This review is being posted as part of the Fake It ‘til You Make It blog tour hosted by Rachel’s Random Resources.

Fake It ‘til You Make It is the latest rom com from romance author Laura Carter. Fans of fake dating, mistaken/hidden identity and a good slow burn romance, this is the book for you! Add in a geeky cinnamon roll hero, a dual POV narrative and a family vow renewal and you’ve got Fake It ‘til You Make It, the perfect feel-good Spring romance read.

This was my first time reading anything from Laura Carter and as a fake dating girlie through and through I was instantly hooked by the plot, particularly as the fake dating was partially to spite a cheating ex. Fellow fans of a good slow burn romance will also absolutely love this because this is a true extreme slow burn where, despite lots of almost-kisses, it takes them until the last 25% of the book to actually admit their feelings.

Our story is told through a present-tense, first-person dual-POV narrative, told by both Abbey and Ted. The dual-POV aspect worked so well within the story, as did the first-person narrative as it gave us a peek into Abbey and Ted’s inner thoughts. This was particularly impactful as the novel really focuses on the idea of you not needing to change yourself in order to be loved and although both Ted and Abbey initially feel the need to reinvent themselves in order to find a partner, through their inner monologues we got to gradually see them find their self confidence and learn to love their true selves.

On top of the fake dating plot, mistaken identity and miscommunication play a key role in the story. I’ll put my hands up and admit that these aren’t typically my favourite tropes by all means but there was something about the way they were written within Fake It ‘till You Make It that just really worked for me. I was hooked seeing how it would play out and found myself shouting aloud at the book on more occasions than I care to admit.

Abbey and Ted both had wonderful depth to their characters and their responses to their respective partners cheating on them was really well explored. They had great banter throughout the novel and their relationship felt really realistic. I do normally prefer to see a bit of spice as opposed to a closed-door romance but the closed-door aspect actually really worked here, particularly as the romance was such a slow burn.

I loved Ted with my whole heart. He was the cinnamon roll hero we’re all looking for in a romance story. I’ll even excuse the whole lying about his identity thing because he was a total sweetheart. The way he spoke about Abbey had me smiling from ear to ear and his POV chapters were my favourite in the plot. I also loved the little peeks we had into his relationship with his brother.

Abbey was a wonderful FMC. She was witty and a total girl boss for how she responded to her breakup. Spending your entire wedding savings on an expensive new apartment and treating yourself to a brand new wardrobe? THAT is how you respond to a partner’s infidelity. Through Abbey’s character, Fake It ‘till You Make It explores parental expectations and the idea of trying to please your parents and this was done really well. I loved her family dynamic and the role that played in the story.

Laura Carter also writes antagonists very well and I absolutely hated Andrew with a burning passion.

I would have liked the ending to have been explored in a little extra depth - perhaps through an epilogue - as I was craving opportunity to see more of Abbey and Ted once they were actually together. I really just didn’t feel ready to part with them once the book ended so would love the opportunity to return to their story in some capacity, perhaps through a story focusing one of the supporting characters. I also found that the mistaken identity plot was wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly for my liking. But it is testament to Laura Carter’s engaging writing style that I just wanted more.

If you are looking for a feel-good romance which is packed full of your favourite tropes whilst still being closed-door, you will love Fake It ‘til You Make It.

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️ 🌶️ / 5 (Closed Door)

I have posted an extended review on my blog www.yourschloe.co.uk

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity. Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Rachel’s Random Resources.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'Make It 'Til You Fake It' by Laura Carter.

Read and reviewed for Laura Carter, Boldwood Books, The Bold Book Club, Book & Tonic, NetGalley and Rachel's Random Resources Tours.

Publication date 8th April 2024.

This is the third book I have read by this author. I have also read 'Friends With Benefits' (book 3 in Laura's 'Brits In Manhattan' series) and 'Always The Bridesmaid' (book 4 in the 'Brits In Manhattan' series. All Laura's books can be read as standalones and I would highly recommend them all!

This novel consists of 54 chapters. The chapters are short in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book has fantastic descriptions that set you straight in the scenes. The cover, title and synopsis suit the storyline perfectly.

Another page turning, addictive success by Laura!!! Love, LOVE, LOVED this absolutely fantastic, laugh out loud book!! An absolute must read!!!

OMG!! I absolutely LOVED this gorgeous storyline!! An absolutely stunning book that takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. This is a story filled with friendship, secrets, fun, laughter, romance, lies, family and just everything you could want in a gorgeous page turner!!! I was completely invested in this book from the very first page and was hooked throughout. I just could not put it down and ended up devouring it in one sitting!! Laura's stunning evocative writing skills really do bring the locations, emotions and the characters to life!! In this fantastic book we are told what is going on from the perspectives of Abbey and Ted. Laura does a fantastic job of weaving their chapters together perfectly to see what each of them are doing and how they are feeling. Abi is expecting her boyfriend of 4.5 years Andrew to propose when instead he drops the bombshell that he has met somebody else and has actually cheated on her!! Abbey is heartbroken and absolutely furious! If that is nt bad enough she ends up handing her resignation letter into her job before she is fired! She uses the money she has been saving for the wedding that she was hoping for to rent the apartment that she has always wanted to move into. She meets her very gorgeous neighbour Ted when he helps to pick up her belongings that she has dropped when moving in, including a pair of very big and very unsexy knickers that landed on his head!! Yep, poor Abbey is not having the best of luck recently! It turns out that Ted is also recently single after his partner cheated on him with none other than his childhood best friend, who he also owns his business with, so has moved into his brothers apartment to hide away from the world. Abbey's parents' vow renewal is coming up and they have invited Andrew who is a close family friend plus a date!! After getting to know each other Abbey and Ted come up with the perfect solution to save Abbey at the vow renewal and to keep Ted from having to deal with his ex....fake dating of course!! What could go wrong? Oh, and add to the mix that they have actually lied to each other with Ted thinking that Abbey is an actress and Abbey thinking that Ted is his brother Mike who is an MLB athlete!!!! Will their plan to save Abbey at the renewal turn into a disaster? What will happen when they discover they are not the people they have told each other they are? Can anything else go wrong for Abbey and Ted or will things finally start going in the right direction? Well, pick up your copy of this laugh out loud page turner and find out for yourselves!!! i can promise you will not regret it!! This is one of those books that is very easy to read and perfect for any reading situations whether you are laying on a beach or curled up in front of a fire. It is an absolutely ideal read for anyone who is looking for an addictive and hilarious read that will have you hooked from beginning to end. I absolutely LOVED the realism of this storyline which made it so easy to picture everything that was going on which had been helped by Laura's fantastic evocative writing skills. I cannot wait to get hooked into more of her books so I hope she is busy writing her one while I get stuck into her previous books!! This is definitely one of those books that will turn a frown upside down and make life seem a lot brighter. Anyway, I just adored everything about this absolutely gorgeous page turner from the first sentence to the last. Well done Laura on yet another stunner and I cannot wait until your next!!!

Well done Laura on an yet another absolutely beautiful book!!! If you haven't read any of Laura's books then what on Earth are you waiting for?!?!?

The characters were all an eclectic mix and each one of them were realistic and strong. I was completely invested in them all. It also makes them more realistic, believable and made me feel even more for them than I normally would. Laura always manages to create such fantastic larger than life and memorable characters that I always love opening one of her books to see who I am going to meet next!! The main protagonists are Abbey and Ted and i just absolutely adored both of them!! They very quickly came to feel like friends (as do most of Laura's characters) and I was rooting for them both from the very first time I met them all the way to the end!! The fact that get to see what is going on from both of their perspectives ensures the reader gets to know both of them well as well as seeing what they are both seeing and doing. I absolutely loved the relationship that Abbey has with her siblings and their banter had me laughing out loud on so many occasions I ended up with tears streaming down my face on several occasions!! i could not stand Abbey's turd bag (to put it nicely) of an ex Andrew who just eurgh!! It made me love the interactions between Abbey and Ted even more. I absolutely loved seeing their friendship develop throughout and I was keeping my fingers and toes crossed constantly. I must say that I did emphasise with Abbey's neighbours as it is never nice to be lied to. There were several other characters that I loved getting to know but I have especially got to mention Dee who was just an absolutely hoot and i would love to meet her again in one of Laura's guaranteed to be fantastic future books! I loved getting to know the majority of the characters and I could write about them all day but I don't want to bore you so I'll start to wrap it up here. Each of the characters are memorable and unique in their own ways and they are a group that I wont be forgetting any time soon! A stunning rom com and an amazing group of unforgettable characters!!! Grab your copy and meet them yourselves today!!

Pick up this book and get lost in this absolutely gorgeous page turner! 💜!!!

Congratulations Laura on yet another absolutely stunning read that I just could not put down!!! I am looking forward to reading more of your previous and future books. I would absolutely love to see this book turned into a movie!!! This is the exact reason you are on my favourite author list and here's to your next success 🥂

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the first chapter of Laura's 'Always The Bridesmaid' which is the fourth book in her 'Brits In Manhattan' series but can be read as a standalone. I have actually read it myself, absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it!!!

Overall an unputdownable, gorgeous, STUNNING page turning book filled with romance, friendship , laughter and so much more!! A gorgeous, romantic, funny and stunning read!!!!

354 pages.

This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle, free with Kindle Unlimited and £9.99 in paperback at time of review via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5/5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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I love a fake dating trope. I love for them. And this one did NOT disappoint. From the cover to Abbey herself and having a hot
neighbor… it made me wish I had one myself.

Want a sweet book! I was on my knees saying go ahead and kiss the girl!!
If you like faking being someone else, forced nearness, and drama at a family function, park yourself for a good book.
I loved it when Abby helped Ted out in huge way. I,loved that Ted fell first.
I loved the family drama because finally some well deserved truths were being told.
I made fast work reading this book!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. It was a very fun book!

So I discovered Laura Carter's books last year and she quickly became an auto-buy author so there was no way I wasn't getting and loving this book when it came out.
As with all her books, I was instantly drawn into the situation Abbey was in and followed it with her til the end, mostly without coming up for air because her books are so hard to put down once you've started one. Our two MCs Abbey and Ted are just so easy to love, you really feel for their situations and you're just waiting for that moment when the Fake dating becomes real, sort of egging them for the sidelines.
Of course, we have plenty of miscommunication that ends up turning into downright lies, on both sides but you sit there tutting at them and telling them to just tell the other the truth because you've gotten so invested in their story. This is the beauty of Laura Carter's writing style, she makes you care for the characters like they are your friends and like you would for friends you just want them to have that fairytale happy ending(admittedly we know that's going to happen but still you get invested as if it might not) and equally she writes people you're going to dislike, such as Andrew.
In short, I loved this book from beginning to end and I'm probably going to reread it again before the year finishes.

This was a cute, clean rom-com.
It was a fast read, but I loved every minute of it! I really liked how the FMC was from Canada, and part of the book was based there!
A big part of the book was based on miscommunication, which is a trope I hate 😂. So I couldn't wait for the characters to figure it out in the end, lol.
This was your basic, fake relationship, which turns real, but the story was really cute.
I loved how both characters ended up finding a backbone.
I definitely recommend this! It's a cute summer read or beach read!
Can confirm as I read this on the beach! (Well, by the pool next to the beach🤣)

I have just finished this deliciously cute book! It came at a time when I wanted to read something very cute! Although, I did chuckle a lot at the male narrator's voice when he was doing the female voices... they kept me entertained.

It was a very cute story of misdirection and mistaken identity. Abbey was just adorable, albeit naive FMC and she was someone I wanted to wrap up and cuddle. Although she was pretty badass when she needed to be! Ted / Mike, I just loved him. It was nice to see a man struggle with who he wanted to be and what he should be like! All the while, trying to navigate through heartache and betrayal.

Laura's writing sucks you in and takes you on such a fun adventure. It's my first with this author, but I know I will be back for more. The book she has written here, feels so realistic, like something that could happen. It had so many feels to it. I love that romance was a slow burn, but the attraction was instant. It wasn't an insta-love but it was a nice build-up. Life threw everything at Abbey but she still faked it and got through despite it all. To be honest, as much as a sports guy is hot, who doesn't love a numbers man?

I would love a spin to see how Dee or Shernette are getting up to as well as Abbey. These characters are loveable and I have enjoyed every minute of my time with them!

This was fine, though a mostly standard fake dating story. There were some cute moments, but the central conflict going into the third act conflict just seemed so minor in the grand scheme of things and the reactions seemed disproportionate. While I'm not really a big fan of lying and miscommunication in romance stories, when done well, the lying and miscommunication can be believable and / or humorous, but in this case, I felt like, given the fake dating situation, the main characters should have simultaneously 1.) understood why the other was "lying" about their careers and, 2.) had zero hesitation in sharing the truth when the fake dating turned real.

well that was fun 😊


I truly had a great time here - but i am a SUCKER for a fake dating trope and this was textbook fake
dating! The entire book i was EEEEEEKing waiting for the third act breakup since both of the MCs were lying to each other - and while it all did come out it wasn’t a super dramatic breakup that lasted on and on and on. It was handled maturely between the two of them and i felt like that made me love the MCs even more.

Andrew is AWFUL. IYKYK.

i loved that her parents got the redemption that they needed to make you end up liking them. I’d love a book about her sister and her pregnancy journey and finding her man!

Super enjoyed and would absolutely read more by this author!

I've never picked up a read by Carter before now, so was pleasantly surprised and found it to be an enjoyable few hours spent in Abbey and Ted's company.

It's an easy, lighthearted romance that's hot on the fake dating and meet cute tropes. There's bitching, banter and it's fun.

The characters could be real, I loved the dialogue between them and you kinda knew that their fake dating wasn't going to be a thing for long, the feelings were kicking in...

I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from this author in the future, and would love a follow on from this book to see how their future shapes out.

This is a lovely, funny charming story about Abby and Ted. They are so to say in the same "pot" both being cheated on, and in front of making big changes in their lives. So when they meet one lie turns into another until the truth comes out in unwanted circumstances. For me a very funny read and I enjoyed reading it. This is a story about finding yourself, a story about family, and a story about finding love.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for Netgalley

A fun little fake dating story, featuring jerk exes, a family vow-renewal, and a very hot neighbour! Did however feel like it was missing a little bit of the spark that makes me love a story, like it didn't go quite deep enough into the characters or the story.

Fake it ‘til you make it is an easy going, lighthearted read with great and relatable main characters.

I wish Ted was real, I wouldn’t mind him being my date even if it was fake! 😂

I think this book is a great example of not judging someone by their supposed job/how they dress etc.

Andrew was a character I really wanted to strangle all the way through…read this and tell me you don’t feel the same!

🌟 2/5

I wasn't the biggest fan of all the lying going on. Between both the FMC and the MMC, the "truth" of their relationship felt fake and half-hearted.

Not that smut is necessary, but when it's teased enough throughout the book, and not shown, it feels a little tacky.

Lastly, bringing politics into a book is kinda trashy. While I didn't necessarily disagree with the statements being used, I felt like it was unnecessary. I read books to escape from the drama of the world we live in, and I definitely don't want it brought up in a fictional romance book.

The cover is cute. However, the title becomes tiresome after a while, as it’s been used in many fake dating romances.
The story is adorable. The characters are lovable and have great chemistry together, but the ending feels rushed. It comes out of nowhere. There’s no epilogue or anything. The characters end up together (obviously) and that’s it. I was expecting more and better.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for this eARC! This slow-to-start story allows you to imagine what life might be like if you lived a little differently than you daily routine. It's a story of courage and consequence, heartbreak and healing. Ted and Abbey were likeable leads, and I found myself hoping for the best for them even as they made poor choices. The style is a little repetitive, and I've never read "whilst" quite so much as in this book. It's a cute, simple read!

This was...just not it.

I love fake dating romances, but this one was so cookie cutter, basic, run of the mill...

One of the other mayor tropes in this book is miscommunication. I hate that trope. I despise it with a burning passion. JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER ALREADY. I'm a way too honest person for all the lying in this book.

Nope, nope, nope. It was not the book for me.

Ammmmmm……… this was not good…….. but not good at all
I ended up skipping a lot of pages that so boring and had horrible dialogue 🤠🤠
Came for the cover left because of the writing



But many thanks to Netgalley for the arc 🫶🏻🫶🏻

DNF @ 11% - This was just not good. The writing was strange and stilted. The characters didn’t seem like real people at all. I maybe would have kept going, but this book is set in the U.S., (with a Canadian main character), but it’s so obvious the author is British, it’s annoying. There was no work done by author or editors to make sure things like measurements, slang, etc. made sense for the setting. The premise sounded fun, but the book was just bad.