Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

This was very cute and almost made me cringe…a lot. But I still enjoyed it as a fluffy read. I got a lot of secondhand embarrassment from our MMC. The spice was legit tho so I’ll let it pass.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for my review copy.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage follows Connie (aka Hazel), an aspiring writer who just can't seem to avoid so-called "nice guys" in her dating life. Jaded and perpetually alone, Connie avoids her next door neighbor book editor Beck like the plague - with his dorky bowties and gifts of delicious pies at her doorstep. But when this goofy, put-together imposing tower of a man suddenly shows up in the elevator disheveled and distressed, Connie can't help but to feel curious. It turns out that Beck has been lying to his coworkers about having a wife. As events and shenanigans unfold, Connie (now going by Hazel) and Beck somehow end up in a fake marriage at a writing retreat with Beck's evil coworker. Can they keep up this charade without falling for each other in the process?


Y'all know how these stories go. Fake marriage, forced proximity, only one bed, a sweet guy who blushes when he sees ankles and can't keep his food down when he lies. This book is very cute, sometimes almost too cute. And that cuteness often verges into cringe. Beck is an embarrassing parody of Clark Kent, saying things like "oh my goodness" and "dilly of a pickle" and Connie/Hazel is written so tumblr millennial (I'm a millennial btw) with her pink streaks and her ballet flat shoes. But honestly -- regardless of how cringey the characters are -- the spice is excellent, so I'm willing to look past it. This book is also incredibly plot-lite; I'm pretty sure the plot was an afterthought and an excuse to just write back to back chapters of smut. The miscommunication trope also runs rampant throughout the book, causing a lot of frustration for the characters and the reader.

If you need a mindlessly smutty book with awkward, desperately millennial plus size characters and can get over the cringe & frequent miscommunication, this one's worth a read.

3 stars

title: My Big Fat Fake Marriage

author: Charlotte Stein

publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

publication date: March 11, 2025

pages: 304

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings: none

summary: Connie/Hazel has had extraordinarily bad luck with dating, so much so that she doesn't trust any nice men she meets, including her new neighbor Beck. He's not just nice, he's Ted Lasso nice, so of course, he must want something from her. Through a series of silly events, she discovers that he's been pretending to be married for the benefit of a jerky co-worker. In a fit of protective spirit, she claims to be Beck's wife, a ruse they have to maintain on a two-week writers' retreat run by his publishing house.

tropes:

fake marriage
Ted Lasso
burned by love

low confidence main characters
only one bed
we have to practice kissing
he's got no sexual experience; hers is all lousy

what I liked:

His Ted Lasso-ness was well done, including a basketball equivalent to the famous dart scene
spicy intimacy scenes

what I didn’t like:

bad guy is too icky to be believable
takes her too long to figure out how much he likes her

overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)

This book is wonderful. I loved that it was funny, cute and very spicy. Even though the MCs had their own personal issues to overcome, they pretty quickly realized they were attracted to each other both physically and personally and their HEA was very sweet. It was nice to see the characters from When Grumpy Met Sunshine again but this book could totally be read as a standalone. I also enjoy when characters are exploring their passions so I loved when Beck encouraged Connie to take advantage of the writing retreat and she became very inspired to write. Thank you to Charlotte Stein, NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for giving me a chance to read it early.

I’m always a sucker for a fake relationship and this book did not disappoint! This was a such a cute and quick read for me. I didn’t realize this was a second book in a series but I didn’t think I missed anything by reading this first. I’ll definitely be checking out book 1!

I could not get into this novel - I. did not care for any of the characters and did not care for the writing style of the author. I gave up at 20% in. Life is too short to read books I don't enjoy. This one went into my DNF pile.

Thank you so much for the ARC! This was so cheesy and adorable! The character development in this story was great and the spice was spectacular! Some parts of the book I didn't find enticing and I didn't find myself wanting to pick up the book often. Overall it was well done, however, not my favourite. I will however read another book by Charlotte Stein.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein is a well written book about the relationship between two unlikely neighbors. Connie’s neighbor Beck is quite a nerd, and she is surprisingly drawn to his quirky ways.
Beck is going to attend a writer’s retreat and then tells his co-workers he will be bringing his wife. Oops, he does not have a wife, so Connie tells him she will go along and pretend to be his wife; a massive surprise to him, and even more of a surprise to Connie as she cannot believe she offered to do that. Needless to say, this has humor and crazy situations.
This story took a bit of time for me to get into and I will tell you that it is quite graphic but also entertaining in a quirky way! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this ARC.

Super fast fun read! The characters are relatable (don't we all doubt ourselves at times?!) There's humor, spice, romance, and friendship - what's not to love!

I loved so many parts of this story. I loved the nerdy banter and wish there would have been more of it. I loved that they were older and fluffier. I loved the setting of a writer's retreat. But I usually like my sex scenes more PG and definitely less foul language.

I really wanted to like this book. It had so many things I adore, but I just couldn't get into it. This was a DNF for me. I found the dialogue to be forced and contrived.

DNF - I love that this book attempts to be normalizing and affirming for a variety of readers and yet it is so distracting to any kind of story line that I couldn't finish the book.

Good golly, this book is soooo hot. And at the same time so sweet. Hazel and Beckett are neighbors. He is kind and awkward and weird. And she is jaded about men, and tired of hiding her own awkward and weird. I must admit Beckett also crosses the line of too naive I guess. He is just that kind. But his kindness makes Hazel blossom. And her life experience light him up. And just to reiterate, this book is hot. Kudos to Charlotte Stein for writing a kissing scene that had me fanning my face. I am so glad I got a chance to read it early.

I wasn’t sure about this one at first, but I ended up truly loving this story! I totally identify with all the doubts Hazel has about herself. I read the second half all in one sitting! I will definitely be seeking out more by this author.

This book dances between humor and heat, blending fake romance with real emotions. Its playful twists make it a joyful exploration of love and happily-ever-afters.

This is fun! Lots of excellent banter, especially the written exchanges between the main characters. And the steam....whew! I did wish for some additional plot complications. This is very much a relationship story with 2 very likable characters. I would definitely read this author's books again.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Connie thinks she has nice men figured out. For that reason., she does not trust her neighbor. This book made me laugh at times.

First things first: Charlotte Stein definitely knows how to write a hot sex scene. This book rates five out of five chili peppers on the spiciness scale.

Now, for the plot... Connie's neighbor, Beck, is an American editor working in the U.K. The two of them pretend to be fake-married when they attend a 2-week-long writing retreat, mainly because Beck's mean co-worker, Doug, is a bully. Connie, who has been disappointed over and over again by rotten boyfriends, gradually falls for Beck. Bring on the "only one bed" and lots of sexual tension!

We eventually learn that Beck, who is in his late 30s, is still a virgin. My main problem with the book is that there was no backstory whatsoever! It's mentioned in passing that he grew up in Kansas—were his parents religious? He doesn't seem to have any hang-ups in that regard, but why would a tall, well-built guy who apparently had a successful college sports career never have had a girlfriend? We're led to believe that he's awkward and nerdy, but awkward, nerdy guys get laid all the time! There should have been something else there to help explain it, but since the whole story is told from Connie's POV, we never really get to know Beck as well as we should.

Finally, Beck had a real "heigh-diddly-ho, neighborino" way of speaking that reminded me of an unholy cross between Kenneth the Page from "30 Rock" and Ned Flanders (interestingly, both of those characters are Christian fundamentalists). Charlotte Stein is British, so I wonder if she simply had trouble getting into the head of a character from the American Midwest.

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for the review copy, via NetGalley.

Charlotte Stein really hit her stride with her latest work. She writes FMCs who reflect modern challenges. The romance between Connie and Beck was sweet and eventually just the right amount of spicy. I was surprised by the cameos from Stein's previous book. Highly enjoyed.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book, this is my objective review. This the second in a series (follow-up to When Grumpy Met Sunshine). And although we first met Connie and Beck (our main couple here) in that book and Alfie and Mabel make an appearance in this book, this book does work okay as a standalone. That said, go read that one too because it's highly enjoyable.

Connie, our fmc, is jaded and burned by the skeevy type of "Nice Guys" in the past so she has a hard time trusting an actual nice guy (her neighbor Beck) when he makes an appearance. The bare bones book description is that Beck claimed at work to be married, and so he asks Connie to be his pretend wife on a 2-week writing retreat that Beck is managing and that Connie already planned to attend. Can they believably maintain the ruse or will Beck's a-hole co-worker see right through it? And can they both keep their hearts intact when the 2 weeks are up? Beck is written like a caricature of an earnest American nerd, with the speech patterns of a character from "Fargo." Personality-wise he is deeply noble and decent. Physically, picture an American Henry Cavill with a mustache, who leans *hard* into his geeky interests and also wears bow ties. Whereas Connie is a closet nerd who subverts her inner geek with the shiny facade of a cool girl that she was taught to wear like armor. The book is written from a single 1st-person POV from Connie's perspective, but the author has a talent for writing internal monologues that do a great job of revealing things about both the character and who- or whatever the character is observing. The writing is a bit over-the-top but in a really enjoyable way. I love that Connie latches on to the idea that she can try on a relationship with a sweet guy like Beck, while it simultaneously makes me sad that she doesn't think she deserves a real relationship with someone who is kind. And what frustrates me about fictional couples like this is that neither thinks they deserve the other, and so the assumption builds to sustained misunderstanding (that we have to trust will get resolved for the HEA). And I get that it builds tension, which I'm not here for. What I *am* here for is the dawning realization that they were wrong and that what they want *can* also be the exact thing they truly deserve. If you like hyperbolic and semi-dense introspective monologues laced with humor and heat, this will be the book for you. I really like how Stein crafts her female main character's inner thoughts: when she's on her game, they're so relatable and work so well to set the scene that you don't really notice the lack of active events. One last note: as with her other books, this one is very open-door. So maybe be careful where and how you listen to an audiobook of this story!