3.5 stars

First of all, I would like to say that this book's spice level caught me completely off guard. At times, it was down right filthy. I've only listened to the audiobook of this story, but I have to say that this is an incredible listen, and I think the inner dialogue - which reminded me a lot of Bridget Jones - is something that comes across really well when listened to.

Was I attracted to Beck literally at all... no. I loved his sweet demeanor and quirks, but he really wasn't doing it for me personally. Now, Beck WAS doing it for my girl Hazel, and it was just such a fun twist from Hazel having so many bad relationships that she doesn't trust that Beck is all golden retriever until she sees him being treated the way she's been treated.

This was a quick read with a fairly simple plot, as it mostly just focused on Hazel and Beck, but it was so sweet and entertaining to listen to!

My Big Fat Fake Marriage
A Novel
by Charlotte Stein
Narrated by Imogen Wilde

I received an ARC of this audiobook through Netgalley.

Imogen Wilde did a great job narrating this book!

This romance book is seriously unusual. I loved it though.

Imagine the most dorkily dressed guy ever - and that’s Beck. He is the cheesiest cheeseball ever, and it’s a shame he isn’t real. He’s nicer than the nicest guy you’ve ever met, and sexier too.

Imagine yourself in the ways that all of the naysayers and haters have ever thought of you, and imagine you allowed yourself to believe every foolish thing that ever left their heartless mouths. Imagine only being your real self with your besties and inside your own head - and that’s Hazel.

This is a NSFW audiobook. Do NOT listen to this at work.

I highly recommend this book. Just be aware that it’s erotic and sexy as hell.

Enjoy yourself!

Okay, this was the cutest! First off, if you start a book talking about an adorable man bringing you intricate pies, I am IN! Fill that book with the yummiest inexperienced cinnamon roll of a man, a curvy but confident woman, and throw them together in a room with one bed? I AM IN! There were times when Beck seemed a little over the top with his sweetness, but honestly? I just loved him. And the chemistry and spice between him and Hazel was off the charts!! So many butterflies! And the audiobook narration was fantastic!

3.5 stars! This writing and vibe started out giving that classic, old-school Meg Cabot or Jennifer Weiner early 2000s feel and I was immediately here for it. Then once the plot picked up, it was more obvious it was in today’s timeline and that’s when the spice kicked in.

I’m a sucker for fake married, forced proximity, she thinks she falls first. That’s my BREAD AND BUTTER. But the pacing in the third half felt rushed. I wanted more of them falling in love, more comeuppance for the jerk coworker, and to see our couple having fun together outside of the bedroom or emails.

It was still a fun and very quick read. I read it all in one day!

The audiobook narrator does a fantastic job. I’m definitely looking her up to see what else she narrates.

Thanks to Macmillian Audio and NetGalley for the ARC 🫶🏻

An enjoyable sweet, fake marriage, opposites attract, romance.
Engaging, funny characters, if not a little over the top and a lovely happily ever after. Connie doesn’t trust men. Any of them. Ever. Henry is her very sweet, kind neighbor, just happens to be the nicest of nice and at the same time little self confidence or experience with women in the personal sense. When, through a riotous misunderstanding and sort of invasion of his privacy, his biggest secret is revealed and together they hatch a plan to help him out. They were kind of adorable. I enjoyed the listen that got me to the HEA.

Uprated from what would have been a 3.5 rating if half stars were available.

Sweet, spicy, and utterly deletable!

Connie is a love cynic and convinced nice guys are only every faking it to get in your pants - until she meets Beck, who is actually nice... without any ulterior motives. Since he’s the sweetest man on the planet she can’t help but jump in to rescue him, by pretending to be his WIFE.

What’s to love…
- fat MCs and body positive narrative
- teddy bear MMC who is also the most nerdy, goofy, wholesome, perfect human.
- inexperienced (him) + experienced (her)
- fake marriage!
- forced proximity
- only one bed (oh no!)
- bookish book (editor MMC, writer FMC)
- A++ banter

What’s not to love…
- I prefer just a bit more of a balance between emotional engagement and spice and this leaned heavier on the spice. I think the character development suffers a tiny bit for it.
- I am an absolute SUCKER for the super sweet, super nerdy, just wants to be LOVED and LOVE someone else, genuinely good guy. Give me the extreme - ones that can’t curse and who get sick from trying to lie and Beck is definitely that! That said, some might find Beck a little unrealistic and silly!

🎙️- The narration is single POV and Imogen Wilde did an absolutely fantastic job! Overall it was a highly enjoyable performance. 5/5 would recommend the audio!

🌶 - The spice starts in Ch 18 and makes an appearance in pretty much every chapter till the book ends. I thought the build up and progression of spice was absolutely delicious!

4 Stars! Thank you so much NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC audiobook of My Big Fat Fake Marriage.

I will start this review off by saying that I am not usually an audiobook person, I prefer make up the voices in my head and experience books that way. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to listen to Charlotte Stein's newest book, especially after loving When Grumpy Met Sunshine. This book does have a different vibe than previous Stein books but I thoroughly enjoyed the cinnamon roll MMC and his ridiculously cute personality. The FMC, Connie, was not necessarily my favorite but I did like her journey to embracing her true identity and the relationship she had with Beck. The story in general is fairly cheesy as other reviewers have mentioned but if you want a cute, light-hearted, fake dating/marriage rom-com I would definitely suggest giving it a listen or a read.

The audiobook was narrated by Imogen Wilde and I believe she did a great job. The main character's voice was easy to follow and flowed well with nice pauses where appropriate. The other characters in the book were given different voices (by Imogen) to differentiate them from Connie and I believe she did wonderfully. I had such a pleasant experience from this audiobook, that I think I'll start to look into listening to more books in the future.

DNF @ 11%. Couldn't get into it the story at all. Then remembered I felt the same way about When Grumpy Met Sunshine too...

Thanks to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for an advance copy

𝐀𝐋𝐂 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

🎧𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
ℐ𝓂ℴ𝑔ℯ𝓃 𝒲𝒾𝓁𝒹ℯ 🎙️

ꨄ𝐅𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞
♥︎𝐍𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐬
ꨄ𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭
♥︎𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐌𝐂

✨𝒯𝒽ℴ𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈✨
𝐈𝐬 it possible for a story to be both sweet and very, very steamy (horn3y)? Well, this book manages to do both and I loved every minute of it!

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐬 is very distrustful of nice guys, and Henry Samuel Beckett (Beck) is the nicest, sweetest man ever. When she accidentally blurts out that she’s Beck's wife to his awful co-worker, things escalate, and now they have to go to a writers retreat and pretend they are indeed married.

𝐈 absolutely loved listening to this story. 𝐈𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞 has a lovely voice with a smooth American accent and she gives Beck a swoon-worthy male voice. The narration truly adds to the story, and combined with the fantastic writing, it makes for a perfect match.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 the main characters, oh my god, the main characters are so sweet and lovable it almost gave me a toothache. They stand up for each other when needed and their interactions had me smiling like a fool! Connie's tendency to overthink things is hilarious, while Beck's charming and honest nature can charm even a snake. Beck makes manners sound sexy! Only Beck can romance you with his little notepad! 🤭 This love story is one that you don't want to miss. Trust me, it's like sinking your teeth into the sweetest cinnamon roll!

Thank you to the author, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this ALC. All thoughts and opinions shared here are entirely my own.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟒.𝟓⭐️
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥: 𝟑/𝟓🔥

This book was a pretty cute romance. I don't think it will be my favorite romance of 2025, but overall I still enjoyed this book. I did find the male main character to be a bit unrealistic. Also I liked the audiobook narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc/alc.

Thank you so much MacmillanAudio for letting me get the arc audio for this book .I like the book the characters were quirky. The smut was 5/5 my biggest no was the narrator I felt like their was no emotion and just fell flat. The one thing I did enjoy about this book was MMC was definitely a very interesting character I would recommend this book just not on audio. Look forward to reading more from this author

This was a good book! If you like spicy romance, definitely give it a try. The first have is a little dragging and the spice starts in the second half. I felt the FMC was a little selfish and the MMC lack of experience was unbelievable. Overall it was a good listen and the narrator did a fantastic job.

Very cute and relatable characters. Great representation of fake dating and forced proximity tropes. A little too heavy on the spice for me, and don’t love that Connie was touching herself in bed with Beck, kinda without consent? I know he didn’t mind (at all) but still felt a lil icky listening to it

“Someone needs to save your cinnamon roll ass from evil and apparently that someone is me.” This is the definition of a romcom! Connie is a badass who speaks before she thinks. Beck is a cinnamon roll hero who just deserves love! There were times I swooned and others I seriously laughed out loud!!

Huge Thank you to Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Beck a super sweet nice guy book editor that finds himself Fake Married to his neighbor Connie/Hazel (who distrust nice guys) to cover his lie about being married to his co-workers.

I enjoyed this book at times but also have mixed feelings about it.

It almost felt a little all over the place Connie/Hazel doesn't know who she is and definitely feels like she is two different people and it was a lot to keep up with and then Beck while super sweet and a complete gentleman also has a spicy side that I didn't expect. There was just a lot of contradictions between the main characters each on their own that left me feeling at times there were 4 main characters instead of 2.

So I have very mixed feelings about this book. Overall - I think a lot of people will like it. It is VERY spicy. - but most of the spice is in the second half of the book, while the first half is mostly internal dialogue - this is where I think the book kind of missed the mark for me. When the characters are interacting, chatting, etc., I enjoyed the story. But the constant stream of internal dialogue and questioning felt very repetitive and I didn't find that engaging at all. I also found the idea of a 37 year old, attractive man who hasn't even kissed someone to be difficult to get past.

This narrator FMC has to my favorite that I’ve listened to thus far. She reminds me of Pen from Bridgerton and I must say that made me connect to this character more. (I love our Lady Whistledown) She was actually quite similar. I loved Beck and her’s friendship turned fake marriage/relationship. The way he was so shy and passive at first yet he came up with this giant lie about having a fake wife and then we have our heroine Hazey swoop in and save him cause she couldn’t stand the way he was being treated. They went from 0-100 on the 🌶️ and there was about 4-5 chapters straight of them just 💦 so that was that. Overall I enjoyed and recommend for a lighthearted fake dating romance. 💘 👩🏼‍❤️‍👨🏻✨ The way he wrote notes for her and that last note omg I swooned 🥲
Lastly, thank you NetGalley and Harlequin publishing for this opportunity to read this ARC. I was not paid to write this and this review is fully my own opinions.

Fake romance tropes are a favorite of mine. I just finished listening to a fun one. My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein is one to grab soon.

this book was not for me. i didn't keep my attention.. I did not like mc and the narration dragged for me

I really wanted to like this, but the extreme tropiness of both characters just didn't work for me. While there was plenty of spice...I didn't feel much authentic chemistry with the characters. I really don't enjoy when the FMC is so exasperating because she's in her head, not communicating and making tons of assumptions, while the seemingly perfect MMC has unwavering patience with the behavior.

Also...the constant description of of the FMC's greediness in bed really annoyed me. It was hot the first time, even the second...after that I'm gonna need you to use a thesaurus or have some character growth.