Destiny is in love with love and wants to make the special day of a proposal magical with her new business venture. Fletch has been married once and has no desire to be in love or married again. This is a great fake relationship story that Fletch never sees coming and Destiny has to continue to remind herself that this is temporary. I loved this sweet story of finding love in the most unexpected place, but not to worry- there is also a lot of steamy parts. I also loved seeing some of the characters from the Sugar Lake series.

In “The Mr. Right Checklist,” readers are introduced to Destiny Amor, a dog groomer and aspiring marriage-proposal planner who believes wholeheartedly in true love and happily ever afters. Despite her optimistic outlook, she struggles to find her own perfect match, as no one seems to meet the stringent criteria on her Mr. Right Checklist.

Destiny’s first attempt at orchestrating a romantic proposal goes awry, leaving her disheartened and ready to give up on her dreams. However, just when she considers throwing in the towel, Ryan “Fletch” Fletcher—a divorced professor with a cynical view of love—steps into the picture. Fletch is under pressure from his matchmaking family and sees Destiny as the ideal solution to his problems. He proposes a deal: he will help her get her business off the ground if she agrees to pretend to be his loving girlfriend at his brother’s wedding.

The story explores themes of love, friendship, personal growth, and the idea that sometimes opposites attract in ways one might not expect. As they work together on Destiny’s business and face various challenges, both characters learn valuable lessons about vulnerability and what it truly means to open one’s heart.

“The Mr. Right Checklist” will deliver a delightful mix of humor and romance as Destiny and Fletch embark on a journey that may just lead them both toward their own happily ever after.

Rating: 2.5⭐️

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I enjoyed certain parts, there were too many moments that made me roll my eyes. The writing itself was good, but beyond that, there were several issues. For one, the beginning felt overwhelming with the introduction of so many characters and their detailed backstories. It was hard to keep track, and honestly, I’m still not sure who’s who. It felt like the side characters were written as though they had their own books, but after checking, I don’t think that’s the case. I would have preferred fewer side characters.

The first thing that threw me off was the FMC’s name. Like, I’m sorry, but what kind of name is Destiny Amor? It’s not romantic, quite the opposite actually. Her character wasn’t terrible, but the way her dialogue was written really grated on me. Also, her “dream job” was a bit absurd and hard to take seriously.

As for the MMC, he wasn’t bad either, but his stubborn refusal to commit to a relationship, especially toward the end, was frustrating. The part I disliked the most was when he “broke up” with her, only to get back together after, like, two hours ?? It was so unnecessary, and I was tempted to throw my Kindle.

Even the plot was boring. Nothing really happened. I just finished reading this book and I couldn’t tell you anything interesting about the story.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this author is for me. I won’t be reading her other books.

Anticipated pub: Nov 19 2024

I adored these characters! 4 out of 5 for the 5 minute long 3rd act breakup. 3rd act breakups are one of my least favorite plot drivers in a book. Seriously, why are adults not just TALKING with each other UGH.

Overall though I loved this story. The first time Fletch called Destiny "Sunshine" ....... SERIOUS SWOON. These two both fought what they were feeling for each other but it was fun to see them come together "as friends" and learn what they love about each other.

Having read Foster before and loving it, I didn't expect not to like this one.
I felt like there was a lot of heavy info dump the first time the main characters properly meet. It didn't seem very organic.
The premise seems fun though, and I might come back to it later, but for now it's a dnf. Many people are loving it, so trust them!

The Mr. Right Checklist is about Destiny, a groomer who is starting a new business. While woriking as a groomer, Destiny meets fletcher. Fletcher is a college professor who is very anti romance. Destiny and Fletcher mutually decide to enter a fake relationship. Fletcher offers to help Destiny with her new business and Destiny helps Fletcher get his family off his back about dating again. Destiny and Fletcher are two totally different people that end up falling for each other very quickly. I enjoyed seeing the characters evolve separately and together. I would have loved to read an epilogue that showed where the characters ended up a few years after the story ended. I hope there will be more to this series in the future.

I had the honor and pleasure of getting an ARC for this book. This review is freely given.

I absolutely loved this book! I am a such for rom coms and even more a sucker for someone who has been hurt drastically that they want to avoid love at all costs only to slowly without realizing it fall in love with the last person they expected.

This book had all the good things and none of the bad.

I can not wait to buy my copy when it releases! I am now a new fan of Melissa Foster! ❤️

What is my favorite scene from the whole book?
Thats a difficult question to answer because i loved the whole book. But if i had to choose one scene it would be the one where she’s sick. No spoilers so i won’t get into detail.

But i love that scene because her first thought isn’t about herself it’s about her friend, her second thought is about Fletchers family hoping she didn’t spread the bug. She’s so busy thinking of everyone else and all Fletcher can think about is her.

Fake dating

Destiny and Ryan embark in a fake relationship that will help each other one for Ryan family to back off and Destiny a business opportunity. Ryan is grumpy and guarded with his heart and life. Destiny has loss and suffer after her parent dead, it didnt stop her to live life.

its a faced paced book with anlot of banter and chemistry.

I LOVED this book! I could not put it down and finished it in one day! I highly recommend reading this book when it is released on Nov 19, 2024. This is my first Melissa Foster book and I will definitely be reading more of her books!
Destiny and Fletch's story is super cute. Destiny is the epitome of a sweet southern girl. She is all about love and starts a business to give people their perfect marriage proposal that can lead to their happily ever after. Destiny has been through so much but still has such a positive attitude and quirky/happy personality. Destiny said her mother always said, "Smart girls don't beg for love, and true love doesn't require beggin'." I may be biased because Destiny and I share a birthday, but I don't think I am. I don't think it's possible to dislike this FMC!
Fletch on the other hand is what she calls a "Grumpy Gus". He has been scorned by love because of his ex wife and isn't interested in doing it ever again. Somehow he ended up being something very different from what I was expecting.
These two decide to help each other out and Destiny has to pretend to be Fletch's girlfriend at his brothers wedding to fulfill her end of the bargain. No one will ever live up to her Mr. Right Checklist and he will never fall in love again, so the situation is perfect, right?

What a beautiful book, loved it. It was super fast to read. I loved the author's writing and the characters couldn't have been nicer. It has all the tropes I love in a book.

Destiny has become one of my favorite heorines, she's such a fun and clueless girl, a little starry-eyed, and you don't know whether to love her, laugh with her, or feel pity for her, or all at the same time.

Ryan is definitely the understated knight in shining armor who always finds a way to help Destiny solve her misfortunes.

A nice romance with the grumpy MMC and the lovely FMC who does eventually get to be less grumpy

Lovely characters and a fast read

Melissa is an author that I don’t read enough of! This book was hard to put down and as a result I finished it entirely too fast ha! I loved the chemistry between the characters and how the story unfolded.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC

A fun and steamy romcom with dogs! Can you ever go wrong with dogs? At least Melissa Foster can't. It was a real grumpy x sunshine romance with fake dating. I liked seeing how their relationship moved from fake to something real. There were a lot of cute and funny moments in the novel. A spicy and cute book.

This book was so cute. It was a perfect book to get someone out of a funk and just have a happy “grumpyxsunshine” trope read. The chaotic way they became close was absolutely perfect, including Molly and Clem (dog and cat) just warmed my heart, and getting to read how her eagerness to learn and her love for love slowly chipped away at him just gave me the warm and fuzzies. His family and friends were a hoot and I’m glad we got to see them a good bit in the book, I feel like they truly added to the story and weren’t just there to add fluff.
This book is very well written and kept me wanting to pick it back up or stay up super late to get just a little bit further in it. The spice was also a plus.

Foster is a staple in the romance genre. If you want an easy read with romance, character growth and steam then she is it. Was this my favourite of hers? No, but it’s definitely a book I enjoyed delving into on my holiday. The MMC struck a nerve with me as he had lots of character traits of someone i know and I loved that for its relatability

Always love a good Melissa Foster romance! This is such a happy read for me that just made me smile. I adored Destiny and her zest for the HEA and the grump professor that has her eye in this professional situationship. They are a perfect, opposites attract duo and a fun read for this year!

Thanks to Netgalley and Montlake for this ARC. Unfortunately this story didn’t keep my attention and there was so much lacking in this. Grammar errors and the nicknames for the guy… this was so dull for me. I still recommend it, I just couldn’t get into it but from what I read of it, there is a cute romance and some topics of grief and funny cute banter and fake dating. This is third person dual pov of Destiny and Fletch. I really enjoy that Destiny works as a dog groomer. This is grumpy/sunshine. Ryan being the grumpy and Destiny being the sunshine obviously and I also feel like some part of this book has to do with some grief. We learn right away that Destiny’s parents passed away and she’s dealing with a lot of emotions. She wants to run a business of proposal planning. The romance between Ryan and Destiny is cute and so is the banter. Ryan helps Destiny with her business and they end up going together to a wedding so theres also some fake dating. The only thing that really took me out of the story is some grammatical errors and the Ryan/Fletch throws me off the author should have just used one name until both characters got to know each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an Ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review. Our fmc is Destiny, a dog groomer and budding engagement-facilitator entrepreneur. Fletch, our mmc, is a college professor whose dog Molly is one of Destiny's clients. They become friends after one of his students, in an over-the-top stalker move, hires Destiny to stage her "proposal" to Fletch. They become friends and start fake dating for his brother's wedding, and their friendship develops into real feelings. This open-door romance is a quick, light read. Opposites attract and grumpy-sunshine for sure, Fletch is guarded and Destiny is in love with love and life. Feels like part of a series as there are a lot of characters mentioned that it feels like we're already supposed to know about, which was a little disorienting, but apparently it's a standalone. This is a new-to-me author and it looks like she has a lot of inter-connected book series, so maybe she's referencing other books? Not quite the book for me though, the writing and plot was a bit too superficial and I didn't find the dynamic between Destiny and Fletch fully believable. Destiny was actually a little too fluffy for me, and she seemed too young and immature for Fletch. But I do think the HEA and the love-conquers-all theme will appeal to many readers. Publishes November 19, 2024.

Once again, Melissa Foster has proven that she is the Queen of feel good, small town romances with heart and a whole lot of steam. If a romance could be a warm cuddly blanket, 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗥. 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧 would be that book.

From the very first page Destiny and Fletch had me in the palm of their hands. Both were such incredible characters. I found myself wanting, no needing, to get to know them better and with each chapter, I found myself becoming their biggest fan.

In the past I’ve fallen hard for many of Melissa’s leading men and Fletch is definitely one of the good ones but in the interest of being completely transparent, I have developed the hugest crush on Destiny. She seriously is one of the best heroines in romance land and I dare anyone to tell me different.

This book is a keeper. It is an uplifting, feel good, romance read that will warm your heart and leave you with a positive outlook on life, love and friendship.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗥. 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧 is hands down my top RomCom read of 2024 and gets all the stars! I’m giving it the judy.ann.loves.books stamp of approval, TBR and Enjoy!

I love a good romcom and Melissa Foster delivered!

The Mr. Right checklist is the perfect feel good, sweet small town romance with charm and steam. I loved Destiny and Fletch right from the start. Their chemistry was undeniable and strong. It has fake dating, sunshine and grumpy and he's a professor meanwhile she is sunshine encapsulated as a dog groomer and the pairing couldn't have been more perfect. I kept smiling while reading this book and another thing I loved was how sweet and warm you feel after finishing this book. it is the perfect book to read when you're in a mood for a good romance. I loved the romance, the banter, the friendships. It's a great book and I highly recommend it.