The Fake Wedding Project by Pippa Grant


I am a huge Christmas lover, so when you add small town romance and best friend's older brother, it is a match made in hallmark-style romance heaven.

You get all of the quirkiness that you expect from a Pippa Grant book and wonderful development of the characters.

Pick this one up if you enjoy:
🌲 Small town
💍 Fake engagement
🌲 Feuding families - Romeo & Juliet vibes
💍 Christmas in July
🌲 Hallmark movie moments
💍 High school crush
🌲 Best friend's older brother
💍 Lazy dog named Chili

Thank you to Hambright PR, NetGalley, and Pippa Grant for the advance copy of the Audiobook and eBook.

<b>The Fake Wedding Project by Pippa Grant combines some of my favorite tropes with the author's witty and entertaining writing! It was full of hilarious accidents and laugh out loud moments. The dreamy small town with the quirky people made me fall in love. It was swoony. It was heartwarming. It was slow burn but deliciously spicy.Amanda and Dane got themselves into a mess by impulsively getting fake engaged to end their long family feud in their home town where its forever Christmas.This whole adventure brings them impossibly closer and they realised even when this charade ends, their love will just begin!</b>

The Andersons and the Silvers both have some really colorful family members who goes to extremes to keep up the family drama. Dane had a crush on Amanda in high school and it's hard for him to keep his attraction away, while Amanda never thought she will fall for Dane.

<b>Tinsel can only exist in a book. Where Christmas stays whole year. The author described it so beautifully that I cannot help but wish this cute and adorable place was real. Amanda and Dane both live away . Amanda doesn't want to inherit their family gingerbread store and Dane doesn't want the family feud to keep on souring his every interaction to his family. That's where the fake engagement came in. But it snowballs to the wedding of the century for the town. Amanda is beautiful and creative and compassionate and she hates lying to family. But this is for greater good. And she couldn't want a better partner than Dane. The shy nerd boy from school is quiet a charming guy now. I loved how calm and steadfast he was in every situation. While Amanda was panicking, he was picking up the pieces and assuring her and supporting her through the plan. She also showed her fire and sass by standing up for him in front of his family who couldn't appreciate his accomplishment without bringing up the rivalry. Their friendship was easy and fast and beautiful. They managed to end something that was weighing down on their lovely hometown for a long time. And in the way...They found love. It was a bit confusing because they had to figure out that their feelings are real and not part of the fake marriage. I loved the whole vibe of the story. The feel good romance did something awesome for my soul. If reading is an escape, Tinsel is a perfect place to do so!</b>

I reviewed an early copy voluntarily

3.7 Stars
One Liner: A bit of family toxicity, loads of drama, and some love

The Silvers and Andersons of Tinsel, a small town in Michigan, have an intense family feud going on for decades. No one really knows the reason for the continuing feud. However, the younger generation is tired of it.
When Amanda panic-blurts about being engaged to Dane Silver, the duo decides to continue the charade. Why not use a fake engagement to end the feud forever?
It sounds great until things start to feel a bit too real for comfort and they have to make some major decisions.
The story comes in the first-person POV of Dane Silver and Amanda Anderson in alternate chapters.

My Thoughts:
The premise makes it clear that there will be some toxic family drama for the main characters to deal with. Some of them are quite decent and actually make an effort while others are idiots. Of course, the intention is to show the toxicity of the situation, so we have to have annoying but necessary scenes.
While the dual POV helps know what the main characters think, having both in the first person makes it confusing at times. The voices are not always distinct. Also, I’m not sure of this new trend of addressing the readers at random or breaking the fourth wall. I’m tired of it already.
Though the whole story takes place in a week, it is not really insta love, for one character. We know in the first chapter itself that the MMC had a crush on the FMC. Until around 60%, it is a question of what he’ll do about it and the growing awareness between the two.
The small-town setting plays an integral part of the plot. Turns out this town sees high temperatures in summer and is a Christmas tourist destination with the festival being celebrated around the year.
The side characters don’t get much depth. A couple of them are sweet. Everyone does what is expected of them, so the plot keeps moving.
There’s a mystery too, about the feud and its origins. The varied reasons stated for it are hilarious and crazy, though the actual one might be a little serious. Is there anyone who even knows what it is? Why aren’t they revealing it?
There’s a sort of third-act breakup which is not a breakup but you get what I mean. They need that space to sort things out in the head.
The ending is HEA with a bonus epilogue from Chili’s POV. Chili is Dane’s dog, a super lazy one! So, the doggy’s POV adds a quirky touch and brings more smiles.

To summarize, The Fake Wedding Project is a lighthearted read about family, relationships, small towns, and love. While it does have a few unsavory moments, these are essential for character growth.
This is my first book by the author but I can see why she is popular in this genre. The writing style is easy to read, and the main characters are well-developed.
Thank you, NetGalley and Montlake, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁: A cute Romeo and Juliet vibe holiday story except no deaths just gingerbread & fruitcake. This is a fun read or listen, definitely the perfect light hearted romance we all need in our lives. Best part is the epilogue in the pup’s perspective - like OMG best thing ever! You have to listed to the AB just for that.

Amanda lives her life in NYC as a dog walker and play writer but she’s been called home to take over the family gingerbread business. The only problem is she doesn’t want it! But instead of telling her grandmother that she may have told her she’s engaged and not just to anyone but her best friend’s older brother. To make it worse he’s the grandson of the fruitcake family which is their nemesis.

No one knows how these two families started their feud many generations ago but everyone in the small town of Tinsel have been apart of the chaos these rivals families stir up. However for the first time in an along time this engagement between a Gingerbread and a Fruitcake could be just the perfect reason to end the feud.

Dane lives in San Fransisco and has a lazy dog named Chili but he’s back home for the next few weeks. He is the grandson of the Fruitcake empire but he’s fed up with this ridiculous fight the families have going. So when his HS crush proposes they pretend to be engaged it’s a no brainer for him. He gets to spend time with her and work towards bringing peace to the town. Win- Win! If only it was that easy…

Check this one out when it 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 10/8/24.

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅:

* Friends to Lovers
* Fruitcake vs Gingerbread Feud
* Fake Engagement
* High School Crush on Little Sister’s BF
* Romeo & Juliet Vibes
* Forced Proximity
* Lazy Bones Dog 🐾
* Christmas Loving Small Town
* Dual POV

🌲💍🩷🌲💍🩷🌲💍🩷🌲💍🩷🌲💍🩷

This Fake Wedding Project felt like a warm cuddle in front of a cozy fire. There was something so sweet and comforting about reading this book. This story takes place in Tinsel, Michigan where it’s Christmas year round but two of the prominent families have feuded for generations. It’s quite the duality.

Dane and Amanda agree to a fake engagement with the hope of uniting their fighting families. They, along with the town, are tired of the constant fighting and no one knows why they’re feuding.

Dane is an engineer who lives in San Fransisco. He rarely comes home due to the fighting. Amanda is a dog walker who lives in New York and loves her life there. She has no desire to run the family bakery, although it’s expected of her. Dane’s sister has been Amanda’s best friend for years but they’ve had to hide it due to the feud.

Dane and Amanda were so sweet and likable. Even from the start they supported and cared for one another. They truly saw each other. I felt so comforted watching them banter and care for the other while keeping up their ruse. And as they spent more time together their feelings grew too. I felt myself smiling frequently while reading this. It was just a true feel good read. It’s one you can pick up when you need a book hug.

And I can’t forget Chili, the ultimate lazy dog. The scene stealer. He even gets an epilogue from his point of view.

Thanks to NetGalley and Montlake for the opportunity to review.

First of all, Chili the dog's epilogue was perfect finishing touch! Calling them his pets had me cracking up!

This story takes place in a Christmas town but during summertime. It still gave me that fun, hallmark Christmas vibe and I really enjoyed that aspect. Dane and Amanda have known each other since high school but could never have anything to do with each other because their family has been feuding for decades. No one knows why, but now that they are both in town they team up in a fake engagement to bring the families together.

Pippa Grant always brings so much fun to her stories and this one was no different. I definitely got a Hallmark Christmas in July vibe. The instant chemistry between Dane and Amanda was so heartwarming. They start out just wanting to help each other and realize just how meant for each other they are. Both of the families had me giggling with their quips at each other. Chili the laziest dog was the perfect addition and I love how he accepted Amanda as his new pet. This story was full of heartfelt moments, family drama, and lots of laughs!

Thank you HambrightPR and Netgalley for the ALC and eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you NetGalley, Montlake and Pippa Grant for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is centered around two people, Amanda and Dane, who grew up with their families feuding.

No one knows why their families dislike each other but it’s been going on for generations. Instead of telling her grandmother she doesn’t want to take over the family business, Amanda blurts out that she’s engaged to the “enemy”. When she tells Dane, he doesn’t freak out and instead agrees to fake it in hopes to get their families past this feud.

This was one of those books that was like “this would never happen in real life” and places like this don’t exist but I kind of wish they did.

This fake engagement, forced proximity, feuding families story is so dang sweet. It’s the kind of story you need when you need a break from heaviness or darker themed stories - it’s all just sweet and fun.

Amanda and Dane pretend to be madly in love in order to break the family feud and uncover the mystery as to why they are fueding in the first place. The small town collective support the two in their engagement as they want the fueding to be over too.

It was truly an engaging and entertaining story .

This is such a fun book to read for holiday season. Hallmark vibes for sure. You got feuding families, a Christmas town called Tinsel, best friend’s older brother, a fake engagement and wedding to plan in ONE WEEK, and a cabin with one bed. 😍

It’s easy and quick read. Full of fun family antics. Theres a little spice and the MMC is all green flags! There’s also an adorable dog who gets his own little bonus epilogue at the end which was super duper cute!

Absolutely recommend if you like Pippa Grant books and a fun holiday read 💚❤️💚

This. So much this! I snorted a noodle out of my nose from laughing so hard. 🤣🤣 I laughed more in the first 15% of this book than I've laughed in ALL of some other books.
I have never read a Pippa Grant book before, and now I'm going to have to go through her entire back catalog. Amanda and Dane were absolutely lovable and flawed, and just wanted their respective families to be and do better. I think that's something most of us can relate to. And Chili the Dog (get it? Chili Dog?) 🌭 was an absolute delight. 💖

Move over Montagues and Capulets. The Andersons and Silvers have a feud just as venomous, but this time the young “lovers” are determined that it won’t end in tragedy.

It’s a tale as old as time - Gingerbread vs. Fruitcake - and the entire town of Tinsel, Michigan is swept up in the long standing anger between the families though no one knows what grievance lies at the center of the animosity. Amanda returns to Tinsel at the behest of her tyrannical grandmother to take over the family gingerbread business - a job she does not want. Dane Silver is visiting his hometown when he runs into Amanda and discovers that she and his sister are secretly BFFs sneaking around to hide their friendship. Together they cook up a plan to get Amanda disowned so she doesn’t have to face a future of molasses and cookie cutouts, and end the feud in the process.

What follows is a farcical,holiday-ish, fake dating rom-com that had me laughing and smiling from start to finish. The audio version of the book is expertly narrated by Connor Crais and CJ Bloom. Each brings the perfect amount of fun to their characters and makes this a book I hated to pause. The bonus epilogue in particular is award worthy. I’ve added Pippa Grant to my list of authors I want to read more from.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hambright PR, and Brilliance Publishing, and Montlake for for the advance copies in exchange for my honest review.

What a delightful book! This is a wonderful retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story without the unhappy ending. This book takes place in the town of Tinsel, Michigan where they live Christmas all year round. Instead of the Montegue and Capulet families, Tinsel has the Anderson and Silver families who have been fighting for so long, no one knows what started the feud. Dane Silver has come into town for his grandparents anniversary party. He is alone in his sister’s cottage when someone breaks in through the window, and it is none other than Amanda Anderson. Amanda is in town for her grandmother’s retirement announcement, and when her grandmother said she was leaving the family Gingerbread bakery to her, she panicked and said she was engaged to Dane. Amanda has been secretly friends with Dane’s sister Lorelei and wanted to warn her of the lie she told her family. When Amanda tells Dane what she has done, he thinks they should continue the ruse to end the stupid feud that has torn the town apart. They end up having a week to pull this off, and you have a wonderful fake relationship/close proximity romance. If you are a sucker for Hallmark Holiday movies with humor sprinkled throughout, you will love this book. I hope that this is the beginning of a new series, as I would love for Lorelei to get her own book. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

Dane and Amanda’s families have been enemies for as long as the small town of Tinsel can remember, yet no one remembers the reason for this. The younger generations of these families feel it is time to put an end to this feud.

Amanda has come up with quite the plan for this to happen which starts with her telling her family that she is engaged to Dane.

Can Amanda and Dane keep up the pretence to help fix their families or will it all fail?

This is a quick, cosy read based in a Christmas themed town where it’s Christmas all year round and with some added spice. I have not read any of this authors books before but found it an enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley and Montlake for the advance copy.

All the sugar with the perfect touch of spice! The Fake Wedding Project by Pippa Grant was a heartfelt holiday small-town rom-com that put a smile on my face and left me all merry and bright! Amanda and Dane’s feuding family drama had light-hearted Romeo and Juliet vibes, with all the Christmas cheer, and I was here for it. This book is just perfect for the holidays.

C.J. Bloom and Connor Crais perform this audiobook in dual narration. These two embodied all things Amanda and Dane delivering Pippa’s amusingly swoony words perfectly. C.J.’s upbeat, lively tone portrayed Amanda’s passion and dedication to the cause to help her family overcome their conflicted past. Connor’s warm inviting voice matched Dane’s charismatic and attentive demeanor as he made his intentions clear with his family and Amanda. (Swoon!) Not to mention, Connor’s performance in the epilogue as the dog, Chili was hilarious perfection. Both narrators also created just the right amount of tension and longing between Amanda and Dane.

Overall, I LOVED this book. If you are a fan of a small-town holiday romance with a hot hunky dog-loving hero, a devoted community theater lover, feuding families, house break-ins, Christmassy year-round towns, high school crushes, Gingerbread Shops, fruitcake, fake engagements, family cookouts, canoe mishaps, eggnog lattes, life-size snow globes, secret letters, rainy spice, family truths, and a HEA that will fill you with cheer, then you will love Amanda and Dane’s story. I always look forward to more from Pippa Grant.

This was an okay (not) Christmas story, although the small, fictional town of Tinsel, MI celebrates the holiday year-round. The premise is that Amanda, visiting from NYC, in an effort to avoid having a dreaded conversation with her pushy grandmother, pretends to be engaged to her secret best friend Lorelei’s brother Dane who is visiting from San Francisco. Why a secret BFF? Well, that’s because their families have been feuding for about 150 years and no one remembers why. Unfortunately, the whole town walks on eggshells because their parents’ and grandparents’ primary pastime, when they’re not running rival bakeries (her family’s gingerbread and his family’s fruitcake), is to play a mean game of oneupmanship, not hesitating to use their offsprings’ accomplishments as pawns in their petty war rather than just showing pride. Dane, who hasn’t really seen Amanda since high school (when he harbored a crush on her), readily agrees to fake an engagement with the lie that they’ll elope to Vegas a month later. However, the feud-weary townsfolk decide they should get married within the week. Do they not have enough to keep themselves busy that they can drop everything to throw together a wedding in a matter of days…and not have the courtesy to even ask the couple if they’re okay with it?

I just couldn’t get on board with the idea that they’re both such pushovers and are so easily bulldozed by everyone, that they really think they can use their very brief engagement to end the feud, and that announcing it is fake just before the ceremony won’t have everything blow up in their faces. There’s just so much that’s unrealistic about this story, and I got bored and frustrated with how rude and inconsiderate Dane’s uncle and all their grandparents were to their supposed future spouses. Although there was spice (as in the sexy kind, not the baking type), I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. I also didn’t buy into the instalove trope, even if they were sharing a cabin for a few days. Not a horrible book, but not the least bit memorable either.

"The Fake Wedding Project" by Pippa Grant is a cute and quick read that's a Romeo and Juliet inspired holiday romance.

It's all about one family's secret gingerbread recipe and the other family's famous fruit cake.

Story Likes
⭐⭐⭐

SPICE
🌶️ mild(ish)

RECOMMEND
💳 yes*

*This story is great for anyone who likes small town, feuding families, fake engagement, romcoms that has Hallmark vibes.

Thank you Montlake, Pippa Grant, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read "The Fake Wedding Project" in advance.

As usual Pippa has brought pure laughter to us with this book. You have the small town charm we are accustomed too along with a fake engagement that came out of nowhere but turned into a way to bring the two families back together after generations of fueding which nobody seems to know why after so long. Tinsel slowly warms up to the idea that they can all get along if Dane and Amanda really are going to get married. This book sprinkles a little Christmas joy in July around and just be prepared to start craving baked sweets. I hope we have more time in Tinsel in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the eARC of “The Fake Wedding Project” by Pippa Grant in exchange for my honest review.

The Fake Wedding Project is a standalone, lighthearted romcom. Dane and Amanda return home to their small town for family parties. Their families have a multi-generational family feud that nobody really knows why it started. Amanda’s grandma is expecting her to take over the family Gingerbread House business but she’s not wanting to, so she says the one thing that she thinks will get her out of it…she’s engaged to Dane Silver! When Amanda tells Dane what she did, he tells her they should fake an engagement to help their families to stop the feud so she doesn’t have to sneak around to hide her friendship with his sister.

I throughly enjoyed this book and the writing style. It kept me engaged from start to finish. I found myself laughing out loud several times. I’d highly recommend this book, it was a great read!

The Fake Wedding Project was an interesting take on a fake-relationship-meets-feuding-families story. I thought it was a unique premise for a book, and I found the it to be very entertaining. It's a stand alone story and would be a great introduction to Pippa Grant's writing.

I received a copy of this book at my request, and the opinions here are my own.

Book review 📚
The Fake Wedding Project by Pippa Grant
⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book takes fake dating to a whole different level; I was expecting the same old story with the same old plot but actually the route Grant took it down was nothing short of spectacular.

Amanda and Dane join forces to end the rivalry of their families and become “engaged”. The rivalry between their families, which seems to have gone on forever and a day, has become enough for both of them. What better way than to shut them all up by getting engaged?

Christmas vibes, winter wonderland, cute and cosy, fake dating, brothers’ best friend? I mean the book sells itself.