Thank you NetGalley, Marion De Re, and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderfully sweet and utterly delightful romcom featuring some of my favorite tropes and an absolutely adorable cover!! Fake Dating the Footballer is the third book in the "For The Love of Rom-Coms" series but it stands alone as a complete story. This book boasts the classic fake dating trope, a captivating sports romance, a male main character who falls first and is a genuine cinnamon roll, forced proximity situations, themes of body positivity, dual points of view, closed door/fade to black scenes, and concludes with a heartwarming happily ever after. Throughout, it's filled with witty banter, palpable tension, tender moments, and undeniable chemistry. I thoroughly loved this book; it had me grinning, chuckling, and swooning from start to finish!! 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

Roxy hates football with every fiber of her being. The irony? She is dating Wade Hunter, aka England's most eligible player. Oops! It's a fake dating scenario. Long story short, her longtime crush, Karl, returned from a mission abroad with a fiancée on his arm, just when Roxy thought he was going to confess his love for her. Feeling humiliated, she grabbed the first guy she saw at the airport and introduced him as her boyfriend. Surprisingly, he played along. Even more surprising, he showed up at her door days later, asking to keep up the charade. Dating a footballer, even if it's fake, is the last thing Roxy wants to do while nursing a broken heart. But when he suggested she could use their fake relationship to make Karl jealous and win the feature contest at her work, she signed on the dotted line and secured herself a fake boyfriend. No problem, right?! However, the more time they spend together, the boundaries between what's fake and what's real start to blur. Ultimately, difficult decisions lie ahead, forcing contemplation on life's true priorities: career, fame, family, or fortune.

Overall, it is a charming rom-com from start to finish, capturing my heart with its loveable storyline and lighthearted tone. As a first time reader of this author, I'm eager to dive into more from the series. I wholeheartedly recommend this book and it deserves every star it receives!!! 💫💫💫💫💫

4.25/5

This book was the sweetest! Roxy drags Wade over to greet a friend (who she thought was more) at the airport when her friend shows up with his fiance! Roxy had no clue Wade was a professional athlete and their moment at the airport would land her in the press. In order to help Wade’s image and help Roxy’s career they decide to fake date. Both Wade and Roxy develop feelings for each other but don’t express their feelings until it’s almost too late! There’s tension, tough decision making, found family, and fake dating to lovers with a happy ending!

This is a really sweet story! Roxy and Wade are adorable in the way they simply fall in love. There were parts I found myself laughing out loud and then swooning at others. I just wish there was more - more introspection, more pining, more fake dating, more of really everything, even more of Karl being around. I didn’t love the way Kim was described - it felt very stereotypical and left me feeling a little icky. There were some parts that were a little misogynistic but I think that’s only because there wasn’t enough introspection to go along with it. Things were just a little too surface level.

“Sometimes, you have to let the people you love go..”

This book was so cute!! I love fake dating tropes!! This was an easy read for me! I started it yesterday and stayed up literally all night reading it. I want to fall in love with a football player now. Some parts were extremely cheesy but I actually enjoyed it very much!! 5 stars for me

This is a very fun, quick read if you want to increase your reading goals! I loved the plot, the characters were well thought out. My only tiff being that the “Body Positivity” sometimes felt like a forced plot line. I can appreciate the brother-sister relationship that’s portrayed! With that being said, it was very cute and I did enjoy it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Author for providing me with this copy!

⭐️⭐️

I was given a chance to read this early thanks to NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This book masquerades itself as body positive when it really just kind of tears down other body types? As a plus sized girlie, it was a bit of a tough read, in all honesty, and the fact that Roxy is able to ~overcome her negative thoughts on her body image by Wade confessing his feelings for her is...hm. Just not it for me.

I did find the actual romance itself very cute, though, and enjoyed the fake dating aspect. Overall a pretty quick read and mildly entertaining.

A soccer player and fashion journalist? Yes, please! A quick lighthearted read. They fell for each other in a quick, charming way and I loved the body positivity and soccer. Plus fun hearts as scene separators.

Roxy is in love with her best friend and is so happy he is finally coming home from working 10 months abroad! Imagine her surprise when he introduces her to his fiance when she picks him up from the airport! Roxy grabs the cute guy sitting across from her and introduces him as her boyfriend. This is how Wade Hunter is added to the mix and our love story begins. Both Roxy and Wade are wonderful characters and I fell in love with both. I really, really enjoyed their story and highly recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy!

I want to preface this review by saying I really liked the easy writing style, and body confidence when it came to the main character. However, there was so much casual misogyny and other comments that made me so uncomfortable. The way Roxy is compared to Karl’s fiancée, Kim, made me very uncomfortable. Roxy’s body is described as a real, woman’s body with curves, compared to Kim and other “paper thin, flat” women. Kim is also written in such a stereotypical way, this frustrated me beyond belief. She’s described as having perfect hair and skin, like “all Asians.” There is a way to ensure your main character is body confident, without comparing and tearing down other women who look differently.