Not your Valentine is a story about a girl who was never really a cutesy person and has been unlucky on love, latest try ended up with her being dumped on Valentine's Day... Yuk!

I liked the female lead, a bit of an apathetic person because of her experience with past relationships which makes her end up trying to fool her family into believing she moved on from her ex by fake dating an old friend. This is a friends to fake dating to lovers story. It was cute and not too long: so a perfect friday afternoon read!

I believe it had the right amount of heat, same as the right amount of cuteness. I particularly liked that there was a mention of race fetishization, an issue that should be talked about more.

Fake dating plots are not my favorite but I think it was well done here, the female character had a good enough reason to do it and all in all it was well developed.

High school friends to lovers fake dating. She's a non-demonstrative woman who is still reeling from a Valentine's Day break up gone viral last year. He's her HS lab partner who's remained a good friend in the decade+ since HS.

Aspects of this book that make it unique: Both MCs are Asian Canadian. Both are short (he's 5'5"). At the beginning of the book, she's not attracted to him. He hasn't been pining after her since HS, though his feelings shifted about a year ago.

If you've read a Jackie Lau book, you know that food is a huge part of it, and this is no exception. From heart shaped cakes to wonton soup, food is a player in this story.

This is a heartfelt story, but the thing that holds me back from loving it is Helen's voice. The character is constantly thinking about fake dating and internally making excuses for her thoughts and feelings. Like, a little too much for my taste. But it's a cute story and a fast read for Valentine's and/or Chinese New Year.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this one enjoyable but it wasn't my favorite in terms of characters. I really enjoyed Taylor though he felt a little underdeveloped. Outside of Helen, we don't really get to know him at all, other than that he's kind and a social worker. I didn't feel like I got to know him as a character until close to 75% of the way through the book.

As for Helen, I appreciated that she was the grumpy one because I love a gender role grumpy/sunshine reversal, but she was almost a little too cynical for my tastes. Maybe it was because of the first person POV, but the constant reminders of "Normally I hate this but I guess it's okay today" or "This usually sucks" type of sentiments was tiring. It felt like someone trying too hard to hate everything about life.

Thank you to Kobo Originals and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute story about a woman who has sworn off dating after a bad breakup goes viral on the internet. In order to get her family and friends off her back she decided to fake date her friend over Valentine's.

Friends to lovers, fake dating and a jaded fmc. This book reads like your high energy friend is telling you wild story.

A fun, quick read that fits perfectly with Valentine's day.

Not Your Valentine is a cute, short story about Helen who swore off love. after a viral breakup. But with constant questions from friends and family about her dating life, she devises a plan to parade a fake relationship to the world, except something about this relationship isn't fake.

Overall:
-The characters are introduced with good background information
-Helen and her situation are relatable
-Fake love turned real love was sweet, but the story was shorter than I would have liked

Thank you NetGalley, Jackie Lau, and Kobo Originals for access to read this!

thank you to netgalley for this eARC in exchange with an honest review!

okay wow this book is sooo adorable i’m screaming. it’s just a short book. but it still gives me lots of feelings. this is a perfect read for valentine’s day. i gave this book 4.5 stars.

so this book is about Helen Tsang who just got publicly broke up by her boyfriend on valentine’s day and the video went viral. fast forward, she’s still single and hate to be in relationship so her parents and her friends still feel bad about what happened to her. so she made one plan to them stop pitying her, Helen decides to fake a relationship with her high school friend, Taylor Li.

GUYS THIS BOOK HAVE A LOT OF GOOD TROPES. fake dating, friends to lovers, reverse grumpy sunshine (so we got the “she’s the grumpy, he’s the sunshine”) and anti-valentine’s day kinda trope. AND YOU KNOW WHAT BOTH OF THESE MCS ARE ASIAN-CANADIAN. we got to see the lunar celebration rep also in here. VERY VERY INTERESTING STORY. the plot is very fast paced like i said it’s just a novella so it’s short and fast. the charachters development in here WOW…this is the real friends to lovers ever. i mean taylor and helen are the IT friends to lovers i JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

the romance got me smiling nonstop. they are just too sweet. the fake dating really well written. also the smit scenes in here WOW. the author really did great with describing everything in this book. i just adore how naturally their relationship developed. SO PERFECT LOVE IT!

okay even tho this book is funny and light but i also loved how the characters also opened up about some of the sensitive topics such as race, parental abandonment and mentions of fetishization. AND IN CONCLUSION I LOVE THE THIS BOOK AND ENJOYED VERY MUCH.

Contemporary romance. Standalone novella. Helen is a slightly grumpy not-so-smiley young woman who was publicly dumped last Valentine’s Day, with a video of her break-up going viral. She’s sworn off dating and relationships, but her friends and family are starting to worry by the time it’s New Years. She asks her guy friend Taylor to be her fake boyfriend to get everyone off her case. However, she soon finds herself attracted to Taylor, but scared to make it real. This was a quick and fun read, with things progressing in a predictable manner, but still super enjoyable and steamy. We’ve got nods to cultural foods for our Chinese-Canadian characters, running jokes about cheesy heart-shaped cakes, and Taylor being the best sunshine fake-boyfriend ever.

A big thank you to Jackie Lau, Kobo Originals and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Not You Valentine comes out January 24. 2023!

Not Your Valentine was such a sweet and cute story with friends-to-lovers and fake dating being the main tropes. Last year on Valentine's Day Helen was very publicly broken up with, and since she has vowed to not date again. Too bad everyone keeps asking when she is going to get back out there, to throw people off the scent she decides to ask Taylor, a friend from high school if he will fake date her. They both agree to date until the end of February. The next couple of months involve flowers, dates. and family events. During this time Helen has to decide if the attraction that is flaring between them is worth risking their friendship and also if it's worth risking her heart.

Overall, this book was heartwarming, sweet and honestly had a surprising amount of spice. Both Helen and taylor have had bad dating experiences in the past and to see them work through the trauma was really nice to see. All of the dates were really cute, and I loved how Taylor interacted with her family. If you are looking for a funny and warm Valentine's Day book, Not Your Valentine is the book for you.

This one was a sweet read. I like that the heroine was grumpy cuz yes more grumpy heroines in romance please and thanks. Also the hero was shorter than most heroes we see in books: he was 5'5 and had looong hair. He sounded pretty cute to me actually ;)

I love a good fake dating trope and we got this here. I will admit I did feel like it wasn't wowing me so much to begin with but it was cute. The heroine thoughts are alll over the place but this was relatable to me? Because I can definitely think a scenario to death lol.

The ending came together quite nicely with the heart cakes (both human and otherwise. this will only make sense when you read hhahha)

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

Cute quick RomCom

Helen got dumped on valentines days last year and everyone saw it. Someone recorded the break up and it went viral. Now a year later she has a plan, to enlist her friend to be her fake boyfriend for Valentine’s Day.

This was a super quick book that got right to the point. I loved how Helen and Taylor complemented each other. I was quickly drawn into the story.

There are only a couple spicy scenes but they worked really well with the whole story line and how long the book was. You could see and feel the characters grow in such a short time.

♥️Friends to Lovers
♥️Fake Dating

Think of this book like a single nougat filled heart shaped milk chocolate. Just the right amount to satisfy a craving but also leave you wanting more.

This book is a light fluff read that is the perfect 2 hour romance book (I read fast) I loved the complexity of a Canadian-Asian romance touching briefly on Asian fetishes while dating but also didn’t allow the book to revolve around it letting the quirky romance come through in the writing.

This was an expected story that makes the reader want to know how the story ends up not because it’s a surprise ending but instead they wanted to see the quirky exchange between Helen and Taylor.

Reviews are made available through advanced reader copies by netgallery for an honest review

3.5 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Not Your Valentine is another sweet read from Jackie Lau, and I like how it generally captures the theme of Valentine’s Day. Fake dating between someone who’s burned by love and her good friend who happens to be a bit of a romantic is always super cute.
And in essence, it is. I love the dynamic between Helen and Taylor, as he helps her heal her broken, jaded heart, in the midst of trying to prove to others she’s not struggling. And the payoff was ultimately really great, with the happy ending feeling pretty worth it.
But I couldn’t help but find the setup very convoluted, due in part to the public nature of what happened in the past. She was publicly broken up with and said breakup was spread around the internet, but I wasn’t sure, given the short lifespan of most internet trends, why that would play a role in the plot after a year, even if she would obviously have emotional baggage from it. And the pressure she felt to fill her social media by fake dating Taylor after all that time felt odd, given surely people would have forgotten about her by now, if she wasn’t some consistently posting social media star. While I’d have had issues for other reasons if it were the case, a more compressed timeline for the breakup-to-fake-dating may have been more believable to incorporate the social media aspect. I feel like if it had chosen to either run with the viral breakup or the concerned family and friends a year post-breakup, and not tried to find a way to do both, it would have been much more believable.
I enjoyed this book for what it is, even if this isn’t Jackie Lau’s strongest work. If you’re looking for a fun, short contemporary romance to read for Valentine’s Day, I recommend picking this one up!

This was a really funny and cute read! I love the fake-dating trope and that paired with friends-to-lovers was really sweet. Although the book was very short, I still felt like the two main characters Helen and Taylor were given enough depth and character development throughout the story. It was quite predictable but nevertheless I was hooked and read the whole thing in one sitting!

My only complaint (and the one thing that stole that last star in my rating) is that I wished the book would’ve been longer. The pace of the story was very fast and I think Helen and Taylor’s relationship could’ve been even better with a longer period of mutual oblivious pining for each other. I do think that the characters were well-written as it is, but I saw a lot of potential that wasn’t fully utilised. But that might just be me having a preference for slow-burns.

✨📚 Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a review!

This was such a sweet story. I loved the grumpy MC, thought I would have loved a dual POV to know what Taylor was thinking.

I love books with characters who have food as their love language, and now I have all kinds of cravings!!

Easy to read. Sweet. Very happy camper. Only wish there was more!

Last Valentine's Day, Helen saw her relationship come to an end, in what would have been a romantic dinner and worst of all, someone filmed everything and the video went viral.

When in the following year, this date gets closer and closer, she feels the need to find a solution to escape all the questions and so that they finally believe that she has moved on, Helen decides to say that she is dating again, with her longtime friend, Taylor. What she didn't expect was that it would be so easy to convince him and how easy it could be to fake this whole situation. Now the question is, is it really all an act or are things really getting a little bit serious?

This is a quick, light, fun story, with its touch of cuteness and spicy moments. Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating romance where she thinks she knows what she needs to be happy but Taylor is here to show Helen that she's wrong. (AS HE SHOULD, they are meant to be, as cheesy as this sounds 🥹)

I confess that I really liked Helen, but Taylor conquered me even more with his attitudes and way of being. He is a really perfect fake boyfriend. I loved every time he would tease her with the heart shaped cakes 🤭

Not gonna lie, I would've loved if we had a chapter or two from Taylor's POV, I would've enjoyed to know more about him and what was going on inside is head.

Jackie Lau is probably the most dependable romance author I've read. Every book is perfectly sexy, romantic and tropey but there's also excellent friendships and family relationships. There's really no one better on the market right now in my opinion. Between the romance itself, the tropes, the amazing descriptions of food and experiences the characters have, Jackie Lau really doesn't miss.

And this book is no exception, it's everything anyone could want in a romance! There's fake dating turns real dating, complicated emotions, friends to lovers, miscommunication--I am never disappointed by a Jackie Lau romance and you won't be either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kobo Originals for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was short and so very sweet. This was about one of my favorite tropes: fake dating. Helen asks Taylor to be her fake boyfriend to get her friends and family to stop worrying about her love life. I loved the grumpy/sunshine relationship and it was refreshing to see the woman as the grumpy character for once. I will definitely be reading more Jackie Lau books.

This was a cute story! I read it in less than 24 hours and even thought it wasn’t something that absolutely blew me away, it kept me entertained and wanting to see how it all played out! I would give it 3.75 stars - I rounded up to 4 stars on NetGalley and Goodreads.

READ THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:
* Fake Dating
* Friends to Lovers
* Open-Door Romances

This is the PERFECT quick Valentine’s Day romance! I enjoyed Helen (the MC) and her grumpiness towards love. Taylor is everything you’d want in a fake boyfriend.

Not Your Valentine

Thank you NetGalley for early access to this title!

Helen is cynical about love with good reason. She was publicly dumped last Valentine’s Day and the video went viral. To stop her family and friends worries she enlists her friend from high school to be her fake boyfriend.

This was a fast read for me! It could be read in one sitting. Helens resistance to love is highlighted by the fact it’s almost Valentine’s Day which made the story perfect for this time of year! Tyler, her high school friend, is a breath of fresh air for male main characters. He’s not the typical large, hunky, rich guy that is so popular in romance novels. He’s very “normal” and it’s a nice change. The background of Helen and Tyler’s friendship made the quick love story feel believable. I really enjoyed this book and I think it’s a great read for Valentine’s Day!

#jackielau #notyourvalentine #romancebooks #fictionbooks
#netgalleyreads #bookstagram #booklover