An enjoyable chick lit read, enjoyed the various trials that our heroine came up against and glad I am no longer 25

Not what I was expecting, but so much more. This didn’t have the end I hoped it would, but it had a perfect end for the story, this is a love story like no other. I found Sophie to be grating at times, she went on and on, and you could see why her dates didn’t work, but then you really got to know her and found her true self, that was a great story. There are many great plot lines in this one, and some that worked better than others, but they all wowed me and kept me hooked. I loved the craziness between Sophie and Harry, and in my true romantic heart, I hope maybe one day we will hear more, but enough on that. You will laugh so hard at this story that you won’t be able to stop, and that makes it a true five-star read for me.

I've never read anything by this author before but I have watched the film adaptation of The Kissing Booth. I found this book under the Romance section of Netgalley as I predominantly read Romance novels and I love a happy ever after. In this book the heroine gets a kind of happy ending but I wouldn't class it as a Romance novel as she doesn't end up with the male lead. They synopsis is also written to imply it's a romance and she will end up with Harry.

I would say this book would be liked more by single people. I found it hard to like Sophie. It's quite hard to state why as I feel it would offend a lot of readers who are single. But she did remind me of two of my friends who are single!

Sophie needs a date for her sisters wedding, so she advertises for one online and she gets Harry. I really liked Harry, so I was sad he didn't get a happy ending. Sophie states near the end that she's not in love with him and doesn't want to be with him but then right at the end she's wondering if maybe something could happen between them in the future which seems stupid when she expressed the reasons why she didn't want to be with him.

It's a book about self discovery and realising that being in love or having a partner is not all it's cracked up to be. Women can clearly be happy single. I just think it shouldn't be billed as a romance. It should be under chick lit.

Also, I wasn't a fan of the writing style.

The newest book by Beth Reekles and it's a good one. Let's meet Sophie who is 25 and happily single. However her family seem to have a little bit of a problem with her being single. One of her sisters is getting married and they really want her to have a plus one to bring to the wedding. But not any plus one a special plus one who she will still be together with when they look back at the photos in 10 years time.

All of Sophie's friends are also settling down, moving into long term relationships, first homes, having babies and getting married. It's all pilling on the pressure a bit much and it's making Sophie take a good long look at her life choices.

So Sophie decides to offer a plea on a dating site seeking a date with the promise of an all expenses paid weekend to anyone who will go along with her crazy charade of being madly in love with her. But as they spin it out more the more they realise that they need each other.

But the story is more then the usual I know what's going to happen here ending. The story is more about finding your self, realising who you are and falling in love with yourself.

Such a wonderful, uplifting and feel good book, showing the importance of self love and not needing a man to complete your life.

3.5 stars

**The last couple of paragraphs contain a few sentences that may spoil you.**

Beth Reekles takes romance with a capital R genre tropes and twists them in her anti-Romance (deliberate capital R) tale of single girl Sophie Barker who desperately wants a boyfriend.

Why do I say anti-Romance? Because its heavily skirts the conventions of the genre:
1/ Must have romance as the main plot
2/Must have a happy ever after.

It actually has both, but not in the way the genre dictates. I'd actually argue this book should be shelved as fiction (but *sigh* it seems it should be 'women's fiction').

This book is a love story between Sophie and herself. Her happy ending is with herself. At no time does her love interest/s actually factor in.

Sophie is 25 and finding herself admitting she is jealous of her partnered up friends and siblings, especially as they now, as expected, spend less time with her. She is self aware to admit she's jealous and bitter, in part due to pressure by friends and family who continuously ask about her love life, and in part due to pressuring herself instead of enjoying her being status and working on herself.

With a number of weddings and events she has to attend, she decides to use the dating app to find a fake date, after her half-sister bemoans having to re-arrange place settings if Sophie doesn't bring a plus one to her wedding.

Her happy co-conspirator is 33 year old separated Harry, whose own marriage fell apart long before he proposed, thinking that's just what he should do. Harry is a mess, but he's handsome and happy to also use Sophie to get his family and friends off his back.

But just when you think where this is going, fake dating trope and all. NOPE! Remember my comment above? This book is focused on Sophie learning to realise that she shouldn't be envious of her friends, and let her lack of a relationship take up so much head and emotional space. That she is good enough as herself.

It's such a wonderful realisation, and at times I found this book frustrating more for its pace and could've been tighter (hence why I dropped half a star), than for its character's lack of awareness about her situation. I wish Reekles had that come in earlier into the book, as there was enough of a set up in the event scenes for this to happen.

The downside of this is we don't get the romantic pay off we'd like or expect. And I applaud Reekles for doing this - this book is really a love letter to single people. I think Reekles did something so many writers in the genre and genre-adjacent don't do that. I have read many books where I don't think the hero was deserving of the heroine, or the heroine really needed to not choose anyone.

That said I can't help but think its a shame she did not give Harry a character arc that would've made him worthy. (Look at cynical me, I was really rooting for him to get there with his own issues). Despite his hinted at issues he was actually a good fake boyfriend and there was more potential for him, at the very least I'd have him get closer to Sophie's realisation as well from being friends/fake boyfriend with her. I felt Sophie forgave her friends far more easily than she did Harry, and even in the final chapter it was clear she got her friends back so all was forgiven instead of setting the boundaries she said she needed to. Yet they subjected her to some humiliating things, like forcing her up on the dance floor along to Beyonce's Single Ladies.

I'd also loved to have heard more of his situation, Sophie guesses, but she doesn't actually press and it was a missed opportunity for Reekles to demonstrate Sophie being a girlfriend-in-training there. Sophie is so focused on being lonely and abandoned by her partnered friends and desperate for a boyfriend, she's forgotten what she would bring to a relationship.

That said Reekles has written something that is more true-to-life in outcome. How many potential partners have we all met who are wonderful with our family and friends, but are really messed up and shouldn't being a relationship?

If you want to challenge your notions of romance with a book that defies the Romance conventions, read this. It's a realistic and relatable look at how romance, society and our culture place so many expectations on being partnered up, an unspoken shame of being single, and how being you is enough.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.

I absolutely LOVED this one!! Anyone that knows me knows that I will devour any sort of fake-dating romance, and this one was no different! While I adored Sophie and Harry together, and was rooting for them all the way, as the resident single friend this book hit me so hard in the BEST way!

It was so relatable, especially as a single girl in your 20s when anyone and everyone will ask you about your dating life, this book felt like a mirror at times!

Overall I really enjoyed the storyline, I loved the ending, and the characters were so loveable! I adore Beth’s writing style which made the book feel like I was reading something from a best friend!