She was lovely, if a bit anxious and traumatized. And Taylor is such a freaking lovely person, I just adore him! Watching them navigate fake dating (I love fake dating too!) was fun if a bit stressful. And I loved Lucifer, the disapproving goldfish!!

I had forgotten how delicious it is to read a book by Jackie Lau, each foodie description leaves my mouth watering and its characters leave my heart full
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Fake relationship is one of my favorite tropes, and it's between two old friends. Two things I love about Jackie Lau is his foodie description and the cozy feeling of a united family that surrounds the characters
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Helen Tsang comes from a very difficult year after her boyfriend leaves her on Valentine's Day in the middle of a restaurant where several diners recorded the event and it went viral in a matter of hours
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But nearing the end of the year, she decides that she is tired of the looks of pity that everyone throws at her and tells them that she has a boyfriend. The only person who thinks of asking is his school friend Taylor, who without hesitation accepts
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As they spend more time together, Helen begins to wonder if she is ready to fall in love again or if her feelings for Taylor are just a product of how well they pretend to be together
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Beautiful, deligthful, sexy and heartwarming romance that make me want to keep reading more
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Thanks to Jackie Lau and Kobo Originals for give me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion

Thank you, Kobo Originals, Jackie Lau, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, wow! This caught me by surprise. I requested it for the cute AF cover and was not disappointed! It was short and sweet! 10/10 recommend especially for this upcoming V-day 👌

Helen Tsang is over all the pitying looks from her family, friends, and everyone else who has seen the viral video of her being publicly dumped last valentine's day. What was supposed to be a romantic dinner turned into a humiliating breakup, including her ex saying: "It's not me, it's you. You're holding me back" for the whole internet to see. With Helen swearing off romance (secretly), she's desperate to make everyone believe she's moved on. So Helen asks her long-time friend, Taylor, to be her fake boyfriend. But her plan goes awry when Taylor seems to be the perfect boyfriend she wasn't looking for.

Helen is a very realistic character. Her reaction to the viral video and the entire internet's comments about it would have definitely made me swear off dating too. I love a main character that hates everything a little bit. It was funny that she believed that a fake boyfriend was the logical answer, and then suddenly Taylor is super sexy to her and she's having crazy alien sex dreams about him. (Read the book to find out more about that!)

I liked how thoughtful and caring Taylor was towards Helen, even just as friends and even more when they were fake dating. He's the nice guy that is genuinely nice. He also always knows the best restaurants to eat at based on what she likes (who doesn't want that???).

I love a dual POV, but I love that this is only in Helen's pov because the whole time, I was like what do his actions mean???? Is he just super nice to everyone or is he in love with her??? The single pov allowed me to feel Helen's nerves.

This book also made me terribly hungry with all the chocolate heart-shaped cake talk.

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau is the perfect holiday Rom-Com for people like me and the novel’s protagonist Helen Tsang. We’re both bitter & single, and very anti-Valentine’s Day.

Synopsis:
It’s been almost a year since Helen’s public dumping on Valentine’s Day went viral. With the anniversary of the event coming up Helen is getting tired of her friends and family giving her pitying looks despite her insistence that she’s happy single. She comes up with the idea of a fake boyfriend and asks her friend from high school, Taylor Li.

Review:
What didn’t I love about this book? The fact that it wasn’t longer. With only 136 pages there’s not a lot of time to lollygag around. We jump right into Helen’s fake dating scheme with plenty of reverse grumpy x sunshine. We even get a speech from Taylor that is a bunch of things he loves about Helen and it had me, (ME! The person who actively avoids Valentine’s Day every year) giggling and swinging my feet it was so cute.

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Romantic Adorableness: 💗💗💗💗
Spice: 🌶🌶 ½

Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau is a fun friends to lovers, fake dating rom-com. This is a sweet, cute read with a little spice. Nothing over the top. Did I mention this book has chocolate cake? Made me want to eat chocolate cake and I don't like chocolate! This is a perfect romance for an anytime read or for Valentine's Day! Looking forward to more from this author!

This was so good! Definitely 5/5 stars for me.

'Not Your Valentine' is a quick, easy read about Helen, a girl who unfortunately got dumped in a restaurant during Valentine's Day without knowing she'd go viral for it.

Almost a year later and she's tired of everyone thinking she hasn't gotten over it, so with help of her friend Taylor, she tells everyone she has a new boyfriend to change the way everyone sees her.

I couldn't have asked for anything more, it was funny, I loved the characters so much and how they developed their relationship.

An instant read for me the moment I saw it had fake dating 🤩

Thanks so much Netgalley and the author for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not your valentine is short and sweet with friends to lovers and fake dating.

With being a short read the story moves along at a fairly rapid pace and somewhat predictably. I liked the story, it was cute and the ending was very sweet however it didn't blow me away.

Helen gives the reader memorable quotes such as "chocolate's f**king amazing" and "I prefer being alone in my apartment with a book and a glass of wine, tea, or similar"
Because isn't that all us book worms.

If you are looking for a quick, mostly wholesome (with a smattering of tame spice thrown in) read then I would recommend this book.

ARC provided by NetGalley

This story is about Helen who was publicly dumped on Valentines Day and has sworn off live and dating. To keep her friends and family from trying to set her up, she has decided to ask her high school best friend, Taylor, to be her fake boyfriend through Valentines Day.

This, sadly, fell a bit flat for me. I was not a fan of Helen’s attitude. She was so negative about everything, and quick with the snark. There was also a complete lack of communication about feelings. That is something I dislike in a book.

Even with the negative I still found parts of this enjoyable. I am a huge fan of Helen’s mother. I needed more of her! I also enjoyed the humor and all of the different dates that Helen and Taylor went on.I loved the boys about Lunar New Year. I do think it would have benefited from being a full length novel. I felt like there was so much more story to be told. I would have also loved more about the Canadian setting.

If you are looking for a short Valentines Day read then pick this up and give it a try!

If high school friends who enter a fake dating situation are your thing, then let me introduce you to the perfect holiday read for Lunar New Year AND Valentines! This Asian-Canadian contemporary romance novella by Jackie Lau is the perfect light hearted read to brighten your day. I was hooked before the end of the first chapter.

Meet Helen. Last year on Valentine's Day, her boyfriend dumped her publicly. Like, filmed by a restaurant-goer and live-Tweeted by another kind of public. Then the clip went viral. Even though Helen has moved past this, she isn’t dating. Her friends and family are worried about her, so Helen comes up with a simple solution to her problem: get a fake boyfriend. Meet Taylor. He’s a social worker who is a ray of sunshine, a charming contrast to chemist Helen’s less-than-enthusiastic view on most things romance. But he agrees to be her fake boyfriend anyway.

A short and sweet romance with a smidge of spice, told entirely from Helen's perspective, Lau still delivers the, "is he into me, or no?" tension perfectly. A fair warning, the book does have a few explicit sex scenes from Helen's POV. BUT I didn’t mind them and I’m normally not a fan of spicer romance scenes, preferring clean romances.

I liked the authentic setting, from the dialogue of the people to the description of the TTC, Lau accurately captures the essence of Toronto. As someone who lived in different areas of the GTA for 12 years, I was screaming at the accuracy - it even made want to plan a trip to visit!

I really enjoyed the refreshing characters. They were imperfect in looks and personality, just like us! Also a big shoutout to the authenticity of racial representation in this novella. Lau accurately portrays different cultures and relationship dynamics beyond the romantic, and I’m here for it.

I both loved and loved-to-hate reading about the food. I’m all about good food and Lau has me still craving Japanese cheesecake. The original. I know the shop in the novella (I’ve shamelessly stood in line for hours when they only had one location) and I MISS IT SO!

I adore the "Girl Gang" and Helen's mom. I love how close they all are! I love how they care, are there, and really just embody what female friendship is all about. I just adore Helen’s mom and their relationship. I would love a cookbook from the duo because I feel like it would elevate my at-home date nights with the hubby?

Lau really left me wanting more of this story, in all the good ways!

RELEASE DAY!!!
📖Not Your Valentine - Jackie Lau
⭐️3/5
🔥2/5

✔️Best Friends
✔️Holiday Read
✔️Novella
✔️Choice or Fate


REVIEW ✨
*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Helen hates Valentine's Day, since her last boyfriend broke up with her on that day a year ago. The break up was recorded and the video went viral, devastating her even more. Fast forward to the present, she is still single, and friends and family still feel bad about what happened. To make them stop pitying her, Helen decides to fake a relationship with her High school friend, Taylor.

I love a good fake dating trope. The romance is short and sweet. It's a sunshine/grump pairing, with chemist Helen as the hearts-and-sprinkles-hating grump and social worker Taylor as the adorable sunshine. This was a fun and quick read. While it didn't have quite the depth I was hoping for, I enjoyed the humor and romance. Jackie Lau’s writing style is very easy to read.

Overall, I think it you're looking for a quick, cute Valentine's rom read then this will work

This was a cute fake-dating / friends-to-lovers rom-com. Not too serious, short and sweet. Fluffy, with a bit of spice and lots of chocolate cake. Perfect for the upcoming Valentine's Day or any other time you are in the mood for romance!

I like that both of the main characters were Chinese (well he was half Chinese). It’s not often that someone like him is in the lead of a romance novel. Story was cute, fairly straightforward without plot twist. It was a fun Valentine’s Day read!