4.5 stars. Wow! Eva (a professor) meets Sean( a fireman) when he is sent to help her resolve an issue with an ex on campus. His idea to help? Fake date to allow the ex to see she's taken and leave her alone. What the two of them didn't expect was to fall for each other! This story was so sweet, with spicy moments but the best part was that these two characters were a little older, late 30s and early 40s, which is refreshing and the woman was older than the man! They are established in careers and just stumble into love! When Eva learns that Sean potentially wants kids but she doesn't, it throws a wrench into their relationship but a crisis helps them decide what they truly want.

This story was a quick, easy romance read that was sweet too! I love when the guy falls first and just loves the woman and it takes a second for her to trust and realize it's ok to let him love her! I would highly recommend to readers of Abby Jimenez or anyone who wants a sweet/spicy fake dating to lovers romance!

Thanks to NetGalley, Adele Buck, and Harlequin Romance for allowing me to review this ARC!

I loved this book! The banter and the romance was so good! The setting and the plot was amazing. I would highly recommend this book!

This was a dnf for me. I couldn’t get past the constant POV switching (maybe the switches will be easier to spot in the finished copy, but in the ARC I was just confused).

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵. 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳. 𝘚𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

Eva is an English Literature and Pop Culture professor. She loves her job but when her cheating ex boyfriend continues to pester her about getting back together she snaps. He tries to emotionally blackmail and gaslight her into dating him again by publicly serenading her on a piano in the middle of campus. She decides enough is enough and threatens to set the piano on fire. When the firefighters are called to the scene, Eva meets Sean.

Sean is drawn to the fierce, lighter wielding, redhead the moment he meets her. When he learns that her ex won’t leave her alone, he offers to fake date her to get him to back off. Slowly, things don’t seem so fake anymore.

This was a good book with a fun premise. Personally I found the formatting of the book to be really distracting. I felt like I was getting whiplash in the first half of the book with the constant switching of POV’s. The last half of the book was definitely more organized. I feel like this would be a solid 4⭐️ book if each chapter was only one characters POV. I love dual POV stories, I think it adds to the buildup in relationships, but the first half of this book just had too many sudden switches.

Eva and Sean were a cute couple, and I enjoyed all of Sean’s fellow firefighter buddies. I feel like the ending of the book was anticlimactic. I really thought something more was going to happen with the ex boyfriend.

This story does touch on a lot of relevant topics in regards to gaslighting, emotional blackmail, double standards between men and women, emotional abuse from family, and the choice of wanting children or not.

Overall Rating: 3.25⭐️

Tropes:
🫶🏼 Fake Dating
⛑️ Firefighter x Professor
💞 He Falls First
🌻 Insta Love
🐶 Doggie Sidekick
🔥 Spicy Romance (2🌶️)
✌🏼 Dual POV

Thank you to NetGalley for my early copy of this story so that I could share this honest review! 💛

I really really really wanted to love this book, but with the writing style, I just couldn’t. The constant back and forth of scenes was like whip lash. I also don’t think the reason for the firefighter to be her fake boyfriend was good enough. He needs a reason or he just seems weird to want to do this. Overall, the premise was great and I love the fire fighter aspect, but it just didn’t do it for me.

Okay this was very cute and actually addressed some very real issues surrounding familial expectations/dating as an “older” (see: not 25 lol) woman/kids etc.d

It also put a lot of weight on the importance of non-romantic love - the kind between friends, or family members, or the friends you make into your family. All of it had just as much importance.

The perspective switching was a bit much at first (back and forth multiple times per chapter, which threw me at first as it wasn’t written out who was speaking so you had to use context clues), but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Also Darren can get rekt xoxo bye