My life has room for exactly two women: my daughter Rusty and my best friend Charlotte — known to everyone as Charlie.
One is a feisty, tomboyish firecracker. The other is my seven-year-old. I can’t imagine life without either.
So when my ex springs a custody hearing on me, I find myself telling the judge that I’m engaged to Charlie.
The only problem? I’m not.
Time to fake an engagement.
Pretending we’re a couple will be no big deal.
We’ve been friends for years. We used to sneak cigarettes behind the bleachers. We turned cans of hairspray into flamethrowers. We got drunk on stolen malt liquor.
She’s beautiful, vivacious, spontaneous, and she loves my daughter to death. It’s the perfect answer: we fake it for a few months, then go back to our lives.
Until we touch, and sparks fly. Until I can’t take my eyes off her. Until I can’t stop thinking about what she’s got on under her coveralls.
It takes one kiss.
One touch.
One shared secret and suddenly, I’m not pretending anymore. I want her, I need her in ways I didn’t know I could.
But there’s a lifetime of friendship between us, and falling in love with Charlie could risk everything.
Title: | Best Fake Fiancé |
Author: | Roxie Noir |
Series: | Loveless Brothers (Book 2) |
Pages: | 398 |
Genre(s): | Contemporary |
Trope(s): | Fake Relationship Friends to Lovers Single Parent Small Town Romance |
Point of View: | |
Location: | Sprucevale, US |
HEA: | ✔️ |
Release Date: | 14th August, 2019 |
Heat, humour and heart
This is only the second book of Roxie Noir’s I’ve read but I already get that giddy, excited feeling whenever I pick up one of her books. There’s just something about her stories and her writing style that pulls me in and I want to live in the worlds she creates.
This book is Charlotte, aka Charlie, and Daniel’s story. The pair first appeared as best friends in the first book in the Loveless Brothers’ series, Enemies with Benefits – but fear not, this book stands completely alone and you certainly don’t need to have read the first book to read, understand and enjoy this one. But I’m gonna tell ya – you’re going to want to grab everything Ms Noir has written once you get stuck into this story.
Daniel is a no-nonsense, upstanding, responsible guy who’s quite gruff and manly but with a heart of gold – especially for his seven year old daughter, Rusty. I’m not normally one for the single-dad romances but in this case it works to perfection. Daniel is the perfectly imperfect father and he makes you want to swoon.
Charlie on the other hand is deliciously scatty and the perfect tomboy…but without every being a sterotype. She just felt real and I loved her character from head to toe. I’m going to admit that her actions at the climax of the novel rubbed me the wrong way to the point where I actually considered dropping my rating of the book to 4 stars. It wasn’t that terrible in the grand scheme of things but I just didn’t like it. But I realise that the book – and Charlie’s character in general – made this a 5 star read on a curve.
The developing relationship between Charlie and Daniel didn’t go as I’d expected. I’d assumed it would be a fairly straightforward friends to lovers story but it was more gentle than that – but yet deliciously hot at the same time. I adored them together – the perfect combination of straighlaced and free spirited – again without ever being a cliche.
I’ve already spoken about Rusty, Daniel’s daughter, and while she didn’t overshadow the story or the romance, she was an absolute delight. She was so witty and hilarious – and that’s not something you’ll normally hear me say about children in any story!
Aside from the romance, the best part of this book is the way that the author writes the secondary characters – particularly the other Loveless Brothers. She writes banter – particularly male banter – so well that it’s hilarious, honest and so gross and base that you assume that she must have lived experience of being around groups of men. Lucky girl!
This book has just cemented Roxie Noir as one of my rising favourite authors. She can seemingly do no wrong while giving me a love story that’s brimming with heat, heart and humour! 5 stars and very much recommended.
I love writing sexy, alpha men and the headstrong women they fall for.
My weaknesses include: beards, whiskey, nice abs with treasure trails, sarcasm, cats, prowess in the kitchen, prowess in the bedroom, forearm tattoos, and gummi bears.
I live in California with my very own sexy, bearded, whiskey-loving husband and two hell-raising cats.
2 Comments
Review: Enemies with Benefits by Roxie Noir - Jo Reads Romance
8 October 2021 at 11:45 am[…] is book one of the Loveless Brothers’ series and I see Charlotte and Daniel will be up next in Best Fake Fiancé. And from the very minor teases of that upcoming story in this book – […]
Review: Break the Rules by Roxie Noir - Jo Reads Romance
4 October 2021 at 12:50 pm[…] is the third book in the Loveless Brothers series (after Enemies with Benefits and Best Fake Fiancé) and oh my stars, they just keep getting better and better. If you’ve been reading the series in […]