This was a fun comfort read. It was nice to see a gender swap of the grumpy-sunshine dynamic, and to have a sensitive male lead who is not at all afflicted with toxic masculinity. I'm really enjoying the perspective of someone who went viral on social media and what happens next.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc of Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau.

I loved this book! Lau’s writing is great and this book was so fun to read. I loved the characters. Helen and Taylor were both characters I rooted for and I wanted the best for them! The steamy scenes were also so well done, the tension and buildup were so good!

I definitely recommend this one !

I love Jackie Lau's work, so I'm sorry to say this was a "meh" for me. Normally the thing I love about Lau's work the most is clear communication and consent between the characters, but I worried these characters were never quite on the same page, and it took away from the joy of the romance for me. Will hope the next book is a better match for me!

This is a cute fake dating romance. Helen’s last relationship ended on Valentine’s Day at a restaurant while being filmed. A year later, she’s beyond ready to move on and she’s tired of being setup by her friends and her mom.

She asks her old friend Taylor to be her fake boyfriend before Valentine’s Day to quiet her friends, and as they spend time together convincing everyone that their relationship is real, their feelings change from friendship to romance.
Reads more like YA but it’s very enjoyable. 3 stars.

The Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

This was such a great book. It was a treat to read and I enjoyed the characters, plot, and the cover. I cannot wait for what is next from the author.

Short, sweet, and just the right amount of romance. It was fairly predictable but was the perfect February read. Main character Helen had sworn off love but when she enters a fake relationship with her long-term friend, you just can't help but root for them to end up together. Thank you Net Galley for the advanced reader copy of this book.

I started this the week of valentines and it was the PERFECT valentines week read! Love a good rom com!

A lighthearted romance that has believable plot. This book wasn’t anything gripping or special, nor was the plot entirely original but I had fun whilst reading it. Helen’s Valentine horror story certainly is a clear and believable reason to why she is so apprehensive to date and the tie in with fake dating and old high school friends made it a well rounded story.

Helen Tsang is tired of the pitying looks. From her parents, her friends, and even the bubble tea shop guy, who recognized her from the video. Almost one year ago, some loser couldn’t mind their own damn business and filmed an unsuspecting Helen's very public break-up during what was supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. A video of her ex-boyfriend saying, "It's not me, it's you. You're holding me back" went viral.

Desperate to give everyone something else to talk about and with Valentine’s Day approaching once again, she asks her long-time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend, just to prove that she's moved on and hasn’t sworn off love. (Spoiler alert: She's totally sworn off love.) Taylor is the perfect option—single for once, and for some godforsaken reason, he loves Valentine’s Day.

But Helen didn't expect was how easy it would be to get Taylor on board, fitting right into the boyfriend-shaped hole in her life. All she wanted was a couple sickeningly sweet dates to fill her social feeds, not corny text messages of silly heart-shaped cakes, and bouquets of flowers that harbor hidden meanings. Wanting to be around his sunshine attitude and delicious forearms all the time? That definitely wasn't expected.

With February 14 quickly approaching, it's getting increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings, especially when she starts wishing it wasn’t all an act.

I am a sucker for the friends to lovers and fake relationship tropes. I really enjoyed this story. Will recommend to others who love these tropes.

A warm and sweet novella that managed to create two characters that I adore in under 200 pages. I thought that Helen's grumpy personality and quips were hilarious. Since it's a short book there isn't a lot of plot but the whole book leaves a warm cozy feeling and is a great quick happy read.

Not the worst read but not particularly memorable.

Just a heads-up, this becomes an insta-love moment, and one that doesn't really makes sense. Helen is a little boring, while Taylor comes across a bit sweet but we don't get enough of him.

The fish: pretty funny.

Good book, very quick read. Just a little bit of spice, grumpy sunshine, fake dating tropes. I do feel that the characters would have had a better chance at development if the book was a bit longer.


earc provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Short and sweet! If you're in search of something light, then this is it!

The story follows Helen Tsang whos is terrified (or rather traumatized?) of Valentine's Day. All because a year ago her ex-boyfriend decided to break-up publicly with Helen on February 14th, and unfortunately for Helen someone decided to record the whole scene and post it online. Needless to say that Helen became quite a celebrity for not the very best reasons, because we all know how Internet works, right? I mean, ouch.

So Helen decided that love is not really her department and she's better off without it. But there's a small but. Helen is sick and tired of everyone around her pitying her and comes up with a brilliant and harmless idea: fake boyfriend. Ta-daaa! What could possibly go wrong, right?!

She asks her long-time friend Tyler Li to embrace the role of a fake-boyfriend for a few months just to prove to everyone that a) she moved on and b) she's not really against all the love thing (she so is, though!).
And Tyler is the perfect candidate: he knows Helen very well, they've been friends for a very long time so obviously there are no feelings there, he's single, he's actually a pretty nice guy and as a bonus - he actually likes Valentine's Day.

Little did Helen know that life itself had other plans for her and all the pretend would quickly turn into real feelings. From her side. But does Taylor even feel the same? Oh boy, what mess has she gotten herself into?

This was a very quick, light and read-in-one-sitting kind of book, and even though it took me a bit to get more involved with the story itself, overall it was a cute one.

Thank you NetGalley and Jackie Lau for providing me this ARC.

Though this book is short there was nothing to grab my attention. The world is full of ton of books and I refuse to spend my time on ones that don’t bring me joy.

3.5 - So short and sweet! But not heart shaped cake sweet because Helen our main character doesn't like those heart shaped!

Sometimes you just need something a little light and fluffy and this fit the bill for that. I adored the relationship between Helen and Taylor. There was never much of a surprise as to what was going to happen but this is one of those stories that you just go on for the sake of going..... a soft cushy ride and a nice breather between heavier reads like thrillers and such.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this copy for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kobo for the ebook in exchange of an honest review.

Me hizo reír, y enternecerme mucho.
Amé al prota masculino. Nunca trata mal a Helen, no la insulta, no la desprecia, no la ignora. Es siempre respetuoso, sabe escuchar, da buenos consejos y es buena compañía: un amigo ejemplar.

Me encantó como se fue desenvolviendo su relación. De amigos a... a algo más. Pero todo muy sutil y con sentido de realidad. El slow burn es extraño en esta historia, pero es muy agradable.

El cliché del fake dating funcionó bien en esta oportunidad. Me gustó.
Quedé con ganas comer cosas dulces de tanto que se nombraban pasteles de San Valentín en la historia, y ni hablar de las sopas, se me antojaron todas!

El libro es de un ritmo de lectura tan ágil, que se termina rapidísimo. La historia cuenta lo justo y suficiente, no le sobran detalles aburridos, ni le falta información importante. Es cortito y tiene lo justo y necesario. Además es muy simple de leer en inglés para quienes no sean nativos del idioma.

Lo recomiendo. Y creo que me gustaría leer otro romcom de la autora. Este lo disfruté bastante.

<b>This was an ARC from the author. My views are my own. </b>

Helen Tsang has sworn off love as a lost cause after her boyfriend dumped her last Valentine's Day and someone filmed it, making her a very involuntary viral sensation. However, as Valentine's Day is approaching once more, she feels like she is getting excessive sympathy and pity from friends, family, and even the staff of her regular bubble tea shop. She doesn't really want to field any more questions and decides to ask her friend Taylor to act as her fake boyfriend. They can "break up" a while after Valentine's Day, very amicably, so no one needs to remember the viral video anymore or think about Helen's love life in the future.

Of course, as is always the case with fake dating stories, it doesn't take long before Helen starts seeing Taylor in a new light. They've been friends for years, and Taylor was extremely supportive when she was so very publically dumped last year. For some reason, a lot of the romantic gestures which Helen claims to hate are rather adorable when Taylor does them. He sends her flowers, and pictures of heart-shaped cakes to tease her and doesn't at all mind posing for cutesy couples pictures for her Instagram feed. Of course, as Valentine's Day approaches once more, Helen starts wondering if she wants her fake relationship with her friend to become a real one.

The grumpy-sunshine pairing is a relatively common trope in romance, as is the fake dating scenario. Helen and Taylor are a cute couple, and as always, in a Jackie Lau romance, there's a lot of descriptions of food and baking. Nevertheless, while this novella was a perfectly fine read, it never became anything special, and now, about a month after finishing the story (I'm once more behind on my reviews), I'm having trouble remembering much of the specifics at all.

This was OK, but there are much better Jackie Lau romances out there - including several fake dating stories. This won't be a waste of your time, but it's also unlikely to stick in your memory.

<B>Judging a book by its cover: </b>While this is an illustrated cover, I appreciate that there are no cartoony people anywhere on it. Just a bunch of brightly-coloured baking supplies and a little phone. It doesn't hurt that I'm very partial to teal, which is the dominant cover colour.

This is a really sweet novella centered around New Years and Valentine's Day, and a great read if you are looking for an uncomplicated, easy-to-read romance. It's a friends-to-lovers, fake dating story, with a touch of grumpy/sunshine opposites-attract dynamic. I thought it was a touch more simple, predictable, and saccharine than I would've liked, and at times it read like an early draft and not fully baked story (though I think that can be hard to avoid in novellas). But overall I really enjoyed it. And despite the overall light and easy vibe, the story does touch on some more serious themes (racism, social media). I appreciated how the main characters acknowledge and validate each other's prior painful experiences. And opening up and sharing these experiences deepens the bond between Helen and Taylor, leading to more emotional and physical connection.

I'd probably give this 3.5 stars but am rounding up to 4 because it really is better than a 3 star book. Recommend to romance readers generally, especially if you are familiar with Jackie Lau's style. This is a great example of her work, and a sexy, sweet romance that can be read in one sitting.

Sweet fun fake dating with a grump. Really enjoyed this book! And first time reading this author. Definitely will pick up more by them.

This is a short book and I was done it quickly but it was just not for me. Sorry! I am sure there are others who would enjoy it more.