3.5 ⭐️

Aww this was such a wholesome story 🥹 It got me tearing up quite a few times (I related to Elle a lot).

Elle (podcaster) goes to live with her grandmother who has alzheimers. When she arrives she has THE meet cute aka she fall in to bed, but there is a guy in her bed 😅

Adam works for a firm that provides in house patients care and is there to take care of Elle’s grandmother.

And when her grandmother confused Elle and Adam for herself en her late husband, they start fake dating >> ugh such a fun story.!!

This book definitely dealt with a heavy topic, but it was handled so gracefully. Seeing Elle struggle and trying to figure out how to move forward with the situation was heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.

The only thing that felt off to me was the romance. I feel like the potential was definitely there, but there were some “stange” (imo) moments that made it feel forced and a tad cringe.

Overall really liked it!!

I enjoyed this story so much! It really told a story filled with heart, honesty, and love.

Elle, Adam & Lovie are such unforgettable characters. Each for their very own, specific reasons.

Alzheimers is not an easy subject to read about. I can only imagine how hard it is to write about. I feel like the author kept it real, which as a reader is exactly how I want it.

I would recommend this book!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of Fake It Like You Mean It by Megan Murphy.

Elle is a podcaster who leaves Chicago to help care for her grandmother, Lovie. Lovie raised Elle since she was three when her parents died in a car accident. Lovie’s Alzheimer’s is progressing and Elle hired AngelCare to help care for her grandmother. After Elle and Adam, Lovie’s RN, first meeting ends up being in Elle’s bed, the two don’t get off to the best start but must learn to work together to care for Lovie.

This was such a sweet story. The characters were so endearing, our main pair as well as Lovie and Ruth. Elle and Adam were so lovely together. I enjoyed reading the progression of their relationship. I thought the third act of this book was done so well!

If you enjoy fake dating and forced proximity, this is a romance to check out!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. DNF. I will not be finishing. I tried to read this and it wasn’t pulling me in. I’m only reading because it makes me and reviewing so it doesn’t hurt my feedback ratio.

Elle moves home to help take care of her grandmother, Lovie, who has Alzheimer’s disease. The disease is advanced enough for Lovie to need full time care, enter Adam as the in-home nurse caregiver. Lovie mistakes Elle & Adam as her younger self and her deceased husband. Fake dating ensues. Elle was unrelatable (pre-teen girl like conflict/drama) in the beginning so it was difficult to stay engaged & keep reading. Fortunately, that child-like behavior went away as the story progressed. The Alzheimer’s storyline was handled with great understanding and respect for the situation. Anyone who is in a similar situation would be greatly benefited by having someone as calm, caring and considerate on their side as Adam.

This is a complicated review of a complicated book. It actually reads like two books - one, a romance, and the other, a family drama - and while I enjoyed both, I reacted differently to each.

First, the easy part. This was a sweet romance incorporating many of my favorite tropes: fake dating, enemies to lovers, and forced proximity. Our main characters, Elle and Adam, meet when Elle returns to her hometown to help care for her grandmother, Lovie. Lovie has Alzheimer’s Disease and Adam is her live-in nurse. Things get off on a sour note and get complicated when Lovie mistakes Elle and Adam for a couple in love. They play their parts to avoid upsetting her. The romance is cute. Adam is wonderful, there are tender moments, and the open door spice is steamy.

Now, the challenging part. Alzheimer’s is an awful disease that affects the patient and everyone who cares for them. The depiction here is strikingly authentic. This is not an, “Aw, shucks, Grandma forgot where she put the remote,” portrayal. This is Grandma doesn’t recognize me, Grandma is violent and combative, and Grandma is not the person I know and love. If you’ve ever loved or cared for someone with Alzheimer’s, you’ll recognize the heartbreak and utter devastation that accompanies this disease. It’s cruel. It’s horrific and Megan Murphy captures it with frankness and tenderness.

I alternated between the digital and audio versions of the book and it was an ideal combination for me. Alex Picard’s narration carried me through some of the more emotional parts.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Alcove Press for the advance copies. All opinions are my own.

Came for the promise of fake dating and fun banter, stayed for the poignant story of a girl coming to terms with the grandmother who raised her succumbing to alzeheimers. This was at times emotional, at times hilarious (thank you for the Hocus Pocus jokes), and altogether a great read!!

Elle is a self-professed all or nothing kind of gal, but when life throws her into a muddled situation, she has to learn how to function, how to trust, and how to let go of total control. Enter Adam, home nurse, patient as a saint, here to take care of Lovie but also helping get Elle through the ups and the downs. Their relationship is tender, sweet, and full of heart- and it doesn't hurt that it brings a comfort to Lovie who sees them as herself and her husband when they first got married.

I think this was a beautiful book, and will absolutely be coming back for more from Megan Murphy (it doesn't hurt that she spells her name the right way)!! Thanks so much to Megan Murphy and NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars
This is a fun, entertaining, powerful read. Adam and Elle are interesting, wounded, relatable, intriguing, complex, strong, complicated, entertaining characters. I enjoyed their romance and the path it took to get to their HEA. The secondary characters added to the fabric of the story and my enjoyment. I loved the family aspects of the story. The subplot of dealing with a family member with Alzheimer’s is powerful, tear jerking and done with compassion and sensitivity.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Fake It Like You Mean It is beautiful and heart-wrenching. I loved watching Elle and Adam fall for each other and loved the glimpses we got into Lovie's past. I did struggle a bit with Adam at the beginning—he seemed rude for no reason, and as someone who has had my own share of health reasons, I just had a hard time with someone in his position being so hostile to the person who's dropped everything to come take care of their family. I also wished we'd seen more of his storyline resolve at the end. Overall I did like it though, and felt that the emotions really landed.

A huge thank you to netgalley, alcove press, and megan murphy for allowing me to read this as an arc.

I’ve had to take some time away from reading this because it’s hitting a little too close to home and I am not in the head space to read this without bawling my eyes out. I will do a full review on my goodreads account when I have finished but I wanted to take the time to thank everyone for giving me this opportunity and what I have read so far I’ve loved and I can’t wait to finish it when I’m capable.

Thank you to #netgalley #librofm and #alcovepress for an advance reader copy of this book. Four stars.

I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO SOB MY EYES OUT MULTIPLE TIMES, but this was such a surprise in the best ways!

Fake It Like You Mean It is absolutely a sweet romance story of two people who are dealing with different things / traumas from the past. You watch them fall for each other and grow as individuals and as partners. BUT it is also so much more than that.

The Alzheimer’s representation in this book is done so very well. The way that the FMC was handling the entire situation was beautifully written in a sense that it was painful, joyous, hopeless, hopeful, and absolutely so accurate to what those in that situation will feel. When she got there at the end when Angie called her I was simply a mess. It was such a beautiful moment and I was so glad that she got to have that.

I really loved Adam. He was a strong character who was super supportive to our FMC, but also had his own growth and story as well.

I really LOVED the narration. The narrator did an absolutely outstanding job. She kept me entertained and into the story the entire time. I would absolutely recommend consuming this via audio.

You’ll find:
-Fake Dating
-Forced Proximity
-Only One Bed
-Snowed in Together

& LET ME JUST ADD. this was a DEBUT. this is OUTSTANDING for a debut novel. 👏🏼 YOU DID THAT.

Truly i loved this book. It touched me in such a special place in my heart. If you’re looking for a beautifully sweet romance that also touches on real world, tough topics, i can’t recommend this one enough.

Fake It Like You Mean It follows podcaster Elle as she comes home to help care for her grandmother Lovie who raised her, and is now suffering from Alzheimer’s. She almost immediately clashes with in-home nurse Adam, but when Lovie mistakes Adam and Elle for herself and her late husband Bobby, they must pretend to be in love so they don’t upset Lovie and push her mind too far. Will their fake dating and forced proximity make it so they can’t stand each other, or will it make them realize the depth of their feelings for each other?

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Murphy, and Alcove Press for the digital ARC of Fake It Like You Mean It in exchange for an honest review.

Fake It Like You Mean It is a beautifully poignant example of how long of a process losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s is, and having to grieve a loved one while they are still living, but slowly forgetting who you are. This book also expertly shows how easy it can be to run from love when things get too hard, or when conflict threatens to tear two people apart.

This was SUCH a sweet book. It is such a fun fake dating/forced proximity/one bed/enemies to lovers romance story. I found myself rooting for Elle and Adam from the moment Elle came back to her grandmother’s home in the middle of the night to find Adam asleep in her childhood bedroom. The slow-burn romance was torturous at times, but it definitely pays off in the end!

This book definitely made me cry more than once, especially some of the more difficult scenes between Elle and Lovie. I definitely recommend keeping the tissues handy when reading this one!

Honestly this was a really cute down to earth and in many ways relatable rom com with a lot of heart.

Elle’s grandmother Lovie has always taken care of her. But now Lovie has Alzheimer and it is Elle’s turn to take care of her grandma.

She moves into her grandma’s house only to find out that an annoying yet handsome man named Adam is living there. He is a caregiver that has been assigned to assist Lovie and apparently to drive Elle insane.

Forced proximity romance with a lot of humour, very down to earth imperfect characters and a lot of heart.

The book also touches on Alzheimer and how the disease progresses but also how the family members are affected by it and the struggles they go through.

Elle’s grandma thinks that Adam and Elle are a couple and they will have to pretend in front of her. So we have fake dating and enemies to lovers which are two tropes I really enjoy.

This is a very slow paced book and I did find that it dragged for me and it did not excite me as much as I had hoped. However there are some cute moments, some good laughs and a clear message that life goes on for all of us and no matter what happens, we don’t have to forget to live and be happy. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

So even though it was not quite as good as I had hoped and the romance chemistry was not quite there for me, it was still an enjoyable romcom with some more serious topics and family drama.

thank you so much to netgalley, alcove press, and megan murphy for approving me for an arc! what a debut novel. i loved this so much, and i needed it more than i realized i did.

while my situation wasn’t a memory-related one, i spent half of last year as a full-time caregiver for my 82-year-old grandmother, and i did it alone. this book brought back a lot of the complicated feelings i went through during that period of my life, and i think if you haven’t experienced something like that, it’s really hard to understand why people react the way they do to it. i saw myself in elle and how she struggled, how she adjusted to the inevitable, how she handled the good days and the bad days, the accidents. this book was a love letter to people like me, to everyone touched by time and the people coping with losing people when they’re still alive.

and that’s not even touching on the love story between elle and adam, which was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous to read. adam is such a comfort, the way he understood her and paid attention, the careful way he pushed just enough for her to let him love her.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley and to the author for this ARC opportunity!

Megan wrote an absolutely beautiful novel that describes and portrays Alzheimer’s with such beauty, and respect. In this novel Elle returns to her childhood home to care for her grandmother Lovie whom has Alzheimer’s. She is greeted with her worst nightmare, Adam a nurse who’s helping her grandmother.

When Lovie thinks that Adam is “Bobby” the two join forces and begin fake dating. Their relationship however takes a different course throughout. Readers will laugh, want to cry, and want to jump up and down with this novel. It is emotional, fun, loving, and at times hilarious.

This is a cozy, tender, honest depiction of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s while falling hard and fast. This book carefully proves that love can grow and show up amidst the heartache of life when you least expect it. Tasked with the responsibility of ensuring her grandmother Lovie has home health care, Elle returns to her childhood home when Lovie needs additional assistance. Not thinking a hot, gruff, male nurse would be sleeping in her childhood bed upon arrival, Elle and Adam stubbornly butt heads as they navigate co-caring for Lovie. So when Lovie mistakenly identifies Elle and Adam as her and her husband, Elle and Adam keep up the newlywed charade to keep Lovie from slipping further into her disease.

This is actually one of the most plausible fake-dating plots I’ve read in awhile. As someone whose Grandmother had dementia, I have witnessed how accurate Lovie’s mood changes and reactions are in reality. This is forced proximity and there’s-only-one-bed at its best; how do you deal with sharing a bed and a small space with someone you barely know and may not even like, even if you are attracted to them? Even as grown adults, you’re bound to get on each other’s nerves, and yet the kindness Adam shows towards Elle begins to creep into her heart as true feelings replace acting. Adam is a pretty perfect guy—even in his frustration with Elle he still stays level-headed, his love language is clearly acts of service and not only does he care for Lovie but for Elle’s needs as well. I loved the tight spaces scenes in the laundry room, bedroom, and of course the snowed in apartment, and the metaphorical missing a step on a staircase feeling as you realize you’re falling for someone.

This book was the perfect blend of bantering rivalry within an insular world, combined with the cozy feeling of caring for someone, even if it breaks your heart a little. It’s spicy and heated but never at the detriment of Lovie’s care. I’m really excited to see what Megan Murphy will give us next. I received an early copy from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

CW: caring for a grandparent with Alzheimer’s

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭.5

Elle is a podcaster who moves back in with her grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s and finds Adam, her 24/7 nurse living in her room.

This book really had potential, but I found Elle’s hostility towards Adam really odd and there was simply no reason for it. He’s caring for your most beloved family member! It felt manufactured just for the sake of the book. I felt like I couldn’t like Elle because of it, and their romance fell a bit flat for me.

I was lucky ended to up getting the audio version of this book as well and will post review will be under the audiobook.

A fun, fairly light hearted enemies to lovers fake dating/forced proximity/one bed read!

When Elle heads back to the town she grew up in to help with her grandmother's alzheimers car, she runs face first into the home health care nurse and the two get off on the wrong foot. But when Lovie identifies Elle and Adam as a younger version of her and her late husband Bobby, the two up the antics and play into what could be between them. It's only a matter of time before things heat up for real.

I loved most of this story, I loved the chemistry between Adam and Elle, I loved the friends she had in her corner and I loved her relationship with Lovie. There were a lot of heavy plot adjacent points though that I feel like needed to be tended to a bit more carefully, past hurt and Adam's family commitments that needed to be a bit more resolved at the end and I wanted a bit more to the epilogue but overall this was a lovely story!


Thank you Netgalley and Alcove Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!