2,5 stars

Normally, fake relationships are one of my favorite romance tropes, but this was not well written. The first 10% (so basically the free sample) were pretty funny, but unfortunately the book kept getting worse the further it went. Cheesy, poorly written, unimaginative, cliched. I hope I'll remember to steer clear of this author in the future. ( )

3.5 stars

I'm always a sucker for fake dating/marriage stories and this one was no different. I thought this was a pretty unbelievable story but one that was very cute. I like the money talk that was put into this story. That felt very realistic to me. I liked that Hayden wasn't automatically comfortable with Jesse spending money on him. The conversations that they had about their different financial situations seemed very mature and I liked that they discussed those issues rather than just assuming that everything would be fine.

I thought Jesse and Hayden's relationship worked well. There were a couple parts that felt a little too sudden or there was not enough communication between them but for the most part it was fine. I liked the parts we got with the families because it let us see the different background they were coming from. At times, Jesse's family seemed a little too much like stereotypical villains, but I understand wanting to play up the drama. I do wish we had seen more of Hayden's roommates after he moved out. It seemed like they were all close friends but they only made a couple of appearances in the book.

I've read a couple of books by this author at this point and I've mostly enjoyed them. They're easy to read and usually pretty fun, probably not realistic plot lines. It's nice to read books like that sometimes and while this book did deal with some heavier topics, it was very readable and I flew through the story. ( )

So I'll admit I'm a fan of a "fake" boyfriend/husband story at the best of times. Now present me one written by an author I'll admit I love reading and of course it's a match made in heaven.

I adored the MCs in this story. Jesse and Hayden are interesting and complex characters that are portrayed beautifully. Jesse's cluelessness about what it means to have to truly penny-pinch, Hayden's disbelief that the offer is real, as well as his incredulity regarding the ultra-rich is very well presented. The fact that both Jesse and Hayden aren't doing this to get back at someone, or for revenge is also very refreshing, lol.

This story truly didn't read as a 480 pages book. In fact I was a little disappointed when I got to the end. i wasn't ready to say goodbye to either of these boys *grin* ( )

The narration was absolutely top-notch! Bumped the audiobook up to 5 Stars
( )