The Villain Edit is the third book in the Over the Top Love series, but it can be read as a standalone.

I really didn’t like Ashley in the beginning of the book, but I guess I wasn’t supposed to. She definitely went through a lot though, and she had so much growth.

Gabriel was supposed to be the good guy, and he was fake dating Ashley (for his own reasons, not to help her). But he was an a**hole to her, and I really hated him.

Honestly, I love a fake dating romance, but this was not my favorite. Ashley got better, but I wish she made Gabriel grovel more. Sure she wasn’t the best person in the beginning, but she changed, and she didn’t deserve the way he treated her.

Despite not really liking the story or the characters, I also couldn’t stop reading this. I had to know what was going to happen next, so it did keep my interest.

I would call this one clever! I liked the twist on the enemies to lovers. It was a very fun read and I will be going back for more!

This is a good book. The two main characters are Ashley and Gabriel. They are actors. There agents decide to make Ashley and Gabriel fake date. They go on a road trip across the United States. They post pictures of where they are at online. They have feelings and act on them. The paparazzi are at each stop. They both have issues but together they work them out and fall in love.

i ate gabriel up and then i spat him straight back out. i’ve never known a golden retriever love interest to turn out to be such a prick. initially, ashley was the infuriating character but by the end of the book, she was the only thing getting me through it.
i just didn’t like the portrayal of romance in this book, and he didn’t grovel nearly enough for me to root for them or even be happy once the conflict was resolved.
poorly written although it was bingeable and fast paced, i had to put the book down every time gabriel spoke to scream into a pillow.

3.75⭐️

You say fake-dating, morally grey and road trip and I am THERE.
I think this is a contemporary romance for all those Nesta Archeron fans out there- Ashley has been labelled as the villain, so that is the mask she wears, the person she is because <I>‘I can’t be hurt because I don’t care and in that lies power’</I>.
She is an unlikeable character who openly uses people for her own gains and never lets anyone close to see the real her.
<I>‘Heartbreak was my friend. I knew how to make armour out of my pain’</I>

But having to fake-date Hollywoods Golden boy Gabriel Sinclair really pulled her into her own. I loved the character growth in this, and how she learnt to become herself despite (or in spite of) not having the family or romantic attachments to help and support her. Her friends were ride-or-die, and even though they were few it was great to see her realise that she’s not alone, and she doesn’t have to be what everyone expects of her.
<I>’ I’m not broken. I’m not bad. I’m whatever I want to be, and I get to decide every minute of every day what that is’</i>

I expected a bit MORE of Gabe, but it was kinda good to see him NOT act the way I would have liked, as it showed his own battles with his own demons and expectations that were put upon him. It was great that they are both flawed and learning, evolving into who they are because they had the chances to be themselves around each other- unmasked and messy and flawed.

Plus the spice In this was spicing 🌶️🔥
A really easy and addictive read.

***Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review***

The Villain Edit starts off really promising, the opening scene gets you hooked while you meet Ashley truly at her worst, however it lost me somewhere along the way.

Cute, fun and steamy what more could you ask for? Nothing ground breaking but I liked them together and always love a celebrity culture subplot though the reality show ones are less my jam than others.

i put it down weeks ago and never felt compelled to pick it up again so i never finished it and im not mad about it

I wanted to like this but it unfortunately just did not work for me. It was very insta-lusty and the plot was unfortunately not compelling enough to keep me drawn into the story. DNF @ 40%.

📚The Villain Edit by Sarah Brenton
📖Pages: 320
📗 Genre: Romance
⭐3/5
🔥5/5
📝CAWPILE: 36/70
💥 Read Dates: 01/18/24 through 01/21/24


Synopsis: Ashley Foley is the villain of reality TV. Gabe Sinclair is Hollywood's golden boy. When a slight mishap lands them in a fake relationship, what could possibly go wrong?


Review: I was excited for this book, as I had this author recommended to me, and then found myself with the opportunity to do an ARC read for her newest book! The premise seemed enticing, but unfortunately this one didn't quite land with me. The writing was sometimes repetitive; I swear I saw the same sentence verbatim a few times. For example, there are a few instances where the author explains something and it feels like it was copy and pasted from the last time we heard about it.

The book is meant to be an enemies to lovers fake dating trope, and the enemies part of enemies to lovers fell through very quickly to them lusting after eachother.

This book was entirely spice driven. I didn't expect that, and it felt like a bit much to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm down for a nice smutty book every once in a while, but this seemed almost excessive. I swear, once these characters got going, they couldn't go one chapter without banging it out.

There were also some other issues I had with this book, for example I had the E-Book and the formatting was off, anytime there were texts on the page the right hand side would have the last few letters cut off and it would show on the next page overlapping with that text.

Overall, I think I would have liked the book more if it had more plot. The only time we had plot felt very chaotic, and there were details that were glanced over in favor of adding more spice.


This ARC copy was provided to me courtesy of Netgalley and Victory Editing in exchange for an honest and fair review. All my opinions are my own!

I love a good fake dating element with steamy scenes! Just up my alley! Thanks for this opportunity and will be getting my friends into this one!

The author did a great job with the character development over the entirety of this book. It was an enjoyable and quick read, but I felt like I was missing a connection to the characters. The main characters’ differences lead to a miscommunication that could have definitely been avoided and it went on for too long in my opinion. Overall it was a pretty fun read.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

The premise of the book was interesting but I think it could be better.
I loved the chemistry between the main characters, but I thought their relationship was more lust based.
The steam though was just perfect!!!!

The writing was good but it felt more wattpad-y.

All in all it was a good read and I'm excited for what else the author will give us!

Absolutely loved this book.

I haven’t read the rest of the series but even without all the background I could still understand it. The chemistry between Gabe and Ashley was undeniable. It was so much more than just a fake dating book. There was drama, pure heartbreak and healing too,

Will definitely check out the rest of the series.

Thanks netgalley for providing the ARC!

I'll start off by saying thank you to Sarah Brenton for trusting me with this ARC copy. (It was the first thing I got to download to my new Kindle -- yay!)

I love the fake dating trope, of course. And she's a spicy little novel, which is always a pleasure.

But as a writer myself, I just had the most difficult time getting through the writing itself. I found myself taking a lot of notes while I was reading, kind of getting lost in the sauce, as it were. There were a lot of moments that I felt could have been foreshadowed better. There were gaps that I wanted filled at the set-up. Plenty of "Show, Don't Tell" moments throughout the book where I thought the author had opportunity to expand or explain the plot/character/etc. a little better. I saw a different review that said this book was "giving Wattpad vibes," and I can't help but agree. That's kind of the quality it has as it stands.

I loved the cover. Loved the idea of this novel. ❤️ But overall, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this author's future works!


Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and to the author, Sarah Brenton, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this story reminded me of reading Wattpad in high school. I enjoyed the story and the characters. I am not hard to please when it comes to the fake dating trope. We love seeing people being forced to get to know each other. To get to their end goal. I had fun reading this.

*4.5

The beginning was a little rough for me but overall I liked this book. They fell in love pretty fast but that worked for their relationship. They were both able to be honest with someone for the first time in their life. They saw each other for who they really were. Now, Gabe really pissed me off in the back half of the book, I wish the author had him see a therapist. I think that would have helped a lot. However, his apologies and speeches to her made up for it a little.

I loved this book! The fake dating element was great and I loved both of the main characters. The discussions of how women are perceived was also so refreshing! Thankful I got to read this early.

Ashley is the bad girl and she wants what she wants but in this case the wrong man comes in.
Hollywoods good guy and the bad girl have to go on a roadtrip and play their roles.

Fake dating and storylines and emotions are coming up and not all is like it shows.

have fun reading!